Edward I

Epic.

Revisado: 11-08-19

As excellent as I remember it being. One of the best epic fantasies, and the first time I encountered it I didn't believe there would be any more good epic fantasy! (Obviously I was wrong.)

The narration is adequate. It doesn't subtract from the book but it doesn't add anything either.

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Ignore the "Book 4" and read this. It's EPIC!

Revisado: 05-27-19

Forget the "book 4" designation and read or listen to this right now. Crusade was written earlier (and isn't terrible), but Insurrection was second and remains the hands-down best introduction to the Starfire universe in novel form. If you are looking for epic fleet-action space opera, you have found it.

Are you dissatisfied by the background role played by starship fleets (when they appear at all) in SW, ST, and other classic space operas? Then this is for you. There's no shortage of battles involving battlecruisers, carriers, and even ships larger than a superdreadnought...and none are gratuitous; all of them make sense in the terms of the larger story.

The human story is not neglected either. Aside from the (amazing) fleet battles, this is the story of an interstellar civil war in a human Federation that spans dozens if not hundreds of inhabited star systems and takes months to travel across. You are put in the room with people from the ones whose grasping arrogance starts the war, down through presidents, starship crews, and civilians on both sides, all the way to farmers who have (rightly) expected to be screwed over by those in power for generations, centuries, or forever. And by and large they feel human, not like cardboard stand-ups.

There are aliens (awesome ones, of course!), but they are in the background. When humans go to war with each other, sensible aliens stay out of the way—even if they have the best assault carriers in the known universe.

Finally, there is the narration. I first read this book decades ago, not long after it came out. I have reread it since a number of times, so the quality of the performance is kind of personal for me. Marc Vietor sets a high bar for narration. Quick complaint: many narrators use a one-dimensional array of character voices; the men are manly or weasely, the women are unnaturally soft-spoken, etc., ad nauseam.

Marc Vietor is not these narrators. If a character is from Virginia on Old Earth, he sounds like it. If he's a highly educated man from a Japanese culture or an upper-class Englishman, he sounds like it. A nervous young yeoman, same. And If she's a starship captain, she *doesn't* sound like she's on her way to the damned bedroom with you. His general narration, in and out of character, is just as excellent—warm, textured, and unhurried; a storyteller's voice.

Overall, I recommend this book highly. It's the only five-star narration review I've ever given and (unless something changes in the general quality of audiobook narration) the only one I'm ever likely to.

Oh, and if you're not looking for a six-year long epic about an interstellar civil war, well-written and very well-performed...buy something else instead.

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