Flight of the Javelin

The Complete Series: A Space Opera Box Set

By: Rachel Aukes

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Length: 27 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Get the Flight of the Javelin box set, featuring all three books in the Amazon best-selling series. Space opera action perfect for fans of Jay Allan, Jennifer Foehner Wells, and JN Chaney.

Fifteen years into a 20-year voyage, war veteran Captain Throttle Reyne is looking forward to taking a break from dealing with malfunctions, glitches, and the hassles of monitoring a thousand colonists in cryo-sleep.

But when her colony ship breaks down in the middle of nowhere, Throttle and her crew must leave the colonists behind to search for help. They find a ship that's not only missing a crew...it's clearly not from their star system.

It's the discovery of a lifetime. All they need to do is tow the mysterious vessel back to their colony ship for further study, and Throttle won't ever have to work again. One problem. While they're away, the colony ship is stolen - with the colonists still on board.

Throttle gives chase to a lawless star system on the outer rim. To get their colonists back, they must take on the pirates and ganglords who will do anything - and sell anyone - to make a buck.

They play dirty. But Throttle and her crew play dirtier.

Don't miss your chance to experience this space opera thrill ride in this special edition omnibus. Fast-paced, action-packed, and full of unforgettable characters both human and alien.

Books included in the set:
Book One: Black Sheep
Book Two: Free Station
Book Three: Rogue Planet

©2020, 2021 Aethon Books (P)2021 Aethon Audio

It’s ok

Some good. Some bad. Was worth a listen but not worth a read kills time.

great series. let down at end.

It was a good series and I liked the characters. Ending is bad. it was like they were setting up for a 4th book. but it's been 3 years now so I doubt it's coming. Is the narration was awesom Although I thought it was weird that with female narration it had so many male characters.

Well done sci-fi with great narration

While I enjoyed the 5 book omnibus that came before this in the series and which was a bit more Firefly-like, I think this 3 book follow up is even better and am quite impressed with the female narrator's ability to switch between female, male, AI and neutral narrator voices.

I do wish the author had reduced the repetitive "she said" statements after quotes as when spoken out loud it is jarring especially when multiple characters of the same gender are speaking with each other in rapid fire phrases. Mixing it up a bit by replacing pronouns with names and using other verbs would be smoother like
she said
Susan replied
The pilot retorted
she asked
or occasionally putting it at the beginning of statement like
She asked, "what do you think".

It's a nitpicky comment but there are many sections of dialog that go like this:
"short phrase", she said.
"short reply", she said.
"are you sure?", she said.
"yes", she said.
With such good voice narration it's easy tell characters apart by pitch and accent so in quick action scenes with tension and excitement a bunch of "she saids" in the neutral narrator voice breaking up a string of short statements in character voices sort of pulls you out of the excitement.

I hope that another series exists or will soon be created to explain what happens next and tell a lot more about Macy.

I love the way this author tells a story.

Excellent story and a excellent listen. I highly recommend this for anyone who loves science fiction.

a truthful review

iv been listening to sagas series for a while now iv herd some really great audio books and some blaaaa type story's. what I liked most of this was for one Rusty was a great character 👏👌 spot on idea there to include the Javalin as more then just the ship of the story. there was not a hundred something characters to get to know eather its kept small or it seems each character had there own. time in the story not making the tale about just one person view but the crew and the enemy are easy toe Learn and get. these books kept you going along with it the whole series you will be interested In the happenings. the whole story goes together even tho some things are left open or. unfinished business in some not many but some spots. the narrative was great Woo has that voice that makes listening easy although sometimes I did have to backtrack because of how well it all flows but that's not a bad thing that's just me wanting details. the ending. I'm just not going to talk about because that would just be wrong 😕🙃 so go give it a listen I think all for all this is a winner 🙌 5 stars well earned.

Closer to screenplays than books

This still gives good value for a three book, space opera run. However, this runs like a screenplay. Screenplays are outlines that gets right to the dialogue, with minor plot points/directions (exit stage left). Screenplays then rely on the visuals of the actors, costumes and sets, along with differing voices, sound effects, and clever dialogue to take a story concept from interesting to full package. Unfortunately, here there isn't much clever dialogue. The visuals, backstories and universe are thinly written. The plots are
TV level-straightforward.

After three books, I couldn't tell you the color of any characters' hair or skin (except that the A.I. has an Irish brogue because...? no reason). Most characters have 1 quality and only any backstory if its necessary for the story. Throttle: bum legs and veteran (and the leg issue is ignored and contributes nothing by book 2). Burke: former pirate (no, none of his former days are ever described). Chief Rue: Grizzled old guy. Eddie: tech schlub. Mutt: ruthless gutter-rat king.

I liked the concepts and plots, and give the author props for being willing to sacrifice major characters, but all the way through and I never came to care for the characters, victories, or losses. Contributing to the bland picture was the narration, which played like the annoying volume control issues between TV shows and commercials. I've liked Ms. Woo Zeller in other books (and she does a phenomenal kid voice in book 3), but she has this tendency to whisper the story, then yell the dialogue, then whisper the story; depending where I kept the volume the narration either lulled me sleep or hurt my ears.

Finally, there's a Flash Gordon epilogue in book 3 that sets up an apparently never forthcoming book 4. Frankly, not sure I'd listen to a book 4 unless it was on sale or part of another 3-pack.

For better military action with a legless veteran, go with books 2-5 of Extinction Cycle by N Sansbury Smith (books 1-6 can be had in two collections, and the series ends at book 7, but the original arc of five books is the best).
For space opera, stick with the Firefly series or try the Fallen Kingdom series by L Buroker (little campier, but a lot more engaging).

"Complete set" is a misnomer.

With about 2 hours left in the 3rd book I realized this will rush to get finished or will not be the last book in the series. I'm glad the ending wasn't rushed but I'm disappointed that the series is not complete and according to the authors website she hasn't started book 4 yet.
The story was highly enjoyable and the performance was excellent.

And the stakes keep rising.

Since I already reviewed the first 2 audiobooks individually, I'll touch on the last one here. Great voice acting - she really sounded like a young girl when needed. Skip the epilog if you don't like cliffhangers. Has a bit of a problem that I don't know the solution for - conversations involving several people have a lot of ".. said" which can get annoying.

I was given this audiobook for free and have voluntarily left this review.

Very enjoyable 💚

Each book progressively got better and it was good to begin with. Great story, imaginative writing and narration was soot on. I'm looking forward to what happens next.
I was kindly given a copy of this audible book at my request and am voluntary leaving a review thanks Aethon audio

Very good, with a couple flaws

I read a few reviews before starting this, and I guess this is in response to a couple of them. This is a very interesting, if somewhat flawed work. I feel like it's merits outweigh it's flaws though.

I like that the lead is a woman with a disability. It's the god damn future, so why not, and I enjoy getting a new viewpoint now and then.

I also just enjoyed the characters interacting. I love A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, and while I wouldn't put this quite on that level, it still has that feel of being about people doing stuff and being together, while in space. Life is so much more than just saving the world for millionth novel.

The action was engaging, it was always interesting to see what might come next. People came up with solutions, heroes got hurt and suffered consequences, it never felt like what people was doing didn't matter, even if they did need a friend to swoop in and save the day at the last second.

The weaknesses aren't really overwhelming. The author could use the word "said" like 80% less. That would be great.

As a trilogy it doesn't have the most triumphant, everyone stands and gets a medal from the princess end. I read in other reviews that there was supposed to be another book, but I'm not surprised there isn't. The story of the Javalin as it was is over, and while there's huge, nearly insurmountable, problems ahead, it's hard to imagine the current crew having a deciding part in the whole affair. Sometimes we aren't actually the main character in the universe.

I guess my finally comment would be that with such a large cast of characters, some of the voices used to differentiate the minor ones are... a little silly. Not deal breakingly bad, but noticeably not the best I've ever heard.