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Constant action is ultimately monotonous!

Revisado: 07-21-24

I got this boxed set for no charge so I felt obligated to listen to all five volumes. As usual, Mr. Boyett’s performance was outstanding. Which was the only thing worthwhile about this series. The plots were nearly impossible for me to follow but I don’t think Mr. James, the author, really cares about plots. His main reason for writing these novels seemed to be so he could place Lucky and his team in some impossible situation and describe how they fight their way out of it. Again, and again, and again. The action is, literally, nonstop. The laws of physics don’t seem to apply and I don’t care if it is the far future, the ability of Lucky and his team to regenerate from life-threatening wounds (like the loss of a leg or a severed spine) in a matter of minutes is biologically impossible. These are not novels but video games where the characters have unlimited lives—which totally removed any tension/excitement I might have felt about whether the main characters would survive. I suppose I am in the minority when I say I am sick of science fiction where the main character is an AI. Lucky has “Rocky”, a smart-mouthed female personality, in his head and he seems incapable of being a hero without it. *Please*! It may have been a cute idea once (Robert Heinlein did it better in 1970 with his novel I Will Fear No Evil!) but now it seems everyone who writes science fiction uses it instead of using their imagination to write characters capable of using their own minds. Finally, as if things weren’t complicated and silly enough, Lucky has some….demon(?) that *also*lives in his mind that, if he lets it, can turn him (And, I think, everyone in the universe?) into a mindless killing machine. Whatever. Don’t make the mistake I did. Avoid listening to this series!

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I wish there were more in this series!

Revisado: 05-04-24

Great novel of the age of fighting sails. With the unique twist that the hero, Captain Percival Merewether, serves in the Bombay Marine which is the navy of the Honorable British East India Company. It’s good enough to stand with those I’ve read by C.S. Forester, Patrick O’Brian and Dewey Lambdin. The historical context was very interesting and informative. The main characters are well-written, the details of sailing and combat at sea are excellent, and the action is non-stop. The performance by narrator Steven Crossley is very good and really enhanced my listening pleasure.

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Typical of the genre

Revisado: 04-23-24

A typical novel in the genre of military science fiction centered around interstellar combat between huge ships and the squadrons of small fighters they carry. As usual, there is a super-hero captain who it seems can always prevail against impossible odds. Several characters also engage in typically lame romantic relationships. Exciting descriptions of space combat. Interesting concepts about FTL technology. . Novel is good enough for me to seek out the second book in the series.

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Hornblower in the East Indies!

Revisado: 04-20-24

I didn’t know the British East India Company had a navy! I’m a big fan of the many novels and series written about the Royal Navy in the napoleonic wars. That being said, finding a novel about the Bombay Marine (The naval arm of the British East India Company) during this period was a refreshing change. Ellis Meacham wrote this novel in 1968 (the first of three in this series) and I suppose he was inspired/influenced by the Hornblower novels of C. S. Forester written during the 50’s and 60’s. Whatever his inspiration, Mr. Meacham writes a very entertaining novel. It is actually three or four sequential novellas following Merewether’s adventures as he sails from England to Calcutta; rescues a Company diplomat and his family from pirates; captures a French privateer; helps to quell a sepoy mutiny; destroys a band of Mindanao pirates; and negotiates the release of Company ships being held in Canton. The details of handling, navigating, and maneuvering a three-masted sailing ship seem to be spot-on. The action is pretty much nonstop and the descriptions of sea battles are exciting to listen to. The only downside is the narration by Steven Crossley. Half the fun of listening to an audiobook is the ability of the narrator to master the accents necessary to give life to the characters. At a minimum, reading this novel requires the narrator to use accents for British, Irish, cockney, French, Scots, Hindu, Dutch, Portuguese, and Chinese-speaking characters. Sadly, besides his native British, the best Mr. Crossley can manage is a weak Scottish accent. He distinguishes the voices of most of the characters by simply raising or lowering the pitch of his voice. It was very distracting to me and really diminished my listening pleasure. Narration not withstanding, I will definitely be listening to the other two books in this series!

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Very exciting

Revisado: 03-15-24

Speaking as someone who was raised on Horatio Hornblower and who has practically memorized every book by Patrick O’Brian, I find this series by Chris Durbin to be equally entertaining. I really appreciate the details of ship handling and maneuver necessary to sail and fight a square-rigged ship. I also applaud the author’s decision to place his story in the historical context of the Seven-Years war, a period long overshadowed by novels of the Napoleonic wars but every bit as exciting. This novel, second of the series, had non-stop action and the descriptions of ship-ship combat were very exciting. The main characters in the series, Carlisle and his first Lieutenant, Holbrooke, are well-developed and evolving and are nicely complemented by Chalmers the Chaplain. Mr. Durbin’s novel is great but I have to say that I found the performance by Mr. Crossley the narrator to be very annoying. Compared to many of the excellent narrators I have heard on Audible, the voices he gives to the different characters are amateurish. For example, Carlisle is from Virginia yet the narrator gives him an accent that is indistinguishable from his English colleagues.

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Engrossing story. Terrific narration!

Revisado: 03-01-24

This is the first of, I believe, 13 novels in this series and it builds a terrific foundation for that series and the central character, Utred. I liked that all the characters, even the minor ones, are fully developed and interesting. As usual, Mr. Cornwell draws the listener deeply into the time and place of his novel (Britain in the 9th century). He is also an absolute master at describing battle scenes and combat. His novels are always historically accurate and this one is no exception. I also can’t say enough good things about the narrator, Jonathan Keeble, I have read all the novels in this series but Mr. Keeble brings them to life! *Listening* to this novel was so exciting and engaging that I twice drove by exits on my 700-mile drive!

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Terrific historical novel

Revisado: 02-03-24

There is nothing bad about this book. Do not be put off by the subject matter (I know, who writes novels about Austrian U-boats in World War I?) It is very well written. It’s historically accurate. I love military history and I learned a lot about an often over-looked theater of WW I. The story, as told by the main character, Otto Prohaska, is detailed, varied, deeply engaging and never ceases to be *entertaining*. What makes listening to this book most enjoyable is the narration by Nigel Patterson. The text requires the narrator to read conversation, phrases, and titles in Austrian, German, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, and Turkish not to mention English in all of those accents. Mr. Patterson is a master of them all. Apparently, this is the first book in a series by Mr. Biggins. I can’t wait to start the next one!

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Same song. Same as the first—and second

Revisado: 10-21-23

I like a good battle description as well as anyone and Mr. Anderson never disappoints in that area. Unfortunately, that’s all he can do. After reading this, the third book in the series, I find that it is really the same book as the previous two. The only difference being the location of the battles fought by our Hero, Col. Lewis Cayce and his army. I am finally weary of the trivial details Mr. Anderson persists in repeating to “pad” his narrative. For example: How many times must I know that mounted riflemen use a model 1817 rifled musket? Or, OMG, I have read the details of how to load and fire a 6-pounder field gun so many times (sometimes more than once in the same battle) that I am pretty sure I could fill-in at any crew position myself! The main characters are too-perfect stereotypes. I just can’t suspend disbelief that Col. Cayce and his “ ‘merican” soldiers could build a modern 19th-century army (along with the required industrial and logistical base) of more than 40,000 men from a largely agrarian, peaceful society of independent city-states in less than 18 months. And I just can’t buy in to Mr. Anderson’s ridiculous premise that the best use of that army is to send it, supported by supply lines that must pass through hundreds of miles of unfriendly territory, to strike at the heart of the evil Holy Dominion—despite the looming threat of an army of 250,000 foaming-at-the-mouth fanatics! Frankly , I don’t believe Mr. Anderson is clever enough to make his story really interesting. Remove all the technical details and this book is just a monotonous slog through the mountains of (alternative) Mexico. There will no doubt be further books in this series but I won’t waste my book credits to read them…

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Not sure I can stand to listen to the next one!

Revisado: 10-16-23

I want to start by praising the narrator, Mr. Ochlan. There are many characters in this series and he does an excellent job of voicing the various accents required. It makes *listening* to this series very enjoyable. That’s a good thing because this installment certainly lives up to it’s title—for the wrong reasons. For the most part it is a long dreary slog following our hero, Lewis Cayce, and his (too many) friends and Allies as they lead their army through the wilds of the Yucatán on the offensive against the armies of the evil Holy Dominion and it’s nasty Blood Priests. By far the bulk of this novel is “filler” filling in the intervals until Col. Cayce can maneuver the divisions of his army into some bloody battle with the enemy. There are two major battles in Hell’s March and, apparently, the only purpose of the novel (if not the entire series) is so Mr Anderson can describe battles in bloody detail while showing off his excellent grasp of all the technical minutiae of mid-nineteenth century warfare. With monotonous regularity, Mr. Anderson has the infallible Col. Cayce stomp the enemy into a bloody pulp using mobile artillery tactics and brilliant planning—which he never shares with anybody until just before the battle. Then the defeated enemy always has a battlefield epiphany because Col. Cayce is such a good guy and his cause is based on righteous Christian principles. In his original The Destroyermen series, Mr. Anderson asks his readers to suspend disbelief, but in The Artillerymen he asks too much. I suspect he glosses over what would seem to be insurmountable difficulties in the “real world” because he wants to start describing battles as soon as possible and doesn’t want to be bothered with nitty-gritty details. But I found it annoying, perhaps insulting, that I was asked to believe that the Americans could build a large, sophisticated 19th-century military organization in just a few months from a collection of autonomous agrarian city-states. Or that these same city-states could seamlessly supply large armies across hundreds of miles of wild forest infested with carnivorous dinosaurs. Perhaps the most egregious (especially in light of current events in our “real” world.), is that whole armies of Dominion soldiers could just throw off 200 years of foaming-at-the mouth religious fanaticism and convert en mass to Col. Cayce’s brand of Christianity just because he defeats them in battle. Really?? I could go on and on, but what really aggravates me is that, in spite of everything that irritates me about Mr Anderson’s writing, I an driven , like a moth to a flame, to purchase the next book in this #%@&$ series. If for no other reason than I want to see how Mr. Anderson connects the events and people of The Artillerymen with the events and people encountered 100 years later by the Destroyermen when they fight the Dominion in this same location…

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Enjoyed it in spite of myself

Revisado: 10-12-23

Having read all of the books in the Destroyermen series, I found no surprises in this novel. Mr. Anderson basically moved most of the main characters from that series to the Yucatán of 1847 and gave them different names. Mr. Anderson tends to gloss over or ignore the many, conceivably insurmountable, problems that would be faced by our heroes (lack of a common language, infectious disease, no heavy industry, unfriendly indigenous people, etc.) in favor of telling a pretty good story. The plot is imaginative, the battle scenes are vividly described, and the book is packed with historically accurate technical details of 1847 military hardware and uniforms which, dweeb that I am, I enjoy. I think Mr. Taylor must be a military re-enactor. Unfortunately, he is so enthusiastic about the military minutiae that his descriptions distract from the narrative. In both of his series Mr Taylor makes his hero the object of almost religious adoration from the other characters which I find vaguely nauseating. I also dislike the paternalistic way he has his characters “save” the people they encounter. Two specific things I would like to ask Mr Anderson about the Artillerymen series would be: (1) You introduce soldiers of the Pennsylvania regiment that are Scottish, Irish, and English (All wonderfully rendered by the narrater, Mr. Ochoan), but why no soldiers of *German* ancestry? At this time, I would expect the majority of Pennsylvania troops to be of German stock. (2) Mr. Anderson goes to great lengths to point out the unsuitability of the wheel hat yet has his soldiers continue to wear them. Why wouldn’t they change to the broad-brimmed straw hats worn by the locals?? Same can be said for *blue* uniforms in the tropics?? Why not white or khaki instead? Why wouldn’t our resourceful heroes have some common sense as well??

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