Crossover

Cassandra Kresnov, Book 1

By: Joel Shepherd

Narrated by: Dina Pearlman

Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Crossover is the first novel in a series which follows the adventures of Cassandra Kresnov, an artificial person, or android, created by the League, one side of an interstellar war against the more powerful, conservative Federation. Cassandra is an experimental design - more intelligent, more creative, and far more dangerous than any that have preceded her. But with her intellect come questions, and a moral awakening. She deserts the League and heads incognito into the space of her former enemy, the Federation, in search of a new life.

Her chosen world is Callay, and its enormous, decadent capital metropolis of Tanusha, where the concerns of the war are literally and figuratively so many light years away. But the war between the League and the Federation was ideological as much as political, with much of that ideological dispute regarding the very existence of artificial sentience and the rules that govern its creation. Cassandra discovers that even in Tanusha, the powerful entities of this bloody conflict have wound their tentacles. Many in the League and the Federation have cause to want her dead, and Cassandra?s history, inevitably, catches up with her. Cassandra finds herself at the mercy of a society whose values preclude her own right even to exist. But her presence in Tanusha reveals other fault lines, and when Federal agents attempt to assassinate the Callayan president, she finds herself thrust into the service of her former enemies, using her lethal skills to attempt to protect her former enemies from forces beyond their ability to control.

As she struggles for her place and survival in a new world, Cassandra must forge new friendships with old enemies, while attempting to confront the most disturbing and deadly realities of her own existence.

©2006 Joel Shepherd (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Just not my type of book

What would have made Crossover better?

The reader read either too quickly and/or without enough inflection to the point that I zoned out. The story wasn't appealing. I must not have read the book summary closely. It's a story that I wouldn't have liked. Not my kind of sci fi.

Would you ever listen to anything by Joel Shepherd again?

No.

How could the performance have been better?

See above.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Crossover?

Stopped after 30 min. Couldn't answer that.

horrible

If I could give this negative stars, I would. Terrible computerlike narration. Empty wordy story.

good idea bad writing

I like the idea of the novel. But the writer fails completely to make a real woman character. For example the main character Sandy is this near God like unstoppable killing machine. But she is also apparently a horny porn star who would fuck whole rooms of dudes at drop off the hat.

I just couldn't buy into this character or the other female characters, he didn't have a clue when writing them.

Utterly pointless

Just couldn't bring myself to listen to the end - quit about halfway through. Plot is non-existent. The only thing that could possibly qualify this mess as "sci-fi" is its setting - presumably another planet in the 26th century. The content can best be summarized as "author talking at you". Initially, for the first third of the so-called "book", I was waiting for some semblance of a point to begin appearing... That never happened. I figured I'd try to stick with it anyway, but it became so mind numbingly boring that I could no longer force my self to pay attention. "Mindless drivel" is the most concise way to describe this "book". Can't even begin to express how happy I am to be allowed to refund this purchase.

Crossover to a Different Book

Crossover starts with a very interesting premise and begins with some real promise as Cassandra, an android, assumes a new identity and tries to start a new life as a civilian in a new society rather than as the soldier she has been. However, just as the story starts to roll out this idea of an android created to be a warrior who has philosophical problems with the war and wants to pursue normal human relationships, work a civilian job, and visit art museums, that whole story abruptly ends. Cassandra is captured and co-opted by her enemy and the entire remaining book (all but the first chapter) is unnatural dialog, incoherent political ruminations, and ridiculous sexual discussions/thoughts (although very little actual sex), and a few good fight scenes that Cassandra inevitably wins. The book would have put me to sleep if it weren't for how very aggravating Joel Shepherd's depiction of adult women is. Cassandra is an engineered humanoid designed to be the ultimate of the HK series (hunter-killer) so my assumption would have been that an android designed to be a warrior wouldn't have any inclination for sex. However, I could buy into Shepherd giving his androids a sex drive (his world after all), but for the fact that Cassandra's model type is imprinted with actual human brain patterns. In that case, Cassandra should think about sex the way a real woman does, not like a 15 yr. old boy does. Think I'm exaggerating? Here's a sample, you decide. This is Cassandra's internal monologue at one point (verbatim), "Damn, give her good food, nice surroundings, and a decent hard shag at least 5 times a week and she was happy. Let the universe rot, she just wanted to get nailed." The actual human women in the book aren't much better and certainly don't ring true as believable characters. Cassandra has a great deal of angst over the politics in her world and how much she loves art although she's a soldier, but in truth, the android doesn't actually seem to care a fig about anything but sex and fighting so the moral/ethical conflict of a thinking/feeling android used for fighting doesn't come off at all. And, I didn't give a flip about Cassandra either. She's a male fantasy - beautiful, smart, strong, and can't get enough sex (oh and of course, very skilled at sex) - she's not a real character. She's supposedly made of some super bio synthetic material, but to me she seemed to be made of cardboard. Her human compatriots aren't any more fleshed out either. You don't really see much political action, just characters thinking about it and talking about it and it's a bit simplistic and convoluted. And, the internal monologues are long, frequent and tiresome.

Dina Pearlman is OK as the narrator. As a previous reviewer noted, she does get better as the book goes on. But this is just not a good book, so it's hard to get too excited about the performance of it.

Thumbs down on this one - don't waste a credit!

Well that was mind numbing

What about Dina Pearlman’s performance did you like?

She did the best with what she was given, I hope they paid her well.

Any additional comments?

The book was frustrating to get through. This is what it felt like listening to it: little bit of plot – protagonist explains sex life – little bit of plot – protagonist is questioned about sex life – little bit of plot – protagonist has fond remembrance of sex life – little bit of plot – protagonist has sex and explains about sex life to sex partner – little bit of plot – protagonist calls co-worker and jokes about sex life before telling vital information strangely connected to sex life. While I have never been a teenage boy, it felt like I was being pulled into the mind of one at times and it was difficult not to stop rolling my eyes over and over or at one point bash my head on my desk. It was soooo tiresome, so boring, and so repetitive.Another point of irritation about this book is that it takes place on a plant in the far future, however all the architecture on the planet is exactly like present day earth. There are districts that divide the place the protagonist lives in and they are labelled something like (not kidding here) “Old earth Chinatown”, “Old earth Spanish District”, “Old Earth India”, “Old Earth Whatever with that old earth architecture, music, food, language”. The rest of the place is made up of glass and cement. Seriously. I wanted to like this book. Some of the ideas have already been done, but they were still interesting. The plot had potential. If 90% of the sexual thoughts were cut out of the protagonists head and it was filled with a bit of depth she would be far more interesting and relatable. The only reason I have not asked for my money back was because I wanted to write a review to warn others who have similar tastes in SciFi, against buying this. However if you do ignore me (like I did with the other reviewers) it will really make you appreciate the genuine talents of other Scifi writers out there.

Disinterest is a horrible thing

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

This was a sad experience, seemingly licentious wish fulfillment on the author's part. This character had promise, unfortunately it was to some other story.

What could Joel Shepherd have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

That's a good question, and one I cannot answer without sounding brutal and harsh.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Dull reading voice and rather monotone in delivery.

What character would you cut from Crossover?

This question may be a bit off point, since it wasn't the characters that were at fault but the narration of their lives.

Any additional comments?

Sad to say, not my cuppa, but I'm sure there are those out there that would enjoy this type of writing style and delivery. Just not me. Best of luck in the future to the author and the narrator, though.

Horrid

The narrators approach is mechanical. I could get past that but I just can’t stand the sexual element of the story line. I loved the author’s other series but this one makes me want to vomit. It’s like some hormonal teenage boy put together his wildest fantasy of creating a hot android female and all she wants to do is have sex. When the human female character she made friends with then started having sexual feelings toward her I called it. Can’t finish it. It’s all so irrelevant to the story. It’s gluttonous. If I want to read a trashy sex novel I will read that Gray book whatever it’s called.