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Darkship Thieves  By  cover art

Darkship Thieves

By: Sarah A. Hoyt
Narrated by: Kymberly Dakin
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Publisher's summary

Athena Hera Sinistra never wanted to go to space. Never wanted see the eerie glow of the Powerpods. Never wanted to visit Circum Terra. Never had any interest in finding out the truth about the DarkShips. You always get what you don't ask for. Which must have been why she woke up in the dark of shipnight, within the greater night of space in her father's space cruiser, knowing that there was a stranger in her room. In a short time, after taking out the strangerwho turned out to be one of her father's bodyguards up to no good, she was hurtling away from the ship in a lifeboat to get help. But what she got instead would be the adventure of a lifetime - if she managed to survive.

©2010 Sarah A Hoyt (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Darkship Thieves

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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    88
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Story
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A Heinleinian woman

You have to love a heroine named Athena Hera Sinistra. By the end of the first chapter, we've learned that our 19-year-old protagonist is the terror of everyone she's ever crossed paths with, capable of beating up professional mercenaries singlehandedly, and has a rack that makes men stop to stare in the middle of a crisis. A little Mary Sue-ish? Well, some of her preternatural abilities are explained later in the book, but yes, we've got some serious Heinleinian wish fulfillment going on here.

"Heinleinian" is not necessarily a bad thing. Darkship Thieves reads a lot like an homage to Heinlein's classic space operas, with hyper-competent, rather ruthless but ultimately moral protagonists sharing pithy words of wisdom and vaguely libertarian sentiments while kicking bad guys in the crotch.

Athena Hera Sinistra is the daughter of a Patrician, one of the "Goodmen" who rule Earth as an oligarchy. Spoiled, tempestuous, brilliant, beautiful, and dangerous, and with some series Daddy Issues, she finds herself seemingly being kidnapped aboard her own father's space yacht by his mercenary goons. She escapes, doing plenty of damage in the process, and runs into the "Energy Tree" that someone centuries ago created to float beyond Earth orbit and grow "power pods" which are harvested for Earth's energy needs.

Okay, the science is a little dodgy.

Athena gets picked up by one of the legendary "Darkship Thieves," who steal power pods and flee back to their secret base in the outer solar system. Carried off by the superhuman genetically-enhanced cat-man, Athena begins what is of course an inevitable kiss-kiss-slap romance with our futuristic space highwayman. She learns about their advanced asteroid, "Eden," run along vaguely anarcho-libertarian principles, and begins to become integrated into their society. Then her boy gets captured while making another power pod run, and she has to go back to Earth for a confrontation with Daddy Dearest, in which we learn all kinds of deep dark secrets about Earth's real history and Daddy's sinister plans for his little girl, and an entire gang of space biker allies is introduced in the final act.

Darkship Thieves was a fun romp. The writing is just okay and the story was, as I said, largely rehashed Heinlein, with a stronger romantic element, but if you like classic SF, this is a fairly well-executed tribute.

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6 people found this helpful

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

Two hours into it I had to give up

Would you try another book from Sarah A. Hoyt and/or Kymberly Dakin?

No

What could Sarah A. Hoyt have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Move along the plot and make it seem less like a female soap opera fantasy in space.

What didn’t you like about Kymberly Dakin’s performance?

Her voice reminds me of every arrogant, swarmy socialite elitist I've ever met. Rubbed me the wrong way.

What character would you cut from Darkship Thieves?

I didn't finish it.

Any additional comments?

Pretty horrid.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Painfully boring and obvious

I barely finished this book despite some nice references to Henlein's work. I guess author wanted to re-make "Friday" but that did not go all too well. Nice ambiance, first half of the book goes OK, second half is very bland. All in all, I did not think it was time well spent.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Fun original sci-fi

While not perfect, Dark Ship Thieves is a refreshing fun and original sci-fi with a charming female protagonist and great reader.

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3 people found this helpful

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

Oh boy....and not in a good way

I really have no clue what to think of this book. I don't rate things a 1 star unless i reeeeally didn't like it but this was borderline. Rich seemingly privileged brat who happens to have near paramilitary training stumbles into a huge conspiracy with someone very near to her at the center of it. I really didn't care about the characters. I kept picturing the male character (i forget his name to be honest) as a Khajiit which only made things weirder. From the flying broomsticks to well basically everything i didn't care about this at all and am glad the whole experience is over. To be fair though, this is not my typical read and am not the most reliable source for a scifi review.

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2 people found this helpful

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

Science Fiction Romance

First off, the performance by Kimberly Dakin was excellent, I felt it captured the voice of Athena incredibly well.

And that voice is also my key caveat with the book. The middle section was very tough for me to get through. I was drawn into the book by the initial sections doing solid world building, the glimpses into the future history of Earth and developments within the solar systems, laying promise for the rest of the book. I also found the early Athena to be a bit of an acquired taste but after a few chapters got into it all.

And then I was dropped into a Harlequin romance! It was only my hope to get some answers about the future history and developments there that kept me going through the middle of the novel. I thought the third "act" was mostly a good return to the initial form, although possibly a bit rushed in the denouement.

Solid enough 'ending' to make this an acceptable stand-alone book but clearly also a setup for a sequel.

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2 people found this helpful

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

I enjoyed the book

It was a good book, and enjoyed it. The main character had a lot of spice and was destructive in her thoughts, which I liked.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Darkship thieves

I absolutally loved it. Lots of excitement, action/adventure and I loved the ending - the story concluded well - though I could see where it was going ahead of time, there was still a surprise at the end that really made it moving (which I didn't see coming). I'm not going to say anymore on the end, so I don't spoil it. This book is for anyone who loves scifi's and adventure (and of course romance). It's something I would listen to again.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Horrible narration

I could not listen to this book, i managed to hang in there for 30mins but gave up due to the poor and almost inaudible narration. It's a shame because i've heard good things about this book. I can NOT recommend purchasing this audio book.

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2 people found this helpful

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

Loved It!

Any additional comments?

Really enjoyed this book. The story is great and the narrator is really good. Winner all around. On to the next in the series!

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1 person found this helpful