Jason

Great story and excellent narration.

Revisado: 12-05-24

Unique story with twists and turns I didn't see coming, though I saw some. The humans trying to comprehend other species that are completely alien reminded me a bit of Rendezvous with Rama, though that is about the only comparison to make. The scale of the overall conflict is galactic, but the story itself is almost entirely concerned with a small group.

Overall a great story, just let me knitpick a bit :) Obviously I knew going in this would be a series, but they tease you a few times with statements from one of the aliens that obviously happen at the end of the series and not in this book, which kind of annoyed me even though I thought that might happen. I could see the series continuing after those things occurred so I wasn't sure.

Also one thing that bothered me was the incomprehension over wording. These super-intelligent aliens designed the translators, yet they English they produce doesn't seem to convey meaning in many cases. The trope of "aliens think differently" is fine and dandy, but if it does the translation at all you think it would be accurate. When one of them is killed and humans asked why it was punished, the response was "it was not punished, one of use that does XXX cannot be allowed to exist." it doesn't make sense. If they know the word 'punish' and have no problem translating it, I fail to understand how they can't comprehend what is meant by the word.

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Good book with a few problems and a bit dated

Revisado: 10-19-24

Good narration and an interesting story. It felt more like golden age sci-fi than most books you see nowadays. Based on the content I could place the year it was written within a couple of years. A lot of mention of the OJ Simpson trial for instance and none of the societal changes the internet has brought this century. If you're in the mood for a decent sci-fi book that isn't too fast paced and have a credit to spare you could do worse.

A few of the scientific elements didn't feel quite right, but I'm not going to spoil anything. Also there was some good legal information, but being a law nerd myself I found one thing was just completely unbelievable. If you're a nitpicker, you may want to give this one a pass.

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Now I remember

Revisado: 10-05-23

why I stopped listening to this book... I saw this in my library and had only gotten about 1/2 way through listening to it. I thought I must have fallen asleep after starting it because I didn't remember anything about it. Then after the first chapter I was like "Oh yeah, I remember that thing happening, and that location being in a book I listened to." After getting about 1/2 way through again, I just can't take any more. I hadn't fallen asleep, the story and characters are just so boring that they aren't memorable. After listening to the first half for a second time I can't remember a single character's name. I know precisely one thing that happened in one character's past to give them some kind of uniqueness. I think the best thing that can be said about this book is that things happen in it.

Good writers are like artists painting a portrait in your mind. Listening to this was like watching someone use paint rollers on an office wall, then watching it dry. How this book has a 4.3 rating is an absolute mystery to me.. I just listened to a commander tell an officer they were changing their call signs due to it changing to a combat situation, and naming the new call signs. What were their last call signs? The book might have told me but they weren't memorable and the new ones weren't either. This person goes there, this thing happens. Who they were or what doesn't seem to matter. New planet full of alien life? Explain a monkey looking thing with a bear's head and an insect. Neither is important. Neither was described well. I know the antagonists are 9 foot tall blue things with talons and dark hair on their arms. Meh. Apparently their translator gives them a vaguely Asian accent, though the translator doesn't seem to be necessary, at least after describing how it was for the first brief encounter.

This book is so bad that I'm actually looking at the other reviews from people that rated it well so I know what books to avoid, and other reviews from people that panned it for recommendations. Look at the other reviews from some of the 5 star reviewers and you can tell they seem to be bought, but not as many as I would have thought.

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Interesting and different

Revisado: 06-07-21

The story is pretty good, people fine a large hand made of a strange material underground. After searching more parts of found. Sci-fi and somewhat mythical, I'm sure there will be more books.

What's interesting though is the way the story is told. It is told in a series of interviews and conversations from different points of view. Each character has their own person voicing the role. Most of them are interview style, I think almost all with a shady government operator as one of the participants. Only a few are told as the action unfolds as people are in direct communications while operations are going on.

I liked how different this made the story feel, and how we learned about the characters solely through dialog. This book is 100% dialog. We find out what is going on in the view action sequences by hearing the character on site explain what is happening to the character monitoring the situation back home. I don't know if it would have started bothering me if the book was longer, but it was good for the 8.5 hours of runtime.

To explain my rating I don't often give books 5 stars. I'd consider this a 4.5 I think but Audible doesn't allow half stars. But since the current average is 4.3 I rounded up. If the average was 4.8 I probably would have given it 4 stars to round closer to my real ranking.

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Few audiobooks have made me cry

Revisado: 05-14-21

I don't quite know where to start with this review. If you've read (or seen) 'The Martian', you know Andy Weir. 'The Martian' was set in basically current times with one conceit: a super material that could block radiation to enable living safely on Mars. If you don't want *any* minor spoilers, stop reading this review now. But you find out early in the book that there is an organism that is going to be catastrophic to human life, but that also enables some hand-wavy sci-fi technology, and enables a mission that gives a small chance to save the human race from extinction.

If you want 'few' spoilers, just look at the stars I gave the book and read it, you won't be disappointed. I was a little conflicted about buying this book because 'The Martian' was so good and I thought Andy could be a one-hit wonder. It starts out in a similar way as 'The Martian', with one stranded scientist striving to survive. But (slightly more spoilers) he is not just trying to save himself, but to save humanity. And humanity is light years away and out of touch.

(even more mild spoilers) But he doesn't stay completely alone forever. I was a little hesitant to give it 5 stars because there were two times when I thought things didn't make sense. One near the end *really* didn't make sense to me, but was necessary to enable the 'crying' in my review title. I really hate when that happens. Yes, atoms can make it through materials, but larger items (like cells) cannot. Period. Evolution doesn't work like how a plot point assumes it does. I don't think this is a spoiler because it won't make sense unless you listen to the book, but if you selectively breed and feed wolves for 1000 generations, selecting for the ones that can catch a ball and return it to you, it won't produce wolves that can climb trees. Why the hell would it?!? There's zero selective pressure for climbing trees. Actually that is a trait that would be selected against because the wolves that climbed trees got no food.

Whatever. I consider myself a stickler for things making sense, yet I still give this book 5* in all categories. The narrator was great. The overall plot was inventive. The problems the protagonist(s) faced were very interesting. The universe that Andy Weir created kept me captivated. Telling the back-story through flashbacks really worked for me. And the time when I cried made it all worth while.

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Not bad, but over-hyped

Revisado: 12-29-18

It was interesting for me, especially due to the cultural differences. However by the time they go into any real science fiction aspects, it seemed more mystical than scientific. Some aspects seem to be based in science, but when things are explained it detail later on, it becomes a bunch of hand-waving nonsense.

When I think of great science fiction, I think of universes where the rules may be different from our own and of stories that explore those rules and inventions in depth to show how they could affect the universe and the people inside it. When this book finally gets around in the last few chapters to explaining the SF behind some things that have been going on in the book it falls flat. With the rules of this universe finally explained, I'm left wondering why the tools were used in the way that they were and not in some other way.

That being said, I have a couple credits left this month so I'm going to pick up the next in the series to see if it improves, so it's not all bad.

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Not bad, gave Jack another try

Revisado: 09-07-18

I loved the first book in the lost fleet series, but I read 5 others and they seemed to be on a constant downward spiral. I had a spare credit and decided to pick this up and am glad I did.

There’s just a little bit of political bull that doesn’t make any sense, but overall was a pretty exciting read.

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What about 'he said/she said'?

Revisado: 05-16-18

I see a lot of reviews mentioning that and think I almost didn't get the book because of it, but I had a spare credit to spend so I got it. By the time I got around to listening I had forgotten all about those reviews and didn't notice that a single time. So don't let those reviews deter you and try to not think about them when listening I guess :)

Overall the story was interesting and kept moving along I thought, and the concept was cool.

One problem I had with the book was the illogical handling of the legal issues surrounding it. Apparently one of the locked-in can borrow the body of an 'integrator' and commit murder, and there's no way to find out who was using their body? No records to search? Confidentiality extends to being a witness while the person using your body murders someone? A priest might not be able to divulge (or be forced to divulge) when someone confesses to murder, but if the priest saw it happen they would have to testify to what they saw. They might make interesting ideas for plot points, but they fall apart under any scrutiny.

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Like politics with plot holes?

Revisado: 04-09-18

The writing is good and there are some good parts, but I'm 40 minutes from the end and I don't know if I want to finish it. I really doubt I'll be getting more books in the series. For the second time the bad guys have gotten one over on the good guys in a completely unbelievable way. They seem omnipotent in their abilities to create varied terrorist attacks on dozens of worlds and frame other people for them without leaving a trace of their own complicity, and the good guys that actually have some evidence against them feel like it's in their best interest to keep their mouths shut for some implausible reasons.

Let a kidnapper and murderer become the governor because you think he MIGHT do the right thing in the end? WHY? Hide the evidence of the bad guys' wrongdoing to get some money and what you think will be enough to check their power when you could have ruined them outright? WHY?

I prefer my books to make sense...

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Worried about other reviews? Don't be.

Revisado: 10-03-17

I worry when I see a lot of 5* "reviews" that don't mention anything about the book in particular, it makes me wonder if publishers or authors are buying reviews. I had an extra credit though and am glad I spent it on this book and will be buying more in the series.

I have only read this book so far, but I like the premise. While the other LitRPG books I've read have been in actual game worlds, you can tell from the publisher's summary and by the first chapter that this book is different. The MMORPG is only the vehicle that can transport some players into another reality that operates by very similar rules in which almost all of the book takes place. That makes this more of a true fantasy story where the consequences have more weight.

So I'm not sure after reading the book if the protagonist has met any other "players". Since it is its own reality, I believe all the residents are more like actual beings that live out their lives than npcs that are run by a computer.

Nick Podehl does a great job, but I think he could do better with some female characters. It must be difficult to come up with so many voices, but one annoying one in particular was such an exact copy of a character from another book he narrated that I found it a little off-putting. Only a little though, I still gave the narration 4 stars.

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