Released: September 2015 (but re-released and revised for 2019 in anticipation of Book Two coming out in September 2019)
Publisher: Colorado Sky Media, LLC
Pages: 292
Rating: 4/5
In a galaxy far, far away…
Beyond our solar system lies a corporate and political machine viciously conquering new worlds for their own gain. As their power and wealth grow to never before seen heights, they set their hungry sights further afield to a planet known by its inhabitants as: Earth.
On Koranth, a teenager named Kambada (“Ka”) makes a reckless mistake and within an instant his future is snatched away from him. Facing a swift and merciless criminal justice system, he ends up facing a fate almost worse than death. With the walls closing in around him, it seems impossible for him to ever escape…or is it?
Oblivious to the pawn their planet has become, humans on Earth carry on with their daily lives. For some, though, this becomes harder when they discover they have the power to move objects with their minds. More than just a party trick, those with this power unwittingly become targets for the alien reconnaissance teams sent to our planet to prepare it for invasion. Caught right in the cross hairs is Dylan and his little brother, whose family is now Enemy Number One for an alien race they never could have even dreamed existed.
At first I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this book because in the opening pages Ka came off as a bit of a macho jerk, but pretty soon his plight and situation utterly broke my heart. Underneath the bravado was just a scared little boy in over his head. It was devastatingly claustrophobic reading page after page of this poor, misguided kid’s fate after he made one stupid mistake. Granted, it was a terrible mistake, but the consequences were so brutal. I honestly didn’t see how he would ever get out of it and I just wanted to reach into the pages and pull Ka out to safety. We watched Ka fully develop as a person and as a character, going from someone to dismiss to someone the reader could really sympathize with. I give the author major kudos for that as it was a really gratifying transformation to witness.
Some really clever twists were used to finally get Ka out of his hell and these twists also helped tie all the seemingly unconnected people in the book together- although there were a few too many subplots going on back on Koranth and Zoranth IMO. Despite this overcrowding, though, the world building was pretty impressive and I LOVED the way the alien invasions were carried out: recon missions sent decades ahead to planets like Earth and if they were worth invading, conquering them in one swift move.
Holy cow Batman- that is terrifying! And probably a bit of poetic justice for the western world’s history of doing the same thing to indigenous peoples. Except these aliens are far more subtle. We wouldn’t even know they were among us as they snuck into and assimilated within our population. By the time we were aware of what was happening to our planet, it would already be far too late. There is some seriously fantastic science fiction in The Betrayal of Ka.
I really enjoyed reading this story as an adult sci-fi junkie, but I’m not sure what age range this book was aiming for. On its surface it appears to be YA and most our characters are teens or adolescents. It flows and is written like a YA novel, especially when we’re on Earth with our human characters, but as the book progresses it becomes much grittier and explores some very adult themes. I mean, we’ve got more than one sexual assault in here y’all. All the political plotting and machinations are probably more likely to be appreciated by an older reader, too. So I suppose this would be best suited for adult YA readers or more mature young adults who like harder science fiction.
One other thing that kept nagging at me is that we have all these planets way out in the universe full of alien life and they’re all human. Not only were they human, but they were so similar to us when it came to power grabbing, corporate greed, and general human weaknesses. It seems no matter where humans are, we’re all basically the same.
I was hoping that at some point the book would give us a hint as to how humans could be so far flung throughout the universe, but as far as I could see this was never really broached. I didn’t mind that our aliens weren’t little green men, but it would have been cool to find out how identical forms of life could be out there among the stars. Hopefully this will be explored in the follow up books!
The Betrayal of Ka was a really different and engaging read with so much packed within its pages. At times it runs a bit dark so please do be warned that some of its chapters may be difficult to read, especially for younger readers. Ultimately the savagery was worth getting through, though, because it not only helped set up the backstory, but gave insight into the motivations behind our ruthless alien antagonists.
I have no qualms in recommending this to those who like a bit of grit in their science fiction. As for me, I’m already on a waiting list for the upcoming sequel. So if you do go out and buy this book, you won’t have to wait long to read the follow-up.
Thank you so much to the author for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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