Samuel

original, well paced, and highly entertaining

Revisado: 05-29-24

I listened to this a long time ago through podiobooks and was delighted. the sound scape, pacing, and story a all worked together nearly flawlessly to capture my interest and imagination. the summaries between episodes was the right amount of spacing to let my imagination breathe while it prepared it for what was to come. I'm glad I found it again after all these years.

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infuriating

Revisado: 02-20-23

Florence as a character ruined this story for me. interesting concept, well read by the narrator, voices were acted well and distinctly, the pace and build up were adequate, and then the MC soured the entire thing by being the single most infuriating, annoying, and pointlessly lucky protagonist I've ever read. I hate listened to nearly the entire book but will not be picking up the rest of the series solely because of Florence Valentine.

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Definitely not like David Drake

Revisado: 02-05-22

This wasn't bad, but it certainly didn't satisfy. The continuity was there, but plot holes seemed to be filled with word bondo, the characters just a little too careless/inept/clueless to carry the story to action, and the action just that bit to trite to feel real. Not a bad story, mind, but the conception feels almost haphazard, which jarred me out of my immersion too often.

The narrator, while a solid reader with a clear voice and controlled timbre and tone, had no sense of flow or of the context of the moment. Pauses for dramatic effect were non existent, the entire reading feeling like the narrator was pressed for time or a deadline, the story felt like one big run on sentence split by time, date and location subtitles. Her attempts at separating characters by changing accents was fairly effective, so character differentiation was passable for the most part.

Overall, worth spending the time to listen, but I'm very glad I spent a credit instead of cash. I won't be picking up the other tied in stories, though.

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potential with little depth

Revisado: 12-11-21

it's not a bad way to pass time, but overall I felt uninvolved with the story. I had no connection with the characters, no curiosity about what would happen, and no feeling of the overall plot. just felt like I was listening to a transcript from a tabletop game night. there's a lot of potential with this kind of tale, one I was hoping would be a litrpg dungeon core version of Hammer's Slammers or Bolo. expectations are likely the culprit, but I can't give any better than three regardless.

and why are all military men voiced as lifelong, pissed off chain smokers by some vo actors with otherwise very capable character differentiation? I'm very curious about that.

again, not a bad story, but neither the characters, plot, or story really hooked me into the mystery of what was happening nor why it might be happening.

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Finally...

Revisado: 11-06-21

It's been so long I've searched for a story that carried me away so well. I haven't cried for a character in so long. and I haven't wanted a character dead so much in so very long. beautifully written, beautifully read, and a series of tales I will certainly follow to the end.

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listen past the credits, worth it.

Revisado: 07-16-21

not bad at all for a creature feature gore fest. there's a bit of telegraphing and some missing connections, ergo four stars, but it certainly satisfied this listener's craving for something dark and forbidding. lots of action, lots of personality, lots of interpersonal connections (if some are a bit forced they didn't detract from the tale) combined to create a kind of Gaiman-esque anti-hero story.

and the icing on this particular cake comes after the acknowledgements, so wait until you hear that audible final announcement "Audible hopes you have enjoyed this program". you won't regret it.

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esto le resultó útil a 13 personas

holy right wing self righteous anger, Batman.

Revisado: 06-04-21

could have been a great story, a worthwhile sequel to the first book, except the author went complete right wing zealot with social justice warrior antipathy. every other chapter was a rant about how social justice warriors destroyed the world, which didn't carry the story at all or give any meaningful backstory to the world. just in the moment self righteous anger about the current political situation polluting an otherwise good story.

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not one of their best

Revisado: 05-20-21

forced characters, forced themes, forced plot. the only character that drew any emotion from me was the bureaucrat who, fortunately, wasn't a main character. it was not a positive emotion, either. the rest of the cast, including the protagonist, were two dimensional and empty, their interactions felt bland, their stated purposes scripted and impersonal. this felt like the story felt slapped together with disparate ideas in-between the other stories they've written together. the narrator was on point, however, which was the only way I could finish this story at all. I won't be following this series, if it is or becomes one, despite his good the potential it had was.

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As deep as Asimov and Clarke

Revisado: 06-27-20

Exceptional. The story was reminiscent of the classics of speculative sci-fi with all the undertones of social angst and change of that bygone storytelling set. A beautiful tale of tragedy and distress and a gathering victory through adversity. I look forward to the next installment and how for similar roller coaster emotional and intellectual moments.

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Rushed, but not bad

Revisado: 05-15-20

There's a fairly good story here, a possible epic of a galaxy on the edge of turmoil it doesn't see coming. However, I felt little connection to the characters or the society/societies that birthed and developed them. Who is the Republic? What is it made of and why? Seems like an empire on the downslide, but there's no information that invests me in the grand picture. I do like the attempt at emotional and personal trials of the characters, they become slightly more than two dimensional protagonists as the story progresses, but they are hampered by random and seemingly unconnected drives and dreams, tiny smatterings of history that don't clarify their personal purposes not professional drives, and connections that feel, at times, forced by writer's convenience. Still and all, the overall effect was interesting, the twists in the story and interactions were classic and still intriguing, and the narrator is clear and pleasant though a bit drab for some of the supposed humorous points in the telling.
This is worth a read, or listen, but there is so much more possible with this tale that was either left on the cutting room floor or wasn't imagined in the writing. I will be interested to see what the following stories will add to this potential epic.

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