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  • Dreadnought

  • Lost Colonies, Book 2
  • By: B. V. Larson
  • Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
  • Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (401 ratings)
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Dreadnought cover art

Dreadnought

By: B. V. Larson
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
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Summary

Captain William Sparhawk flies Earth's single starship on a voyage of exploration. His crew of veteran spacers begins the mission with high hopes and the best of intentions, but the universe has other plans. Instead of space merchants and potential allies, they discover Earth's impending doom. Sparhawk must decide whether to hunt down enemy scouts to keep Earth's new starship a secret or to head home to warn Star Guard of the danger. Either way, he's ignited an interstellar war.

Dreadnought, the second book of the Lost Colonies Trilogy, is a novel of military science fiction by best-selling author B. V. Larson.

©2015 B. V. Larson (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Dreadnought

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Flash is Back!

Having read the first in this series of stories by B V Larson entitled
Battle
Cruiser, I was in two minds whether to get the second instalment,
Dreadnought. I found the first story quaint and charming in itself but felt
it lacked the hard edge I'd come to enjoy in Larson's other sagas like the
Star Force and undying Mercenaries books. I felt that Battle Cruiser was
better suited to perhaps the slightly younger reader and afforded an
excellent path into the world of accessible science fiction for which Larson
is so good at producing. Although enjoyable, I couldn't say I found the
first in this series particularly satisfying but nonetheless I decided to
see what came next to see if things improved at all.

Dreadnought picks up where Battle Cruiser left off. We have all the familiar
characters plus a diplomatic envoy to which I will come to later. This
second book is also narrated by Eduardo Ballerini which is good from the
consistency standpoint and now he has been established in the first book it
makes sense to continue with him on the second. Don't get me wrong,
Ballerini is an excellent speaker able to deliver flawless, crisp diction
and able to do several voices although without the range of Mark Boyett who
is used for other Larson books. he voices the Sparhawk character just as
clipped and almost staccato in delivery at times which is probably my main
gripe with the way this character is voiced. Now, it might be that the
author has some influence on how he'd like certain characters narrated which
would mean this is how he wanted Sparhawk to sound but I find this somewhat
silly. This, combined with some of the terse dialogue traits Sparhawk has
makes him sound like a private school head master from somewhere around
the1930's. His command style seems rather brash at times which also lends
him the feel of a Flash Gordon type hero which is a little hard to swallow
for a novel written in the 21st century. Again, this may be intentional on
the part of Larson and he may want to endow this character with the rather
quaint and perhaps old fashioned attributes for good reason, I don't know.
It could just be that a lighter type of story was preferred by Larson to
contrast his more usual writing style.

I found Dreadnought to be a story of two halves in a way. I found myself
enjoying the second half of this book more than the first part. The opening
half of the story was of a similar ilk to the previous book but did pick up
in the second part. Either that or I just got used to Sparhawk and company
and went along with the flow with a more open mind, I don't know. I have
found that sometimes a new series can often have a shaky start. I felt
this way about the Star Force series from Larson but by the third book of
that saga I was hooked.

Larson has penned the rather typical diplomatic envoy character that is
usually in conflict with the captain, William Sparhawk and seems to do that
usual thing that diplomats seem to do in science fiction at least where they
are far too trusting of new aliens. Ballerini plays this character well I
have to say.

There was one of those weird plot inconsistencies I noticed which saw the
Battle Cruiser Defiant apparently have some difficulty facing down a half
dozen or so Stroge ships and yet in the previous book prior to the upgrades
put into place since the first book, the Defiant was able to take out
hundreds of enemy ships. Probably just me missing something but a point I
thought worth mentioning.

Also, the Stroge appear to be a combination of Borg and Herrogen from Star
Trek. They use cybernetic implants but also take trophies of human organs
too so I think I can see where Larson has drawn his inspiration from with
these characters.

Overall Dreadnought is a decent listen which picks up from around half way.
More hardened Larson fans may not like this "softer"series but Larson always
has the ability to weave a good yarn so this is an easy read that will
appeal to a broad audience I think.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good follow on from Battlecruiser

What did you like most about Dreadnought?

the book took the universe of the lost colonies even further and added more conent

What was one of the most memorable moments of Dreadnought?

Alien encounters

What about Edoardo Ballerini’s performance did you like?

Very good, not a problem.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Captain and the Beta's encounter!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

brilliant

Amazing plot, better narrator. Cant fault it at all. hurry up with the next one!

One of my favourites to date. ....

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

superb

great story . well read . highly recommended. can't wait for next one . great listen .

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Classic B V Larson.

Really enjoyed this book. Plot taking you to unexpected places. Different character set and scenario to Undying Mercenaries.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Average at best

Not great or up to his usual standards. Probably won’t bother with the third part

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great page turner, enjoyable book.

Great page turner, enjoyable book.
I have read 2 of the first 3 books, on the 3rd now, great space opera. The narrator I thought suited the main character well.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book 📖

Great book love the story and the narration can’t wait to listen to the next book I highly recommend listening to this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Weird repeated sexual encounters

Loved the first book. The narrator is excellent - quite quirky in how he reads the main character. The only thing that let this down for me was the story kept slipping from Sci Fi into the captains sexual thoughts and encounters. It just seemed incongruous and inconsistent with book one. It distracted the main thrust of the story for me, and I was even rolling my eyes by the 3rd.
Just out of place. But the rest of the book is great.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A bit predictable but good fun anyway.

A bit predictable but good fun anyway. Enough for me to have bought the 3rd instalment!

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