• Counterstrike

  • Black Fleet Trilogy, Book 3
  • By: Joshua Dalzelle
  • Narrated by: Mark Boyett
  • Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (8,304 ratings)

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Counterstrike  By  cover art

Counterstrike

By: Joshua Dalzelle
Narrated by: Mark Boyett
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Publisher's summary

Captain Jackson Wolfe never thought he'd see the end of the Phage War in his lifetime. The enemy was too powerful, too numerous, and utterly determined to exterminate humanity.

But the appearance of a new ally in the fight has changed all of that. For the first time since the original incursion, Wolfe thinks that maybe there's a chance to stop their implacable enemy before they have the chance to wipe out any more human planets. That opportunity comes at great cost, however, and even as he makes plans for their first offensive move on the Phage, Jackson is all too aware that most of them will not survive.

©2015 Joshua Dalzelle (P)2016 Podium Publishing

What listeners say about Counterstrike

Average customer ratings
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    6,230
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    1,703
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Awesome series!

I loved it! I loved the entire series! Mark Boyett could narrate an instruction manual for my Ikea furniture and would gladly listen. The story is engaging and the characters are easy to relate to. I haven't listened to many of Joshua Dalzelle's books but I will definitely start now.

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8 people found this helpful

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

A 'meh' ending.

Wraps everything up, but as predictably as possible. Not a terrible end to a trilogy, but each novel is slightly weaker than the last.

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5 people found this helpful

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

You knew the ending before the book started.

Wont give it away but it is one of those books after half way through the second book the "Big reveal" in book three was not surprising. This was a let down. Other than this it was not a bad book Mark had yet another great performance it was just the story was a bit lack luster.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Satisfying trilogy closer

Counterstrike is Joshua Dalzelle's 3rd and final installment of the Black Ship Trilogy. With human forces now focused on addressing the alien invasion and coming to understand the nature of their new alien allies, Captain Wolfe remains unique as the only human who has experienced any contact with the phage which places him in a unique light with their new allies. He becomes privy to the background of Robert Blake and his crew as well as the humanity's place on the galactic pecking order. Wolfe's main character attribute of following his gut rather than his orders, forces him to go rogue and end the phage conflict in his own unique way. At the same time, he learns the frightening origin of the phage themselves and its implications for humanity.

The sci-fi elements are in line with the earlier installments with a greater focus on alien biology and intelligence. Dalzelle creates a striking juxtaposition of a super-intelligent race unable to defend itself nor contemplate genocide against an intelligent predator species without regard for alien intelligence. Wolfe recognizes this dichotomy leaving him and the listener to ponder the possibility of a third way. The battle scenes are quite well done with humans recognizing the inevitable impossibility of fighting a hive mind mentality from the outside that results in Wolfe's 'hail mary' attempt for closure. Overall, this installment is more cerebral than earlier ones and ponders the various possibilities for future human evolution.

The narration is solid with an excellent range of voices of both genders. Alien conversations are particularly satisfying without the more typical nasally or psychomotor retardation renditions. Pacing and mood are appropriate making for an easy listen.

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4 people found this helpful

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

The wrap up to a decent but not spectacular space opera

Compelling story and compelling characters. unfortunately there were a couple of major issues. Air Force Colonel Blake’s character arc was somewhat disappointing. Blake said he had 16 or 17 compadres. But we never got a chance to meet them. But more importantly - nobody asked where were they? Other than those issues it was a decent story and I would recommend it to anybody who loves navy in space.

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2 people found this helpful

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

3 Ed book disappointing

First two had everything. But zero story here. It should have been handled in one chapter author used functions of ship as plot… clamps cannons torpedoes were substituted for story.

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2 people found this helpful

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

Under-whelming

The story premise felt like it had promise, but I feel like the author failed to deliver. What could've been a very interesting tale of interstellar warfare felt like it was dealt with in a half hearted manner. Not enough time taken to elaborate. Battles that were described as taking hours gave me no sense that they actually took that long, they felt like they took a handful of minutes. Disappointed, and will not listen to again

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2 people found this helpful

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

And finally the interesting part is here!

That's the problem - the author has tried to made a trilogy, when he could put all of this content in to 1 or max 2 books and write further development of the story. In general that's the most interesting book from the trilogy, but still the chatty filling content is too much. I highly recommend the author to re-think the way he makes new books - I get that the commander has good management skills, but I get tired of listening the same commands he give over and over again.. who cares - we are not ship commanders and we are not so much interested in the so detailed way the commander controls the ship. That kind of development is kinda slow and not so fascinating. There are times when I was forcing myself to listen to the book, while with other authors I simply crave to have free time and listen them.
M.Boyett - one of my favorite narrators, simply amazing job, especially in this book, where the chat is a lot and many voices are required.

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2 people found this helpful

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

Had to get through it

I originally got a refund for this, before seeing a spin-off series and going back to buy it again. It's painful to listen through, as a series that has been grounded in reality and the collective war effort takes off on a journey of "one person needs to kill one little thing" that makes Hollywood movies so bad. Whatever else this series and book has going for it, I personally cannot justify going down that route. I only hope the spinoff series will be better.

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2 people found this helpful

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

Loved the series

Had listened to several of the Heppner and Larson series and liked them. Saw that Mark Boyett narrated this series so I thought I'd give it a try, listened to the series straight through and enjoyed every minute.

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2 people found this helpful