I was fortunate enough to come across a fellow science fiction author's web site.
The author is Robert Stadnik, as mentioned in the title.
I navigated to the link for his book where he posted the back story, so I decided to take a look.
It intrigued me so I immediately ordered it.
When I picked it up and started reading, I had trouble putting it down, I was hooked immediately.
This is a very brief summary of the background.
I would suggest going to the author's site for the full thing.
Basically, in the not too distant future, there's political unrest that turns into a nuclear exchange.
There is a lot of fallout and a lot of people lose their lives and more and genetically damaged by the radiation.
As a result, over time, people around the world come together to keep it from happening again.
A united world government is formed.
Technological advances happen and they are able to clean up the radioactive wastelands.
Humanity ends up establishing a colony on the moon (which they rename Luna) and Mars.
Things are going great so they decide to try deep space exploration and this is when things get messed up.
They send a ship, the HORIZON to the edge of the solar system and a mysterious, green, triangular alien ship blows it up along with the ship that was later sent out to find out what happened to it.
From that point on, any time a human ship is sent past the Mars orbit, it is destroyed by one of these ships.
The humans call the aliens the Screen.
They never communicate and they know nothing about them other than they have been unable to stand up to them.
Oddly enough, the screen never enter the inner solar system past the Mars orbit.
As long as humans keep their ships from crossing the barrier, they're left alone.
For decades, humanity gives up on deep space exploration, being help prisoner in their own solar system.
Fast forward to the modern time in the book.
The organization, TERRA, which is a military organization that protects the inner solar system has an academy which is highly exclusive and prestigious.
TERRA is actually the most respected organization in human civilization.
One member of TERRA is not buying into the whole idea of staying put in the inner solar system with the Screen hovering around the border.
The time has come to unleash the EXODUS, an experimental ship that is meant for interstellar travel.
I found the plot was drawing and interesting and the characters are quite vibrant.
One of the main characters in particular, John, is quite amusing.
I really had trouble putting this book down and when it was finished, I immediately wanted the sequel but it's not out yet.
When it comes out, I'm grabbing it.
WARNING: There is adult language in this book, including the F-bomb.
It's not used often but it is there.
The fact is, much of the book deals with college aged young adults and having worked in higher education for 11 years, the language is quite accurate to what you'd hear on a college campus.
Another warning too.
I know that there are some readers who are sticklers for grammar.
There are some grammatical errors but I still say that you should give it a chance.
The story is awesome and frankly, despite those errors, I gave this book 5 stars because I liked it so much and, if you enjoy space age science fiction, I think you will too.