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Brother Dust: The Resurgence
Dastropan was a lush, vibrant world, its native species of insectoids living peacefully underground. That was before the Solovot Empire arrived. They promised prosperity while secretly drilling to the very core of the world, looking to release the energy that lies within. Brother Dust had spent too long watching as lives were crushed under the heavy boot of the Empire. For years he has waged a one man war against their leader, High Father Sid'el, and the body count was steadily rising. Is Brother Dust the world's savior, or its destroyer? Are the freedom fighters known only as the Resurgence his ally, or just the same old enemy going by a new name?
- GenresFantasy
365 pages, Paperback
Published August 24, 2016
37 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 14, 2017
If you like action-packed science fiction, you can't go wrong with Hall and Beaulieu's novel, Brother Dust: The Resurgence. Brother Dust has an unusual power, but will he use it for the right side? Aliens, evil empires, and planets on the brink of disaster fill the pages of this fast-paced thrilling novel that I strongly recommend.
March 17, 2017
First off, if you can't handle blood and gore, then you probably can't handle this one. It's pretty violent. I mean, it's a book about a rebellion, so duh. But I just wanted to throw that out there for the squeamish.
With that being said, blood and gore aside, I really enjoyed this book. Brother Dust is a complicated guy. I honestly wasn't sure most of the time if he was good or bad. He seems to be kinda in the middle. He has a really cool ability that comes with a price.
The world building in the book was spot on. The authors did a great job of creating a new world but still keeping it familiar enough to wrap my head around. The Solovot Empire and the way they roll was especially interesting to me. The High Father was another complicated character. You hate him, but also pity him.
There were lots of surprises, and you really don't know who's going to live or die. It keeps you on your toes.
Added bonus for me was that this book was pretty clean as far as language and such. I know that's not a big deal for everyone, but I appreciated it.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, and since the ending seemed to leave it open for more, I'm hoping there will be more. I have a lot of questions that need answering.
With that being said, blood and gore aside, I really enjoyed this book. Brother Dust is a complicated guy. I honestly wasn't sure most of the time if he was good or bad. He seems to be kinda in the middle. He has a really cool ability that comes with a price.
The world building in the book was spot on. The authors did a great job of creating a new world but still keeping it familiar enough to wrap my head around. The Solovot Empire and the way they roll was especially interesting to me. The High Father was another complicated character. You hate him, but also pity him.
There were lots of surprises, and you really don't know who's going to live or die. It keeps you on your toes.
Added bonus for me was that this book was pretty clean as far as language and such. I know that's not a big deal for everyone, but I appreciated it.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, and since the ending seemed to leave it open for more, I'm hoping there will be more. I have a lot of questions that need answering.
October 4, 2017
This was entertaining and interesting story. It pulled me in immediately and held my complete attention. It's a fast-paced story that is packed full of action, betrayal and suspense. There is never a dull moment the story is constantly moving.
I judge my books on if they were entertaining, held my attention, had good characters and if the storyline was interesting. Brother Dust filled all those categories. Are there lingering questions? Yes. But not enough to effect my overall enjoyment. I'm not one of those people that pick a story apart because all the science doesn't make complete sense. Hey, come on it's a Sci-Fi Fantasy. Meaning it doesn't always have to make complete sense. It's one of those stories that each time you listen you will come across something you missed before. Just let go and enjoy the story. Even though this book has an ending it leaves it open for future books in the series, so some of those questions may be answered in the future. Hopefully there will be more books in the future. I'm interested in seeing where the story goes from here. If not it was an entertaining and enjoyable story with interesting characters and a satisfying ending.
Brother Dust, Tristain, The Twins, Anissa and The High Father are all great characters. Good, bad and just plain creepy. Brother Dust (Destin) is an unusual and well rounded character. Mysterious, his origin is a closely held secret by just a few, his ability to turn to dust, the myth of him is widespread, just the mention of his name sends fear into everyone, he appears when least expected and is deadly.
Solovants roam the galaxy destroying worlds by sucking them dry to their core leaving them uninhabitable. Brother Dust is on a mission to stop any more worlds from being destroyed.
Scott Berrier did a great job with the narration. Nice voice that easy to listen to for long periods of time. Clearly spoken with a nice even pace. Really good character voices.Male and female. He was able to bring the characters and story to life. He does have a tendency to emphasis certain words occasionally. Seems to be at the end of a sentence, maybe. Still very enjoyable listening to his narration.
This review copy audiobook was given to me at my request and voluntarily provided this review.
I judge my books on if they were entertaining, held my attention, had good characters and if the storyline was interesting. Brother Dust filled all those categories. Are there lingering questions? Yes. But not enough to effect my overall enjoyment. I'm not one of those people that pick a story apart because all the science doesn't make complete sense. Hey, come on it's a Sci-Fi Fantasy. Meaning it doesn't always have to make complete sense. It's one of those stories that each time you listen you will come across something you missed before. Just let go and enjoy the story. Even though this book has an ending it leaves it open for future books in the series, so some of those questions may be answered in the future. Hopefully there will be more books in the future. I'm interested in seeing where the story goes from here. If not it was an entertaining and enjoyable story with interesting characters and a satisfying ending.
Brother Dust, Tristain, The Twins, Anissa and The High Father are all great characters. Good, bad and just plain creepy. Brother Dust (Destin) is an unusual and well rounded character. Mysterious, his origin is a closely held secret by just a few, his ability to turn to dust, the myth of him is widespread, just the mention of his name sends fear into everyone, he appears when least expected and is deadly.
Solovants roam the galaxy destroying worlds by sucking them dry to their core leaving them uninhabitable. Brother Dust is on a mission to stop any more worlds from being destroyed.
Scott Berrier did a great job with the narration. Nice voice that easy to listen to for long periods of time. Clearly spoken with a nice even pace. Really good character voices.Male and female. He was able to bring the characters and story to life. He does have a tendency to emphasis certain words occasionally. Seems to be at the end of a sentence, maybe. Still very enjoyable listening to his narration.
This review copy audiobook was given to me at my request and voluntarily provided this review.
April 17, 2017
Brother Dust by Steven Beaulieu and Aaron Hall
3/5 stars. This was a strong 2.5+ star experience.
Brother Dust is properly classified as "science fantasy". The events in the book take place among a spacefaring society. However, the amount of actual science involved is negligible.
The book details the continuing travels of the Solovat empire. The Solovat home world has become infected with some sort of planet killing virus. This virus consumes a planet's "energy". To save their home planet, the Solovats roam from world to world mining each planet for its "energy".
They drill ever deeper into each planet core gathering planetary energy that is then transmitted to Solovat. Once the core has been breached, the planet dies and any remaining energy is sucked off to the Solovat home world. Also, a fair amount of the advanced Solovat technology also uses this planetary energy.
Brother Dust is born on a world that has been prematurely consumed as it is breaking apart. The native inhabitants of that world seem to reflect the native foliage is a sort of chameleon-like behavior. But as the world is broken, it is mostly just dust.
What follows is a meditation involving several different themes. One theme has to do with the environment. Another prominent theme is the relative merit of empires.
Against those themes unfolds the story of a Brother Dust who transitions from enforcing the Empire against a series of unfortunate civilizations to a Brother Dust that seeks to force the Empire to leave the Dastropian civilization alone. He ends up aligned with a nascent rebellion movement.
Brother Dust is so named because he can stop appearing as a Solovat. Instead, Brother Dust can become "dust" that is nearly impossible to kill and is exceedingly effective as a weapon that shreds the lungs of Solovat soldiers and can open doors by slipping through the slightest of cracks. Brother Dust discovers that there is a cure for his "condition". Having lived for so long as dust, Brother Dust gladly accepts this cure that must be re-administered every few days.
The first roughly half of the book is quite good. It is well paced and well written.
The latter half of the book turns cartoonish with Brother Dust turning into more of comic book superhero. Extensive narrative is used to describe fight scenes with round-house kicks, thrown punches, and foot sweeps. The rebellion decides to avoid using lethal force for some reason. Brother Dust continues to accept his treatments despite the fact that they severely limit his ability to fight. Characters start using persuasion in the middle of gun fights, fist fights, and fighting fights.
I dropped out of the narrative at this point and began looking at flaws in the plot and counting the number of instances of poor grammar. Both were found with little trouble. Some of the worst examples involved characters barely limping out of one scene but being able to beat fresh (and unwounded) opponents in the next scene. It takes longer than an hour or two to recover from significant wounds.
Brother Dust suggests that these authors have much to offer in terms of telling a compelling story. It also suggests that they have much to learn about it as well.
3/5 stars. This was a strong 2.5+ star experience.
Brother Dust is properly classified as "science fantasy". The events in the book take place among a spacefaring society. However, the amount of actual science involved is negligible.
The book details the continuing travels of the Solovat empire. The Solovat home world has become infected with some sort of planet killing virus. This virus consumes a planet's "energy". To save their home planet, the Solovats roam from world to world mining each planet for its "energy".
They drill ever deeper into each planet core gathering planetary energy that is then transmitted to Solovat. Once the core has been breached, the planet dies and any remaining energy is sucked off to the Solovat home world. Also, a fair amount of the advanced Solovat technology also uses this planetary energy.
Brother Dust is born on a world that has been prematurely consumed as it is breaking apart. The native inhabitants of that world seem to reflect the native foliage is a sort of chameleon-like behavior. But as the world is broken, it is mostly just dust.
What follows is a meditation involving several different themes. One theme has to do with the environment. Another prominent theme is the relative merit of empires.
Against those themes unfolds the story of a Brother Dust who transitions from enforcing the Empire against a series of unfortunate civilizations to a Brother Dust that seeks to force the Empire to leave the Dastropian civilization alone. He ends up aligned with a nascent rebellion movement.
Brother Dust is so named because he can stop appearing as a Solovat. Instead, Brother Dust can become "dust" that is nearly impossible to kill and is exceedingly effective as a weapon that shreds the lungs of Solovat soldiers and can open doors by slipping through the slightest of cracks. Brother Dust discovers that there is a cure for his "condition". Having lived for so long as dust, Brother Dust gladly accepts this cure that must be re-administered every few days.
The first roughly half of the book is quite good. It is well paced and well written.
The latter half of the book turns cartoonish with Brother Dust turning into more of comic book superhero. Extensive narrative is used to describe fight scenes with round-house kicks, thrown punches, and foot sweeps. The rebellion decides to avoid using lethal force for some reason. Brother Dust continues to accept his treatments despite the fact that they severely limit his ability to fight. Characters start using persuasion in the middle of gun fights, fist fights, and fighting fights.
I dropped out of the narrative at this point and began looking at flaws in the plot and counting the number of instances of poor grammar. Both were found with little trouble. Some of the worst examples involved characters barely limping out of one scene but being able to beat fresh (and unwounded) opponents in the next scene. It takes longer than an hour or two to recover from significant wounds.
Brother Dust suggests that these authors have much to offer in terms of telling a compelling story. It also suggests that they have much to learn about it as well.
April 15, 2017
Unsatisfied
This book was interesting enough that I finished it but I wasn't satisfied with it. A lot of action and adventure but it seemed all over the place. The personality of the characters changed often so it was hard to connect with them. And other issues I had with the book but I don't want to give away spoilers.
This book was interesting enough that I finished it but I wasn't satisfied with it. A lot of action and adventure but it seemed all over the place. The personality of the characters changed often so it was hard to connect with them. And other issues I had with the book but I don't want to give away spoilers.
September 13, 2017
( Format : audiobook )
"You realise wheels are supposed to be round?"
An extraordinary and very different book.
For the glory of a distant god, planets are invaded, drills bury deep into their cores releasing vast energies and destroying the world. Millions, perhaps billions have died. Brother Dust cannot live with this any more and seeks to stop it finally. But his is a strange being, part human, part dust, he longs to have a real body which can feel emotion, feel the beauty of pain. And who can he trust when so many have lied to him?
And then there are the twins ...
Astonishing battles, great colourful characters, this is fast and exciting, very visual, strange with flashes of humour and compassion. Narrator Scott Barrier has a deep and resonant voice, perfect for the subject. His vocalisations of the individual protagonists is also good, each individualistic and distinct, read with the emotional impact required. However, in his reading of the narrative between conversation, he has an uprising cadence to each sentence end which became, after time , irritating for this reader making the listening less satisfactory. A pity, as this was otherwise a good performance with only a very occasional editting glitch.
This is a book to be enjoyed by anyone who enjoys action, strange environments, superpowers individuals and intriguing science fiction stories. It has fire and power in the writing
"You realise wheels are supposed to be round?"
An extraordinary and very different book.
For the glory of a distant god, planets are invaded, drills bury deep into their cores releasing vast energies and destroying the world. Millions, perhaps billions have died. Brother Dust cannot live with this any more and seeks to stop it finally. But his is a strange being, part human, part dust, he longs to have a real body which can feel emotion, feel the beauty of pain. And who can he trust when so many have lied to him?
And then there are the twins ...
Astonishing battles, great colourful characters, this is fast and exciting, very visual, strange with flashes of humour and compassion. Narrator Scott Barrier has a deep and resonant voice, perfect for the subject. His vocalisations of the individual protagonists is also good, each individualistic and distinct, read with the emotional impact required. However, in his reading of the narrative between conversation, he has an uprising cadence to each sentence end which became, after time , irritating for this reader making the listening less satisfactory. A pity, as this was otherwise a good performance with only a very occasional editting glitch.
This is a book to be enjoyed by anyone who enjoys action, strange environments, superpowers individuals and intriguing science fiction stories. It has fire and power in the writing
January 21, 2018
I received an Audible code for this book via Audiobook Boom! for an honest review.
So, I really liked this book. The different alien races, the struggle of one believing they are superior, and therefore entitled to take over other worlds for their own gain. A lot of not so subtle subtext, I think haha. And it was well written, with a good flow and engaging characters.
However, the jumping back in time and back ahead got a little confusing at times, and could have been made more clear what was happening. Other than that, I have no real complaints with the story!
Now, for the narration. It just really wasn't my favorite thing. Sometimes he sounded like he was doing a Batman impression, which made me giggle, but also pulled me out of the story. Same with when he sounded like Mr Movie Announcer. He has a nice voice in general, but just not for this book.
Overall, I have to go with 3 Platypires.
So, I really liked this book. The different alien races, the struggle of one believing they are superior, and therefore entitled to take over other worlds for their own gain. A lot of not so subtle subtext, I think haha. And it was well written, with a good flow and engaging characters.
However, the jumping back in time and back ahead got a little confusing at times, and could have been made more clear what was happening. Other than that, I have no real complaints with the story!
Now, for the narration. It just really wasn't my favorite thing. Sometimes he sounded like he was doing a Batman impression, which made me giggle, but also pulled me out of the story. Same with when he sounded like Mr Movie Announcer. He has a nice voice in general, but just not for this book.
Overall, I have to go with 3 Platypires.
September 19, 2017
I really enjoyed this book. I went into it having no idea what to expect, and was very pleasantly surprised. It starts with a bang and never lets up. Great characters, interesting worlds, ideas, and creatures, and an engaging plot told at an unrelenting pace, all combined to make this a very fun read. The narrator was good; he has an excellent voice and great quality, with my only complaint being that most of the sentences ended with the same inflection. It didn’t keep me from enjoying the book it’s just something that I kept noticing from time to time. But overall, I really liked the book, will recommend it to my friends, and look forward to picking up the next entry into the series!
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
October 7, 2017
If you like on the edge of your seat sci-fi, I think you might enjoy this story. The non-stop action begins with chapter one and immediately drew me in to the story. There is a bit too much death and destruction for my taste, but it's a good story. I loved all of the characters and their relationships with one another. I particularly liked the character, Dust.
I liked the way the back stories of the main characters were unveiled within the story.
It also has spiritual undertones which I liked.
I listened to the audio version and enjoyed the narration of Scott Berrier.
I liked the way the back stories of the main characters were unveiled within the story.
It also has spiritual undertones which I liked.
I listened to the audio version and enjoyed the narration of Scott Berrier.
October 20, 2017
A great science-fantasy novel, with a superhero-like twist. This was a fun read with lots of action. Though, I was surprised at the amount of descriptive gore. So I wouldn't recommend reading this with younger kids.
Buy the book, but stand clear of the audio-book. I started listening to the audio-book and the narrator was so bad, it was ruining the story for me. But, I was intrigued by the story alone, so I had to dump the audio-book and read the kindle version. I'm glad I did.
Buy the book, but stand clear of the audio-book. I started listening to the audio-book and the narrator was so bad, it was ruining the story for me. But, I was intrigued by the story alone, so I had to dump the audio-book and read the kindle version. I'm glad I did.
November 23, 2017
what a great book the authors pull you in right away and it just gets better I hope the authors plan on a sequel I'd love to see dust and nissa get together again
May 31, 2023
Unusual, a great concept, and a book I did enjoy reading.
Plenty of action and twists, and a great imagination.
I would like to read more in this series.
Plenty of action and twists, and a great imagination.
I would like to read more in this series.
October 7, 2017
Brother Dust an abomination born among the dust, fighting those responsible for drilling and bowing to the high father, while trying to give those on the planets affected a little more time.
This is one of the best sci-fi, space, dystopian books I have read/listened to. It started off fast and never slowed down, it had me hooked from the very beginning. The action and suspense was non stop, it kept my focus as I tried to figure things out before they happened, but it never worked. I really enjoyed this book and the imagination it took to create a world like this and its colorful characters, it is phenomenal, also phenomenal is the narration job by voice actor Scott Berrier keeping all the characters voices straight and different took a lot of skill. It is well worth the listen if you are a audiobook person like I am, I will certainly be looking for more books narrated by Mr. Berrier, not to mention books written by Mr. Hall and Mr. Beaulieu.
This is one of the best sci-fi, space, dystopian books I have read/listened to. It started off fast and never slowed down, it had me hooked from the very beginning. The action and suspense was non stop, it kept my focus as I tried to figure things out before they happened, but it never worked. I really enjoyed this book and the imagination it took to create a world like this and its colorful characters, it is phenomenal, also phenomenal is the narration job by voice actor Scott Berrier keeping all the characters voices straight and different took a lot of skill. It is well worth the listen if you are a audiobook person like I am, I will certainly be looking for more books narrated by Mr. Berrier, not to mention books written by Mr. Hall and Mr. Beaulieu.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews