"Decent" Military SciFi

Devon C. Ford pens well-planned and well-executed realistic Space Military fare:

• Book One ('Recon') introduces the United Nations International Defense forces: largely stationed on the Moon and powered with tech like Singularity generators, giant Mech suits & cybernetic Android soldiers. It introduces the futuristic technology (including humanity's first experience with FTL travel) & follows a power struggle (and Civil War) between political factions within the alliance.
While advancing thought-provoking plausible Science, the book is disappointingly heavy on nuanced intrigue and annoyingly cerebral.
• Book Two ('Contact') picks up the story five years later, where 'Kyle Torres' - UN Peacekeeping Force officer - is posted to the Captaincy of the Star Ship 'Ichi' and spearheads the discovery of two Alien Species. The UNPF allies with the peace-loving, empathic 'Kullan', while going to war with the aggressive 'Va'alen'.
This second installment does a better job of providing & describing action, but remains far too preoccupied with behind-the-scenes power plays and military protocols.

Bottom Line: While the writing is capable, the pacing is awkward, attention paid to military command structure is overdone to a yawnworthy extent, and the plot never really captivated me.

As to presentation: Luke Daniels does an admirable job injecting true-to-life voice-acting into a text that demands dozens of accents among the United Nations forces - and Podium Audio sound engineers provide exemplary technical support - but Daniels also takes injudicious deep breaths frequently, delivers a couple of questionable cartoonish character interpretations, struggles with realistic female voices, and makes it quite clear that he's reading a book lying open on his lap at times. The performance is adequate but unspectacular.

Altogether, the audiobook merits 5.5 stars out of 10. I won't personally be continuing with 'The Expansion Series', but it could grab you, I suppose. As for me, it was a serviceable distraction for a couple of quiet afternoons as a 'Plus' offering.. but save your Credit for something else should they ask for one

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predictable

the story, not unique in any way, makes the listening nothing you'd want to ravenouly consume but a slog

the listen , although predictable, was only made worse by the cartoonish narration... I've heard worse, but if you like kafer's narration style, you'll love this too

I would never have purchased if it wasn't included, so I guess a good audible find

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Interesting but not

I really like the space opera as a genre but this book seems to gloss over a lot of crustal details. Good narration although the narrator could do a little work on the female characters.
You may really like it but I won’t be continuing the series.

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