r.francis

Fresh take on the history of the West

Revisado: 04-05-25

I’ve always wanted to learn more about the frenetic years prior to the Civil War and the incessant push westward. Our generation grew up watching western movies and we knew that something was amiss with the story of the native people. This book provides an unbiased account of the native tribes along with Mexicans and Californios who lived at that time. It’s also enlightening as to the influx of foreign immigrants and the different status that they held in the society of the day.

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More Fantasy than Sci Fi

Revisado: 01-31-25

I always enjoy Adrian Tchaikovsky and will continue to follow him but I like hard science fiction and particularly first contact novels. This novel is post apocalyptic and set in a dying earth. The character development is interesting and I listened till the end. However, it was like driving off with you fast food order and realizing that they messed it up. I consumed it on my trip but won’t order that “meal” again…

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Very Sophomoric

Revisado: 10-09-24

I didn’t listen past the first half hour because it was obviously written for a teenage boy.

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True Crime meets Sci Fi

Revisado: 09-01-24

The start to this book made me wonder if I had strayed from my typical hard science fiction selection. Well crafted prose and solid narration eased those fears as I settled in for a true crime who-done-it. But the story evolves so stick with it and the neuroscience follows. The narration is good as the viewpoint switches between characters. In the end you’ll be rooting hard for humanity and hanging on to the storyline…

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Reliving the 2008 financial crisis?

Revisado: 03-04-24

WJ Williams has an entertaining writing style and the narrator did a great job. But this story drags on in the beginning with pedestrian style concerns of everyday life and then a reboot of the 2008 Housing Crisis. The mob scenes attacking “the upper class” smacks of the French Revolution but the wealthy have even fewer weapons and no modern urban flight capability? EVTOL should be a seamless solution with their abundant antimatter energy source. The book gets better toward the end but there’s such a cavalier concern for sentient life when they attack other species.

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A Tale of Survival for both races

Revisado: 02-06-24

You’ll enjoy the gritty human drama played out from several perspectives as they fight to survive a plague. Then they fight each other for the meager supplies left by a dying world. The cause of the plague is finally apparant when a huge ship appears on the Pacific Coast. Then the fun really begins. Despite much hard sci-fi tech and little regard for each other’s humanity or another species sentience, I did enjoy it and will listen to more from this author

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An ending looking for a story

Revisado: 06-05-23

The protagonist in the story is tortured by the loss of his wife and stuck on an expedition with a quirking, maladjusted crew. Upon the discovery of a working alien artifact, they adventure on the oddest quest to visit it. They lack any tools to research properly yet continue on. Why would they risk the FIRST alien contact in this fashion. Even at the end, the wife isn’t brought back to the story. Don’t waist a credit or your time on this…

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A fun Billionaire Bashing story

Revisado: 01-30-23

The story plays out over nearly a millennium with a crew that uses old tech and cryogenic sleep to travel a great distance in order to visit the “nearest” habitable star system.

The earth that they return to is vastly changed and they must battle each other and the new reality in order to stay alive.

There are interesting plot twists along with trite interpersonal battles. The addition of a 3D printer and smuggled plans for a pistol would make more sense than the authors route.

The story kept my attention, the narrator did a good job and it was time well spent, especially for an Audible Plus at no charge.

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Beyond death?

Revisado: 01-18-23

I don’t want to reveal too much but the theme is that death is but a chrysalis to a superior form. You could do much with this theme but the author never takes that leap. It’s just a so so event with other species doing the same. Too many neat endings with little technical explanations - definitely Sci-Fi fast food and not gourmet by any stretch….

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Slow start and fine finish

Revisado: 12-04-22

The first book (novella size) starts slow and is far from hard science fiction but the pace quickens in the following books. The narrators change with each of the three books but it doesn’t disrupt the continuity much. Overall it’s well done from a new writer.

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