Forbidden The Stars

The Interstellar Age Book 1

By: Valmore Daniels

Narrated by: Dave Wright

At the end of the 21st century, a catastrophic accident in the asteroid belt has left two surveyors dead. There is no trace of their young son, Alex Manez, or of the asteroid itself.

On the outer edge of the solar system, the first manned mission to Pluto, led by the youngest female astronaut in NASA history, has led to an historic discovery: there is a marker left there by an alien race for humankind to find. We are not alone!

While studying the alien marker, it begins to react and, four hours later, the missing asteroid appears in a Plutonian orbit, along with young Alex Manez, who has developed some alarming side-effects from his exposure to the kinetic element they call Kinemet.

From the depths of a criminal empire based on Luna, an expatriate seizes the opportunity to wrest control of outer space, and takes swift action.

The secret to faster-than-light speed is up for grabs, and the race for interstellar space begins!

©2010 Valmore Daniels (P)2014 Valmore Daniels

Do yourself a favor and actually read the book!

The narration is terrible! The guy has about 4 voices, no depth, can’t do passable accents, and is boring to listen to with all the useless technobabble the author decided to put in. The narrator uses an electronic device to change his to be the computer voice...maybe Hux is the futuristic Siri/Alexa but that effect was more annoying than helpful. I had to stop this book after about 20 minutes and come back to it after finishing another book. Tried it a second time for another 20 minutes and still had to stop and go to another book. 3rd try, I forced myself to listen to it but it took me two weeks to finish a book that should have taken me a few days on my commute to and from work.

The story is ok-ish, I liked the premise and that’s what kept me with the story, as terrible as the whole thing is. So, because I am invested in the story I’ve purchased the second book. Sadly, it has the same narrator...and I’m sure the narration will be just as bad!

Okay, but I won't be finishing the series

The story itself is okay, but nothing to write home about. None of the characters were developed well, and, though it held my interest, it ended on a cliff-hanger that I have no interest in following up. The narrator didn't have a wide-enough array of voices, and most of his accents (e.g. French, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish) were awful.

Mismatch of narrator vs. book

While the story is very intriguing, the narration is lacking fervor.
Narration is rather flat and lacks interest. the narrator has good ability to differentiate the characters however the storyline narration sounds like reading textbook history.

Good start. Poor end.

Nice start to the story. The last third of the book seem hurried and not finished.

Sound at chapter change enough to drive me nuts

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No The annoying sound at chapter beginning is awful (distracting)

What did you like best about this story?

Plot and story ok but drowned out with horrible new chapter sound

Would you be willing to try another one of Dave Wright’s performances?

Only if the new chapter sound is not there

Do you think Forbidden The Stars needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

It would be nice, but I will not try unless awful new chapter sound is gone

Any additional comments?

Remove new chapter sound!!!