A disappointing turn towards forgettable schlock

I quite enjoyed the mix of elements in the previous books for a variety of reasons, but at this point most of the premises that made the original trilogy (especially the first book) so compelling. Tanner Malone can no longer wear the mantle of a lucky guy, a tenacious underdog in the right place at the right time: he's more like an invincible juggernaut that the universe contorts to protect. Beating up on ill disciplined pirates is one thing, slaughtering professional military from a supposedly dangerous alien race... just isn't getting there for me. I decided to drop it when I realized I was hoping all the characters would lose and be killed and the aliens would win (I mean, it's their planet after all). The only thing I appreciated was the continued attention towards the significant psychological cost of Tanner's short military career. I might have sucked it up if the aliens were more compelling but they seem... like an extremely lame version of craftworld eldar. They're also shockingly stupid - if not for the surprise and tech advantage hard to imagine them standing a chance, but I guess that's in line with the setup.

I might have still slogged through to the conclusion if not for Tim Pabon's absolutely intolerable performance - specifically, I found his female characters uniformly grating. Worse, he gives virtually all of them embarrassing, unconvincing accents that make me want to claw my eyes out. The one that he gives Naomi is particularly bad, it never stops drifting around. Kiwi? Aussie? South African? He seems to struggle to read the lines and maintain the accent because he reads much of her dialogue with a strange, halting cadence. I didn't count but I think most of the characters are women so it was hard just getting to the point where the aliens were introduced.

Sadly, couldn't refund because I purchased it too long ago being confident this would have the same oomph as previous entries.

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