Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Federal Space #1

First Flight

Rate this book
It was a nice simple war. Just the Earth Federation and the League of Sovereign Systems fighting for the third time over who would be the supreme power in settled space, and who would have to exist in the victor’s shadow. Then the Ascendency showed up and ruined everything.One moment, Flight Lieutenant Mason Grey was a fighter pilot of the Federal Space Forces about to strike a League base located on a dwarf planet in an uninhabited system. The next, unknown starships showed up, blew his carrier to hell, killed his squadron, shot down his fighter, and left him stranded amid the ruins of the very base he had come to attack.With nothing but a space suit and a dwindling life support system, Mason was in way, way over his head. And that was just the start of his problems. (Content Warning: This novel contains violence and adult language)

308 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 24, 2019

Loading interface...
Loading interface...

About the author

Zachary Jones

4 books31 followers
My life story is quite dull and not worth writing about. I'm just a guy who wants to make a living writing novels I like to read.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
199 (44%)
4 stars
172 (38%)
3 stars
62 (13%)
2 stars
10 (2%)
1 star
4 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
Profile Image for Tony Hisgett.
2,882 reviews34 followers
March 17, 2021
I tried to get into this book, but I really struggled to understand what was going on. After reading the prologue and chapter one it was clear the author didn’t want me to know what was happening until later in the book, but I’m afraid my patience had already run out.
Profile Image for Jim.
1,145 reviews46 followers
August 10, 2019
A new author and a new series. This is one that I will stay with as long as the author keeps writing in the style he’s shown here.

Flight Lieutenant Mason Grey is in for one heck of a ride. He’s initially assigned to Wing Commander Kritikos’ wing aboard the FSFV Eagle. He’s in a briefing about the upcoming mission which is to attack and secure a League base. It should be a routine attack although they should expect casualties both with the ground ops and the flight ops. The League has starfighters that are almost equal to the FSFV’s starfighters. Mason wasn’t especially concerned about his enemy, he was a very competent fighter pilot, but he was nervous about the upcoming battle.

As it turns out, he should have been scared to death! Once the attack on the small moon base began, everything was going as plan with the exception that the League wasn’t fighting back. Mason was able to fly all the way down to the crater pocked moon to find the base literally destroyed with hundreds of wrecked League starfighters crashed in pieces on the surface.

That’s when a large contingent of unknown contacts suddenly appeared in space headed straight for Mason and his colleagues. These ships had no marking and didn’t appear to have just come out of hyperdrive, but here they were none the less. And these starfighters were very, very good. His squadron began dropping rapidly joining the League scrap yard on the moon. Mason managed to get hit just enough that his only recourse was to crash land on the moon, which he did. Walking away from his wrecked starfighter, Mason knew he was in trouble. He had to find some place to hid and survive until his people found him or until the League came to capture him.

About a week after setting himself up in a habitat found intact on the moon, his “rescuers” finally arrived. It was a League cruiser surveying all the damage to their moon base. They quickly located Mason since he was the only warm body on the moon and took him as their prisoner. The League cruiser was looking for fuel at this base, but obviously didn’t find any.

So, Mason was interrogated and confined until the cruiser approached another League base attempting to again refuel. Only this time the unknown attackers were active around this base also. The League Captain called Mason to come talk to her and asked his opinion on how to best defend and defeat this new enemy. Since Mason was the only starfighter pilot to have survived an encounter with this alien enemy, the League Captain gave his opinion some weight. Fortunately, Mason was a very smart fighter pilot and knew space ship tactics very well. He managed to get the League cruiser out of harms way, but now, it was very short of fuel.

Mason offered to take the League cruiser to a FSFV base. The League Captain said that they would be blown out of space immediately showing up in Federal space, but not if she surrendered to Flight Lieutenant Mason Grey! So, she did and Mason single-handedly captured a League cruiser. His fame and notoriety shot up immediately. That’s when he was assigned to the Special Purpose Branch or the Federal Space Forces’ Intelligence Branch. From here, his career takes off in very many ways, none of which he expected or anticipated.

This is a relatively long book with several distinct parts to it. You kind of feel like it’s about to end only to be thrown into another mission. They are all exciting to read about and you wonder where this series will go. Either way, it’s going to be very interesting.
98 reviews3 followers
October 21, 2020
I loved this space opera! Set in the early 30th century, First Flight is the best example of the military science fiction genre that I have read in a long time. It starts out in the early days of the third war between two rival human polities, the Earth Federation and the League of Sovereign Worlds. The Earth Federation (Earth-Fed) has just finished construction of its first Battlecarrier, a massive starship combining the military capabilities of a battleship and fighter carrier. Before the Independence can launch, however, its secret construction base on Jupiter's small moon of Amalthea is caught up in a massive attack on Earth's Jupiter colony by an unknown enemy with sensor cloaking capabilities. The Earth forces are overwhelmed, and Amalthea can only hope that they it is not discovered before help arrives.

Meanwhile, an Earth-Fed carrier group is on a mission to raid a League refueling station on an icy dwarf planet when it is similarly surprise attacked by unknown enemy craft and wiped out. The only survivor, apparently, is Flt. Lt. Mason Grey ("Hauler"), a resourceful former commercial pilot from the Jovian colonies who is shot down and crash lands on the planet, Ross-128. The book from here out is mostly told from Mason's point of view. Mason is an idealized hero protagonist, but not overly so; and very likeable. He is lucky enough to get picked up by a League cruiser trying to refuel, only to find that the enemy has ruined their base. The cruiser, Fafnir, is badly damaged in an attacked by the enemy, but escapes with Mason's counsel. Unable to return to League space for lack of fuel, the cruiser must surrender to Mason in order to arrive safely at an Earth-Fed base.

This exploit brings Mason to the attention of the Special Purpose Branch, the black ops side of the Federation military forces. They quickly enlist him for the first of a series of covert military operations against the enemy -- known as the Ascendency -- who have now occupied the outer Solar System. These operations comprise the rest of the story. Ostensibly, the Ascendency, or "Cendies", have started this war in order to end all wars between the League and Federation. The Cendies are not aliens --exactly -- but are post-human, synthetic creatures, created by humans, who are more perfectly adapted to live in space. The story leaves you hungry to read more about these strange beings.

Mason mostly serves with his commander, Col. Dolores Shimura and her assistant, Lt. Jessica Sinclair, a cybernetics whiz. The latter is a delightful character, and there is a real surprise about her later in the book, although there are hints along the way. Hopefully, we'll see more of her in the sequel. The characters are all pretty fun and par for the course. The action is both suspenseful and heart-stopping, as Mason as his buddies fight their way through one impossible mission after another -- including the most important:

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher and am leaving this review voluntarily.
Profile Image for Gordon Long.
Author 29 books40 followers
April 17, 2019
If you like hard Sci-Fi, this book is for you. It starts with a highly detailed description of a space battle — which Earth forces lose — and the action builds from there. It seems Earth and its allies are in the middle of a protracted war against former space colonies when both are attacked by a third force. The main character, Mason Grey, is a fighter pilot who survives one of the initial disastrous battles of the new war, and his fate takes several interesting jumps, placing him in the midst of the action.

The strength of this story is the world building. The futuristic society is outlined beautifully. Humans have combined with their tech in so many ways that nobody is just plain human anymore, which gives Mr. Jones even more opportunity to indulge his penchant for technical creativity.

There are relatively few characters in the story, so we get a chance to know them well, which is a blessing. The main character starts out as a rather familiar type — the former commercial ore hauler pilot who fought his way through the Space Academy to become a Space Force flyboy. But he soon attracts enough of our sympathy to add a personal touch to the conflict. The natural, relaxed relationship he develops with Lieutenant Jessica Sinclair, the Intelligence officer he teams up with, gives the story a human touch.

But the tech is the star of the show, with a clever plot twist arising from the cybernetics abilities of the characters creating a macabre but humorous situation in the middle of a battle. I’ll leave that gem for the reader to discover.

A stock Space Opera with the science on steroids, and a fun read for sure.
Profile Image for Dan Kalin.
Author 8 books5 followers
April 5, 2019
Zachary Jones has written a classic space opera, heavy on the space battle action. In the midst of a war between two human factions, the Federals and the League, a new power inserts itself into the equation by soundly trouncing both groups in multiple surprise attacks. While initially outclassed by the Ascendency forces, Mason, a young fighter pilot, must somehow survive the complete destruction of his fighter group and live to fight another day. While much about the Ascendency suggests a human origin, such as their approach to fighting space battles, there are many other things which suggest they might be something completely new. Mason is seconded to the Special Purpose Branch, a military intelligence arm of the human Federal forces. They are tasked to learn more about the Ascendency, hopefully in time for the knowledge to make a difference.

I am a fan of space operas in general, but normally gravitate to those which have a high emphasis on the overall plot rather than being mostly a series of space battles. Zachary Jones does a fine job of emphasizing the space battles, which he clearly loves, while not losing sight of the need to move the plot forward. The action was believable, in that most of the technologies involved were not radical departures from what physics could one day support. If you are the type of person who loves reading realistic accounts of massive space battles punctuated by human ingenuity under pressure, First Flight is definitely the book for you! (Reviewed for Readers' Favorite)
307 reviews2 followers
February 22, 2021
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.


First Flight is the first books in the Federal Space series. It follows Flight Lieutenant Mason Grey of the Federal Space Forces as the universe deals with the arrival of an advanced humanoid race know as the Ascendency. The Ascendency has a simply goal, rid the universe of an inferior space going race.

While reading I found that this novel was a fairly standard military science-fiction book with elements of Ghost in the Shell, Starship Troopers, and the Vorkosigan Saga. In general I did enjoy the story and appreciated that balance the author struck between world building and plot. There is a contained story in this installment that sets up our main character for the series and their primary motivations. The world building is also well done. I never once felt like I was reading an information dump and the details of the world needed to be puzzled out.

I did have two things that bothered me and prevented this from being a five star read. The plot really dragged in the middle. I understood the point of the mid-novel side plot, but to me it didn't add enough to the story to really justify its existence. In addition, the book suffers from the same problem that Star Trek does. The same three characters are doing everything even though there is a whole ship of capable people.

Book 2 is already out, so I'll be curious to see how the story moves forward at some point in the future.
231 reviews1 follower
April 16, 2022
Good start

I'm getting tired of military sci fi. It seems to be the only thing Amazon thinks I read. I have to really dig to find other types of sci fi. Zachary Jones, however, has a refreshing take on this genre. We have a young hauler pilot that leaves the family business to become a "lightening" pilot. He quickly becomes the sole survivor of an operation gone wrong because of a surprise attack by a new power in the universe. This gets him drafted into a dark ops unit to find out who and what the "Ascendacy" really is. The resulting action, which is of a more personal nature than mere fleets blowing up other fleets, results in a deserved promotion, and a new assignment so he can further get involved in black ops intrigue. Come on next book.
511 reviews5 followers
September 30, 2020
Absolutely Awesome!

An absolute blockbuster of a book combining all the best elements of Space Opera and Military sci-fi, everything from secret special ops teams intelligence ops space battles even Pirate Lords come together to fight the new threat. While the two major alliances wage a war to control the galaxy a third party joins in, creating havoc and seemingly unstoppable they destroy everything sent against them. It's up to an unlikely team to come up with a solution and stop them. Brilliant storylines amazing characters twists and turns to keep you turning pages unputdownable sci-fi at it's best, Highly recommended a must read I can't wait to get the next one,Baz
3 reviews
October 21, 2019
Solid starter for series

Good character development. There were a lot of minor twists and surprised but they were all kind of apparent; while normally I would hate the knowing what would happen next with perfect accuracy, the way, the author seeded the story with these developements gives a little amount of pride for guessing correctly instead of downgrading the story-flow to cliche filled text
Profile Image for Wanda Jewell.
926 reviews3 followers
January 17, 2021
This is the first book that I have read by this author. I am happy to say it won't be the last. First Flight is a book filled with challenges, valor, duty and unexpected allies. The characters are intriguing and genuine. I love Mason. He is the honest to goodness hero of the story. Jessica throws some romantic interest into the story and boy, does she have some surprises in store for Mason. There are space battles, aliens, and pirates in the story. I enjoyed it very much and would recommend it.
Profile Image for Paul Turkstra.
96 reviews
May 23, 2021
We follow Flight Lieutenant Mason Grey as he fights for the Earth-Federation against a mostly unknown alien life form in the Ascendancy. The Acendency a overtaking Outer Sol and the Earth-Fed and Grey will do everything in their powers to stop them. This story got more interesting the whole way through and I really enjoyed the entire book and look forward to more instalments in the future.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Profile Image for Kevin Perry.
55 reviews2 followers
October 16, 2019
Great Premise

I thoroughly enjoyed the story line and the characters...the author has left himself many different directions to move: backstory, continue with the current path, and/or offshoot plots.

I volunteer to proofread all of Zachary’s manuscripts...he has a FANTASTIC imagination!
July 9, 2020
Action and space warfare strategy

Lots of action that flows well within story line.
Space Battles added acceleration as a factor,the only time I have seen this..
Previous space battles in other Story Universes have just been dogfighting in Space, e.g. Star Wars
Profile Image for Keith.
1,983 reviews6 followers
August 10, 2020
A Good Start

I enjoyed the storyline and characters, and the science tech helped hold the story together. Decent character development and some interesting supporting cast. I’m hoping this continues in book 2.
61 reviews
September 28, 2020
A true military sci fi novel. In the true fashion of " WING COMMANDER", Two warring faction have to put aside the differences and join forces to defeat a technologically advanced for.....will continue with the series
1 review
October 18, 2020
Not bad not bad at all.

Could have used some background on the three societies as well as ex explanation of how Earth-Fed became a matriarchal society. And come on, Mason is the only male character? Other than that the author is more skilled than many I've read lately.
November 8, 2020
It has the makings of a good series

That was a getting better as it went ahead and the next in line should offer up more than a a few surprises if I surmise correctly, roll on the next book.
6 reviews
January 30, 2021
Fresh and fast paced

This is the first book that I’ve read by Zachary Jones and I was pleased. The story moved along at a nice clip and the storyline has multiple possibilities. I’m looking forward to starting the next in the series.
Profile Image for Mark.
42 reviews2 followers
April 12, 2021
A very enjoyable read if you like space opera Science Fiction.
We follow Mason on his wild adventures.
Looking forward to part 2!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Profile Image for Barry Doswell.
31 reviews
April 17, 2021
Well written, fast paced

Some great likeable characters, in a near future (ish) universe. I’m hoping some of the early actors will reappear on book two or three. Which I’m downloading as I type 😎
77 reviews2 followers
September 21, 2019
I enjoyed reading this first book and will buy the next episode. I enjoyed the varied characters but found the battle scenes too long and confusing to follow. Surprising number of typos to.
14 reviews1 follower
May 1, 2020
Gone of fun!

I'm eagerly awaiting book two. Great characters and a fun story. This is my first time reading this author and he's definitely on my list of good sci-fi authors.
55 reviews1 follower
May 5, 2020
A fun read

This is a very entertaining book. I couldn't put it down. Fast paced with characters that you could like and want to succeed.

May 10, 2020
Love it!!!!

Loving the characters, the storyline. Great action. Great human interaction. Can't wait to get to the next book. Looking forward to watching this play out..
552 reviews4 followers
September 30, 2020
Not Dang!

This is a rip snorting ride! Suspense, intrigue, space battles lots and lots of space battles, an evil enemy, I'm looking for the sequel!
18 reviews
October 11, 2020
Really good read

This was the first time in a while that a story kept my attention. Interesting story line. Good characters. I'm looking forward to the next book
4 reviews1 follower
January 16, 2021
Blurb doesn't do it justice

Awesome read... Nuff said 😁... But seriously. Really good book with action and intrigue in spades. Next book is just as good.
Profile Image for Steve.
153 reviews
March 6, 2021
DNF. Lost interest around 75%. Not particularly original and all the characters are clichés.
Profile Image for William Jerkins.
154 reviews2 followers
January 24, 2023
Good story

Everything flows together really well. The chericters in the story are well thought out
And go together really well. Looking forward to the next one.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.