Earth Strike

Star Carrier, Book One

By: Ian Douglas

Narrated by: Nick Sullivan

Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

The first book in the epic saga of humankind's war of transcendence.

There is a milestone in the evolution of every sentient race, a Tech Singularity Event, when the species achieves transcendence through its technological advances. Now the creatures known as humans are near this momentous turning point.

But an armed threat is approaching from deepest space, determined to prevent humankind from crossing over that boundary - by total annihilation if necessary.

To the Sh'daar, the driving technologies of transcendent change are anathema and must be obliterated from the universe - along with those who would employ them. As their great warships destroy everything in their path en route to the Sol system, the human Confederation government falls into dangerous disarray. There is but one hope, and it rests with a rogue Navy Admiral, commander of the kilometer-long star carrier America, as he leads his courageous fighters deep into enemy space towards humankind's greatest conflict - and quite possibly its last.

©2010 William H. Keith, Jr. (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers

entertaining

The story starts out slow, but it finishes with a bang. Too much explanations like the author wad talking down to a child though.

Great Book!

The story is captivating though there is a lot of minor details (all the scientific measurements and stuff) that once you learn or learn to ignore make the book hard to put down.

Good book at times

The story and pacing are really good. The only thing I didn't like was that it was very science oriented so it Har to stay focused on the story

If you love hard sci this is the book for you

It has a good cast of characters, Nick Sullivan is a top flight narrator. It mixes politics, religion and military hard sci. And honestly I wish the White Covenant was a real thing.

It was ok...

Yes, my very lackluster headline reflects my experience with this book. The story is very heavy on the tech elements, and light on character, plot, and story. Douglas and Sullivan do a great job of explaining some very heady physics and military science concepts. These academic concepts seem to take priority over the narrative. It's unlikely I'll give the rest of the series space on my iPod.

Long narrative, short short story

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No, the book goes through in detail how technology of space combat could work - but it utterly fails to engage. Characters are flat out boring and you simply don't care if they die or live to the next page.

What could Ian Douglas have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

More depth to the characters

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

it suprises - but is very uneven.

Did Earth Strike inspire you to do anything?

no

awesome story!!

loved it and recommend it to anyone who loves space and sci-fi lots of great tech details that really make the story suspenseful. if you don't like details like that I think you will still enjoy the rich story and the good character. also the main ship is called The America so that I'd reason enough to give it a try :)

Slow start but good!

Started off a bit tedious with the introduction to military acronym's and explanation of space movements. Once I was dialed in it was a blast.

Star Carrier Battles

Admiral Koenig and his Star Carrier battle group, America, fight two major battles against Sh’daar client species. Their opponents are more technically advanced and significantly outnumber the Earth battle group. Strategy and tactics are similar to those of WW II aircraft carrier groups in 3 dimensions. Most of battle descriptions focus on fighter space craft.

Character development is limited, focusing on Admiral Koenig and LT Grey, one of the America’s fighter pilots.

The author thoroughly describes sci-fi technology employed by the antagonists, such as the Alcubierre warp drive. The author references original sources of technology concepts employed.

Dripping with unrealized potentail

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I love space based sci-fi which is what lead me to this series. This story's revolves around a central flawed individual who eventually becomes the unlikely hero. The author does a good job building our hero's past and weaving it into the story. There wasn't any point that I wished we could have sped this along to get to the space battles. Unfortunately it is the space battles where this book falls flat. There is a lot of time devoted to the minute details of the tech, which is cool, but in the end the overwhelming and seemingly invincible enemies are easily turned away.

If you’ve listened to books by Ian Douglas before, how does this one compare?

This is my first Ian Douglas book and where I won't be listening to any more in this series he is a gifted author and I would give another book a listen.