Sexy times in a Star Trek - like universe!

As required by U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations and Audible.com requirements, I am disclosing that I was given a free review copy of this audiobook at my request. I have listened to the audiobook, and I have voluntarily left an honest review. Receiving a review copy did not influence my rating nor my review.

“Incursion” is the first of Sarah Hawke’s extensive library to be brought to Audible, and for lovers of audiobooks, it’s a terrific introduction to her work!

Speaking of introductions, the audiobook opens with a short description of the author; it’s no wonder that the cover girl looks like she’s wearing a Star Trek (“the good version”) uniform!

As with Star Trek (TOS) episodes, the audiobook jumps right into the story without long world-building chapters or extensive descriptions of the characters or techologies. Well done!

The story is much more interesting than a plot wrapped around sex scenes; there’s a real story here and it’s fun trying to figure out who the villains might be. As with the Star Trek universe, aliens here are numerous and varied, and we slowly learn who might be friend or foe in this far from earth region of the galaxy.

Book One focuses perhaps more on the “Space Opera” part of the tagline than “Harem”. There are several women who are contenders for an eventual harem relationship with the MC, but initially some of the relationships are more casual episodes of convenience than “bondings”. The relationship scenes are fun to listen to, and I look forward to further development of the likely harem in the sequels. The women each have distinct personalities and reasons to be interested in the MC…and each other!

I’m always nervous when new Voice Actors are used. Some publishers seem to use anyone willing to talk into a microphone in any room they happen to be sitting in. Happily, this recording is professionally done, and I have no quibbles about the quality. I really liked Raya Kane’s performance; her voices for the various women are all terrific! It took me awhile to warm up to Wayne Kelly’s voice. Initially, I thought his voice was too gravely, but then I realized it was just right for the rough-and-tumble ground pounder MC, and his voices for other men were just right as well.

I’m a huge fan of Star Trek (TOS), and I was very disappointed to listen to an “official” audiobook release based on the series a couple of years ago. “Incursion” is a much better and more enjoyable story.

5* - highly recommended!

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4 people found this helpful

I'd read it even without the sexy bits

"Whatcha doing, Charles?"
"Reading Star Trek erotica," I replied.
"Fine, don't tell me."
-Real Life conversation

INCURSION is a bit outside my wheelhouse because I'm not someone who normally reads erotica, especially advertised as harem lit. It's not something I look down upon, everyone should be able to read whatever sort of entertainment they enjoy. My wife has a great fondness for stories about women kidnapped by human traffickers who then fall in love with assassins or secret agents that promptly go Taken on their captors. [Edit: I have also been informed by my wife that I should add that they have BDSM overtones too].

However, this is a special case because this book was, first, written by a female author despite its male POV and also repeatedly was recommended to me for its story as well as world-building. Color me intrigued. I have always been a fan of books that manage to combine sexiness with being, for lack of a better term, decent writing. I can't think of many books that do it aside from the Phadre series by Jacqueline Carey but I definitely know what I like.

Still, if this is all too much information, I certainly understand. This is a book with an extensive well-written plot, excellent world-building, and extremely likeable characters. It just so happens that it interrupts every four or five chapters to a protracted scene of snoo-snoo. If that's not your bag, consider yourself warned and this is not your kind of book. I listened to the audiobook version and think the production values were very good for that and recommend the narrator(s). A smart decision was getting dual narration for the male and female voices.

The premise is Kal Zeris is a Commander Shepard-esque psychic Special Ops soldier that works for the Dominion. He's good-looking, kind of a jerk, and still has a heart of gold. His favorite pasttime is beating up racists, helping the conspicuously hot alien sex workers living around him, as well as running covert ops to kill slavers. Tailor made to be the kind of guy that male gamers love to play in video games and are very popular fanfic subjects for women.

While investigating a ship that was subject to a massacre by the presumed-long dead Dowd race, Kal is forced to work with the cute genetically-engineered cadet named Miranda. Kal hates the genetically engineered ruling class of the Dominion, no matter how cute, and she is casually arrogant but soon impressed by the size of his battlefield experience. What? Did you think that was a euphemism? Either way, they soon end up together and weirdly I really got invested in their romance. Which I never do. Seriously, no romance in the history of fiction save maybe Picard and Crusher. I actually kind of resented when they introduced the other girls.

Either way, I actually was interested in the story and enjoyed the book thoroughly. I also rarely compliment the covers of these books but I really like the uniform Sarah Hawke designed because it fits what's actually described inside. Book fidelity plus being pleasing to the eye. Whenever lit harem books are recommended, they tend to be, uh, well, cartoonish in their looks. It's still a bit, uh, well, generous but not inhumanly so.

Ahem.

Two thumbs up.

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3 people found this helpful

Very good story

With any audiobook, the narration can make or break. The male narration is monotone. It took a while to finish, the dull tone kept me bored. Overall I did like the story.

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1 person found this helpful

Great with 1 big exception

I loved the writing. It was as good as should be expected from Sarah. I loved the world she built, and the characters she writes.

Narration was pretty good, with the exception of a single word. I don't know if its pronounced differently in different parts of the world, but I couldn't stand how the narrators say Seraph/Saraphim.
For some ungodly reason they pronouce it as "sear-raff" rather than "ser.əf". It bothered me sooooo much I had to go check the Cambridge dictionary to make sure I wasn't the one reading it wrong. Idk, other than that I enjoyed the audiobook....

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1 person found this helpful

Hell Yes! Easy Recommend

A little context for my review. I tend to take it easy on the first and last book of any series as not every series makes it to “The End” and the first of anything can be a shaky endeavor, to say the least. I also try to make clear the distinction between the quality of the writing/performance of the author/narrator and my personal tastes should they differ. starting off with the author, I have read some of her past work and have enjoyed it immensely. This is this author's first audiobook And I think it came out wonderfully. The narration team is one in which I am unfamiliar with, but their performances were fantastic. As for the book itself it appears to be the first of a new series set in a universe that the author has written in previously. The two series’ that precede this one, are currently completed and available in eBook form. The first one is the “Shadows of The Seraph” which is a completed trilogy and the second “Wings of the Seraph” which is a completed series totaling five books. Both of the precursor stories are available as one completed eBook each. Definitely something that I will check out now that I'm done with this one. “The Lost Fleet” series has a sequel set for release September 19th, but I don't know when the audio for it will release. The e-book has a map of space where the story takes place. The dominion finds itself trapped within this veil where there are alien inhabitants that they come into conflict with. Our hero is a marine looked down upon by the regular fleet personnel who will find his way into the arms of a bunch of beautiful women. There is a war a brewing. I recommend you checking out the authors website as you can find a larger version of the map as well as images of the different species in this story along with an explanation about them. All around I've enjoyed the story immensely and I am looking forward to what comes next. Well done to everybody who had a hand in bringing this story to us the audible listeners and keep up the good work.

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1 person found this helpful

Short But Well Worth It

This Audiobook was very well done. The story just grips you and the characters are well fleshed out individuals. The erotic scenes are very steamy. I wasn't expecting much when I picked up this Book but I couldn't put it down to the point that I literally stopped working on my computer just to enjoy it.

My only two complaints is that I wished it was longer and I want 10 more books from this Author and these narrators out this instant so I can continue enjoying their work. lol

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1 person found this helpful

BLUF: worth the credit

Narrators: Both the man and the woman were good. They both did excellent jobs in differentiating the voices of the different characters.

Story: Not bad. Not the greatest piece of fiction ever written, no but just interesting enough I finished it. Pacing was a bit off, with long periods of dialog or internal monolog followed by back to back sex scenes. The author clearly has in her mind the setting she built the story around but she jumps right in with little explanation as to who the players are, how they got there, what their relationships are, how technology works, etc. Some of that does come but in fits and spurts, with all too much still left unexplained. Combined with the Pacing issue and it was off putting.

Overall: It was worth the credit. Ill check out the next book, see if it is more of the same or if the author will spend some of the word count on explaining the setting a bit more, rather than back to back sex scenes.

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The story is fine ,the narrators are boring

The story is mediocre as far as sci-fi goes, but its the narrators that brings the book down as a whole. The male narrator is so monotone that even during the action and "action" scene the guy sounds bored out of his mind.

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A promising start

I enjoyed the story and what's here has me interested to see where this goes. I didn't really have an issue with the male narrator that some others had, though I can see how his performance could turn people off. My only real complaint was Kal's approach to sex seems rather one dimensional, and that began to bore me. Hopefully that improves in later books.

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loved It

Bring on the next one, some cracks but really good stuff hopefully it gets better.

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