Annihilation

Love Conquers All

By: Saxon Andrew

Narrated by: Liam Owen

Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Annihilation: Love Conquers All offers humor and a tale of enduring love against the backdrop of galactic war on a grand scale.

Tag, an exceptional young human living in Central City on the planet Earth, tries to keep his powerful, one-of-a-kind skills undetected by leading an ordinary life and staying under the radar. But one day, on the way home from school, Tag's compassion leads him to make a decision that alters the course of his life - and history.

The Alliance of Worlds, which includes Earth as a ruled non-member, has decided that humans are to be annihilated as an example to anyone who discovers an ancient alien technology, even though there is no proof against them. The Alliance thinks fifty thousand warships can do the job. Unfortunately, the humans are not cooperating with their plan and one young human who has fallen in love will change everything...

In this epic story, author Saxon Andrew takes us into the future and the lives of human and nonhuman characters alike. Along with a hearty dose of battles and spaceships, this is a story that offers humor and a tale of enduring love against the backdrop of galactic war on a grand scale.

©March 2011 Saxon Andrew (P)2014 Saxon Andrew Publishing LLC

It shines in its battles. The love story not so...

much. The human stories are too simple and are almost non existant. The sci fi is good, alien voices are a little cartoon like. I enjoied it anyway and will try the next book in the series.

Great start

Liam Owen is a fantastic voice actor, doing Science Fiction can’t be easy. I am happy. I have a really good start to a good book.Saxon Andrew is new for me and it’s looking like a winner

Made Me Realize How Jaded I've Become!

I should have HATED this book! "Should Have"... Within the first 30 minutes, I THOUGHT I knew how this plot was going to play out. Typical "Good Versus Evil, On A Far Future Earth"... I rolled my eyes and thought, "Maybe it'll surprise you.. At least keep listening until you go to sleep"... Didn't Sleep AT ALL That Night!!

I SHOULD HAVE Hated this book, because a young man with "Special Powers" goes WAY 'over and above' to help people he had NO REASON to help, other than "It was the right thing to do", even at a HIGH cost to himself, Every time...

...This, on a future Earth where EVERYTHING about your future is decided BEFORE you're even old enough to TRY to better "Yourself".

Your parents get divorced? Then YOU can't marry because your genes predispose YOU to have the tendency to "Produce Children and then frivolously divorce YOUR spouse". Basically, "The Sins of the Father (or "Parents" in this case) are visited upon their Children"

Don't do well enough in your School's Mandatory Tests that show your "Probable Abilities In The Future"? Then AFTER you graduate, you're stuck in a menial job with no chance of ever doing better...

And then the young man with 'Special Powers', grows to develop "SUPER POWERS!" And the Earth's Police Forces, with their BRILLIANT Investigators, assisted by their Special Scanners, Cameras, 'Truth Fields', etc, placed EVERYWHERE "To keep the Population under control", try to track the young man down for, well, 'No Good Reason'. Which SHOULD BE especially crazy, considering that GANGS of Murdering Thugs seem to be able to freely Murder masses of innocent people at will, and never get caught... Yet the Police hunting the young man for 'No good reason', hunt him by making THE WILDEST "Crazy Assumptions and Guesses" about things they COULD NOT POSSIBLY know, and coming up with scenarios that they ALL admit COULD NOT POSSIBLY be true... Except that ALL of those Wild, Crazy, 'Not Possible', Assumptions, just happen to be EXACTLY "The Truth"! ... I SHOULD HAVE Hated this book for THAT alone!

Yet... When other "More Advanced" Races describe "The Human Population", they keep describing us as "A Very Peaceful Civilization, with NO 'War-Like Tendencies'..".. THAT is when I realized how jaded I have become.. I mean, "Humans are ALWAYS described as War-Mongering and Evil".. Right? I kept backing the book up to make SURE I was hearing things correctly.... Yup... WE are "A Peaceful Race That DOES NOT Wage War On It's Neighbors".. WTH???? Well, It seems that WW3 was so horrible, that NO ONE wanted war any more! And so ALL Movies and entertainment shows are made where life is great, and people fall in love, and the ending of nearly ALL entertainment shows is some version of "and then they all died in Nuclear Devastation". So in the future, we HAVE become a VERY Peaceful Race, All things considered.. Not "Perfect", but "Peace Loving" and we DO NOT want War with ANYONE, unless FORCED to defend ourselves!

Yeah... that all seems confusing on MANY levels.. but somehow, the Author makes it work! The longer you listen, the more you begin to understand that what you "Think" are inconsistencies in the plot-line; AREN'T! You just don't know enough about Human Culture 800+ years in the future... Yet! At some point as you Listen/Read, You'll realize that you're applying our 20th and 21st Century Values and Thinking, to "A Culture In The Far Future with VERY different Values and Thinking!"

I usually Dislike "Super Heroes that are nearly invulnerable".. I mean "What's the point of the plot if the Hero can't be harmed?"... OK, now make the Super-Hero become a 'SUPER SUPER Hero', AND throw in a "Gift" of "God-Like Special Powers"... And then realize that while the Earth's Policies and Governments are FAR from "Perfect", that MOST people genuinely ARE 'VERY GOOD People' who WANT to help each other; So the Limitations placed on people by "The System", CAN be overcome by good people doing good things when 'a wrong' comes to their attention.

....THEN we find out that the Earth's Technology is UNIMAGINABLY Superior to even THE MOST Advanced Races, who have always considered themselves "Our Overlords"... We're so pathetic in the eyes of those other races that we aren't even worthy of joining their "Alliance of Advanced Ruling Races"...

Humans have just grown to dislike War so badly, that we kept our Superior Technologies and abilities to ourselves, and we let the SCORES of 'Galactic Overlord Races' think whatever they want to think about us... We'll even take a LOT of crap from them, and obey their unfair edicts they issue to us... "As long as they leave us alone"...

But OF COURSE they don't leave us alone! So they get to find out WHY we don't like war... and THEY won't like 'War' any more either, after they figure out how exceptionally GOOD we USED TO BE at waging it! Just because "We Choose NOT To", doesn't mean "We CAN'T"! The 'High-Technology Aliens' who evolved on Hostile Planets and LIKE to Fight and Dominate each other (and everyone else), just haven't had the time and experience yet to learn what WE'VE learned from OUR time of being "War-like" in our distant past!

A VERY good Twist on "Races", and "Warfare"... and FOR ONCE, "WE" are the Highly Superior, Peaceful, Benevolent, Race! I had to listen to the whole book TWICE, Back to Back! Once with my 20th and 21st Century Values and Ways of Thinking, and the second time with "800+ Years In The Future" Ways of Thinking!

Someone else gave this book low ratings because it was unbelievable that a 17 year old young man went from "A Nobody, to being the Top Dog and an expert at War in just a few years.. too unbelievable!"... I think we need to remember that 'Alexander The Great' was a GENERAL by age 17, Assumed the Throne of Greece at 20, had created the largest empire of the ancient world, built HUGE new Cities and made changes to Human Culture that STILL shape our world today by age 27, and was bored with life and had run out of 'worthy goals' before he was 30! His innovations in Warfare are STILL taught in military academies today! It DOES happen!

A Thoroughly Entertaining Story

What did you love best about Annihilation?

It was an uncomplicated, but imaginative and well-told story that moved along very engagingly. Just the right mix of humor, action, and syfy.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. I laid in bed until after 6am to finish the story.

Any additional comments?

The voice effects were particularly clever and well-done. This was the first audiobook production that I have ever listened to that made the effort to do this.

I have listened to over 200 audiobooks and this is the first time I have been motivated to write a review. I am concerned that without sufficient encouragement I may never see the remainder of the story written or produced.

Great Space Opera!

This was a great adventure, with lots of action and heart. Thought the narration here was outstanding!

BEYOND exceptional!!

If you love scifi and Enders Game them you will love this author. AMAZING Author!!!!

Very good read, good concepts but poor tactics

This book was a very good read. Sometimes funny, lots of action and space opera. Not always consistent but it works. Unfortunately don't get your hopes up. The second book is all platitudes and Kumbayah drivel. The whole premiss is the problem with the middle east in a nut shell. This author I'm sure believes if they would only understand each other they would immediately embrace and live in peace. Yesterdays enemy is immediately friend just by a few words. The space opera also becomes less and less believable as the books go on. My advice is read book one, hope you enjoy and don't waste your credits on book 2. I'm sure not going to get book three until I see reviews that say he's back to story and not platitudes. Bullies are bullies, loving them doesn't stop them from bullying weaker targets when no one is watching. Integrity is doing whats right when no one is looking, Bullies don't have integrity and can't be trusted.

E. E. Doc Smith Has Returned

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Purchased this audio book purely on the fact that a couple of previous reviews made comparisons to the E E Doc Smith and his great space adventure books. I wasn't immediately convinced but as the story rolled on it hooked me and now I want more. No hard sci-fi here...just a fun story and high adventure with some original and novel tech to drive the military aspect of the story. I'm now hoping that Audible picks up the rest of Saxon Andrew's works. (C'mon Audible...please make it SOONER and not later.

What did you like best about this story?

Just a good fun read without the long winded technical crap. Good story that pushed a lot of emotional buttons.

What about Liam Owen’s performance did you like?

Took a LITTLE getting used to but overall quite satisfactory and he did add quite a lot to the emotional part of the story.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I have to admit that the emotional scenes tugged on the old heart strings harder than most other books I've enjoyed.

Any additional comments?

I've been hoping and praying that another author would come along with the style and sense of adventure that E E Doc Smith displayed in the Lensman series. I know this is only my first Saxon Andrew book but think (at this point at least) he's got a new fan in me!

great series

highly recommend this series listened to all of them still waiting for the rest to come out...listening to this second time around

seen better writing on free sites

The idea of the story was good but the writing seemed amateurish. Story had potential