KARMA AND BIGGER FISH

A Florida college professor is mystically linked to a demi-godlike warrior in Behling’s SF adventure, one in a series.

Josh and Senyak are two “Karmic” linked individuals from separate universes. Once a lawyer, Joshua Elias Tanner now accompanies (sometimes telepathically) Senyak Marztanak, a downgraded “Immortal,” on harrowing adventures, going up against pan-galactic villains while sharpening their superpowers of “Attunement” (which often manifest as psychic abilities) and leveling up in resilience. On a planet of bizarre “Affins,” humanoid beings with aspects of Earth animals, the duo is chagrined to discover that their martial skills do not match a properly “Attuned” mouse woman. Relentless practice and meditation breakthroughs enhance their stats (charts are provided at regular intervals), a handy thing given the monstrous foes on the way. There’s Nagal, a revenge-crazed, 11-foot-long serpent-creature with impenetrable scales, and Nagal’s sort-of controlling entity, the Savoy Corporation, an evil consortium whose leaders are energy-draining fiends technically no longer among the living (“vampires” is apt taxonomy). One such macabre malefactor is Kyon Shi, master of armies of zombified slaves, who has co-opted a kingdom of space-going pirates to attack valiant space Marines (a Marine officer, Lt. Junior Grade Alysa Nang, has her own specific Karmic bond with Josh’s 4-year-old daughter back on Earth). So, it’s personal. Readers must hack through score-tallying, roleplaying-game rulebook prose (“Sen pointed out that their boons had amplified the benefits they received during Attunement amplification compared to regular cultivation enhancement”) to get to the action stuff. The good news: There absolutely is some supernova-hot action stuff—eventually. The narrative’s mythologies are cherry-picked more heavily from Asian cultures than the typical European high fantasy tropes. A plethora of pop-culture references, particularly from the Star Wars and Star Trek (“Spock? Spock’s a badass, Sen”) franchises, provides some (actually good) comic relief.  

Gamer-style high-SF action, with breathing space provided by abstruse rules and regulations.