THE EMBER WAR by Richard Fox

Narrated by Luke Daniels

Standard Military Sci-Fi

Several years ago I was exposed to Audible and began to realize that Zombies and Military novels had almost taken over the Science Fiction genre. I then began to sample some of these books. I was pleasantly surprised to find some excellent Military Science Fiction books. I am especially fond of Marko Kloos’ Frontline series and Undying Mercenaries by B.V. Larson. This Ember War two-book-set seems to be a typical offering of the sub-genre. For my taste it did not stand out from the crowd as the aforementioned books did.

Luke Daniels brings his top flight talent to this series. I loved him in the Frontlines series, and it is good to hear some of the same voices making appearances here.

EMPIRE OF LIES by Andrew Klavan

Narrated by the author

Hard-Boiled & Funny Political Thriller

Klavan is first and foremost a gag man. Not that this book doesn’t have a strong thrilling plot—it does. Not that the characters aren’t well rounded and undergo significant development as the story unfolds—they do. Not that this novel doesn’t have a strong moral message that threads in and out the whole thing—it most certainly does. No, Andrew Klavan is a fine storyteller who populates this well-plotted novel with realistic characters who struggle with their own depravity…but if there is a possible joke in there somewhere, he will find it. This is a funny book; funny in the way that hard-boiled noir crime novels are funny: If you know the formula you will find it amusing when you encounter it.

I first heard of Andrew Klavan by listening to his often hilarious political punditry. I decided to listen to Empire of Lies when facing the Klavanless weekend. I knew that he could make some sense of this broken politically correct world, and I was right.  

Andrew Klavan the narrator is superb at emphasizing the sarcastic moments. He get all the author’s jokes. One of the characters, Patrick Peresal, is a great caricature of William Shatner and Klavan has his rhythmic manner of speech down pat. This made me laugh out loud several times; to the point that I had to explain what was so funny to my wife lest she think me crazy. My only criticism is that all the female voices come across as nasally and petulant, maybe that is how they were written but there is a limit to how much nasal intonation one finds pleasant; this is too much.  

ARTEMIS by Andy Weir

Narrated by Rosario Dawson

Unlikable Character / Implausible Story

I loved The Martian and was excited to listen his next book. The Martian was full of altruistic characters and noble efforts to survive in the most challenging of environments. Artemis is a portion of a petulant twenty-six year old child used to defying all authority with impunity. I struggle to express how much this novel grated on me. Now I like a good crime drama and can even appreciate some of the motivations of the crooks in some novels but this character, Jaz, was always a bit too smug about her career outside the law. She has a conscience but never listens to it. The crisis moment of the book is wholy contrived and brought on by the character’s bad decisions (She tries to destroy the oxygen generation equipment her moon city, for money, and almost kills the entire population). On the whole this is an unsatisfying story concerning characters I just could not bring myself to like.

Rosarion Dawson has a fine voice but delivers this book in a fashion I would call a “straight read.” To be fair she is always easy to understand. I would have enjoyed her performance more had she provided some more emotion to the life of the defiant criminal Jaz.

PARADOX BOUND by Peter Clines

Narrated by Ray Porter

Fun as Only Time Travel Can Be

I am always on the lookout for new time travel stories. It is rare that one manages to come up with a fresh take on the subject. In this book the characters travel through “history,” American history, exclusively. The reasons for this are bizarre but fully justifiable within the confines of the scenario established. This book has great characters, a solid plot, terrifying bad guys, and a satisfying ending. There is something very attractive about slipping into the past driving an American car. So, yes this is fantasy time travel (not having a temporal device). and, since it does not allow the past to be changed, this is “Nahin approved” according to the ideas put forth by science author Paul J. Nahin in his great book “Time Machines.”

Ray Porter is fantastic reading this book. He delivers a fine performance. I especially likes his voicings for “the Faceless Men.”

POINTS OF IMPACT by Marko Kloos

Narrated by Luke Daniels

Starting to Go Out with a Whimper

Book Six of the Frontlines series.

This may not be the end of the series but it seems to be coughing up blood. Gone are the interesting character interactions. Gone are the laugh-out-loud insults from Sgt. Fallon. In fact, the sense of humor is noticeably missing. It seems that as humanity’s situation grown more dire that the tone of the series has, correspondingly, become serious; serious as a heart attack. I think Kloos has lost his way. I think he may have forgotten just what made the series so great to begin with: character driven action and character driven humor. I hope this is not the last episode in the series. I would hate to think of it fading away. Kloos still has a chance to go out in a blaze of glory. He just need to return to the series’ roots.

That said, it does have a decent pot to drive the story. But my expectations are higher that the typical Military Sci-Fi fare. Frontlines has been much more entertaining. This fan frankly does not care if the story folds up into a nice neat package, I want to see the characters kicking butt and taking names all the while having a sardonic smirk on their faces.

Luke Daniels is great here nut he was not given the material to really stretch his legs with this one.