Brilliant as usual but too short

Brilliant as usual, but felt like we barely touched the surface on the main plotline, too much filler and not enough progress. I suspect the next book will conclude the end of this one's storyline, but with the amount of filler it would have been better wrapped into one book, specially with the gap in publishing between both.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Love the book and universe created by Marko but...

The performance of the audio book sounds like it was recorded on £5 microphone bought from Ebay... Its awful... Its got no Bass or mid range and all tinney, it's a difficult thing to listen to. All the other books have been great stories and a pleasure to listen to...
Very disappointing

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

Great book 📖👍

Great book was disappointed that the narrator changed
So I was worried that it would spoil it But it didn’t great narration can’t wait to listen to the next one 👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️😀📖👍

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Loved it

Another great book as usuall, I love this series and cant't wait tor another, not very cool that the narrator has changed tho, but he still did very awesome job and I honestly even forgot that it's diferent at times.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Wished it was a bit longer

I know that the 8th book in the series will likely carry on with the story but couldn’t help but feel that it was cut short at the end.

Still recommend the book for any fan of the frontlines series

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Less hardcore action but good story

The book has less outright action than some of the others in the series but it pulls together a number of plot strands and sets up the next story very well.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

A rear-echelon attempt at a Frontline novel

Orders of Battle is a half a workhorse novel in an excellent series, and as such it feels sadly incomplete. The author is not known for his rapid output, but previous novels have at least been complete (if short) novels.

As ever, this is a refreshing, if not novel approach to military special operations science fiction, which is to its credit. But some of the uniqueness of the characters are lost now that they continue to rehash old issues, despite a decade having gone past. This is not aided by the cliched ‘I’m so old!’ at age 30 from the main character. I guess it’s appropriate, we all do it, but I don’t know anyone who found twenty to twenty five year old people ‘horribly young’ at that age. This also feels disconnected to the rest of the series.

We get another good look at new technology and more on the Avenger-class vessels, but this entire series has focused on one ‘trick’ per book - and that’s starting to get old with this many novels.

This is all made both better (there’s more to come!) and worse (… oh god, why end on a pointless cliffhanger) - I understand the author constrains his writing time, but that’s no excuse for dragging a narrative out across two books and two years. Such behaviour has fallen out of favour in the industry, and long may it be so.

The audio recording quality leaves a lot to be desired Eric Dove makes a sterling attempt to sound like Luke Daniels, but he’s severely hampered by the awful quality of the mic setup he’s using - someone buy that man a basic USB mic like the Blue Yeti and show him how to use Audacity! I can, and have made home recordings with more sound range with just that setup than the quality delivered. Audiobooks are expensive, except at Audible ‘locked in’ prices - and that business model is potentially fraught with danger of loss of access to purchase. I expect that a voice talent be able to at least provide a full range of sound.

I have however not dropped Mr Dove’s effort below three stars because he does make a genuine effort to voice the same characters in a similar way to Mr Daniels, and plenty of other narrators don’t - hopefully with more time and better kit available future recordings will be better.

To sum up: An average novel that is too short, with a good attempt at recording let down by the quality of hardware and software. Recommended for fans of the series only, otherwise the next book simply won’t make sense.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Disappointing, great story line,very abrupt ending

Overall great story, really enjoyed the series so far so much so that i had this on pre-order for a long time. the new narratorI was fine with, but the story seemed to just end unexpectedly? was the done intentionally to keep us readers interested or just to make us pay for another book? Really disappointed with the ending of the story, but I will read the next book to find out more.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

New narrator is fine, story is too short.

I know it is annoying when the narrator changes, but Eric Dove does a fine job. However, the novel is way too short and just stops mid-plotline. I really enjoy the books, but you do get the sense that Marko Kloos does not know where to go or how to finish the series.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

Good but abrupt ending

The story and writing is good but it ended when I thought Act 2 was just done and Act 3 and 4 was remaining. Almost felt a bit cheated, like I bought half a story without knowing it.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful