Mike M.

Slow burn, low stake, repetitive, unsatisfying end

Revisado: 03-17-23

Minor spoilers, but Chief encounters a group of local persons--mostly children--and throughout the story we're subjected to a massive crimp on Blue Team's capabilities. dialogue is repetitive, a lot of the scenes overexplain everything, though from a tactical storytelling perspective I can appreciate it. i cant really recommend this if youre hoping for something as fun as Silent Storm.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Reads more like Metro2033 than the other GE titles

Revisado: 12-26-18

That's actually a good thing that this reads like another one of my favorite narrations, because a lot of information is given to us in this title. A lot of world building happens here and insights into many of the characters we know and love stems from this.

I'll review this entirely on Amazon, but for what I can say here is that this is a worthwhile origin story for the man we are supposed to see as an Antagonist in the GE series starting with Galactic Outlaws. Through this and Attack of Shadows, we see Goth Sullus as a bogeyman and an emperor akin to that of Star Wars, coupled with a powerful warrior deity that would be Darth Vader, in fact this book has so many parallels between the characters of Anakin Skywalker and Goth that it almost borders ridiculous if not for the deeper rooted meaning of all of these included plot points. In fact, take all of the influences that shaped Anakin into Vader and put them into a scenario that isn't badly written as we've seen in the prequels. In fact, take a Star Wars where the republic simply won the clone wars, slowly turned to corruption, and Anakin went into Exile on his own to seek out the ways of the force like we see Luke does in Empire Strikes Back, in order to save the galaxy from itself, and you have something fairly close but not at all giving this book justice.

Without spoiling too much, this story is a nonlinear telling of who Goth is, how he got to this point in the present, who he was, how he obtained his power and why he is on this path that he is. All of these are told at the same time in regularly shifting perspectives in the timeline, though the narration manages to do this without feeling disjointed or jumbled, at least after the first few times its presented.

Similarly to Kill Team, with the "You're Tom" story arc, the events of the storyline itself are interrupted by what seem to be ethereally metaphoric scenes of "the student" which is supposed to tell of the development of Goth's power. He's never named in these scenes on purpose but you figure it out on your own as you go along so Im not spoiling too much.
My only complaint with these scenes is that they're hard to get through the first times they arrive, much like the "You're Tom" segments of Kill Team, mainly because of the massive shift in narration style and the long winded wordiness of metaphors. But in the end, every scene is worth listening to or reading. Every one feels like youre right alongside the student and learning each lesson.

Besides these, we see more tangible settings, in the form of Goth, known as Casper at this point in time, traveling across a hostile, remote planet that I have to strain to not call Dagobah, with a hunter killer Droid and a local life form that is almost seemingly there for comic relief or to test Casper's patience. The world itself has a mystery that is slowly unraveled with a slow and steady trek through jungle and desert.

There are times that these seem uneventful, but almost as soon as the boredom threatens to set in, Casper recollects times from the fabled Savage Wars , or of the history of the post-earth Republic, which are equally enjoyable and come and go throughout the chapters, written as smoothly as reoccurring and fleeting thoughts.

In these moments, we are treated to classic GE style combat scenes with Casper as a younger naval officer with a fan favorite Tyrus Rechs as a pre-legion Martian Marine. The story really shows how each character shone in their own way with no shortage of heroism.

All of these scenes fluidly mesh past one another with ease, and while I wanted to know more about what happened next during the Savage War perspective, I still found myself eager to hear more about Casper's survival in the harsh jungles of "not dagobah" in his search for answers. Like I could wait on the next installment of his, Rechs's and the Martian Marines' fight against the Savage Forces.

That's part of the charm that this book has. It's full of narrative, lore, and answers that it gives to you slowly, in installments from different events, like putting a puzzle together from each of its corners at the same time with the bigger picture coming into intense focus the closer you get to the center.

Fan Service

A few favorites of mine in the moments of the savage war, especially that the side characters really stand out on their own, however temporary some might be, and not just nameless, faceless guys/gals with guns for the same of showing intensity when one of them dies. Each has a personality, a specialty, a moment for them self.

Another aspect I liked was the design of Casper, from his back story on Earth, all the way to the inclusion of his gifted Omega Seamaster (my dad's a watch enthusiast) that all helped to shape a mental picture of who he is, was, and would be. Also, remember the cutting torch from Attack of Shadows, that too is important, and Im proud to say I made a solid guess halfway through the book before it showed up for a very satisfying display of Casper's power and skill.

A few other things. You'll see plenty of Tyrus Rechs beating wholesale tar out of Savage forces, written in some of the most epic visual descriptors, epic in the manner I would refer to a story like Beowulf. We also learn about how he got his armor, which feels a little bit rushed in its first presentation but the real importance is in the ramifications that it represents.

Why I didn't give it 5 stars?
IM not entirely sure why Im not giving this five stars because the only thing about this book that can throw me for a loop are the long winded sentences that Anspach, Cole, or both like to include in some narrative. This is an issue with several of their books since Legionnaire, and it hasnt bothered me until now for some reason. Even still, theyre most times acceptable in bending the laws of grammar for the sake of creative writing, and as such I should be used to this by now when reading any Galaxy's Edge novel, and frankly I shouldn't even complain since RC Bray's spotless narration helped me through this long quest. I think Imperator is the fastest title that I was able to finish just for the sheer gripping sensation of the plot too.



Final thoughts.

This title stands our far from the others. While most of the books give you multiple perspectives from many characters to reach and end all to the episode, we are given a greater mystery that's slowly solved from the multiple perspectives of one character. Hard to follow at first, the pattern will make itself clearer the more you listen to this book, and the more you listen the more satisfying the end will be.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Short but doesn't sacrifice the message

Revisado: 06-27-16

I, Sergeant is a good example of classic science fiction, a kind of terminator-esque story that levels the playing field. At first, through the narrators use of phrasing, detailing a scene is speculative, and imagining characters is more of a job for the reader as the author pushes the envelop and keeps you waiting for reveals. There isn't much to say without spoiling the story, but I like Renfro's internal monologue especially at the end. In the end, I chose to interpret this story as being told as neither one species or another, but simply through the eyes of a soldier.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña