Exile

By: Glynn Stewart

Narrated by: JD Jackson

Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

A shackled Earth, ruled by an unstoppable tyrant. An exiled son, and a one-way trip across the galaxy. A perfect world, their last hope for survival.

Vice admiral Isaac Gallant is the heir apparent to the First Admiral, the dictator of the Confederacy of Humanity. Unwilling to let his mother’s tyranny stand, he joins the rebellion and leads his ships into war against the might of his own nation.

Betrayal and failure, however, see Isaac Gallant and his allies captured. Rather than execute her only son, the First Admiral instead decides to exile them, flinging four million dissidents and rebels through a one-shot wormhole to the other end of the galaxy.

There, Isaac finds himself forced to keep order and peace as they seek out a new home without becoming the very dictator he fought against - and when that new home turns out to be too perfect to be true, he and his fellow exiles must decide how hard they are prepared to fight for paradise… against the very people who built it.

©2018 Glynn Stewart (P)2018 Podium Publishing

Critic reviews

"A failed rebellion against a tyrannical space confederacy is exiled to a remote corner of the galaxy in this political space drama, the first full novel in Stewart’s Exile series (after the novella Ashen Stars). In the colonized cosmos of 2386, Isaac Gallant, the son of the dictatorial president of the interstellar Confederacy, is a high-ranking officer in the Confederacy fleet. He’s also secretly part of a rebellion against the Confederacy. Alongside rebellion leader Amelie Lestroud, a former movie star, Isaac helps to colonize a verdant planet. Moral dilemmas and political intrigue follow as they struggle to establish a new government on an idyllic world that might belong to someone else. Though there are few complicated relationships, the diverse cast of characters is refreshing, and Isaac and Amelie’s agonies over their growing romantic feelings are convincing. At the center of the story is the human will to adapt to new modes of existence. This fast-paced starfaring adventure succeeds with a thrilling mix of space battles and tender emotions." (Publishers Weekly)

Great political sci-fi

I loved the sorry, good political science fiction is hard to find, and colonization stories aren’t much more common. That said there is an element of military sci-fi that’s sort of forced in, a genre I like too.

I wish Stewart had been confident in her ability to wright a story without navel battles. However the book is great and defiantly worth the purchase!

had me hooked from the beginning.

this is a type of space Opera I really enjoy. great character development a wonderful story and the performance was great, highly recommended

good book, only a few minor issues

I like the book and story as a whole which allowed me to forgive the use of the word "chuckled" making it feel like every conversation in the book took place between two Santa Clauses.

Giving exotic matter a name would probably not have hurt either.

(minor spoiler) at one point they want to create a modern constitution, and their idea of that is some kind of shitty first past the post voting system, its a little thing but it bothered me.

enjoyed very much

characters that are easy to like. just right amount of sexual tension. interesting problems with mysterious aliens. looking forward to book 2.

good book

I liked this story. it kept me on edge for the most part. Actually kept reading as long as I could at a time

interesting start

l have enjoyed listening to the first book of this series, and look forward to listening to the other books.

very good read 👍 i am sure this will be a movie

i really enjoyed the thrill of find other things out of this world. i think it is a great long drive type of story that will be fun for child and adults alike

Enjoy the story

I enjoyed this book because it was not extremely predictable, it had a couple of nice little unexpected twist.

Pretty good show...a few minor nits to pick

I hadn't heard/read a book by glynn Stewart and narrator JD Jackson before. Like many who listen to these sci-fi adventures, my favorite narrator is easily RC Bray. JD Jackson was definitely a step down from Bray, but few are in his GOAT level. Still Jackson was pretty good overall. I had to raise the speed to 1.05x otherwise it dragged a bit too much. That has resolved several other narrators who literally put me to sleep. Jackson wasn't that bad. But he often also read it like he was reading to elementary school kids...and then F bombs would be dropped and it was kind of jolting. Not a great combination imho. Instead of the dialogs and voice narration keeping things edgy and engaging (a la Bray), language and increasing speed were required. Personally I'm not a big fan of language but its not a deal breaker when done somewhat tastefully. This book felt like it didn't need it at all or certainly scaled back to some less offending shish kabobs instead of fire trucks! ;)

Overall the story line was very interesting and engaging for the most part. Fairly unique story which I always appreciate. When you think about the book offline (while not listening or reading) then to me thats the sign of an engaging book, story, and universe. I found myself wanting more and couldn't wait to hear what unfolded next, daydreaming about what I had heard last time...all good signs. In that sense the book was on par or same ballpark as Galaxy's edge, ruins of the galaxy, and even a much more condensed way like expeditionary force series. Well done overall. I'll definitely get book 2. Hopefully the narration and dialog will improve in book 2 too.

4.5 stars overall rounded up to 5!

Good story, odd narration.

The narrator has an odd cadence and pauses. He does well otherwise with his performance.