My Thoughts on the Novel Zero Day Threat: (The Ungovernable Book 1), 5/14/2026...

I’ve never really understood why space opera is called space opera. As defined, this sub-genre uses “futuristic settings as a backdrop for high stakes, ‘hero's quest’ storylines, prioritizing action over scientific accuracy.” Why not just call it sci-fi adventure? Space opera sounds too dramatic, too histrionic, too overdone. At least to me, anyway.

Zero Day Threat: (The Ungovernable Book 1), by R.M. Olson, focuses on a group of five intergalactic ex-cons, a “found family,” who are brought together for a job. The job, of course, is a perilous, if not impossible, heist. It is touted as a blend of Ocean’s Eleven and Guardians of the Galaxy. And I agree, especially with the third-person-limited narration that switches from character to character.

And this crew is quite motley. There’s Jez, a down-on-her-luck super-smuggler and pilot: Ysbel, the group’s demolitions expert, seeks revenge that is never sated; Lev, the former professor and genius; Tae, the street kid and electronics whiz; and Masha, the mastermind, who knows when to dole out information and when to hold it back.

There were times when I read where I thought I was grading a high school essay, not reading a sci-fi adventure novel for enjoyment. Yes, there were times when the mistakes were glaring: missing verbs and conjunctions, oddly-placed paragraph breaks, and missing punctuation. Which leads me to think that formatting a novel must be a tedious task, or at least proofreading it is. Why don’t other authors have their pieces read aloud to them, as I do?

I should hold my speech, lest I am caught with my literary pants down when my book is published!

And the heist is quite exciting and suspenseful. Ocean’s Eleven meets Guardians of the Galaxy, it most certainly is!

This first book in the series, called Ungovernable, is quite engaging—enough for me to read on. The second book, Jailbreak: (The Ungovernable Book 2), is already purchased and on my TBR.