A really good SciFi book!

Any additional comments?

I didn't know what to expect when I first started listening to this audio book. It started out slow and I thought I knew where this was heading, but the author surprised me. I was not expecting certain things in the story and she had me guessing until the end. The author had done her research since a lot of things were explained in why they happened which sounded realistic to me.

I loved the narrator. He gave the story something more which made you want to sit and listen until the end. The narrator uses sound effects, such as, mobile ringing, slamming of a door, a baby crying, building falling down, group of people screaming, people chatting. He also uses music which gives the book suspense. I would be defiantly listen to this author again, he was that good!

My problem with this book is that it was very Americanized. It felt like independence day where they are the heroes. This book felt the same. The heroes or strong characters in this book are women (which I have nothing against and there are men but I felt that they were not as strong in character as the women) but when it involves the world I expected to see people from different nationality, different gender and age group. I also don't understand why Rosia was special since others went through the same things as she did. I expected others to have similar abilities and it was a group effort in what they did towards the end. I thought she was the tool to get to where ever they needed to get to. Yet America made her into a hero and so did some other people. They called her strong (in character) when others are also strong and fought like she did. I found this hard to believe and for me it brought the book down. I would still recommend the book since I thought it was well written.
There is violence in this book but it is not graphic.

I was voluntarily provided this review copy audio book at no charge by the author, publisher, and/or narrator.

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" Humans make us laugh."

What did you like best about Earth's Ultimate Conflict: A Gray Guardians Series? What did you like least?

Undoubtedly, the best part of Earth's Ultimate Conflict was the production, the continuous sound track which accompanied the narration. Mostly providing a quiet background of appropriate soundscape or gentle music, it gave a greater depth to the overall picture being woven. This did occasionally become irritating but was mostly unobtrusive. The exception was when the aliens were 'speaking': a clever echo device certainly made them sound other worldly but at the expense of making it difficult to determine what was being said.This felt far more like a book produced for radio listening rather than a continuous story. As it progressed, it seemed to be divided into largish bite sized pieces, each of which had to contain a new twist or excitement and end with a hook to carry through to the next part - very reminiscent of old mid twentieth century radio serials like, Dick Barton, Special Agent, so, for this listener, there was a definite loss of continuity in the need to pack something special, new or thrilling into rack individual part. The gaps between the chapters, too, were sometimes disconcertingly long.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

It came about one and a half hours too late. There is a point where lots of uplifting music is played and patriotic speeches are given which seemed to herald the ending of the book. And it felt right - still unresolved in part but nevertheless quite satisfying as well as leaving the potential for a continuation book should the reader want to know more. But, after a long pause, the story started up again but really added little to the book in terms of completion.

Have you listened to any of Peter Jude Ricciardi’s other performances? How does this one compare?

This is the first narration by Peter Jude Ricciardi that I have heard and I will now be looking out for further books by him.. His reading voice is warm, mellow, well modulated, clear and his range of individual character voices is distinctive and wide ranging. He particularly impressed me with the naturalism of the conversations. His performance was strong enough to easily hold it's own against the background distractions. Excellent.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

No

Any additional comments?

The story is unusual, not the standard alien invasion at all. As Earth's ecosystem seems to be slowly tearing itself apart with natural disasters increasing and a strange new plague, one of allergic reaction to the environment, sweeping across the world, swarms of alien craft are increasingly seen in the skies and contact is made with the U.S.President (Barbara) Unger. The listener is led into the growing awareness of the universal problem by following the interconnected lives of several couples. This is extremely well done, the characters given a reality which calls for great empathy and really draws us into the ongoing story.Nice to see the appearance of Men in Black, too. But, given the world wide nature of the problems, the reader could be forgiven in thinking that nowhere else exists outside of America.and, in the latter part, there is more Ra Ra for our wonderful culture talk than actioñ.I was gifted my copy of Earth's Ultimate Conflict by the rights holder via Audiobook Boom. My thanks for that. It was a very easy and enjoyable listen with some nicely innovative ideas, a superb narrator and overall production. But somewhere in the journey it lost it's way, failing to live up to the brilliant promise of the earlier chapters. Worth a listen, if only for the original soundtrack and Mr.Ricciardi's conversations. But do it in bite sized pieces, a chapter a day, not in one continuous sitting.

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An interesting story of alien meddling on earth.

The narration by Peter Jude Ricciardi is solid and Kathy Porter’s writing is well done. The story is well paced and the book kept me interested for the whole duration, being memorable enough to keep track of what is going on between listening sessions. The characters seem well done and have personal motivations that are very human (for the human characters anyway). At twelve hours long it is a good length able to keep you entertained for many a commute to work.

The thing that makes this book stand out from the crowd is the sound effects and background ambience, they add to the experience by making it a more immersive experience. The effects on the alien voices, and internal thoughts etc help make it clear what is going on and add to how alien the aliens seem. All the sound effects are well used and never overwhelm things. More audiobooks should be enhanced with sound effects,

There are only two little things that I think hold the book back a bit. The first is I feel you get to find out things that characters do not know a little too quickly, things could have been kept more of a mystery for longer but this is only a small thing despite that the book does throw in a few surprises I did not see coming. The second is I feel the characters take all the strange things going on a little too well but they are the main characters so this is more than forgivable

I would be happy to listen to another book narrated by Peter Jude Ricciardi or written by Kathy Porter.

All and all it is an interesting book which was an enjoyable experience to listen too. This is well worth a listen.



“I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.”

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