Chris Fried @ The Indie Athenaeum

Cullen must fight many enemies to build a city!

Revisado: 02-05-22

Following up directly from the ending of Windwalker, the second book in the Ciphercraft tetralogy, we catch up with Cullen as he does his best to protect his people in the newly restored Resurrection City. Having rejuvenated this mythical city, he must now build it, so it becomes the fortress he needs it to be.

For his people need to not only protect it but must also be ready for the oncoming war with the Osuna imperialists. The Osuna want to claim this city for themselves, but Cullen and his allies won’t give it up without a fight.

To become the governor, Cullen recognizes that it is a difficult and high-stakes job. He needs to build tenuous alliances with other local tribes to gain resources and knowledge. He must also make sure the walls of their fortress are strong enough to survive incursions by dangerous creatures and deadly enemies.

But an old enemy lurks in the darkness, waiting to strike at Cullen and his allies. At stake is Resurrection City and how it represents hope with the power to create a brighter future. Can Cullen succeed against the odds stacked against him?

As each novel evolves the worlds of the Ciphercraft universe, here the story adds a new layer to its gaming mechanics: world-building. As this novel is in the LitRPG genre, known as the Literary Role-Playing Game genre, this adds new elements to the novel. Not just in the writing sense of creating and telling a story, but also developing Resurrection City as the new outpost of their civilization.

Cullen must literally and figuratively build the city by assigning roles to its denizens and dispersing Experience points, known as XP. By doing this, each works toward the larger purpose of Resurrection City. As its newly appointed Governor, this role is something Cullen has never known before, and the responsibility weighs heavily on his shoulders.

As Resurrection City is built, other sinister forces hide nearby waiting to strike, not wanting Cullen to succeed. Knowing the power this city holds, Cullen must think outside of the box, find unlikely allies, and gain the skills needed to fortify the city against the oncoming onslaught by the Osuna. This requires the use of strategy on a city-wide scale for an entire population and not just for a small group.

Waiting to strike is an enemy from the past, who becomes even scarier than she was in the past. She’s become augmented, imbued with dark power, and transforms into a powerful Dungeon Core. And she’s got only one thing on her mind: revenge.

Having made a deal for those powers, she schemes in the background, waiting to strike from the shadows. Her attacks on Cullen and his allies are insidious and subversive, undermining what he is trying to build.

This enemy is someone readers have met previously, so knowing that they are amassing power creates a lot of tension here. It makes the stakes more personal. The feeling of oppressiveness that lies in the darkness of this realm is palpable, adding a mood to the adventure where anything can and will happen.

There are many different points of view and each character takes a different path over the course of this epic novel. But all of them eventually coalesce into one big finale. It’s a breathless, no-holds-barred series of strikes and counterstrikes between two groups fighting a desperate struggle. The lives of Cullen and his citizens are at risk, as the fate of a city rests upon their shoulders.

Magic, telepathy, control over time, wind walking, all these powers, and more are integrated into the story here. Between Experience, Health, and Spirit points, these are all factors built into each character and their skills via stat cards. These demonstrate how each character can allocate their points into different skills, which help them level up, just like in a video game.

As the story is in the LitRPG genre, this is an important part of building their skills to try to gain an advantage, help build a city, and help their fellow citizens. Their faith in Shephka, their ancient god, is also tested like never before and it will be needed to face all oncoming threats.

These threats come in all shapes and sizes, as there are also new and more dangerous creatures lurking in the wild like the Isbahe, a mix of a hog and a dragon. Or the Razorflies, whose name perfectly matches its ferocity and ability to inflict damage. These and other opposing forces lurk deep in the forest, waiting for their chance to strike. This adds to the ferocious and unpredictable nature of this realm.

While Cullen, Viera, Torek, Schaefer, Ehli, and others help build up the city, elsewhere, others are struggling. Emmit is now a Runeslave to the cruel Cian. Anything that Emmit does is in service to him. It’s a difficult journey for him to travel, as he took this path because of what happened in the previous novel. Now that he’s experiencing the consequences of his choices, his regrets are plentiful, and he is looking for a way to get out of his servitude. But even with telepathic powers, it’s more difficult than he thinks.

Each character continues to develop their skills as well as experience growth over the course of this novel. They demonstrate their faith, their strengths, and their weaknesses as well as their integrity and belief in their mission. Even Shephka gets some character development here. Usually a stoic, mysterious, and enigmatic entity, here, he gets more personality and even displays a sense of humor.

Because of the perilous nature of the threats they all face, everyone is put at risk here and no one is safe. Characters we’ve met and gotten to know over the course of this series are put at risk and not everyone makes it out of this alive. One death really gutted me, as I thought that person had what it took and might survive to the end of this saga.

The Osuna empire is the biggest threat of all, looming over the entire series. It looks like that threat will come to fruition once and for all in the final book in the Ciphercraft tetralogy.

The narrator of this audiobook is Ryan Kennard Burke. He injects this story with an infectious energy that elevates it to the next level. Each character has a distinctive voice that brought them to life in my head as I listened.

This is an enveloping and mesmerizing tale, diving deep into multiple plotlines and points of view from different characters with a variety of enemies. There are many layers to this novel and the series overall. It’s an energetic and creative adventure whose characters and plotline continue to evolve in innovative ways that keep me turning the pages.

I have some high expectations for the final book based on the strength of this novel and the series as a whole. But I also have faith the author will be able to bring it all together into a satisfying ending.

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Humanity rebuilds after an alien invasion!

Revisado: 02-07-20

In 2035, aliens invade Earth’s solar system and destroyed city after city with its deadly energy beams. The world tried in a desperate, last-ditch effort to destroy the invaders and succeeded but at a high cost. A decimated Earth did its best to recover in the aftermath. With limited resources and a population reduced by half, how will humanity rebuild?

Professor Thomas Hanston, a scientist, comes up with the idea of taking unwanted human fetuses and enslaving them with his invention called the chemi-chip. By doing so, he creates a slave race called neons meant to be docile and follow instructions. With this new labor force, humanity ekes out an existence and civilization attempts to recover.

In 2060, Colin Hanston, son of Thomas, and his wife Spring adopt a neon for the first time for help on their farm. Thomas is morally opposed to the idea but reluctantly agrees with his wife to get one, whose name is Michael. But when Colin discovers the history of his father’s neon program and Colin’s secret connection to it, he embarks on a dangerous journey with his allies to destroy it once and for all!

Professor Ives, director of the Workman Program which makes neons, which Thomas created at the Next New Hoover University, is working with the Authority government against such a movement and is trying to destroy this abolitionist movement. But Colin is determined and is working to free neons from their enslavement and that means bringing down Ives.

But doing so puts his life and those he cares about on the line. Up against a society that needs neons to rebuild, he faces the incredible odds of Ives and his forces as he also confronts his family legacy. Will he achieve his goals or will he lose his life in the process?

This novel has two different storylines going on. The first one starts in the year 2035 and the subsequent years after that. It follows the alien invasion and humanity’s attempts to stop it too. After that, it follows Earth’s attempts to rebuild and the development of the Workman program by Thomas Hanston. It also details how Ives took over the program and twisted it to his ends.

The second storyline follows Colin’s life in 2060, how neons have changed the world and how he joins up with the abolitionist movement to help free neons from servitude. The two storylines mesh with one another throughout the novel. As a result, we see one storyline inform the other and come together in surprising and shocking ways.

The mystery surrounding Thomas’ death, the creation of neons as a lower caste of slaves in society and the secrets that Thomas left behind for his son to discover and utilize are just some of the fascinating ideas to be found here. How Ives perverted the Workman Program and the original vision Thomas had for it makes for an interesting dichotomy. It also makes Ives an evil bad guy who has many skeletons in his closet and you just hate him with every fiber of your being.

The alien invasion storyline in 2035 is exciting and horrifying as aliens wipe out half of Earth’s population, making for thrilling, pulse-pounding reading. Colin’s storyline is much more of a slow burn in comparison, as it has the job of illustrating society in 2060, building this world up and demonstrating how neons are now an integral part of this dystopian society. It does so thoughtfully, like with the development of Vellum, which is low powered electronic paper. It also uses this time to do character building on the part of Colin and his eventual abolitionist allies.

As Colin wakes up to what the neons represent and his family’s legacy in creating them, his role and that of his family take on much more significance. It builds up and then hits high gear as the abolitionists take on a much more active role in the plot and Ives tries to track them down. As they try to free a couple of neons from their servitude, their work will have important ramifications for the rest of the novel.

There is one massive twist that I would not have foreseen at a crucial part of the novel. This twist is so pivotal and so unexpected that it left my jaw agape as it played out. I was wondering how the novel would continue after that, but it expertly used this moment as a way to push the novel into its final and action-packed finale. It also gave other characters to come to the forefront and give them more active roles in the novel than they had before.

The use of neons is an innovative one, growing fetuses and using conditioning to accelerate their growth and development. I’ve read much science fiction over the years and this one is a common idea, the ideas of humans being slaves. However, their use here is refreshing and different than what I’m used to, which is one of the many things I enjoyed about this novel.

The different applications for neons, from construction, menial labor, farming and more is also an interesting one. The way society is impacted by their presence in society is also engrossing and skillfully integrated into the novel. Especially since they are being bred with red-tinted skin, which makes them stand out in a crowd. There are also darker implications for neons as well. With their enhanced strength and agility, they also make for scary soldiers with no moral compunctions about taking lives.

What happens when two neons are freed from their enslavement by abolitionists and what happens to them after that is startling as well. Both of them take divergent paths and their exploration of their emotions makes them both beings to be pitied and to be sympathetic towards. But they are also terrifying in their desire for revenge against Ives and the Workman Program.

Thomas’ original vision for the Workman Program, how Ives has warped it and the ethics of doing so are also emotionally explored, not just by newly freed neons, but by the abolitionists as well. It presents a look at both sides of neons, both as a necessary evil in a society starved of resources and as an example of how society at large will do whatever it takes without considering the morality of doing so.

In the process, it also demonstrates how far society has fallen in the wake of being decimated and doing what it takes to survive. On a deeper level, it’s also a narrative that explores themes of authority versus rebellion, science against nature, technology against natural development and slavery versus freedom.

Ray Porter, the audiobook narrator, does an excellent job with this novel. He’s quickly becoming one of my favorite narrators with the talent and skill he displays here. His voice conveys a certain gravitas with each character he gives a distinctive sound to. With one character, he makes it sound like a perfect impression of television/movie actor John Goodman to me. The pacing and flow of his narration only make the story that much more compelling and enhances the novel that much more.

Having read the majority of this author’s stories in the past, I can tell you that this his most ambitious novel to date. He excels at creating intriguing universes, interesting situations and examining the human condition through the lens of robots. With this, he uses his storytelling style, previously used in other stories to talk about different aspects of robots and then admirably uses those skills that to look at neons, essentially human robots, and how they operate. He also uses those differences to splendidly explore how society’s future depends on them.

All these different ideas and characters are expertly woven together into an imaginative novel filled with clever plotting, family legacy thought-provoking ideas and terrific storytelling. This is one of the author's best stories to date, brought to life with bold ideas, refreshing takes on common sci-fi tropes and a strong, well-written style.

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Reservist soldiers go to war in this intense tale!

Revisado: 07-19-19

The Legion reservists of New Caledonia have a peaceful life. They serve one weekend a month, get Legion training and have largely ceremonial responsibilities. Their weapons, armor, and supplies are substandard when compared to the latest or the best Legion technology has to offer but it’ll suffice. Nineteen months after the Battle of Kublar, the House of Reason is on edge and wanting to quell the uprising of the Mid-Core Rebellion. So, when the alien planet Rhyssis Wan joins the rebellion, the Republic deploys Sergeant Fetch and his reservist forces.

Taken by surprise and with no experience in actual combat whatsoever, Fetch and his soldiers are sent to Rhyssis Wan to put down the rebellion. Hard. These aliens, called Arthava, are derisively described as “traitors” and look like hyenas on two legs based on their alien appearance. They nevertheless outnumber the Legion forces by a great margin. The fact that they are a foot taller than humans with very sharp teeth only adds to their ferociousness.

Led by Captain Archer, an inexperienced Point who has a couple of redeeming qualities, Fetch and his men are sent into battle on the snowy planet. With each vicious encounter they have with the enemy, their forces are winnowed down and their supplies become ever more limited. Will any of them even be able to survive this trial by fire in combat?

The campaign to battle and defeat the enemy is a perilous one. They must face the aliens and their beastly war mounts called the charka, which look like a cross between a boar and a dog. Yet, Fetch and his forces have only their training to fall back on as they face untested waters. Each battle is grim and disheartening, as the odds continue to be stacked against them. It casts a pall over the entire novel, as the dire mood of their situation seeped into my pores and I vicariously experienced what they felt: the grim reaper coming for each one of them.

Fetch and his forces face it with determination and a bit of optimism, despite the Arthava forces throwing themselves at the Legion soldiers. The never-ending enemy forces just continue attacking and the Legion just mows them down like a scythe through wheat. But Fetch has to focus on one moment, one enemy and loading one more ammo pack at a time and just tries to survive each encounter. Each one of his men wants to kill the enemy first to make them pay for all their fellow soldiers who already died.

Each battle is more interesting than the last, with different military objectives, an enemy that never gives up and a relentless pace that rarely gives the reader a moment to catch their breath before the next wave of enemy attacks or trying to reach their next objective. From mining the space around the planet to chemical warfare, it can get disheartening and disturbing, as war certainly does. They’re dealing with a primitive yet nasty enemy who has snipers, tanks, grenades, mortars and more. But this novel feels a little different than the other Galaxy’s Edge novels, especially those in the Order of the Centurion series like this one.

Fetch is an interesting character. He’s not a typical Legion killing machine, he’s an executive chef in his day job, making meals for the wealthy. He’s overweight too and gets ribbed by his fellow soldiers for his slight stomach pouch. But it’s clear his men love him and respect him. As reservists, they all know each other and have done so for years. Fetch has a wife, a child and a baby on the way too, so the stakes are just that much more personal.

The Point, Captain Archer, is a little bit likable at first. Like most Points, he’s coasting on his political appointment but he’s not battlefield tested and makes some mistakes, some small and some huge. But overall, this Point takes on some extra dimensions. The brotherhood and camaraderie of the Legion are well established and well known for anyone who has read this series. Soldiers who fight for their brothers in arms, they train together and get to know one another and then you die together.

This novel adds all of this into the Galaxy’s Edge mix and then some. The idea that reservists serve one weekend a month and they all come from the same planet means that they not only know each other well but they also know their families. Going to family functions, backyard barbecues, serving as godparents for each other’s children, they’ve spent much time together becoming even closer than your average Legion unit. It feels like a group of your good friends all serving together and having a good time overall on New Caledonia.

So, when Fetch worries about his men, he’s constantly thinking about the promises he made to their spouses and their families to bring them home safe. With each loss and friend that dies in a series of battles that only get worse, I felt Fetch’s humanity and sorrow much more acutely as he must make sure he and his men survive if only to properly mourn the dead later.

He also second-guesses his own decisions, cries inside his helmet, screams like a girl when facing fearsome creatures and feels tremendous pressure to make sure his men can get home, by any means necessary. In other words, he acts just like civilians might when facing a merciless enemy and the only thing you have is your training and a finger to pull the trigger of your weapon. But Fetch never backs down from the challenges he faces, not once.

There are many cool moments he experiences too, like being outnumbered by an enemy thirty to one and he takes them all on to make sure the enemy doesn’t overrun his main forces. He also gazes in wonder as an HK-PP battle mech takes on a bunch of enemy tanks and shows no mercy. It is a ballet of poetry and death dealt out without compunction and instead of feeling numb, he’s awestruck at what he witnesses.

All of this makes this novel extra personal and added a deeper layer of emotional attachment to this book and all of its characters. Not only did it feel more severe in my gut, but it also demonstrated this quality in a way that is more profound than the previous Galaxy's Edge novels have ever done before.

There is a lot of talk about Oba, the Galaxy's Edge version of God. As soldiers trying to cope with the constant specter of death hanging over their heads, the use of faith is more prevalent here than in other novels in the series. Given the possibility that death might come for any of them at any moment, this use of faith is utilized well. Given the intensity in all the battle sequences, trying to find peace in case they meet their maker is important.

Given that this is the fight of their lives and the odds are stacked against them in a war of attrition, each victory or defeat lies in how well they fight and use whatever resources they can scrounge. Each crucial strategy, ally, weapon and cunning methodology they use is all in service of protecting their men. All for the purpose of winning before supplies and soldiers are all expended, and a victor can be declared.

The audiobook narrator perfectly captures that sense of desperation, the visceral brutality of combat and its effects on the psyche. The narration placed me in Fetch’s shoes and imbued the performance with an extra gravitas, elevating it to the ultimate level.

I keenly felt the sense of dread that creeps up your spine when you know the enemy is coming for you, but you don’t know when. That feeling of the floor dropping out from under you as you realize that you need reinforcements and none are coming. I also felt the emotional distress that comes with watching your chances of survival slowly dwindle to the barest of slim hopes, yet knowing you must fight on nevertheless, to the last man.

You don’t have to have read any of the other stories in the “Order of the Centurion” series to understand this one. But when viewed as part of an interconnected universe of stories, it meshes well with them while also successfully adding to the larger body of work. As a result, this is an exquisitely powerful novel and one of the best Galaxy’s Edge stories I’ve experienced to date.

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A grieving girl time travels on a personal mission

Revisado: 08-07-18

A twelve-year-old who is also the apprentice to her father, a master builder and welder, have a close bond. When her father has a stroke and dies, her father’s last word to her sets her on a mission to build something though she doesn’t exactly know what it is. Channeling her grief, she decides to do this despite not knowing if she will even be able to succeed. This poignant and captivating journey the reader is taken on is very primal, leaving me emotionally spent. And we’re given a heartfelt and extraordinary ending that made me misty. A powerful, moving and well-written story.

The narrator of this story does a beautiful job of capturing the grief and loss of the main character when her father dies. This adds an additional layer of richness to an already beautiful short story. It captures the emotions of the story so perfectly, you cannot help but feel the strength of it deep in your heart. I've read the story at least twice now and listened to it twice and each time, there is some additional nuance to be found that gets me choked up all over again. And that ending! It moved me to tears each time I've experienced it.

Most stories about time travel have huge stakes and life-altering events with consequences for the entire world that are the subject of a mega-blockbuster film. This story goes smaller, focusing on the huge stakes and life-altering events in the life of a twelve-year-old girl who lost her father. But it is so amazing, you feel the gut-punch of her loss and the ramifications it has on her life. This is a struggle anyone can relate to, especially if they've lost a loved one close to them.

This is a poetic and enthralling tale about a girl who goes on a very challenging journey and it is unforgettable.

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An average guy tries to survive the apocalypse!

Revisado: 10-21-16

Would you consider the audio edition of I'm Not Dead to be better than the print version?

Yes! The narrator does a terrific job with his performance of this novel. He not only differentiates between his each character really well by giving them distinctive voices, he portrays the wide range of emotions Charles experiences, from deep sadness and regret to violent rage and everything in between, that it elevates the performance to the next level. It enhances the story and brings an extra vivaciousness to it. So much so, when I had a choice to listen to the audiobook or read the book, I chose to listen to it because it was such a strong presentation. And because the novel is being told from Charles’ point of view, it feels even more up close and personal, with a surprising amount of emotional intimacy between the narrator and listener. He even lightly sings a few bars of a couple of popular songs, complete with melody, that’s hummed by Charles in the novel itself! Overall, this is a really fantastic performance!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Charles Dudley, of course!

Which scene was your favorite?

The part where he explains why he's writing the journals in the first place.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

An average guy tries to live through the apocalypse, taking it one strange day at a time.

Any additional comments?

Charles Dudley is your everyday guy in his mid-forties, on disability for a bad back, taking life day by day. After the tornadoes hit, it spreads a virus that creates Deviants, deadly and disgusting zombie-like creatures. While the government tells everyone to leave Brooklyn and the surrounding area, Charles is distrustful and decides to stay and take his chances, as he’s suspicious about all of this. Also, he’s lazy.Now, you might think the zombies are the plot of the book but think again. This is merely the set dressing for what’s really going on here: an intense character-driven study of Charles, his motivations, his family background, his need for alcohol, his duplicitous alcoholic father, his brother Stewart, his childhood friend Jerry and his failed marriage. This is the journey of one man coping with the impact of all of this on his life combined with the daily struggles of survival in Brooklyn, as the government quarantined the area and won’t let anyone leave, trying to contain the virus. Oh, and he rescues a dog because he can be a softie like that.Charles is a blue-collar worker, not a survivalist like many protagonists in these kinds of stories. He has no skills to handle the apocalypse and no grand plan. There are no zombie herds, gigantic battles, and heroic sacrifices to be found here. But, he is a learned man in the school of hard knocks. He’s not perfect and he’s disappointed in himself when he cannot find the strength to be a hero when dealing with a predator or prey mentality that brings out the worst in humanity. He is ultimately a very flawed but also caring human being when he wants to be and when he isn’t looking out for number one. This makes him very relatable yet a little bit repulsive at the same time.However, you can’t help but be drawn into the details of his life and history, as this is what grips you throughout the novel. What Charles has endured we would not wish upon our worst enemy, yet, we come to root for him every single day he continues living in an apocalyptic hell, both in a literal and figurative sense. You feel sorry for him and yet, you can’t help but like him. It’s a complex and captivating juxtaposition that keeps you reading throughout the story.As he recounts his daily life and his history in a journal format for the length of this novel, we anecdotally examine who he is from his childhood, his tragic family history, and problem-filled marriage, right down to the true light of his life: his young daughter Kate. He’s a man who’s been dealt many bad hands, he laments what he has screwed up and regrets some of his actions that led to even more heartache. This inspired kind of self-reflection shows all his human frailties, warts and all, providing the novel with its heart.All of this is presented in a unique and commanding authorial voice. It’s quite surprising how the author pulls it off with his prose, mesmerizing storytelling and his distinctive grasp of Charles’ intricate and fascinating psychology. It encompasses you before you even know it. Along the way, you get a ton of profanity, rape, drugs, alcoholism, sexual acts, child abuse and more. You couldn’t tell this story without any of that, however, as it’s a part of Charles’ DNA and the story of his life to date. It’s all perfectly combined into the novel and shares an offbeat, bizarre but highly engaging tale.This novel isn’t about the apocalypse, though on the surface, you might think it is. What it’s about is Charles raging against the world and his circumstances, fighting back against all the injustices he’s experienced in his life. It explains his need for companionship, sex, booze and the other basic human needs that we all would miss if we were in his shoes. It’s all his way of just trying to feel alive when by all rights, he should be dead by now. Ultimately, this is a superb yet brutally raw character study that is unflinching and uncompromising in its depiction of one man making his way in a world gone sideways.

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Searching for his fiancé in the zombie apocalypse!

Revisado: 07-01-16

Where does The End of the World as We Knew It rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
The three individual performances add nuance and realism to each character. It's one of the best audiobooks I've listened to.

What did you like best about this story?
How the characters were first and foremost to the story, secondary to the action set pieces. The action, while scary and well-written, was only the stage on which the characters could shine.

Which scene was your favorite?
The final third of the book when all is revealed and we discover whether Jason finds his fiancé or not. It comes after the most intense action scene in the book and it's also fascinating to see the aftermath of this discovery.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes! I wish I had the time to listen to this in one sitting because it was so riveting!

Any additional comments?
This zombie apocalypse is told from the point of view of three characters, each one sharing their story in a unique journal format. Whether it is through audio recordings, written journals or newspaper articles, it proves to be a solid method in which to tell this unique love story in a world gone mad.

Chronicling the story from the tight point of view of these three individuals, it becomes intensely personal telling it this way, really inserting the listener into the head of each storyteller so you experience this horrific world through their eyes.

The first account of the apocalypse is that of Alex, who narrates her story into her smartphone in the form of audio recordings. She’s in California on a business trip with her advertising firm working with the federal government. How she inadvertently becomes involved in ground zero of this outbreak and what happens after is a surprise. The narrator perfectly captures the panicky, spiraling out-of-control feeling of the apocalypse as it’s happening and emerging out into the world. Her story is an urgent one as she becomes embroiled in events beyond her control in more ways than one, putting her life at risk. The narrator also really captures the thought process behind Alex’s questionable decisions as she faces the fight of her life, coming off as quite shrill and shaky at times and by doing so. The narrator illustrates this thinking well by making it a crucial part of the narrator’s performance of the character in the process.

Jason is Alex’s fiancé and he’s stuck in New York City during the zombie outbreak in his office building. How he escapes, what he escapes to and the cross-country journey he undertakes to find her takes up the bulk of the novel. He writes in a journal about his adventures traveling with the military, his strong but gut-wrenching feelings about watching a mass cleanup of bodies, power struggles, perilous undertakings and life-threatening near-misses as he travels from East to West. But will he be able to even find Alexandra? The second narrator captures the melancholy, depression, despair and sense of hopelessness during the apocalypse. These feelings are especially acute when he’s describing four incidents where he felt shameful about his actions as he tried to survive and comprehend his feelings about it all.

The third account of the apocalypse takes the form of an unpublished newspaper article of a California reporter named Jonah. His story ties the entire novel and its themes together by sharing what he discovered in his lifetime by writing about his personal account of the zombie apocalypse. The narrator’s matter-of-fact approach, just like a news article, come through loud and clear, especially by the end of his tale.

Overall, there’s a genuine earnestness to each vocal performance that brings the text alive, enhances it and makes each intense emotion for all the characters hit home for the listener. This enveloping novel was a fantastic story to listen to because of the life-changing events for each character, as each of their journeys is only for those with a strong fortitude. As a result, the listener becomes deeply invested in their fates and appreciates what happened to them, how it tested them and how they responded.

This story makes me happy that this is a piece of fiction and not real life, as this is not a world I would want to live in. But a novel that takes me on such a captivating ride like this one is always welcome.

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Alien diplomats race to complete their mission!

Revisado: 06-14-15

Where does Contact Window rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is a great performance, bringing the story to life!

What other book might you compare Contact Window to and why?

Any other Star Trek book about diplomats contacting alien races. This story is reminiscent of that, but with an inventive twist.

Have you listened to any of Lanitta Elder’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not listened to any other Lanitta Elder's performances before.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes!

Any additional comments?

We begin as a spaceship descends into a planetary atmosphere, where Gatr and Litr, members of the diplomatic race called the Yeitr, try to keep their ship in one piece. Why are they being fired upon? Their mission is completely peaceful, as it is their job to seek out new life and new civilizations...

Ahem. ***clears humorous Star Trek reference from throat***

As I was saying, to go to new planets and peacefully bring them into an alliance of like-minded cultures. Not everything goes according to plan, though, as suddenly, they only have a limited amount of time left to complete the mission or otherwise, they'll have to abort it!

The author utilizes flashbacks to move away from the action, develop the culture and provide some character background on our protagonists. He's able to flesh them out nicely in only a space of a few pages and explains their strong motivation to succeed while interspersing this into the suspenseful narrative of their dire predicament in the present time. I found this to be an effective method of telling the story; while I kept wanting to get back to the action, the flashbacks enriched the characters, fleshed out their culture more and caused me to be much more invested in their fates.

I loved the awesome twist at the end which then answered any and all lingering questions I might have had about what the way events happened and why. As for the inspiration of the story, that's a nifty explanation too.

Overall, I found this to be an engaging and enjoyable short story with an unpredictable ending! And I think you will too. :)

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