Daring

Kris Longknife, Book 9

By: Mike Shepherd

Narrated by: Dina Pearlman

Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife leads a reconnaissance mission of the vast uncharted regions of space. No one, least of all Kris, expects to find a hostile alien starship. Now, she must determine the extent of the alien threat - and whether to start an interstellar war.

Listen to another Kris Longknife adventure.

©2011 Mike Moscoe (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Opening shots for a new intergalactic war!

Chris Longknife seems to have a knack for finding trouble... this time, it's bigger than a moon!

HOLY S***

This book has the highest stakes of any of the books so far. Without spoilers, I will say that this is by far the best of the Kris Longknife series so far, and the payoff at the end is amazing!

Gripping

This is book nine in the Kris Longknife series. The book opens with King Ray and Princes Kris in disagreement over her next assignment. Kris wants to explore beyond the rim of space. The problem is disrupted because the Admiral in charge of Intelligence invited seven planets to join with Wardhaven to find out what is happening to the Iteechee ships that are disappearing. Needless to say Kris it put in command of this mixed fleet to explore the problem.

Kris and the small fleet discover entire worlds have been slaughtered and razed, stripped of their resources. The perpetrators travel in heavily armed, moon sized world ships, and tend to shoot first and never ask questions.

They discover another Alien world (the bird people) directly in the path as are the Iteechee and Kris’s world of United Societies. Kris decides to stand and fight with the new Aliens, but not all of the fleet agrees. So the story get interesting, the battles are vicious and people die. Everything in Kris’s world changes; what will this do to future episodes of the story?

Shepherd takes a risk of upsetting the status quo to make big changes to the story line. Shepherd provides a risk taking plot, lots of actions, space battles, and a thought-provoking moral question into a great story. Nellie and her children of super computers play an even bigger role in this episode. Dina Pearlman narrated the story. I enjoyed this story.

FUN!

Another action packed, great dialogue filled Kris Longknife story. Lately I was feeling the volumes were one half continuation of the previous storyline and the other half the next storyline. But in this book the story is dedicated to find the BEMs(Big Eyed Monsters), kill them and get back home.

As usual Kris finds herself in heap of trouble and barely finds her way out. I hated loosing some people I have come to like during the past novels, but that's the price you have to pay when you associate yourself with one of those "damn Longknifes" I suppose.

For those of us rooting for romance in Kris' life FINALLY there is a tiny tiny romantic scene. I do hope there is going to be something in the next volume, although they got separated.

All in all another great addition to the series!

Wish i could give more stars.

Can't wait for the next book. Starts slow, but ends very fast. Kris is all grown up and seeing her grandpa (the king) as a real man.

Exacting listening. Lots of action.

Couldn't"t stop listening.. Great interaction between Kris and Vicky, Captain Kratz, other characters and other something. Death defying, non-stop action.

Awesome Sci-fi series

I am writing this because i think it is one of the best series books out there. Mike Shepherd always tells a good action packed story. This one has a female lead and she has some great friends that are willing to die for her and what she stands for. The narrator Dina Pearlman is also one of the best !!
ALWAYS REMEMBER TO READ THE BOOKS IN ORDER.

Exciting

With this 9th book, Shepherd manages to keep the plot interesting and moving forward. There are some big issues with characters behaving inexplicably (e.g., Admiral Kratz goes from loving father of two girls/thoughtful man to impulsive, intractable, and a bad role model for Vicky) that frustrated but the space battles were quite entertainment enough to make up for it. I listened to the Audible narration and the narrator (who does the entire series) is consistent and makes it easy to distinguish characters.

Story: Kris wants to get as far away from the politics as possible - and ends up going into uncharted space to try to find what is killing Iteechee ships. What she finds is unimaginable: a moving alien civilization whose mission appears to be to destroy and then devour all life and resources on planets they encounter. Worse, the aliens shoot first, won't communicate, and are on a trajectory to destroy a world bearing bird-like sapiens. Can Kris turn away and let the world be destroyed or does she start a war with a civilization that produces world-sized battle ships?

The book had an interesting trajectory of Kris finding a world that had been obliterated fairly recently and then the alien ship that did the destroying. Although she has the Peterwald destroyers as well as some battle ships from her grandfather, they are tiny compared to the behemoth they would have to fight if they want to save that world. She also has civilians on board in the form of Cara and the boffins who make the decision even harder.

The running joke is, of course, that Kris is constantly being told not to start a war but always seems to be doing so. The battles this time were quite exciting and there was also the thrill of the unknown alien prowess (rather than the usual villain just being stupid and full of hubris (read: Peterwald)).

There is more character development, especially on the relationship between Kris and Jack. But also Vicky learning from Kris (for good or bad) and how each character reacts to the threat/how they should deal with it.

In all, I am still enjoying the series. It's not high literature or even high science fiction. But it is a nice diversion, especially in audiobook format.

Fluff, but fun fluff

Would you listen to Daring again? Why?

Not likely. This isn't exactly great literature.

Would you be willing to try another book from Mike Shepherd? Why or why not?

Unoubtedly, I'll read the next one. They haven't gotten any better, but they also haven't gotten noticeably worse, and they are exactly what they're advertised as. ;) Fine for listening while swimming or on the stationary bike. But too empty for when I'm knitting.

Have you listened to any of Dina Pearlman’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

About the same. Her performance on these is good, but not great.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

hardly. But it keeps my interest enough to help make it easier to get back on the stationary bike the next morning.

Any additional comments?

Frankly, the characters need to start to grow and change. They're getting a bit stale. I'm good for maybe one more of these, but if it doesn't get any better, I'll give them up.