A Quiet Revolution

The Cassidy Chronicles, Volume 4

By: Adam Gaffen

Narrated by: Veronica Wylie

Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

How do you end a war you want no part of? Cass and Ken just want to get back to their plans for exploration. That doesn't seem to be in the cards, though, so now it's time to think outside the box.

If the leaders of Artemis won't listen, maybe it's time for new leaders. New tools, new crews, new challenges, but the same Cass and Ken: they're not going to let anything stop them!

"Shooting Star, this is Armitage." "Go, Ian." "We haven't landed on Endeavour before."

Congratulations, Captain Obvious! You just earned your handle. No, we haven't, but she's going to be certified to return to service soon enough. That means we'll be stationed aboard her, not Njord, so we have to be able to land. "Oh." "Sweet lords of Kobol," said her AI quietly but fervently. "They are green. Too bad I can't get out of this ship; I could clear out their bank accounts in a single game of pyramid." "Yup. You could. Now shut up."

©2021 Adam Gaffen (P)2022 Adam Gaffen

Basically Star Trek fanfiction - fun!

Note: As book 4 in the series, it works best if you’ve read the previous books though if you’re a Star Trek fan, you can probably jump right in here and pick it up quick.

Once again, straight up Star Trek fanfiction. It’s fun, fast paced, predictable, uplifting, and I enjoyed the ride. This story takes us on more space exploration and shows us more of the politics going on outside of the Federation. Several side characters are getting more page time too.

As the Federation gains in popularity (because of decent pay, flexible hours, and free health care), the enemies line up. They range from the merely truculent to the aggressively power-hungry evil types. In the past, the Federation has treated their enemies with firm kindness (which I personally thought was going to bite them in the butt), but word got out. Now more ‘enemies’ are considering what life would be like under the Federation instead of their current hothead rulers.

The story is still heavily influenced by Star Trek (Federation, Star Fleet, Enterprise, holodeck, holo-doctor, transporter, etc.). So if you love Star Trek, you’ll enjoy this series. There’s plenty of other science fiction references too, like a minor AI character being named after a Battlestar Galactica character. There’s also a few touches of fantasy, like the dire wolves.

All together, it’s fun. I like it even though it lacks originality. 4/5 stars.

The Narration: Veronica Wylie is new to the series. I know it’s unfair, but it’s also impossible to not compare her performance to the previous narrator (Jane Weatherstone). Wylie’s narration wasn’t bad but it was different. So I had to relearn all the voices for all the characters so it took longer for me to get into this book than the previous ones. Wylie uses some odd New York accent mashups, and they aren’t always clear. What’s up with that Australian accent? That don’t sound right. She gave the Garcia sisters thick NY accents with like Spanish touches, and it just didn’t sound right to me. Aside from that, she was OK. Her male voices were identifiable. All characters had unique voices. The pacing was a little slow but I easily cured that by speeding up the narration just a touch. There were no tech issues with the recording. 3/5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book. My opinions are 100% my own.