What a disappointment!

I was excited to read something new from Mr Edelheit so I bought the ebook as soon as it was released. The preamble, including the prologue was so long I struggled to read the book. I eventually gave up and waited for the audio book. I pre-ordered the book and jumped on it when it was delivered on the 26th. What a disaster! I have tried to listen to it 3 times but cannot even get to the end of the prologue. The narrator is terrible! His cadence, emphasis and tone are uncontrolled and his voice is monotonous and extremely irritating. His presentation is wishy- washy. I get the sense that he is reluctant to read this book. I have attempted to listen to books narrated by Mr Lee in the past and have experienced the same, minus the reluctance. Mr Edelheit, please change your narrator before the whole trilogy is ruined.

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4 people found this helpful

Don't pay attention to those John Lee haters

I love John Lee and won't often listen to anyone else. Most of the women narrators make me feel like some kindergarten teacher is reading a nursery rhyme which might work for some people but is all wrong for my scifi. Others like the raspy one character voice of Bray are fine for first person war novels where the hero describes all the action and no other characters exist outside of protagonist perspective. John Lee is an exceptional voice actor and once you understand his cadence, you will find it disappointing to listen to anyone else. Looking forward to John Lee reading the next in book this series because I feel like the story arc has alot of unique potential.

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2 people found this helpful

A great step in a new direction!

Between superb narration and an impeccable plot, Mr. Edelheit did it again! Semper Fidelis!

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1 person found this helpful

came for the narrator, stayed for the author

rarely does an author capture military lingo and culture well, especially with the addition of civilian considerations. I liked the descriptive elements and world building, felt like i could see it as a movie in my head which has 1 part Michael Bay, one part Spielberg in his prime and one part Marvel banter. Also i rarely connect as well with female protagonists, but feel this was well written and her plot armor wasnt bulletproof keep going Mr. E, I came for the narrator, stayed for the author.

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1 person found this helpful

Another win

It’s not Stiger. Though it is a very worthy plot and I’m looking forward to the next in the series.

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1 person found this helpful

Not good at all.

I recently discovered Marc Alan Edelheit. I just finished his "The Way Of Legend" series and the third book of "The Karus Saga". I was looking forward to this book and series to see how he wrote science fiction as opposed to his fantasy books. While the other works of his that I've read aren't anything incredible or amazing, they are decent works and generally entertaining. Even the aspects of his writing style that I don't particularly care for were manageable in the other series. Fallen Empire unfortunately is absolutely terrible with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. It's just bad.

Edelheit uses dialog between characters to establish back story and inform the reader about the world he is introducing you to. In his other works it makes for a bit of a slow introduction and takes a bit to get used to but overall if you are patient it works. Not so much in Fallen Empire. The dialog in Fallen Empire is just flat, unintelligent and generally cliche or juvenile and absolutely painful to try and endure. Almost the entire dialog is recycled military cliche sayings and terminology without any real meaning. The interpersonal conversations while attempting to mimic soldier or Marines and regular working-class people living and interreacting fails completely and sounds forced or contrived without saying anything at all worth listening to. It's nails on chalkboard material.

Pair this poor writing with the worst performance from John Lee I have ever listened to. I have listened to dozens of books narrated by John Lee. Although his accent and style might not work for everyone, in general he has done well, and his style worked for the most part in many of the books I've listened to him read. I don't know what he was trying to accomplish with this work but it's absolutely terrible. His cadence and inflections make absolutely no sense in regard to what he is reading. He ads emphasis and inflection where unnecessary and his cadence is more like early William Shatner Star Trek. He also confused the voices for characters constantly throughout the book making it a bit confusing until the end of the dialog is capped with "Lee said" or "Chris said". And the listener is asking "What? You just read that in the other character voice!"

The story itself is just pointless and nonsensical. The prolog has basically nothing to do with the rest of the book and I'm beginning to think that maybe it is a parallel to whole series Edelheit is attempting to write. The prolog is a vaguely relevant short story basically separate from the main story and I suspect that the remainder of this book was a twelve hour prolog to the upcoming books. The problem is it was so poorly told that I have absolutely no interest in continuing. Lots and lots of needless repetition for things that were completely pointless. Inane dialog and heaps and heaps of silly cliche. Twelve hours of wasted time to accomplish nothing except maybe introduce us to the two main characters of the next book in the most annoying way possible.

Our main character, Kiera, is not particularly likeable. Although he attempts to write her as a tough, intelligent and independent young woman, Edelheit tells us one thing and then shows us the opposite. This contradiction get's very old very fast. Her impulsiveness and lack of logic and reason, while normal for a young adult, make her an annoying protagonist. Her continued dwelling on fallen comrades or setbacks, while probably attempting to show her humanity just gets tedious. And she is supposed to be a super spart technician, one of the few still capable of fixing the remaining post apocalyptical gear around but over and over she marvels at the technology of old. I was sick of this character halfway through the book. When the character of MK was introduced, it tipped a bad book over the edge into a terrible book. As I slogged along, I kept thinking this is a waste of time, I want my money back. I endured this garbage while continually rolling my eyes and swearing out loud at this pile of dung so I could write a review and hopefully spare other listeners from this farce. The two main characters at the end of this book are the two I hate the most. Why would I continue on the next book to torture myself more? I would rather stick bamboo slivers under my fingernails.

This book might be okay for a young adult with very little reading experience. To someone like that it may be new and interesting, but if you've reading and listening to audiobooks for a few decades this is a waste of time and money.

Needless to say I will not continue with this series. I really wish Audible would allow you to leave a review of a book if you return it. This was crap and I want my credit back but I figure it's more important that I warn other audiobook listeners to avoid this.

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Decent Story, Bad Narrator

i quite liked the premise of the book, but the Narrator is.. he has a very odd cadence and his voice is somewhat irritating. some of his voices are ok but most of it is pretty bad. also, thr main character freezes up in literally every scene. its understsndible thebfirst couple times but she KEEPS DOING IT and it is highly irratating. They do it in krder to show the fighting from her perspective but it is just frustrating to listen to. overall its a decent book, probably better to read it than listen to.

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Nice Sequel

I enjoyed the book, Mark continues to have a great imagination and skill at bringing stories to life. Especially glad to see the book was longer than the first with more details revealed.

John Lee does ok, I find he does better at narration than voice acting.

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Space Rock 'n Roll!

This is top shelf space opera that's both fun and easy to enjoy. It's short and sweet, with well developed characters. The plot is interesting and fresh, and there's enough action to keep things moving nicely. What's more, there are none of those little negatives that can ruin a good book/narration. No made-up swear words, no winey characters who spend all their time rehashing their negative feelings. And of course, maybe most importantly, John Lee gives us another masterpiece performance.

An all around great choice, a keeper, and a series of books that I am thoroughly anticipating!

EZ

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Amazing!

Loved this book! Absolutely can not wait for the next one. Ben Stiger and his Tigers can stand aside, this book delivers on all you could want in a story.

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