Assault Troopers

Extinction Wars, Book 1

By: Vaughn Heppner

Narrated by: Christian Rummel

Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

The Earth died when aliens rained thermonuclear warheads on her cities and sprayed the surface with a bio-terminator. A deadly poison drifted to every corner of the planet, threatening the last survivors with annihilation.

For a soldier in Antarctica like Creed, there is only one way to keep breathing untainted air. He must bury his hatred of the extraterrestrials and join the Jelk Corporation as an assault trooper, leaving the planet for outer space. In return for his and other people's services, the corporation will house the last humans for as long as the assault troopers keep winning.

For the price of living and the chance to save humanity, Creed has to wear a shock chip in his neck - Jelk discipline is harsh - and he has to don a symbiotic battlesuit that feeds off his sweat. Human life is cheap in the vast alien war. The assault troopers are little more than suicide soldiers, but for humanity to escape extinction, they must survive. But Creed didn't agree to the bargain in order to remain a dog to the aliens. He has a plan, and he'll need all his cunning to beat these star born bastards and begin the road to freedom for the human race.

Assault Troopers is a tale of human extinction and ultimate desperation, written by bestselling author Vaughn Heppner.

©2013 Vaughn Heppner (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Good story but poor narration.

The story itself was good. Sometimes entirely too wordy. The narrator just really annoyed me to the point where I skipped chapters and forced myself to finish listening. The main character came off as a big-mouthed jerk to me. That may be due to the way the narrator though. He portrayed the main character as a "tough guy" but is just really didn't work well, at least for me.

Never give up attitude.

just a crazy guy with crazy ideas taking charge and saving humanity after an attack by others aliens.

Really good

The narrator did a fantastic job on this book. The different voices really made it easy to follow the characters

Cool Cover, Great Narrator, Figured I'd Try it

Heppner has written some good books, this is middle of the pack for any post-apocalyptic earth & then the earthlings rise up from the ashes to be the indispensable weapon for the aliens... which tends to be a fall back to many dystopia/post-apocalypse type story. I basically picked this book because I think Christian Rummel is a fantastic narrator, had an interesting cover, & it was authored by Heppner.

The book was not filled with much substance, it had lots of action, lots of suspension of disbelief, & obvious predictability, but was fun. I'm not sure if I would buy the next book if he wrote a second book for this series. The book had the quality of a 'been there, did that, didn't get a T-shirt' vibe. But I knew that going in after reading the short description.

Entertainment!!!

Loved the action, narration at times was lacking, but over all a great listen... I travel a lot so these books are very entertaining and help pass the time. All in all a great time killer

gripping and well told!!!

I found the story to be very well written in the first person. I actually felt like I was there with him! I definitely have to get the rest of the series now....

Action scifi shoot em up!

What made the experience of listening to Assault Troopers the most enjoyable?

Captain kirk meets starship troopers with a generous side of amphetamines. Commander Creed survives and saves the last humans against all odds, he serves payback in a brutal fashion and does not waste more then fifty words on seduction! Gear up space grunts, alien ass will be kicked... This is 12 hour drive material, you wont rewind to catch the finer points of nihilism or existentialism. The heroes are hard as nails and the bad guys deserve whats coming. If you are looking for mind numbing bang bang action this series hits the spot!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Assault Troopers?

none

What about Christian Rummel’s performance did you like?

good diction. Right type of voice for the style

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Bang Bang, boom boom! Run space fiends, commander creed is coming for you!

Any additional comments?

Its just good old mindless action fun!

Interesting ideas, creepy people

First, the good stuff. Vaughn Heppner plots exceptionally well. That is, he sets up interesting situations full of potential excitement and conflict. He also writes well enough. Christian Rummel does his usual highly professional, well-paced narration.

But these aren't nearly enough to save this book. The characters are mechanical, but irrational. They don't relate to each other, except by banging into each other like rocks shaken in a bag. They also behave oddly. In the first scene, the main character, faced with a landing by genocidal aliens, immediately abandons all the people he has been hired to protect (we never hear what happens to them) and stands stock still in the open, weapons untouched, while (a) the alien ship lands (b) the hatch opens and a vehicle emerges, and (c) the vehicle sashays over to within spitting distance. A bit slow on the uptake?

As another listener remarked, it does get a bit better as Heppner gets warmed up -- but not a whole lot better. Not enough better. I finally gave up when the magically intuitive Russian scientist suddenly acquires total mastery of a completely alien technology based on zero data or reasoning -- and for the third time. She's, like, a scientist, man, so she knows stuff, see. That's pretty much all the explanation we get.

Fun

What did you like best about this story?

The best part of this book was the narration. This guy is great. Overall it is a fun story. I enjoyed the fact that I could leave my life behind and get transported into this story.

Any additional comments?

I felt like the author could have developed a couple of more characters better as well as a few situations. There is hints of two more submain characters from the beginning but they was almost dragged along. The scientists did get a little development but much more could have been done. The freighters I though could have been developed more considering the outcome. I am trying not to give too much away. Buy the book, you will enjoy it.

Had potential

Really wanted to like this book, interesting storyline but the writing just did not impress me... narrator did good with what he had to work with.