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The Viridian Convict

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The Godfather meets Guardians of the Galaxy in this crazy-ass adventure set on Viridian, a prison planet full of aliens… who want to eat you. Tig, the only human, is thrust into a lose/lose/lose situation when the mob boss he works for asks him to pick up and deliver a package that the Fed—the governing body of the known universe—also wants. To make matters worse, the “package” has curves for days, an attitude to match, and her own agenda for how this is all going down.

350 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2018

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Sam York

2 books266 followers

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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for Bex (Beckie Bookworm).
2,249 reviews1,494 followers
April 15, 2018
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️STARS
ARC BOOK REVIEW.
Release Date-10/4/18

I really enjoyed The Viridian Convict by Sam York I found it was just so different and a very unique concept.
What initially appealed to me here was the idea of a prison planet colony sort of like an alien version of Kurt Russel's Escape from New York.
I just wasn't expecting to like it quite as much as I did.
And once I got used to all the various terminology being bandied about here, I very quickly became immersed in all the colourful narrative used throughout.
This also contained a lot more romance than I was expecting, which was again fab for me as I'm a sucker for a bit of the old love dust.
"The Viridian Convict was fast and furious from the get-go and I adored all the many diverse characters portrayed here.
Tig, Angel, Granny and Tig's stinky partner one-eye, loved them all in various ways.
This was in a way rather slapstick at times but it worked and I found myself chuckling to myself throughout.
My only slight criticism here was the types of aliens contained on the prison planet all seemed to be variations of earth animals like the cluckers and the rats.
I would have prefered maybe a more imaginative approach to the alien form.
But this is only a minor gripe from me and I still enjoyed this story very much.
I was refreshingly different and I am happy to recommend this.
So I was provided with an ARC of "The Viridian Convict" By Netgalley of which I have reviewed voluntary.
All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

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Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
https://www.facebook.com/beckiebookworm/
www.beckiebookworm.com
Profile Image for Alina.
803 reviews303 followers
August 22, 2018

***Note: I received a copy curtesy of Netgalley and North Star in exchange for an honest review.

The action takes place on Viridian, a prison planet where our hero, Tig, an ex-cop from Earth, framed and displaced here, is the only human. The planet is otherwise full of aliens, which the author prefers to model after Earth species such as chickens, rats, frogs, instead of inventing something new. Tig works as an enforcer for the crime lord of Viridian (from the description, I imagined him exactly like Jabba the Hutt), who asks him to pick up and deliver a package that the Fed - the governing body of the universe – apparently also want, so Tig is thrown in a lose/lose situation between the two forces.

I didn't find the writing appealing, short and rapid phrases, I didn't like that there were lots of unexplained species, different planet names just thrown in the mix, plus a ton of different appelations: consider Jimmy who is a kind of geekho = dink = nard?? And lots of slang/terminology, that I'm not even sure if I got right: huff = draw = chud = possibly weed? Diddly = ? db = dead body, tanging = fucking? Also, the author sure loves abbreviations/acronyms: C.O.W. = casualties of war, CR = conference room, HP = home planet, PTB = Powers That Be. Annoying!!

There was a lot more romance (or lust?) than I was expecting and, even if this was fast-paced, full of action, noir humor and mystery, it wasn’t quite my cup of coffee, so I won’t read the next in the series.
Profile Image for Kathy Martin.
3,796 reviews102 followers
March 18, 2018
Tig works as a muni on the prison planet of Viridian. Munis are enforcers of a sort for Granny who is the crime lord of the world. Tig happens to be the only human on the planet. He was a cop on Earth and framed when the planet was annexed by the Fed - short for Federation. Sentenced to the prison planet, he first became a drug addict. Now he is clean but torn between working for Granny and working for Mia who is a Fed who has something on him. Generally he has convinced himself not to care about things because he has no control over his life.

When he is tasked with picking up a package and bringing it to Granny, Mia interferes and orders him to bring the package to the Sisterhood. Tig picks up the package which turns out to be a lovely girl but he isn't the only one who wants her and she isn't okay with being anyone's package.

Tig finds and loses the girl he calls Angel a few times. Rumor has it that she has a package that will make anyone who controls her rich. The Swans, also known as the Cluckers, capture her a couple of times. It also seems that whenever Tig does manage to catch up with her, his enemies aren't far behind and his private informants and his few friends are killed whenever he calls on them for help.

This was a twisty science fiction story where everyone except Tig have bunches of hidden motives for their actions. He isn't quite TSTL -Too Stupid to Live - but he seems a little clueless and too trusting for someone who has survived ten years on a very hostile planet.

The story was fast-paced and reminded me a bit of a noir mystery. Tig is the same sort of character as the detectives in those stories - hard-boiled, tough, graphic vocabulary, and unsentimental but a sucker for a beautiful woman. I'll be eager to see where this series goes next.
Profile Image for Barbara Senteney.
491 reviews40 followers
February 7, 2018
I am giving this 5 stars for unique qualities, it's about a Planet Penal Colony, very real as a jail, great characters, and exciting. Sorry that's all no spoilers
3,493 reviews14 followers
April 10, 2018
The Viridian Convict by Sam York is an amazing sci-fi. I have to admit, after two pages, I had to go looking for the glossary because I wasn't sure if I was reading typos or otherworldly things. Let that be a tip for you, read the glossary in the back of the book FIRST. After that, it was all systems go. This story tags along with Tig on a penal planet full of misfits and criminals. There's a whole array of cluckers, dinks, krill, skeeg and nards for our hero Tig to wade through on his mission. This story has plenty of action, suspense, humor and snark to keep the pages turning. I enjoyed reading The Viridian Convict, even though sci-fi is not my first choice in reading material, and I look forward to reading more from Sam York in the future. This is a complete book, not a cliff-hanger.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Profile Image for Glittergirl.
906 reviews16 followers
February 5, 2018
Loved this futuristic action/adventure! Sam York is Sabrina York and I adore the heart she reveals in her stories so I took a chance from NetGalley. I'm so glad I did! She didn't disappoint.

This took a chapter or so to get into because this is a whole very unfamiliar world to understand. I bookmarked the glossary and used it a lot in the beginning until I got into the flow. This book was so much fun. The "hero is a clueless human former cop good-guy who is imprisoned on a hostile planet inhabited by cons from all over the universe. He did the right thing, refused to obey an order that violated his morals and was exiled for it. He is so a fish out of water on this planet but manages to land on his feet. He stumbles from one adventure to the next somehow managing to coming out ahead. The story is full of snark and I smiled the whole way through it. I've never seen Guardians of the Galaxy but it made me think of the old Sam Spade detective movies. It also has major surprises springing at you all over the place.

Just awesome job Sam/Sabrina and thank you so much North Star for taking a chance on me for my honest review.
Profile Image for Pete Labrozzi.
18 reviews1 follower
November 17, 2017
Thank you to NetGalley, North Star Editions, and Sam York for the opportunity to read and review "The Viridian Convict"!

Welcome to Viridian; home to other people's problems. Problems, that is, in the form of convicts dumped on this inescapable remote moon by the Fed, the species governing the known universe and not-so-secret evil empire. Enter our hero Tig, the only human in the whole place, and quasi-cop/enforcer for the biggest crime boss on Viridian. His skills as a "muni" are only outdone (and often undone) by his totally out of control libido.

The story starts in the midst of his humdrum existence working as what passes for a police officer among the entirely convict population of Viridian. He's at home in this profession having formerly been a cop on Earth before ending up in this celestial slammer. From here we meet a plethora of characters and species that would easily find themselves at home in the Mos Eisley cantina. The various factions and species are all interesting and left me wanting to know more. While this is a start to a trilogy that I can't wait to read more of, the author Sam York could probably write a hundred stories of just the various goings-on of the various inhabitants of this desolate rock.

Soon our hero gets tasked to retrieve a package; one that turns out to be the living, breathing, personification of Tig's every desire. Through a series of misadventures and with the help of other shady but ultimately valiant characters, the pair travel through Viridian on a quest that will change everything.

This book was really enjoyable. It kept up a fun, fast pace throughout while still allowing for a bit of character development and relationship building between several characters. The one constant as the story unfolds is that nothing on Viridian is truly as it seems. Some of the twists and turns are predictable, but not in a bad way. They are presented to the reader in a fairly obvious manner, but often leave Tig, not the sharpest of tools in the shed, scrambling to catch up. It seems Tig is the last to know about just about anything in this story, which lends itself to the humor throughout. While many characters in this role often heroically push the events forward with wit, charm and no small amount of luck, Tig is often found flying by the seat of his pants, and more than occasionally by something else in his pants.

Which brings me to the part of this story I genuinely wasn't expecting. Tig is a through and through philanderer, completely obsessed with and often impetuously distracted by T&A. Nary do several pages go by without his taking a break to observe in great detail the naughty bits of what passes for the female versions of many a species on Viridian. We also find out he's had casual affairs with most of them. If he's not scoping out "DC" members of the opposite sex, it's because he's busy taking stock of the situation in his own nether regions which seem to share the same action-packed twists and turns as the rest of the story. This is a man that does not need performance enhancing drugs and he lets you know about it constantly.

This stream of sexual consciousness delivered throughout from Tig's entirely first-person perspective really caught me off guard at first, as I haven't come across many books in this genre that so often forget what's going on in the story to describe the heavenly view of some girl's butt or boobs. Particularly because those terms in all their adolescent glory leave you feeling at times like the book was written by a puberty-fueled teenage boy, fantasizing his perfect alternate sci-fi reality. This was made all the better when I got to the "About the Author" page at the end of the book and found out that Sam York is actually Sabrina York, a frequent writer of "Steamy, Snarky Romance". This little discovery was the perfect gem to find after the rollercoaster that was The Viridian Convict.

I did have a few issues with the book, though they are mostly easy to overlook and don't really get in the way of the story. Just nit-picky things that I wondered about, almost all of them related to what things were called. For example, why on this 99.9% alien place half the creatures are named after earthly tropes. The largest offender of which are the bird-like characters known as cluckers, hens and roosters, who live in Chickentown. There are numerous creatures we come across compared to and named after some earth-based animal or another, be they "Ravens" or "Billygoats" or "Ursas" or "Rats". It just seemed weird seeing as Earth is a very new "acquisition" of the Feds (another earthly term), that so many of these species would end up with Earth given names. I could see this being the case if Earthlings *were* the Feds running everything, or if the population of Viridian featured many "Humes" instead of just the one. I think the most on the nose example is probably Tig's "Angel" a member of the Seraph race whose real name, which I won't spoil here, is also not what you could consider to be a huge departure from that theme.

But again, this kind of ties in to the humor, and is easy to get over. I just wish that the author had continued with some of the other very creative race names they gave to other creatures and had instead put more time into describing them in detail we discover to be familiar rather than the eponymous use of words we know to stir the idea of what they look and act like.

Overall, The Viridian Convict is a really fun romp, and a pretty different take on similar books in the genre. I found it very enjoyable and am looking forward to what comes next for Tig and friends. It feels like the universe created in this first book can really expand in many different directions and I can't wait to see where they go.

#TheViridianConvict #NetGalley
Profile Image for Susan.
1,455 reviews
December 13, 2017
The Viridian Conflict is the first book by Sam York so I wasn't sure what to expect. What I found was a different SciFi story than I had been expecting. ?This book is a standalone. There is violence and sex.

The book blurb adequately describes the storyline so I'm not going to repeat that all of that info here. It took a few chapters to figure out what this story was about. The characters were quite varied. One unusual aspect of the alien races was that they seemed based on earth species such as chickens, rats, frogs, etc. There were some surprising twists and turns. I ended up liking the book more than I thought I would.
Profile Image for J.L. Slipak.
Author 14 books29 followers
November 6, 2017
Description

The Godfather meets Guardians of the Galaxy in this crazy-ass adventure set on Viridian, a prison planet full of aliens…who want to eat you. Tig, the only human, is thrust into a lose/lose/lose situation when the mob boss he works for asks him to pick up and deliver a package that the Fed—the governing body of the known universe—also wants. To make matters worse, the “package” has curves for days, an attitude to match, and her own agenda for how this is all going down.

Available Editions
EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781635839043
PRICE $14.99 (USD)

Thank you Netgalley and North Star Editions for providing me with this ARC for reading and an honest review.

MY BOOK REVIEW:

Holy crap on a cracker! What a freakin awesome book. End of Review!

No, just kidding. But I’m not kidding about the awesome part; it is that in spades. I didn’t know if I’d like this book, to be honest. When I began reading, I was hooked after the first six paragraphs.
I love York’s world building and all the snarky characters, and different rules and factions. How can you not? I absolutely loved the character, Tig, and his development throughout the story. The way the secondary characters helped to push him toward his goals was well played and written. His attitude toward his partner and the surprise discovery at the end… was classically perfect. This book should be read and read and read by all fantasy/science fiction fans. Do not go into the story with any preconceived ideas though, wait and form your own.

Because it’s so different, it’s even more enjoyable with fast paced action, never relenting plot twists and turns and surprises along the way. The ease of reading is perfect; I never got lost nor did I have to re-read anything because it was confusing and I got lost. The settings were perfect and so well done, I felt like I was there witnessing everything first hand.

This book would make a wonderful series and if it does, count me in for being a fan. I hope to see more work by Mr. York, and hopefully that work will include many of the characters from this novel, they rocked it.

The novel at times had a counter-earth feel I found in the series about Gor, a setting created by John Normon; embellished by a similar mind-set felt when reading, John Carter of Mars written by Edgar Rice Burroughs with a final flourish reminiscent of characters found in Guardians of the Galaxy. I would even be bold enough to say there were similar creatures (animated animals) as written by C.S. Lewis, in The Chronicles of Narnia. If you put all these together, that is what you’ll discover in The Viridian Convict.

Sam York is a name to pay attention to!

The cover… eh…
December 13, 2017
Imagine, dear reader, a moon delegated for the worst of the worst convicts across the Federation. A penal colony of aliens with no rules other than every being for themselves. Welcome to Viridian. An alien eat alien world where the cast of characters is a mob boss named Granny, a human smart mouth named Tig, his curvaceous kick ass wanna be love interest Angel, and his partner One Eye. If you grew up watching Kurt Russell play Snake in the John Carpenter movies Escape from New York/LA, then you are gonna LOVE this book! I devoured it and did not want it to end! Highly recommend and look forward to reading more from author Sam York!

*Received ARC from NetGalley for review*
Profile Image for Nancy Jones.
890 reviews46 followers
February 5, 2018
I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book.

I really enjoyed reading The Viridian Convict. The story and the characters were great. Tig who is the main character, bless his heart, he couldn't win for lossing. Even though the odds were stacked against him, he did get his HEA.
Profile Image for Jennifer Becker.
Author 24 books70 followers
January 11, 2018
took me awhile to get into the book but once I did great action. I'm hit or miss with sci-fi stories so I tried keeping an open mind with it but with all of the slang words I had to keep looking at the glossary for was very distracting and taking away from the story for me
9 reviews
November 21, 2017
The author displays a wide imagination by creating a whole new world, well worlds that is. I enjoyed the creativity but it was a little much for me to follow. Half of the time I didn’t understand what the made up words and phrases meant and there was a lot of that. The story line was okay and I enjoyed the twist at the end. But over all my rating is low because it was hard to get into the book with not being able to envision the scenes.
Profile Image for Christi.
499 reviews4 followers
March 10, 2018
Sam York has created a world that will capture your attention from the very beginning. It is full of suspense, drama, violence, and so much more. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review after reading this arc.
Profile Image for Chelon.
401 reviews10 followers
December 19, 2017
Not totally for me. There's a ton to focus on which makes it hard to focus on anything. I love my sci-fi, but this was too much. This is the kind of read you need to be able to devote some time to so that it can be properly appreciated. I'm adding it to my reread shelf because I think I could really enjoy this if I have a slow week.
Profile Image for Hilda.
1,198 reviews263 followers
April 30, 2018
Stuff happened. There was action, there was love, there was cool space stuff and alien babies. Stuff just seemed to happen. No rules, no plot, just stuff happening left and right. I was so lost and there were so many people double crossing each other. It was crazy. Too crazy for my likes. The made up language drove me nuts. I think that confused me even more.

If you like western space odysseys and don't mind made up languages and double agents galore this is for you.

Side note: This felt like a fanfiction or not polished story. I feel like it could be so much better with a little more meat to it. The idea itself was great. I actually did enjoy it. It took me forever to get into it but halfway through I couldn't stop reading. It just needed more direction.
Profile Image for Celesta .
11 reviews
December 25, 2018
I shouldn't have rated this cause I didn't even finish it but I couldn't handle the main character. He was driving me insane and I felt like he couldn't figure out how he felt about anything but wouldn't admit that he didn't know how he felt, he hated like everyone without really giving a reason and then acted kind of nice to them but acted like everyone was a burden. Also, the way the author writes makes me cringe
Profile Image for Bookish_Maggie.
85 reviews10 followers
July 1, 2020
Loved this futuristic action/adventure! Sam York is Sabrina York and I adore the heart she reveals in her stories so I took a chance from NetGalley. I'm so glad I did! She didn't disappoint.
Profile Image for Christi.
499 reviews4 followers
August 26, 2018
Viridian Convict by Sam York is one sci-fin you won’t forget! It is very fast paced and once you understand the lingo it really comes together. Hint use the glossary it is a must. It takes you on an adventure! I am voluntarily leaving my honest review after reading this arc.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

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