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Rumors of War

Green Zone War, Book 1

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Rumors of War

Written by: Jake Elwood
Narrated by: Johnathan McClain
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About this listen

Tom Thrush thinks basic officer training is tough - until he joins the frigate Kestrel and finds out what tough really means. The crew resents him. The first officer is actively hostile. As the ship hunts pirates in deep space, Tom struggles to fit in and wonders if things can get any worse. They can.

A devastating attack leaves the ship crippled with half the crew dead or dying. The senior officers are wiped out, leaving a terrified sublieutenant in the last place he wants to be.

In command.

©2018 Jake Elwood (P)2018 Podium Publishing Fiction Military Science Fiction Space Opera Military Fiction
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It’s a good story. Slow at certain points but the development of the main character is pretty good. I wish the narrator can do more than American English, English and Scottish.

Good

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I'm several books into the series now. I'm enjoying the story line and the characters. The Narrator I consider to be one of the better ones that I've listened to. There is the odd person who would be a more engaging narrator. But Johnathan McClain strickes a nice balance of providing emphasis in speech, and diversity with the characters without being distracting. All too often Narrators become distracting by trying to add variety to characters, especially of the opposite gender. (women all sound high pitched and meek or whiney, or men are all deep voiced and gruff)
Johnathan doesn't fall into that trap. It's easy to tell characters apart by how they speak with appropriate changes and emphasis for the characters situation. Without the distraction of being reminded that one person is performing the voices of a hundred. I've been able to focus more on the storey through listening to this.
I'm also local to the area where the training base is from. I appreciate the references to small Alberta towns

My compliments to the Narrator

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The story is good and moves along well. The characters are well described and realistic.

However, the space combat is not realistic. Interplanetary ships take minutes to traverse several hundred kilometers. Ignores orbital mechanics. Ships only fight when within several hundred kilometers of each other. Missiles, which should be going pretty fast, are destroyed within 3 kilometers of the targets by CIWS...

The tactics are not as bad, but are not great. SPOILER, The captain leaves an intact enemy light cruiser in stable orbit around a habitable planet behind enemy lines. I would think in real war they would have destroyed this ship to keep the enemy from repairing it and sending it back into combat...

Good Story, Not Hard Science Fiction

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I struggled to find this worth my time when the world has so many other options for entertainment. I started to wonder if I have just diverged from "modern" sci-fi because I keep seeing all these stellar reviews for works that are tedious trash. But then I find a good one and conclude, no. It's not me.
It's them. Please quit encouraging these low quality books. If you have nothing bad to say, say nothing at all! It's not as bad as some others, but it's certainly not good. sigh.

Slow. Mostly boring. Why. Why. Why

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