really enjoyable

wasn't sure what to expect but I really enjoyed , great story action tension, hoping there's another to follow

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Stunning

I am so please I listened to this book. A wonderful story. Getting the next one now!

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Sol Arbiter

Thoroughly enjoyed the story from start to finish. The narration was excellent it seamlessly flowed, didn’t want to put the story down once started. Looking forward to the next one.

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1 person found this helpful

Great sci fi for action fans

Loved this, it started slow but picked up pace and was very much a roller coaster ride to the end. The characters are good, well thought out, It has the typical action movie feel with the highs and lows in the right places but it keeps you interested. After listening to this i ended up getting the whole series.

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An enjoyable cliché

It's a good story which, I assume, sets up the rest of the series. Unfortunately I found the characters a bit clichéd, from their personality to the stereotypical clothing. Overall it was enjoyable but there weren't enough new ideas to make me listen to the rest of the series.

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Really great book

I struggled at first. Greg's narration was a bit wooden. but as Greg relaxed more into the character I started to really enjoy the book. so much so that I've just bought the second book.

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Good idea, bad passing and consistency

The overall idea is good, but the character consistency is bad, many times the characters do things that don't work with the personality that is being presented (there is a passage on the first encounter with the enemies that is cringy to say the least).

The group we met on the end of the book, feels more like teenagers than combat/army specialists.

I liked the idea of arbiters as the peacekeepers and the control applied into the colonies. I even liked some of the whys and how presented. I just think it would


****** very light spoilers ******
The arbiters are introduced as a elite force, but by the actions of the protagonist they just look like very light trained with high end equipment.
Even the way their equipment and capabilities are described don't make much sense, they are capable to deal with a platoon of enemies armed with light weapons, but any shot on the weak spot will pass through the armor, it doesn't seem like the author ever saw a full auto smg spraying bullets.
Also their deduction skills are awful, the amount of time they took to see something was off is bafling.
Anyhow it seems like they wanted to create something amazing as equipment and training, but they had to force some weaknesses to make the story being exciting.
The enemies are always refered as night watch, but by the end it's very clear they shouldn't be just night watch officers.
In the end when Young or whatever his name is didn't answer Tyco call it was cringe an his explanation for that was childish as had no logic.

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One fight/battle after another and another ......

Started off ok. For about 5 minutes. Then it was just one fight sequence after another! For hours!! Literally hours! I just found myself constantly fast forwarding. There is definitely a story in there, possibly a decent one, but it needs to be rewritten with 90% of the fight sequences removed, they are NOT necessary! Greg Tremblay did a decent enough job it has to be said.

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Sloppy and clunky

Interesting story concept, but the execution is clumsy. First half is nothing but run and gun, while the second half is a barrage of information dumps, with too much repetition and nothing really happening, while the story grinds to a halt. These info dumps are interrupted by other characters quipping, joking, or just babbling about random stuff - making them even more drawn out and pointless.

The characters are overly "quippy" and quirky, even when it makes no sense. The main character is incompetent when it suits the story, and suddenly invulnerable when it is needed to advance the plotline.

The writer constantly has to excuse this poor plotting by making the character "remember something", or having the enemies act foolishly because of X, Y, or Z, but it just comes off as not having been planned ahead of time. Too often things just happen, and the writer spends 2 minutes of main-character monologue trying to convince you that it really makes sense. Which it doesn't.

This book could easily have its size cut in half, and nothing of relevance to the plot, characters, or world-building would be lost. I'm assuming the writer had extreme time constraints on getting it out, and was forced to make it a certain duration/size.

The narrator is mostly competent and sounds pretty natural, but has a limited vocal range for voices. It doesn't become much of a problem, though.

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