GMD

Fun but really more of an epilog to Failure Mode

Revisado: 09-24-24

Failure Mode felt truncated as it neglected the status of most other species after the Elders where taken care of, ifs yous knows what's I means.

Aftermath does a great job of filling that gap but it feels like a lot of filler was added to make it a full length book with the climax being a tease of the main course. If these two books had been combined, it would have felt like one well rounded great story.

That said, not all of the filler material was fluff. There is some great character development and updates of most of our main characters and

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Forgetable

Revisado: 07-29-24

Starts off promising, even with the AI narration but as the story progressed I could not stay interested in the story as it meander and the narration was flat, no emotion or naunaced delivery.

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enjoyable series

Revisado: 05-02-24

Solid good ending to a very enjoyable space opera series.
I would recommend reading the whole series of related stories.

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Skippy's creator phones it in but still decent

Revisado: 01-07-23

Loved the series even as it was given to some repetition and having a similar formula to the preceeding books. I found the banter, the action, and the relationships between some of the main characters hilarious, exciting, and meaningful.

The first third or half of the book felt somewhat slow and spent too much time on side quests and moping. That in itself was bearable, and parts were even enjoyable. I would not complain about this if there were additional books to follow, but this being the last book, it came at the cost of having the true ending rushed and truncated with many lingering questions left unanswered.

It is challenging to conclude a series that is so great and beloved but while this was not a bad ending, and there were some great parts, many parts of this book felt phoned in as Skippy would say. It may be Craig Alanson may have been ready to wrap this series up and / or lost a little bit of that loving feeling for it. If there had been an epilogue that addressed what happens after the ending to most of the characters that we've grown attached to over 15 novels, along with interspecies relations, it would have been much more fulfilling. I feel a bonus book, perhaps once Alanson has had a couple of years off from this series, would be a great addition.

All that said, this ending did provide answers to many questions about the Elders, other AI's, and Skippy which were great and it will have to be enough. The series overall was a great deal of fun to experience and, as Skippy would say, was Awesome!!!

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A big let down for the series.

Revisado: 09-20-22

Rated R for violence, language

Going through the series was an up and down road. It started off strong and most if the first half of the books were good to very good but as we got to the later part, the quality of the story began to suffer with
a couple of books that felt like fillers, rushed and or inconsistent.

A couple of examples/rant (Spoilers) which illustrate in general ways the story atruggled:
Not that I am a huge romantic or looking for a sappy love story in my Sci-Fi but for multiple books there was a huge buildup of this amazing connection that Mitch had to Kate over time and space before ever meeting her and how hard it was on him when Katherine did not reciprocate those feelings. When he finally meets Kate, the spark is there but then cut scene, they are together. A wham , bam, thank you ma'am. Then after they are together, it continues to remind us how much he cares for her. All build up but no emotional payoff of how they actually connected and why he actually fell in love with the real person in front of him versus being fated to only.

The most painful one is how badly executed this last story was written. As much progress that Mitch, Origin and all of the protagonist had made ro get to this recursion and bring together a huge alliance (up to raise point the story was good and promising) then Mitch and the author completely blow it. In previous books, when it was just Origin and they were limited on time and resources, they had been able to upgrade a handful of ships that were accompanying them with improved shields and weapons to the point that these ships could last longer in a battle and be a threat to the Tetron ships, at least when not in a one to one encounter. Also, the story earlier in the series made a big deal about Mitch learning that he did not have to single handedly do everything, including passing on command of coordinating the ship battles and he could focus on his strengths. For this huge, all the marbles and last recursion, battle where Mitch had Origin, T-Gin significant resources and time, he doesn't upgrade any ship or fighters. They barely upgraded some of their own guns with limited ammo when in the previous book he had nearly limitless ammo. Needless to way, once the the ambush he sets begins, all of his allied ships are being shredded in seconds and Mitch is surprised.
As that was not bad enough and shiws how he has actually not grown as a leader, he rushes to attack Watson at his heavily fortified home base with less than 1% of the fleet he had at the ambush, no definite plan other than a hope he can get a prisoner to make a virus in a few days while in transit. Then the big finale is even worse, these few ships somehow manage to get Mitch through to land on the planet when the planet literally has so many "ships" that it looked like fog from a distance and he and his Riggers end up using their guns as clubs as they are overrun by enemy spiders and constructs on the surface. Then they win and he is brought back in some magical way with no memories of the war to a perfect life. The end.

Disappointing book to what could have been a redeeming ending to an overall good series.


There were also at least two times were the narration repeats itself. Not the narrator's fault but un keeping to what felt like a rushed product.

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Good entry in the series but...

Revisado: 09-17-22

Rated R for violence, language, abuse

Good entry in the series, especially the interaction with modern day people and being Earth bound, but the the last part feels more like a filler than truly adding or progressing the story.

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Sci-Fi Junk Food - Fun at times but not fullfi

Revisado: 09-06-22

Rated R for graphic violence and some sexual language

I've enjoyed many of the previous John Ryan books. However, they lack a sense of solid world building. The core of the stories have a lot of promise, they have Fun characters, are silly at times with enjoyable banter but often times there is a lot of background details (motivation, origin, mechanics, power scaling of different beings, lack of scientific progress over billions of years, etc.) that are lacking. I don't expect, nor want, chapters of this stuff but in these novels, and especially this one, these greatly detract from the overall story.

After the first full series, I am only listening to the free introduction packages. I see these John Ryan stories as my Sci-Fi Junk Food, not filling but something light to listen to as I do my daily tasks.

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Shortcomings but still fun story & great narrator

Revisado: 08-29-22

Rated R for graphic violence in handful of scenes but mostly PG-13.

The overall story is a fun story but there are many areas where it feels the writer neglects to fill in many little details and some big ones throughout the story. Unsure if that is intentional as the author did not want to get too technical and into too many minor details or just sloppy/lazy writing. Similar critique can be leveled against the regular use of deus ex machina, especially for the ending, which definitely made it feel anticlimactic. That said, I enjoyed the story, particularly the banter between the characters. As long as you don't mind overlooking some of the story's shortcomings, it's an enjoyable light hearted listen.

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Mediocre short story that could have ...

Revisado: 06-22-22

Rated: G

Glitch leads to unexpected developments in the boxing robot. Mediocre short story that could have had more of a punch.

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Interesting concept but a bit boring

Revisado: 06-17-22

Rated PG-13

Picked up this book due to the author and the premise sounding interesting. The format of the book having Screwtape as the only voice and point of view gets dreary quickly. There are a handful of interesting and life reflecting inducing sections that are sprinkled throughout the book but they come at the cost of suffering through much boring didactic banter.

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