Enjoyable Space Adventure

It is only with the arrival of the second book in this series, the Bayern Agenda, read by a different and better narrator, that I returned to this first book, having been driven away by the narration. I’m sorry but it isn’t well read. Weird and inconsistent accents, rather dull; even the name of the planet is pronounced inconsistently. Hopefully the audiobook will be reissued at some future date with a different narrator.

So, that’s got the bad stuff out of the way. This is a good old style space adventure. Opening with a scene of almost Star Wars proportions but leading to sleuthing and espionage. There is a good dollop of humour, maybe a little too much, some of it falls a little flat. But there is emotion too; family reunion and heartache.

It’s a pity about the current narration but perseverance will be rewarded.

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not too bad

Story lacks courage but the writing is good. The narrator couldn't remember his accents from one dialogue to another.. it might have been easier to just keep it all in one note.

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Loved the premise

Great story that hit some high notes. Unfortunately I got pulled out of the story a little by some shaky English and Irish accents. Well read in all other aspects.

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3 people found this helpful

It was fine

The story was fine, but not exceptional. The narration was odd - what the hell kind of accent were the Caledonian's supposed to have?

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A good story lurking behind the narration

The story pulls you along, and the mixture of adventure, spycraft and family drama kept me intrigued. I wasn't in any serious doubt of the ending, and found some of the beats and turns of phrase predictable, but I always wanted to know what was going to happen next. Definitely recommend.

The narration, on the other hand, kept me going out of a sort of morbid fascination. The reader's normal voice was a bit flat, but perfectly listenable. The accents for the characters wandered all over the place, occasionally within the same sentence. It was off-putting at first, and there were some real clangers along the way, but after a few hours, my brain adjusted, and I stopped trying to think of them as real accents, and more like 'the accent the reader is doing for this character'. It was occasionally painful, but I really wanted to know what was going to happen, so I persevered. Just be prepared for it!

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Ireland =/= Scotland

I tried to enjoy this, but couldn't get past the terrible Scottish(?) accent the narrator put on. Scottish place names, an ancient title for the country and... Irish accents.

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Great book

I brought this on a whim, and I'm very glad I did. On the whole, it's a strong debut novel with a great premise, as well as enough espionage and dry humour to keep it from becoming just another sci-fi novel.

Initially, the narrator really annoyed me, as I found him quite flat. As I got more into the characters and the story, I was able to put that irritation behind me and really enjoy the book, but (and I'll offer a little unsolicited advice here) I would love for him to practice his accents before the next book in the series, as they were a bit hit or miss. By the end of the book, though, I found the performance had improved.

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Enjoyed to end

For me slow start, got better and better. Ended up listening last few hours in a day.

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Dictionary

Some pronunciation way off . This detracts from the text . Still with a read

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