After reading a few reviews of some of the arcs around, I decided that I would give the audio a try. Once again, this isn’t a book that I would normally pick up. I don’t read a large amount of science fiction, but I liked the idea of this story and the suspense that goes along with it. I thought I would give it a try. I’ve not read Sean Danker, nor listened to Johnathan McClain before this book.
We start off with four people waking up on a dead ship on a what appears to be a dead planet. One of the characters is only known as “The Admiral”. That is what was on his sleeper container, but he won’t tell anyone his name or anything about himself. He just goes by “The Admiral”. The other three are all new recruits. They all have completely different backgrounds with different strengths.
As we read (or well, listen to) this story, we continue to learn more about the three recruits. They are all pretty unique characters. They work great as a team with The Admiral as the leader, even as one of the recruits doesn’t trust him one bit. They work together to come up with a plan to get off the planet and get rescued.
It seems that every plan they come up with fails. It wasn’t because their plans were bad ideas, it is just because they are on a very inhospitable planet with very little resources. It only gets worse when they find out that they aren’t in fact alone on the planet. There is a life form that lives on this planet and it isn’t friendly.
We do learn more about who The Admiral is, but you have to wait until the final few chapters to learn more about what is going on. I was glad to finally learn more about who this guy was. It was a little frustrating not knowing who he was throughout the entire story. He was one of the mysteries to me. I’m glad that I got that information before the end of the book.
This story is filled with suspense and humor. Add to that the very complex and fun characters and it made for an entertaining story. While this story is science fiction, it isn’t so sciency (is that even a word), that it would be off putting to non-sci-fi fans. I like how they have to work to find ways to work through difficult situations. MacGyver is something that comes to mind when you read this story.
This is my first book with Johnathan McClain as the narrator. I thought he did a great job. I liked his voices for both the male and female characters. There aren’t a lot of characters to voice. There is really just the four people, until the very end of the story.
Sean Danker hates everything, especially author bios.
Can you believe he’s in the military? He doesn’t seem like the type.
Originally from Myrtle Beach, SC, at the age of 21 Johnathan moved to Chicago where he wrote and began performing his critically acclaimed one-man show, Like It Is. The Chicago Reader proclaimed, “If we’re ever to return to a day when theatre matters, we’ll need a few hundred more artists with McClain’s vision and courage.” On the heels of its critical and commercial success, the show subsequently moved to New York where Johnathan was compared favorably to solo performance visionaries such as Eric Bogosian, John Leguizamo, and Anna Deavere Smith.
Johnathan spent many years in New York, and his work there includes appearing Off-Broadway in the original cast of Jonathan Tolins’ The Last Sunday In June at The Century Center, as well as at Lincoln Center Theatre and with the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. Around the country, he has been seen on stage at South Coast Repertory, The American Conservatory Theatre, Florida Stage, Paper Mill Playhouse, and the National Jewish Theatre. Los Angeles stage credits include the LA Weekly Award nominated world premiere of Cold/Tender at The Theatre @ Boston Court and the LA Times’ Critic’s Choice production of The Glass Menagerie at The Colony Theatre for which Johnathan received a Garland Award for his portrayal of Jim O’Connor.
On the radio, he has been a writer and on-air contributor to The Public Radio International series Fair Game. In his spare time Johnathan is active in the world of Slam Poetry; and with his unique style which he describes as “e.e. cummings meets Eminem,” has competed in and won dozens of poetry slams around the country.
I like to thanks Penguin Audio for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
Hmm…I think I’ll add this to my maybe to read pile because like you I’ve been reading reviews about this as well and my interest has shown up to the party.
It was an interesting story. It is not something that would’ve caught my eye without some of the reviews I had read. I’m glad I grabbed it.
I had fun reading this and as I read thought with the right narrator it would be epic. This is a great book for non-science fiction fans to read as well.
This wasn’t one of my favorite narrators, but I thought he did a good job. I did enjoy the story. I’m glad I picked it.
Glad to see you enjoyed listening to this one. I’ve been tempted to pick it up after I saw a few reviews for it. I might end-up doing the audio of it. I think it might be a good one to listen to on the commute to work.
I thought that the narrator did a really good job with this book. I hope you enjoy it.
I like a good science fiction book, I didn’t read the genre for year. Then I picked up SJ Pajonas her Nogiku series and watched Star Wars and since then I’ve been reading more sci-fi as well. Still not a lot, but I do enjoy the genre.
This sounds a bit creepy, but also nice with the touch of suspense and mystery. It’s neat you find out who the admiral is before the end of the book, some mystery is nice, but it shouldn’t get dragged out too long either. Great review!
I think the suspense is the bigger draw for this story than the science fiction. Not only do you have the mystery of why they are on this dead planet, but you also have the mystery of the main character/narrator of the story. It was really interesting.
Glad you liked it! You’re right, it isn’t to sciency. 😀 It reads more as a thriller/mystery, which was still a lot of fun.
Love seeing your review on this. I have it coming in the mail so I’m glad to see it’s worth my excitement to read it. I love sci-fi, but the mystery about the Admiral was what grabbed my attention.
Glad the narrator really worked for you, too.
This one is really more mystery/suspense than science fiction. It is more the location that makes it sci-fi. It has a ton of mystery to it and what really drew me in. There isn’t a huge amount of science in it, less than The Martian.
I love that this reads more as a mystery than sci fi. I think I could get into this. Wonderful review!
It was the mystery that got my attention than the science fiction. I don’t read a huge amount of sci-fi.
Well I’m a huge Sci-Fi fan sort of like Urban fantasy on another planet LOL. This one sounds good!
I hope you get a chance to try this one, Debbie. I really enjoyed it.
Sounds pretty good! I don’t read all that many sci-fi books anymore, not sure why. I’ll add this one to my list to check out if I’m in the mood for that type later. Hope you had a great weekend!
Think of this one more as a mystery set on another planet. I hope you get a chance to try it.
I’m glad you had a good time but I confess that I’m not a big fan of sci-fi so I won’t go to that book that easily. I’m gld it was nice for you though.
That’s exactly like how it is. Much more suspense, but is technically a science fiction since it takes place on another planet.