LUX-1: Hypersonic

LUX and the New TECH, Book 1

By: Ken Pence

Narrated by: Brian Holden

Lux Blakely, the preteen son of a NASA scientist working on top-secret government projects, is not shackled by accepted scientific theory and dogma.

His experiments in gravimetric research and the expanding capability of a nascent AI cause Lux to be closely observed by several government agencies. He discovers a way to use magnetic fields for propulsion, but he needs money. Lux and his friend, Prissy, come up with a way to use his father's developing AI to raise money through social media. Lux is trying to get out of high school and into college at age nine. Lux and Prissy take deepfake videos to a whole new level and make a lot of money doing it. The US military and intelligence community is not amused.

©2023 Ken Pence (P)2023 Podium Audio

The characters are unique although Lux being so young is hard to accept!

I have read all the books done so far and loved them now that they are coming to audible I will get them again, the book is a great start for the series.

Real Sci-Fi

I love sci-fi books that play with real science and Ken Pence uses it through this book and even talks about Physics. It is not logical that a 10 year old can do all of this, but I still loved it.
I planed on giving this book 4 stars, but the action near the end raised my evaluation.

Solid 3 across the board

I paid way too many credits listening to this 6 book series and I regret it. This is a one credit box set. The narration of each child character as they grow and mature never changes so the main character sounds like a nine year old in his 20s. Some characters voices were comical stereotypes. Story wise I expected a solid finish bringing every lose end together at the end of this series but it fizzled out in an attempt to get you into the next series.

The classic style with the new tech

I thoroughly enjoyed Lux. I actually bought the book a few months ago, but couldn't get into it because it was going slow. when the audiobook came out I jumped on it. Not only was I pleasantly surprised, but I thoroughly enjoyed both the story and the narrator. I hope more of these books come out as quickly as they could. The series is actually further along if you care to read it on Kindle. Not that I won't buy audiobook when it comes out eventually, lol.

Enjoyable SF series!

If Lawrence Dahners' Ell Donsaii series and John Ringo's Troy Rising series had a child, this would be it, lol. The author obviously likes a few other series I like, too, based on what titles get name-dropped in the prose.

The characters are interesting and are all easily identifiable. I love "rising power/status quo disturber" type stories and this fit the bill pretty well. I did find it weird that the protag seemed to be as emotionally mature as he was intelligent, but not enough to break my enjoyment in the listen.

The narrator did a great job. He made all the characters distinct and had a measured rhythm and pace that he maintained throughout the novel. In fact, I've listened to all the available novels in this series on Audible and he was great throughout all of them. I might look him up to see if he did other novels.

Over the years, I've developed something of a critical ear for political leanings in other people's writings, and I was very entertained while noting which names and brand names got dropped, during the story, and which ones did not. Some of his views are fairly obvious, but I'll let the listener decide for themselves where the author is at on the political spectrum. I don't think anyone should fear that politics will ruin the story for anyone...the author is fairly careful to avoid outright declarations.

Enjoy this novel, and the sequels. :)