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

Solid "hard" military sci-fi

The writers that understand that aliens can be alien and not just humans with a different colour skin are few and far in between.
Ian Douglas is absolutely one of them.
Without wanting to give much away, the aliens in this book are simply the most alien I've ever seen them in any work of fiction so far.

This alone is worth getting this book for. Should this writer release a short novel, that is a 4 hour long conversation between a human scientist and one of the aliens about the differences between their species and cultures, I would get it in a heartbeat.
I can't applaud Ian Douglas enough for how interesting the aliens are.

Do you like a good description of exactly how a fictional weapons technology works, and for that technology to be based on real world theories? Get this book.

Are you concerned how an alien civilisation and mankind just happens to be at a similar technological advancement, whereas you would think one side should completely dominate the other? After all, the odds of two races just happening to be at the same level of technology is miniscule, and even a slight difference could turn a fair fight into outright murder. Imagine a 2017 warship vs a 1917 warship.
Well, the writer even has that covered in a descent way.

Did you think uploading a computervirus into the alien mothership in Independence Day was totally plausible? Then maybe this isn't the book for you.

Perhaps a case could be made for lacking character development for SOME of the main characters, but for others it's nicely done.

***This following section is a SLIGHT spoiler about concept, not about detailed storyline or events***
SPOILER BELOW
YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!
***************************************************************************
The fighting is great fun, especially as far as the single pilot fighter craft are concerned. The purpose of the great mighty capital ships is too diminished for my taste, to the point of it being unrealistic. (yeah I know, it's sci-fi)
***************************************************************************Allright, that was my spoiler. That wasn't so bad, was it?

I'm getting the rest of the series without a shadow of a doubt, and will look into what other books this man has written.

But really, I'm hoping for a lot of conversation between humans and aliens in the next books - they really are that alien and interesting!

MEF not M. E. F.

I don't know about future space Marines, but today's Marines pronounce M.E.F. (Marine Exeditionary Force) as Meff, not individual lettets.

Middle of the road

The narrator was okay but I don't feel like this was some of his best work. I have to remember that I listen to books at 1.4x speed so it affects how characters sound but it seemed he was a little more robotic when reading this book.

The book itself was a slog. As others said, the book starts off with one third to half of the book being a single battle. Not much in way of character development. When something would happen to a character, it seemed the author wanted you to care but we have no investment in those characters.

On/in/around Earth they hate and haze people that grew up "primitive", all while fighting with a collective that is trying to force Earth to stop developing specific technologies and trying to keep Earth more primitive. If this is supposed to have some kind of payout in the books, it could be interesting, but with how the first book was paced, I'm not holding my breath.

When we get to hear the aliens talk, the translations are "perfect", until they start talking about time or distance. The number is translated to something we understand but then the measurements of time and distance are "ungtic" or "bloodgrad". I could see how the author was trying to add something more with this, but I found it to be an oddly arbitrary choice and a bit annoying.

Interesting Mil Sci-Fi

Story:
This is a good yarn, and I am currently listening to the sequel. So I like it enough to keep listening. However, I'm not sure I like the science in this book. In my opinion, the author goes into to much detail about the science behind the technology, when some of it doesn't make sense. The author does jump in between three or four characters though and none of them seem to really change or develop throughout the whole book.
Blood and Gore:
This is naval sci-fi so it's pretty hard to throw in blood and gore. I don't remember anything too bad.
Swearing:
This is military sci-fi so there is quite a bit of swearing, but the f-word was only used a couple of times that I can remember.
Sex:
None is described. However, the author does describe how the society in this book looks down on marriage as being old fashioned, and that everyone just hooks up whenever they want to with however they want to hook up with. Also he portrays a world in which officers can have relations with enlisted, and as someone how has studied the military as much as I have I cringe at that. I find it hard to believe that the military would ever do that.
Overall:
I find this a good yarn, but not very believable. Interesting, but not believable. Because of the interesting societal view points discussed I wouldn't recommend this for anyone under 16.

Enjoyable book, good narration

If you could sum up Earth Strike in three words, what would they be?

Fast, future, politics

Who was your favorite character and why?

Grey; He represents what so many of us in modern day America are. There are layers to his character, far beyond the demure savior, far beyond the minority that our modern day republicans are out to destroy, he's a man who would do anything for the person he loved, despite the personal sacrifice.

Which character – as performed by Nick Sullivan – was your favorite?

The Harrouk (sp?.) You just have to love that sound affect.

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

Yes, and almost did. Didn't sleep enough for two nights to be able to read. Add a whole Saturday to that for book 2 ;)

Any additional comments?

I find it very interesting that Ian Douglas, intentionally or not, explored a lot of his own political leanings in this series. Almost as interesting, he is both left and right leaning, at the same time..

Interesting plot and idea, some scientific issues.

Would you consider the audio edition of Earth Strike to be better than the print version?

Overall, the book is good, I'll continue the series, and would suggest it to others.

The "announcements" and "Urgent voice" sections of the book are about twice as loud as they need to be. I found myself adjusting the volume a bit depending on what was happening in the book. It was distracting.

Equalization is a bit off, Narrator has a great baritone voice, but my player (phone app) had this sound odd compared to other books, most sounds above 1kHz-ish are about 5dB down, but then increases again for sibilants. Result is: the bass voice, and ssss's. You can EQ it out so it sounds decent, though.

I normally don't nit-pick the narrators, this one is MUCH better than some I've heard! The production company didn't normalize the volume or went too far with EQ the wrong way.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Earth Strike?

Continually Adjusting EQ and volume while listening (Only had to do that with about 5 other titles, out of over 200)

What does Nick Sullivan bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Yes, soothing voice, clear, and the right amount of emotions make the book more enjoyable (Once you get the EQ fixed)

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

I did listen to this in one day, it's actually very good with only a few parts that cause one to drift off.

Any additional comments?

The only "glitches" are essentially incorrect math in some calculations. As well as using incorrect words for some concepts, though I guess words were chosen to appeal to a non-geek audience. :)

If you are into "Hard Sci-Fi", you may find issues here and there, nothing major that interferes with the plot and story, which is excellent.

The biggest "turn off" is the pro "Global Warming" themes throughout the book, but one can enjoy it and not let it interfere unless the reader is all the way against ideas or not. After all, it is Sci-Fi.

I'd sort of expected some humor in the book, usually humor fits in somewhere in a story, but none to be heard here.

A redundant book that tends to repeat itself...

Where does Earth Strike rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I enjoyed this, especially the space battles, but the author repeated items throughout the entire book. It was almost like each chapter was written independent of all others. You really could start listening anywhere in the book and not be lost or confused. I don't know if this is fully a good thing though. I actually did fall asleep while listening to it and don't feel like I even missed anything.

Too Much Chaff, Too Little Plot Arc

The first third of the story focused on astrological objects and speed of light distances. It seemed like every paragraph was stuffed with Angstrom units this and percent of C that. While these may have been scientifically correct, it was like spewing out distances and arrival times across several international metropolises before getting on with the actual story. Once the story arc began to emerge, even that became entangles with lots of acronyms and futuresque military jargon regarding command structures, ordinance, &c. So much so that one soon gave up even attempting to make sense of it all.

The story itself was somewhat pedestrian as space operas go, humankind being threatened by an galactic alien hegemony. This, in itself, would have been fine if the author had spent more time creating more of a backstory for the primary and secondary characters involved. Instead, except for Lt. Gray, the others were just introduced in the story as Admirals, Generals and CAGs, with barely any backstory associated with them.

I'll not continue this series.

A Great Sci-Fi Storyline that's worth listening to

Excellent story, not so great voices and the narration was dull, too even keeled. It tried to put me to sleep at times ... need a voice with more enthusiasim and one that can change with significance between characters. Otherwise, I liked the story and its far, far futuristic bent that, in some ways, is a bit twisted. Ian Douglas does a great job at writing, Narrator not so much. Overall, worth my time to listen to.

blah

struggled to finish. no good hook to the story until over halfway through. not recommended