In Her Name: Empire by Michael R. Hicks

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I truly enjoyed this book. Michael did beautifully in keeping with the science-fiction/fantasy genre and I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series soon.

I found myself getting into the story with every turn of the page and rooting for Reza as he fought to stay alive while also trying to retain his humanity. The action of the story moves along at a good pace and make the reader yearn for in more in wanting to find out what happens next.

I kept trying to envision what these Kreelan’s and their world were really like. The character development was well thought out and precise. One thing I did keep wondering about was as to why the Kreelan’s were hell-bent on wiping out the human race. I felt, at times, that that aspect of the story wasn’t fully explained. Hopefully, the rest of the series will give insight to this fact.

The twists and turns in the plot were very engaging and I felt quite sympathetic to Reza’s having to learn ‘The Way’ in order to stay alive. His relationship with Esah-Zhurah was quite a surprise, but also expected, in a way. Truly looking forward to reading more.

Available for purchase via the following retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

About Michael R. Hicks

Call me Mike. Only my mom calls me Michael. And that’s when I’m in trouble…

I suspect that the roots of my writing career actually began early in my elementary school years, when I got to sleep over at my grandparents’ place on the weekends. After Grandma and Grandpa went to bed, I would stay up until all hours watching movies like The Blob, The Abominable Doctor Phibes, and Forbidden Planet. At home during the day, I was glued to TV series like Star Trek, Lost In Space, and Space: 1999, along with every war movie and series I could sneak in behind Mom’s back (Dad feigned ignorance, bless his soul).

And lest you think I did nothing but watch the tube, I spent far more time reading every sci-fi, horror, and war (mostly Second World War non-fiction) book I could get my hands on. In my teens I was so addicted to reading that my teachers had to yell at me in class to get my nose out of a book with spaceships and aliens emblazoned on the cover and pay attention to my “education.” Oh, the pain.

However, like the braces I wore on my teeth until high school, the pain did eventually begin to pay off when I first put pen to paper when I was a senior. The stories I began to concoct weren’t for a class; I was simply compelled to write to express the first yearnings of my muse. Looking back now on those rushed scrawls, I’m rather glad no one else has ever read them. Not that anyone could, so bad was my handwriting. I should have been a doctor, specializing in writing prescriptions.

Poor penmanship aside, I kept dabbling, and eventually one of the stories I sketched out turned into the draft of the first three novels of the In Her Name series – Empire, Confederation, and Final Battle – which I drafted between 1991 and 1994. At that time it was actually a single tome, now sold as the In Her Name Omnibus, and I shouldn’t have been surprised at any of the rejection letters I received from publishers: the manuscript was so huge that any editor trying to lift it would have been at risk for a hernia.

The omnibus draft sat under my desk until 2008, when I took advantage of the eBook revolution and published it on the Amazon Kindle, receiving a delightful shock when people not only began buying it, but actually liked it. The writing itself has been an enjoyable compulsion, but hearing that readers enjoy what I write has been a true and treasured gift.

As for my personal information, I was born in 1963, although I’m quite certain I’ve never matured beyond the age of ten (at least according to my wife and parents). I grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona, and still harbor many fond memories of exploring the open desert just beyond our doorstep before the landscape was replaced with endless developments and shopping malls.

After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Arizona State University and being commissioned in the Army, I moved to Maryland in the mid-1980s to play a terribly minor role in defending the free world from the Soviet Empire. In fact, I spent a summer in the Soviet Union in 1983 just after Leonid Brezhnev was dipped in formaldehyde, and had a wonderful time in a very magical but tragic land.

Last, but certainly not least, I’m married to the most wonderful woman in the world and got two awesome stepsons as a bonus, with all of us serving the needs of our two Siberian cats, Nina and her big brother Sasha. We spend as little time at home as we can manage, preferring instead to be out on the road in our RV, seeing as much of North America as we can. That’s probably where I am as you read this, working on my next book…

Connect With Him Online Via:

Website: http://www.authormichaelhicks.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/authormichaelhicks
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/KreelanWarrior