After Moses is an amazingly fun ride. There are so many pieces of the story that feel like they take influence from other stories such as Star Wars, Firefly, and Cowboy Bebop. But it never feels like a copy of any of those. It feels familiar as an adventure, but it’s written so well that it stands above many others of the same style.

This book is quite possibly the most fun adventure I’ve read in a long time. There are fantastic action scenes, compelling character arcs, and creative new places that get explored. However, the best parts about this story are the characters. They are written very dynamically and each have their own story. Most importantly, they each have values and principles that they stick to, even the characters that aren’t part of the main group. This creates a world (well, galaxy) that truly feels alive. A galaxy where characters are driving the story forward by their values and actions and plotlines feel organic.

One of the areas of the story that I loved the most was that it shows a clear conflict between good and evil and not just vague, relativist, grey-area morality. Not to say that all “good” characters always do what is right and all “bad” characters always do what is wrong, but it never portrays evil actions as acceptable due to circumstance and sometimes doing the right things requires sacrifice.   

There are reveals and surprising moments throughout as the stories unfold. I won’t spoil any major arcs, but I would like to say that it was very refreshing to see the Catholic Church shown as it was in the book. It’s not often I see that in current literature. The pacing of the story throughout the book feels episodic. There are several arcs that occur with a setup, confrontation, and resolution and then the characters continue on their overall path toward the next adventure. These story beats don’t occur in a bubble, however. The lessons and character development in each storyline build upon each other and the characters change (some quite dramatically) by the end.

After Moses was an introduction to the series. The plot brings all the characters together and sets up the storyline for the rest of the series. This is a difficult task for the writer. They can use the entire novel for an introduction into the world they’ve created, but there still has to be a setup that builds to a climax. The book can’t just be treated as a “first chapter” in the series with the promise of conflict and  resolution in later books. The best comparison that can be made is older serialized television. The season has an overall arc, but each episode has to be able to stand on its own, as well. I think Michale Kane does a fantastic job in After Moses of completing this objective. There are definitely further mysteries that have been hinted at, but the primary goals presented in the novel have a completion. 

Overall, I can’t recommend this book enough, not just as a sci-fi book, but as a fantastic adventure novel. The writing style reminds me of another of my favorite authors in the fiction genre: Stephen Lawhead. If you like spaceships, cowboys, gunfights, mech-suits, or just tales of heroism, this book will be what you’re looking for.

-Patrick Jones