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Fluency  By  cover art

Fluency

By: Jennifer Foehner Wells
Narrated by: Susanna Burney
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Publisher's summary

NASA discovered the alien ship lurking in the asteroid belt in the 1960's. They kept the Target under intense surveillance for decades, letting the public believe they were exploring the solar system, while they worked feverishly to refine the technology needed to reach it.

The ship itself remained silent, drifting.

Dr. Jane Holloway is content documenting nearly-extinct languages and had never contemplated becoming an astronaut. But when NASA recruits her to join a team of military scientists for an expedition to the Target, it's an adventure she can't refuse.

The ship isn't vacant, as they presumed.

A disembodied voice rumbles inside Jane's head, "You are home".

Jane fights the growing doubts of her colleagues as she attempts to decipher what the alien wants from her. As the derelict ship devolves into chaos and the crew gets cut off from their escape route, Jane must decide if she can trust the alien's help to survive.

©2014 Jennifer Foehner Wells (P)2014 Jennifer Foehner Wells

What listeners say about Fluency

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Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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    826
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 2 Stars
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Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    731
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    545
  • 3 Stars
    313
  • 2 Stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Concept, Loved the Story... I Want More!

I went into this book already loving the concept of the story. I was pleasantly surprised that even though I thought I knew where the story would go, but there were plenty of twists, turns, and surprises in store.

Summary with very, very minor spoilers (How else can I describe the storyline):

The book focuses around a female linguist with extensive experience in field and emergency situations (although she tries to suppress those life experiences). As an expert in the field of languages and communication, a former leader of a team in a first-contact situation with an isolated human tribe, and possessing a demonstrated ability to manage stress and react to emergencies, she is the first candidate chosen by NASA for a top secret mission.

As part of the story, it is revealed that the Roswell crash was actually a shuttle from a much larger ship located in the asteroid belt. The huge ship has been seemingly abandoned for decades, now floating dead in space. After recently discovering that a comet is on a direct path for the ship, NASA sends a mission to the ship before the comet can destroy it. The mission is meant to be the first of two. The first is to survey what is there and report back so that the second mission will be prepared. The main character is along to take charge in the event of a first contact situation with anyone still left on the ship.
After arrival, a single survivor makes contact with our linguist... in a rather unconventional way. We also come to find that the entire crew was killed by some kind of bio-weapon. Only the navigator, a somewhat different being than the rest of the aliens, survived alone for the past several decades.
Without giving too much of the storyline away, we also eventually learn that the aliens in question are members of a coalition of intelligent life that are united against a single threat, and had originally visited earth in search of allies.
The book did end, as I expected, with a cliffhanger... It is definitely set up for another book to follow. Although I am always irritated when there is more story to be told past the end of a book, but it will make me look forward to the next one (PLEASE let there be a next one!).
As I said, I went through the book thinking I knew what was around the next turn, only to be gladly proven wrong.

The narrator does a pretty good job as well. While isn't the best narrator ever, the narration felt believable enough for a 5-star rating, although I probably would have given a 4.5 if possible.

I think that there were a few issues in writing style and execution in a few small places, but I loved the rest of the book so much that I couldn't warrant giving anything less than 5 stars. I almost couldn't stop listening, and that's what I want in an audiobook.

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42 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

I "drug" myself away as quickly as possible.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Someone who knows little about SF and doesn't mind horrible grammar.

What was most disappointing about Jennifer Foehner Wells’s story?

The hero, Jane, is supposed to be a linguist. Apparently, Foehner doesn't know that linguistics is an analytical, structural science, not a savant talent. Jane is not a linguist; she is a polyglot. The concept is old: a linguist on a first-contact mission who translates and empathizes with the aliens. But in Foehner's novel, the alien AI communicates psychically--in English! So, a linguist--Jane--is useless; any other character could have filled the hero role. At one point, a character "drug his eyes away from" an instrument panel. I "drug" myself away from this novel by the end of chapter 4, and wish that Audible still allowed returns and refunds.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

An old, but excellent concept. Many SF writers have used linguists for first contact and made the stories exciting. Perhaps Foehner should have read more of them, especially H. Beam Piper who investigated the possibilities of General Semantics for solving human-alien communication problems.

Any additional comments?

I won't be buying the sequels. How could other listeners think that this novel is 5 stars?

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38 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Hindered by romance angle, entertaining though

When NASA’s secret small team of specialist experts reach the derelict alien BDO (Big Dumb Object) in Arthur C. Clarke’s “Rendezvous with Rama”, the reader got a fabulous tour of soaring wonder and possibility. When it happens here, we instead get the inner monologue of an adolescent girl-crush which is frequently interrupted by some space opera. There is a heavy dose of romance in this debut novel, and a lot of wish-fullfillment that makes far too much of the plot predictable as our protagonist, expert (and civilian) linguist Dr. Jane Holloway, overcomes a series of challenges that stem from the less capable (and military) men that accompany her. I found parallels with Gary Gibson’s “Stealing Light", which also features a heroine in psychic possession of an alien derelict starship, as well as James Cameron’s “Aliens”, which had similar survival-horror action scenes. Here in “Fluency”, Jane is too consistently successful for the dramatic tension to build sufficiently, and the other characters seem accessory. The pacing is greatly improved by a second flashback narrative alternating with the main one, providing both exposition into the mission as well as depth for the character. I felt like the opportunity was missed to create a wildly alien culture, finding instead a slightly varied flavor of humanoid Star Trek style beings, although a wider field of cosmic players is alluded to. Foehner Wells’ forthcoming follow-up novel, “Remanence”, will hopefully delve into these more imaginative possibilities, and downplay or even forego the romance altogether.

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Fluency is anything but fluent

I'm not the kind of person who will rate a book badly if I hate a character, find it too gory, or didn't like the ending. My sensibilities are not easily offended, and I understand not every book is for every person. However, I do rate books badly when they don't work. Fluency is a fine example of a book that does not work, for a number of reasons.

Do you remember the Hyperion series? I appreciated, but didn't love, Hyperion, because when it comes to sci-fi adventure novels, I'm in the "don’t tell me, show me" camp. Long, drawn out histories of peoples or characters I've never met and have no investment in? No. Just no. Give me space exploration, with some real-time and compelling action, maybe with some solid science as a foundation, and I'm good. Spend chapters spinning millennia of tragedy for random civilizations, and you're guaranteed to lose me.

Thus was the case in Fluency. The writing was off, the intensity fell flat, and the character development was charicaturish. There were back stories, but they were unbelievable and seemed to come from a 14-year-old's hero fantasies. And the telepathy-as-a-tool-for-telling-half-the-novel thing was B.O.R.I.N.G. It's hard to craft a compelling story when it's mostly one lonesome and whiny being revealing everything in one woman's mind. There were so many devices used in this book that didn't work, I can't and won't list them all.

Fair warning to those looking at the description: this is not hard science fiction. I live for good hard sci-fi, and this in NO WAY resembles it. I kept having to talk myself into returning to the book, and finally at halfway I remembered I have 200 books with actual potential waiting. Abandoning this meh of a novel was then a no brainer.

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Mysogynists, Beware!

Misogynists, beware! This is a sci-fi story written by a female with a female narrator and two major female characters. If you find that threatening, just skip the book and save yourself having to write a scathing review.

That said, on to my review. I really enjoyed Foehner Wells' first book. I am always looking for a great first contact story, and so many seem to disappoint me for one reason or another. This one had an entirely different feel to it and it gave me much to think about in between listening sessions. The storyline has been well-summarized in the book description and in other reviews. I will forgo doing it again.

While this story has some flaws, I feel that I can forgive these, as it is Wells' first book. With its current success, I feel she will read her critical reviews and acquire some more knowledgeable go-to folks for more detailed scientific and maybe even weapons info. I tend to give a fiction story a bit of leeway and don't get really picky, if I really enjoy the story line and come away satisfied. After all, it is FICTION.

Some reviews have warned of an abrupt, unsatisfying ending but oddly enough, I really liked the ending and the twist that came with it. I am certainly open to a sequel! I also want to add that I did not find an exceptional amount of swearing, as some reviewers did. As for the sexual thoughts, at first I was a bit put off. But I began thinking of what a two-year space mission would be like. I just cannot imagine folks turning off their sexual feelings and needs for that period of time. So after some thought, I realized this was pretty realistic. For me, it did not add to or detract from the story. As for the other characters, I would have liked to see a tad more character development and am hoping it will come with the author's next book.

The narrator did a good job and gave me no complaints. All in all, I found this an enjoyable, satisfying listen and I look forward to a lot more from this author.



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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

This is barely sci-fi.

First up, I liked the narrator. Good work, good voice.
Spoilers ahead.

The story, however, I found really annoying. Poorly researched. Irrational and petty characters. Throw in a few cliches. Tech introduced merely as a story convenience rather than with any coherent planning. I wanted to see them all die in an explosion, but unfortunately I missed out.

This is a romance, mills and boon, bodice ripper, that happens to be set in space. But only 1 sex scene.

This is a story of trained astronauts who break rules and act like dicks. And then get infected with a virus that makes them act like dicks.

This is a race with scheming enemies who use nanotechnology to kill. But they only program their sneaky bots to kill 1/2 the species on board ship.

It's okay if you suspend disbelief and don't think too hard I suppose. This story just annoys me.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

If you are looking for a cerebral science fiction

This has happened to me in the pas and still I have no good reason why. The cover artwork caught my eye and then I had to listen, quickly adding to my audible wishlist. Then a couple weeks later Jennifer Foehner Wells decided to have me review it. I took it as a sign that this is going to be an amazing low tech science fiction spaceship exploration.

Fluency started off great. A NASA mission, sending modern astronauts to explore an alien spacecraft that they are hiding from the public. So many thing could be on the ship, awe inspiring technology, not to mention strange new life forms.

The summary says “The ship isn’t vacant, as they presumed.”, but really it almost is. There is one being, the ships navigator who just happens to be integrated into the ship, that only communicates via “telepathy”. Through this we learn of the alien race and why they have come looking for Earth.

If you are looking for a cerebral science fiction story, Fluency will be right up your alley. However if you are seeking a story full of fantastical technology and action, this will fall short.

All in all Fluency is story full of fully vetted characters. A little love, a little intrigue, and a lot of introspection. While I wasn’t full engaged throughout I am interested enough to see where the author will take this alien journey.

Susanna Burney’s performance left me wanting more. Characterizations were done, but barely different than the narration. I would have enjoyed it more if there would have been more distinct voices for everyone involved. Along with that it needed some emotions injected to everything. While this is a perfectly ok was to present an audiobook, I prefer more depth to the performances.

Even with all of that I look forward to hearing more from Burney. From the search I did on Audible it would seem that she is fairly new to the audiobook world. I have found, through listening to a ridiculous amount of audiobooks, that it sometimes takes a while for a narrator to find a solid voice or for my initial opinion to change.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Time to learn a new language!

If you could sum up Fluency in three words, what would they be?

Fascinating
Rich
Engaging

What other book might you compare Fluency to and why?

This was a unique take. Maybe some of Ben Bova's or Alistair Reynolds work. Why unique? Well, the proantagonist is a female, which is unusual in speculative fiction, generally speaking. Her take on the story line was certainly unusual as well.

Which character – as performed by Susanna Burney – was your favorite?

The alien was unique, and well crafted. A difficult character to bring to life, and she did it well.

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

Not extreme, but it certainly made me think about some of the issues raised in the back story.

Any additional comments?

This is one of those stories that really does both grow on you, and sticks with you. It is also seems to set up a sequel, which would definitely be welcome. It was a credit well worth spending, and as long as you are into alien oriented scifi, I recommend this with no hesitation.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Embarrassing

Would you try another book from Jennifer Foehner Wells and/or Susanna Burney?

Based on the characters of this book, no.

Would you ever listen to anything by Jennifer Foehner Wells again?

Unlikely. The synopsis would have to be VERY compelling.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The voice performed did a fine job, I have nothing negative to say regarding this aspect.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The general concept was stimulating.

Any additional comments?

Most of the characters were paper thin story props with little or no depth. Character reactions were easily predictable and more often than not, simply embarrassing.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

There better be a book 2

loved the story and concept of it. well written and entertaining. The narrative was done excellently

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6 people found this helpful