Dark Matter Empire

Book 1

By: Alex Zadeh

Narrated by: Paul Heitsch

Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

A galactic, sci-fi listen, with a hint of litRPG elements.

Ryan Stathis has everything he ever wanted: A family, a nice home, and a career with a government agency designing military aircraft. That is, until one late night at the office ends with him being snatched by an alien spaceship, and he's forced to take command.

Thrust into a new universe, Ryan unknowingly holds the key to the one thing standing between Earth, and it’s annihilation.

Dark Matter Empire is the story of one man’s journey, as he evades an alien empire's grasp, while searching for a way home. Will he succeed, and return to his old life? Or will humanity pay the price for his failure?

©2022 Alex Zadeh (P)2022 Alex Zadeh

Not a LitRPG

I just want to say that the book was good, not great. I won't be getting the next book unless I am supremely bored. I feel like I was mislead with some of the genre tags for this book. I am an avid listener of LitRPG and sci-fi. This is what lead me to purchasing this audiobook. The only somewhat gamer thing that happened is the MC has an spacial inventory. That is it. Not once did I feel the audiobook even hint at something actually litrpg like.

I also had issues getting started. It just did not capture my attention and found myself having to go back a few minutes multiple times.

Great start to this new series!

It’s not often I find a book from a new author this good. This series has potential to become amazing. It’s not that original but has great characters and a good storyline and I’m looking forward to the next book in this series. Paul delivers amazingly as usual!

All the dots connected

Every little hint in this book has a connection. Great job by this new author who knows aerospace quite well. Well done

Great Narration, great first entry from author

The narrator did a bang up job with this book. Its an enjoyable romp and sci-fi escapist story for all those ppl that not only want to save the world, but save the galaxy too.
My one criticism is Ryan's dialogue, it almost comes off oddly compared to other character's dialogue. He's got a bit of a golly gee shucks type of way of engaging with the world that comes off almost unintentionally funny.
Its only 8 hours long, easy for that long day long car trip.

Awesome plot and character development

The main character is forced to make some huge decisions that make for an entertaining journey. The chapters switch to the villain often which makes it fun and suspenseful

Narration on point too

star wars meets gaurdians

exceeded my expectation, easy to follow and full of action, loved the villian he is so deep minded

Difficult start but well worth sticking through

The first hour was hard to get into but it gets so much better. Initially the protagonist just seemed extremely whiny. Hard to connect with, but eventually develops into a well rounded character. The end left me wanting more. I'm looking forward to the next release.

Lasted about an hour

The protagonist did not do this story a service. Whiny, panicky and annoying.

The way I interface with stories is through the protagonist. I self insert, experiencing the story through them.

I lasted an hour under those parameters.

That says it all, really.

Narrator and story don't mix

Couldn't finish the audiobook nor return it. Narrator is just not right for this reading. Plus the story is not gritty enough. The main character having been ex-military just isn't believable in his role. Says too many dumb things and doesn't react like an ex-marine. Maybe the story gets better, guess I'll never find out. It's just bad.

MC is too dumb

Couldn't get past the first couple chapters. Nothing is thought out and MC logic is just so dumb it was hard for me to get past and care about the story.