What do you think?
Rate this book
Galactic Empire Wars #1
Destruction
From the author of The Slaver Wars comes a new military science fiction series.
To the Kleese, the Earth is nothing more than a planet full of conscripts to fight in their numerous wars of aggression. The Kleese are one of three large Galactic Empires that control the majority of the galaxy. To them, Earth is an extremely dangerous planet due to the aggressiveness of the humanoid species that inhabits it. The humans that inhabit Earth will make excellent conscripts, but something must be done to prevent them from expanding out into the galaxy. To the Kleese the solution is simple, take the conscripts they need and then destroy the planet.
Mason Randle controls the Smithfield Mining Corporation. His main headquarters is inside the asteroid Vesta. The Kleese know nothing about what resides inside of the asteroid and the role it will play in saving the human race.
Lieutenant Wade Nelson is a marine taken as a conscript by the Kleese. His primary goal is to find a way back to Earth. In the meantime, he will fight in the wars the Kleese are involved in until he knows enough to take the fight to the Kleese themselves. He will bid his time in the hope that someday he will find a way back home for himself and his marines.
To the Kleese, the Earth is nothing more than a planet full of conscripts to fight in their numerous wars of aggression. The Kleese are one of three large Galactic Empires that control the majority of the galaxy. To them, Earth is an extremely dangerous planet due to the aggressiveness of the humanoid species that inhabits it. The humans that inhabit Earth will make excellent conscripts, but something must be done to prevent them from expanding out into the galaxy. To the Kleese the solution is simple, take the conscripts they need and then destroy the planet.
Mason Randle controls the Smithfield Mining Corporation. His main headquarters is inside the asteroid Vesta. The Kleese know nothing about what resides inside of the asteroid and the role it will play in saving the human race.
Lieutenant Wade Nelson is a marine taken as a conscript by the Kleese. His primary goal is to find a way back to Earth. In the meantime, he will fight in the wars the Kleese are involved in until he knows enough to take the fight to the Kleese themselves. He will bid his time in the hope that someday he will find a way back home for himself and his marines.
324 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 9, 2014
263 people are currently reading
610 people want to read
About the author
Raymond L. Weil
91 books339 followersUSA Today Best Selling Author
I live in Clinton Oklahoma with my wife of 40 years and our cat. I attended college at SWOSU in Weatherford Oklahoma, majoring in Math with minors in Creative Writing and History.
My hobbies include watching soccer, reading, camping, and of course writing. I coached youth soccer for twelve years before moving on and becoming a high school soccer coach for thirteen more. I also enjoy playing with my five grandchildren. I have a very vivid imagination, which sometimes worries my friends. They never know what I am going to say or what I am going to do.
I am an avid reader and have a science fiction / fantasy collection of over two thousand paperbacks. The space program has always fascinated me and I've followed it since its inception. When I was a teenager, I wanted to be an astronaut. Now, I just write about it.
I live in Clinton Oklahoma with my wife of 40 years and our cat. I attended college at SWOSU in Weatherford Oklahoma, majoring in Math with minors in Creative Writing and History.
My hobbies include watching soccer, reading, camping, and of course writing. I coached youth soccer for twelve years before moving on and becoming a high school soccer coach for thirteen more. I also enjoy playing with my five grandchildren. I have a very vivid imagination, which sometimes worries my friends. They never know what I am going to say or what I am going to do.
I am an avid reader and have a science fiction / fantasy collection of over two thousand paperbacks. The space program has always fascinated me and I've followed it since its inception. When I was a teenager, I wanted to be an astronaut. Now, I just write about it.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
June 17, 2019
Wow.
I enjoy scifi, aliens and technology, but this book is so poorly written and planned out, that I could not finish it. The concept is good, very interesting if executed in an intelligent way, but this author seems to be turning out sub-par material on a quarterly basis.
I thought I would give him a chance given his reviews on here and Amazon, but this was a mistake. I will not be buying his books again.
I enjoy scifi, aliens and technology, but this book is so poorly written and planned out, that I could not finish it. The concept is good, very interesting if executed in an intelligent way, but this author seems to be turning out sub-par material on a quarterly basis.
I thought I would give him a chance given his reviews on here and Amazon, but this was a mistake. I will not be buying his books again.
May 25, 2015
I am so glad that I didn't pay for this book.
I listened to the first 15 minutes of the audio and quit. The dialogue is stilted, the writing is choppy, the logic is slack, and the sexism is rampant.
Points that jumped out already: exposition much? What ever happened to "show, don't tell"? Why is the second in charge so surprised that the CEO managed to accomplish what he'd been off to do (namely arrange delivery contracts)? Why does the CEO not know what the stock levels are on the minerals he just arranged contracts to sell? And why did he have to list to his second in charge what those minerals were? Does the second in charge really not know what they are mining?
First 3 characters introduced were male, all in high-powered positions, none given even a slight physical description.
4th character is female. Surprise! She's the secretary. And she's blonde. And has stunning blue eyes. And is very attractive. And has "more than ample" breasts. And a single line in the conversation. It may not be conscious intent on the part of the author, but what this comes across as is a not-subtle statement about the importance of a woman's looks as opposed to a man's competence.
Thanks but no thanks. Done here, moving on to a different book.
I listened to the first 15 minutes of the audio and quit. The dialogue is stilted, the writing is choppy, the logic is slack, and the sexism is rampant.
Points that jumped out already: exposition much? What ever happened to "show, don't tell"? Why is the second in charge so surprised that the CEO managed to accomplish what he'd been off to do (namely arrange delivery contracts)? Why does the CEO not know what the stock levels are on the minerals he just arranged contracts to sell? And why did he have to list to his second in charge what those minerals were? Does the second in charge really not know what they are mining?
First 3 characters introduced were male, all in high-powered positions, none given even a slight physical description.
4th character is female. Surprise! She's the secretary. And she's blonde. And has stunning blue eyes. And is very attractive. And has "more than ample" breasts. And a single line in the conversation. It may not be conscious intent on the part of the author, but what this comes across as is a not-subtle statement about the importance of a woman's looks as opposed to a man's competence.
Thanks but no thanks. Done here, moving on to a different book.
December 19, 2017
Couldn't finish it. May have been my mood, so I'm not giving a 1 star.
December 22, 2017
I loved this novel! A great beginning to a fantastic military space opera sage pitting humans and their alien friends they can get to join their Alliance, vs the meanest, nastiest types of aliens I've come across in a long time, a race that feels all other races in the galaxy are vermin who deserve to be conquered and destroyed, or serve as their slaves, wearing "obedience collars" around their necks that explode if they don't immediately do or say what is demanded of them. Needless to say, their empire is huge, the Alliance is tiny, so can it survive? The beginning of a saga that will tell us, I'm sure. I enjoyed the hell out of it. Lots of action. Definitely recommended!
December 29, 2016
Spoilers! An ok novel, but no more than that. The story idea is interesting enough but the writing is very unexciting and workmanlike, and also very predictable. Characters are never properly fleshed out, the alien races never really described in sufficient detail. Lots of events happen that seem a little too easy and convenient (inventing magic weapons and building ships and buildings in a matter of weeks). There are no villains other than the alien Kleese race, who aren't properly developed anyway. A better author would have put in more twists and turns, maybe a human traitor, some more chapters about survival on Earth, a lot more about the destruction of the planet. It all seems to fall very neatly into place for the humans after the Earth is destroyed very early on. The author has a very fast work rate in writing books but I wish he would spend more time on editing and finessing their work as there are some good ideas here that would benefit from being more developed.
December 1, 2016
I like to read several different ways. Of most interest, standalone books that approach science fiction in different ways. These are hard to find. In the interim I enjoy reading authors that are interesting and fun to read. Those that write series can provide entertainment for long periods of time and are valuable. This author is just such a writer and these first three books of the series were interesting to read. They're not great works of art but lots of fun.
July 17, 2014
I've read worse
I've read worse
Plot is okay but too much is covered without enough detail. Magic weapons get built in weeks, political situation is ignored as is half the world. This should be three books with more character development.
I've read worse
Plot is okay but too much is covered without enough detail. Magic weapons get built in weeks, political situation is ignored as is half the world. This should be three books with more character development.
October 20, 2015
I was in the mood for a space opera adventure and had this book out on my kindle. It took me a while to get to read it but I am glad I did. It was an enjoyable book with an interesting premise. I am certainly planning on getting the next book in this series.
November 1, 2016
Excellent book - I've played a lot of grand strategy games and mmo's like eve and this is awesome. the narrator of the audio book could be a little better- but the book is so good it doesnt matter
February 18, 2017
In the not too distant future, we have started colonies on the moon and Mars, and converted a huge asteroid to a huge base. Good for Earthens, right? Yes, it is, because an alien race abducts about 60,000 military personnel from Earth and launches a planet-killer bomb into the Earth's mantle.
As Earth begins it's descent into uninhabitability, the leaders of the colonies begin working out how to save as many people as possible. Considering billions of people were killed in the first few days after the attack, it is imperative to save as many as possible. Meanwhile, what of the kidnapped military personnel?
I thought I had read the ultimate downer in The Last Policeman. Destruction, though, surpasses those feelings from Policeman. Humans will survive here, but the planet is laid waste. Somehow, I am filled with more foreboding and anguish in Destruction.
The book is well written, the characters well fleshed out, and the story is complete. Obviously, there is an overarching story to continue into further books (it's a #1, after all), but the book is fully contained. I love the universe set up here, and I look forward to reading the next segment.
As Earth begins it's descent into uninhabitability, the leaders of the colonies begin working out how to save as many people as possible. Considering billions of people were killed in the first few days after the attack, it is imperative to save as many as possible. Meanwhile, what of the kidnapped military personnel?
I thought I had read the ultimate downer in The Last Policeman. Destruction, though, surpasses those feelings from Policeman. Humans will survive here, but the planet is laid waste. Somehow, I am filled with more foreboding and anguish in Destruction.
The book is well written, the characters well fleshed out, and the story is complete. Obviously, there is an overarching story to continue into further books (it's a #1, after all), but the book is fully contained. I love the universe set up here, and I look forward to reading the next segment.
September 20, 2017
I like science fiction with a futuristic military bent, especially if it involves future tech that I am able to wrap my head around conceptually and the author delivers on this front. The battles between the good guys and the bad guys were good and not the over-the-top detail prevalent in many sci-fi stories and the action appeared to be just right.
There are a few typos here and there in the Kindle version that are annoying and make you stop, but it doesn’t bring down the series as this was one of those books after finishing it I went to the Kindle store to get the next book in the series.
I originally picked this up for just 99 cents during a Kindle promotion vs. its normal price of $2.99: if you like military-based science fiction, I would recommend this one as you will get a heck of a lot more in entertainment value than your $2.99 purchase price.
There are a few typos here and there in the Kindle version that are annoying and make you stop, but it doesn’t bring down the series as this was one of those books after finishing it I went to the Kindle store to get the next book in the series.
I originally picked this up for just 99 cents during a Kindle promotion vs. its normal price of $2.99: if you like military-based science fiction, I would recommend this one as you will get a heck of a lot more in entertainment value than your $2.99 purchase price.
February 22, 2019
Couldn't finish. A good idea that was poorly executed as far writing. He does this thing that Stephen King mentioned in book "On Writing" where the dialogue already explains the emotion of the character and he adds to it in the said part. For example. "Aggghhh", screamed Dory with fear. Fear etc is already implied in the dialogue and context and it really threw me out of the story.
August 29, 2018
I really wish i could give less than one star for this book! I do not understand how it has a rating of 3,94...
The story idea is at least interesting but the implementation is terrible and lazy...
Additionally zur narrator makes it only worse of you should decide to try the audiobook
The story idea is at least interesting but the implementation is terrible and lazy...
Additionally zur narrator makes it only worse of you should decide to try the audiobook
October 20, 2021
Outstanding
If you wanted a book that kept your attention, then is the book you want to read. Outstanding story line, with characters that you will follow throughout the book and you will love them. A must read.
If you wanted a book that kept your attention, then is the book you want to read. Outstanding story line, with characters that you will follow throughout the book and you will love them. A must read.
June 11, 2025
WHAT A BOOK
This is a sure fire winner in every respect! Believable characters set within a fast paced galactic framework that does not slow down in ant way! Cannot wait for the next book to appear?
This is a sure fire winner in every respect! Believable characters set within a fast paced galactic framework that does not slow down in ant way! Cannot wait for the next book to appear?
January 5, 2017
After a rather lengthy start, the story really takes off. Very good, if you hang in to the middle of the book.
May 23, 2017
This book was great. I don't know why there haven't been many reviews or ratings of the book. It is definitely worth reading.
June 18, 2017
Pretty good
Okay one major question? Gravity. Where the heck did the gravity, particularly on the asteroids come from? Otherwise this is a decent read.
Okay one major question? Gravity. Where the heck did the gravity, particularly on the asteroids come from? Otherwise this is a decent read.
February 17, 2019
Great Story
Fantastic storyline shame the big blue marble took such a whacking but am sure it will be blue again lol. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series
Fantastic storyline shame the big blue marble took such a whacking but am sure it will be blue again lol. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series
October 13, 2015
decent space opera, horrible editing
This is a decent space opera. The storyline is pretty good, and the character development is also good. However, the copyediting is among the worst I've seen. When I first started reading it, I wrote down every error that I encountered, but there were so many that I had to change my methods. I started writing down trends, instead. Below are a few examples.
The author uses the terms 'race' and 'species' interchangeably. A race is a subgroup of humans, while a species is a defined subgroup of all living things. For example, humans are a species; Asians are a race. The arachnid aliens in the story are a species, not a race as the author suggests. The author incorrectly capitalizes the word 'humans' throughout the book, which contains many other capitalization errors. He has great difficulty with possessive nouns and pronouns. For example, referring to a character named Williams, he will write "Captain William's ship" instead of "Captain Williams' ship." The same is true for any other character whose last name ends with an 's' (e.g. Stevens). The book contains numerous errors in clause structure that made me do a double-take, e.g. "It stood nearly eight feet tall and had four arms standing on two legs." Really? Four arms standing on two legs? Is there no torso? The author erroneously uses the word 'that' instead of the word 'who' when referring to people throughout the book.He used the verb 'contaminates' in place of the noun 'contaminants'. In one sentence he referred to an 'inn table' (end table), which had me scratching my head for a while. This is just a small sample of the dozens of grammatical errors throughout this book, each of which made me pause and think, thus disrupting the flow of the story.
The story also contains one glaring contradiction one minor science error. In general, the story is quite consistent, and the science is fairly solid, with most of it being easily believable.
This is a decent space opera. The storyline is pretty good, and the character development is also good. However, the copyediting is among the worst I've seen. When I first started reading it, I wrote down every error that I encountered, but there were so many that I had to change my methods. I started writing down trends, instead. Below are a few examples.
The author uses the terms 'race' and 'species' interchangeably. A race is a subgroup of humans, while a species is a defined subgroup of all living things. For example, humans are a species; Asians are a race. The arachnid aliens in the story are a species, not a race as the author suggests. The author incorrectly capitalizes the word 'humans' throughout the book, which contains many other capitalization errors. He has great difficulty with possessive nouns and pronouns. For example, referring to a character named Williams, he will write "Captain William's ship" instead of "Captain Williams' ship." The same is true for any other character whose last name ends with an 's' (e.g. Stevens). The book contains numerous errors in clause structure that made me do a double-take, e.g. "It stood nearly eight feet tall and had four arms standing on two legs." Really? Four arms standing on two legs? Is there no torso? The author erroneously uses the word 'that' instead of the word 'who' when referring to people throughout the book.He used the verb 'contaminates' in place of the noun 'contaminants'. In one sentence he referred to an 'inn table' (end table), which had me scratching my head for a while. This is just a small sample of the dozens of grammatical errors throughout this book, each of which made me pause and think, thus disrupting the flow of the story.
The story also contains one glaring contradiction one minor science error. In general, the story is quite consistent, and the science is fairly solid, with most of it being easily believable.
May 12, 2019
Great book. Enough said.
April 21, 2014
Raymond L. Weil is another one of my favorite authors. This is the first book in what appears to be a new series from Mr Weil. I would say that this book is indeed my cup of tea. It pretty much starts of with a bang. Actually the start is almost a wee bit to apocalyptic, even depressing, but the rest of the book makes up for it.
For most of the book we get to follow two groups of humans. The survivors back in the solar system trying to make sure that the human race does not become extinct and the abducted humans that are forced to fight for the aliens and that are trying to get back home.
This is good science fiction. The science is quite well done. Sure, there have to be some fictional parts as well of course but on the whole it is quite well done and reasonably believable. The characters are enjoyable to follow and the story as a whole have a good pace and is generally fun to read.
The book have some similarities to The Human Chronicles series although take that very lightly. This book is much more realistic, do not focus so much on a single person and the humans are not the supermen that they are portrayed to be in The Human Chronicles books.
I am trying not to put too much spoilers in this review but the humans do gain some non-human friends who will play an important role in helping the humans explain to the Kleese that they might actually have made a mistake of rather epic proportions.
I really hope that there will be a second book in this series. The stage is indeed well set for one.
For most of the book we get to follow two groups of humans. The survivors back in the solar system trying to make sure that the human race does not become extinct and the abducted humans that are forced to fight for the aliens and that are trying to get back home.
This is good science fiction. The science is quite well done. Sure, there have to be some fictional parts as well of course but on the whole it is quite well done and reasonably believable. The characters are enjoyable to follow and the story as a whole have a good pace and is generally fun to read.
The book have some similarities to The Human Chronicles series although take that very lightly. This book is much more realistic, do not focus so much on a single person and the humans are not the supermen that they are portrayed to be in The Human Chronicles books.
I am trying not to put too much spoilers in this review but the humans do gain some non-human friends who will play an important role in helping the humans explain to the Kleese that they might actually have made a mistake of rather epic proportions.
I really hope that there will be a second book in this series. The stage is indeed well set for one.
January 25, 2016
My rating system:
1 star= a book I just could not finish, either poor writing, or just stupid plot, characters, poor science, whatever.
2 stars = I finished it, then wondered why.
3 stars, = average, could have been better, could have been worse.
4 Stars = damned good.
5 stars is a masterpiece.
This one gets 3, possibly should be a little less. Should I go fractional, then 2.75.
Pros: Good story line, though a bit of rehash in using Earth soldiers as mercenaries. Fast past, though maybe a little too fast in some areas. A good page turner, or should we say page slider for tablets?
Cons, a bit too fast paced in the story line, and the writing could be better. For example:“I believe you’re right. It may only be our distant ancestors that get to return to Earth someday. I don’t believe it’ll happen in our lifetimes.”. Hard to get ancestors to do something in the future. The word he was looking for is "decedents".
The story also tends to be centered on Americans, with little mention of other countries in space in 100+ years.
Military strategy is also poor. In one case the Earth conscript ground forces are in danger of being overrun. The masters control space, and the soldiers are being overrun on the ground, what ever happened to the concept of close air support?
I plan on continuing with the series, hoping that the writing improves a little. A bit more science in a science fiction would be nice too.
1 star= a book I just could not finish, either poor writing, or just stupid plot, characters, poor science, whatever.
2 stars = I finished it, then wondered why.
3 stars, = average, could have been better, could have been worse.
4 Stars = damned good.
5 stars is a masterpiece.
This one gets 3, possibly should be a little less. Should I go fractional, then 2.75.
Pros: Good story line, though a bit of rehash in using Earth soldiers as mercenaries. Fast past, though maybe a little too fast in some areas. A good page turner, or should we say page slider for tablets?
Cons, a bit too fast paced in the story line, and the writing could be better. For example:“I believe you’re right. It may only be our distant ancestors that get to return to Earth someday. I don’t believe it’ll happen in our lifetimes.”. Hard to get ancestors to do something in the future. The word he was looking for is "decedents".
The story also tends to be centered on Americans, with little mention of other countries in space in 100+ years.
Military strategy is also poor. In one case the Earth conscript ground forces are in danger of being overrun. The masters control space, and the soldiers are being overrun on the ground, what ever happened to the concept of close air support?
I plan on continuing with the series, hoping that the writing improves a little. A bit more science in a science fiction would be nice too.
April 13, 2016
I got the Audible version of this book. It's about 6 hours long...it felt more like 6 days.
The idea here is one we've seen before...done better. The reader/narrator isn't horrible (that is he didn't actually drive me away from the listen or make my ears bleed). The book however is rather, poorly written. The narration is stiff and frustrating. The story itself while having possibilities is rife with logic holes, repetition and annoyingly faulty details Marine squads are not led by a lieutenant and 2 corporals (and not a sergeant in sight).
Look, I like...even love a good space opera. For now at least it's what I'm looking for. Lot's of futuristic combat, daring do and no heavy philosophical baggage (I have some nonfiction going for that). This book uses about every cliche' we've ever seen in space opera . The ship has Rail Guns, Plasma Guns, Particle Beams, antimatter missiles, ad infinitum. After going on about how battle is usually planet side and not ship to ship...they have a ship to ship battle.
Okay so I don't mind it when ideas and plot points are used over. They need however to be used well. I am so disappointed in this book I almost went to a 1 but as I said it's got a good idea and not completely bad. At this point I don't plan to follow the series.
The idea here is one we've seen before...done better. The reader/narrator isn't horrible (that is he didn't actually drive me away from the listen or make my ears bleed). The book however is rather, poorly written. The narration is stiff and frustrating. The story itself while having possibilities is rife with logic holes, repetition and annoyingly faulty details Marine squads are not led by a lieutenant and 2 corporals (and not a sergeant in sight).
Look, I like...even love a good space opera. For now at least it's what I'm looking for. Lot's of futuristic combat, daring do and no heavy philosophical baggage (I have some nonfiction going for that). This book uses about every cliche' we've ever seen in space opera . The ship has Rail Guns, Plasma Guns, Particle Beams, antimatter missiles, ad infinitum. After going on about how battle is usually planet side and not ship to ship...they have a ship to ship battle.
Okay so I don't mind it when ideas and plot points are used over. They need however to be used well. I am so disappointed in this book I almost went to a 1 but as I said it's got a good idea and not completely bad. At this point I don't plan to follow the series.
June 24, 2016
I rarely fail to finish a book, and I'm sad to say this is one of those. As a Sci fi fan I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately the narrator was mediocre, with little variation in voices, had pitiful sounding female voices, and wasn't very emotive. But that alone I could handle. What I ended up not being able to handle are the holes in the story (things were not developed and just glossed over entirely), the sexism (female characters described sexual but not males at all), the weak female characters (no leading figures were female), and the juvenile writing (no depth with awkward moments). I'm also big on character development, and this author did little of that. This is not a character driven story so much as an empty 'b' action movie. I'm quite surprised it has a rating as high as it does, and can only wonder in amazement at the low standard of those who gave it a 5-star rating.
September 2, 2015
Loved this book! Never really read books and am out of good tv shows to watch so been reading tons of sci-fi and the top 25 books like hyperion , fire upon deep , dune ect ect , are good but i like alien invasion books , especially first contact alien books like vaughn hepners lost starship series and dietmar wehr's synchronicity wars AND MY ALL TIME FAVORITE oLD MANS WAR!!
I find the older classics of the alien genre from the 70's too late 90's technology too oudated and find sci-fi writers imaginations are better post internet and post information age but the drawback is also to do with the internet age cause so many sci-fi space opera books are being released so its hard to find good ones.
This story has some unbelievable and unlikely aspects though that is laughable in some parts but its still very entertaining and my cup of tea. I would have gave it a 5 if the author made the Kivean back story more believable but other then that i highly reccomend this.
I find the older classics of the alien genre from the 70's too late 90's technology too oudated and find sci-fi writers imaginations are better post internet and post information age but the drawback is also to do with the internet age cause so many sci-fi space opera books are being released so its hard to find good ones.
This story has some unbelievable and unlikely aspects though that is laughable in some parts but its still very entertaining and my cup of tea. I would have gave it a 5 if the author made the Kivean back story more believable but other then that i highly reccomend this.
July 12, 2019
Okay, my problem was not the book itself.
It was the audiobook.
It was horrible. I mean, David Rheinstrom is the worst narrator I had ever heard. There were no change in tone, accent, voice, tempo, anything. He was literally reading it with an almost manic speed, as if he wanted to finish the assignment as fast as he could. It sounded the same if the person was a man, a woman, a child or the narrator.
After hearing Simon Vance, Kate Reading, Michael Kramer, Jonathan Cecil; this was honestly pure garbage.
Okay, after this: what do I think about the book?
Honestly, it was kind of meh. Nothing to call home about it. The same thematic of human vs aliens, the same pages of technobabble and infodump and a little of interest when they go out of the empire, but nothing that I could say stayed with me.
Maybe if it wasn't such a bad audiobook, it would have been enjoyable, but it was a chore. A simple chore.
It was the audiobook.
It was horrible. I mean, David Rheinstrom is the worst narrator I had ever heard. There were no change in tone, accent, voice, tempo, anything. He was literally reading it with an almost manic speed, as if he wanted to finish the assignment as fast as he could. It sounded the same if the person was a man, a woman, a child or the narrator.
After hearing Simon Vance, Kate Reading, Michael Kramer, Jonathan Cecil; this was honestly pure garbage.
Okay, after this: what do I think about the book?
Honestly, it was kind of meh. Nothing to call home about it. The same thematic of human vs aliens, the same pages of technobabble and infodump and a little of interest when they go out of the empire, but nothing that I could say stayed with me.
Maybe if it wasn't such a bad audiobook, it would have been enjoyable, but it was a chore. A simple chore.
February 10, 2017
Slow start but I don't see the issues others moan about. Not a classic but a good developing story that's makes a good read. Looking forward to book 2
July 30, 2014
Well, I bought this book by accident but it was such a small amount I decided to keep it and read it. Good decision on my part. Interesting story and plot. Great detail on rebuilding civilization.
Here is what I thought it lacked:
Not enough character development. Especially with the evil aliens. I thought a lot more could have been done with the Kleese and their motives, the conscripts and so forth.
Although not as bad as some of the Kindle titles I've read, this one would have benefited from some professional editing. The gaffs weren't horrific, just distracting enough to bounce me out of the story.
That said, I really did enjoy the story a lot and hope to see another volume in what has to be a series.
Here is what I thought it lacked:
Not enough character development. Especially with the evil aliens. I thought a lot more could have been done with the Kleese and their motives, the conscripts and so forth.
Although not as bad as some of the Kindle titles I've read, this one would have benefited from some professional editing. The gaffs weren't horrific, just distracting enough to bounce me out of the story.
That said, I really did enjoy the story a lot and hope to see another volume in what has to be a series.
August 28, 2015
Raymond L. Weil can destroy the planet Earth like nobody else! His descriptions of the end of life as we know it seem plausible. The only issue I have is that the psychological damage experienced by the survivors is not dealt with in much detail. People sort of pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and continue trying to survive - which under the circumstances is a great idea but seems a bit emotionally flat.
It's nice to see the human race so highly regarded as being among the most aggressive and dangerous species, by conquering aliens, that our military forces are kidnapped and used to fight galactic wars allowing the all-powerful conquerors to keep their manipulative organs/appendages clean.
I wrote the above a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I did enjoy the book.
It's nice to see the human race so highly regarded as being among the most aggressive and dangerous species, by conquering aliens, that our military forces are kidnapped and used to fight galactic wars allowing the all-powerful conquerors to keep their manipulative organs/appendages clean.
I wrote the above a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I did enjoy the book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews