Gehenna Dawn

Portal Wars, Book 1

By: Jay Allan

Narrated by: Liam Owen

Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Book One of Portal Wars, the new series by the author of the bestselling Crimson Worlds series...

Jake Taylor was a New Hampshire farm boy who wanted nothing more than to marry his girlfriend, work on the farm, and maybe one day write a great novel. But mankind was fighting the alien Tegeri and their bio-mechanical cyborg soldiers, and UN Central needed men…men to go to war on hostile worlds far from home.

Jake wasn't given a choice, not a real one. He found himself torn from home and family, conscripted for life and shipped to the planet Erastus to take his place in the battle lines, never to return. Erastus was a sweltering inferno, called Gehenna by the condemned men sent to fight there. In the blasted deserts and steamy jungles of this alien hell, Taylor and his cybernetically-enhanced comrades fight their never-ending war.

As Jake survives battle after battle, he rises steadily through the ranks, giving all to the desperate fight to save Earth. But endless combat in hell carries a cost, and Taylor feels his faith slipping away. He begins to question much of what he's been told, things he'd believed all his life, and the more he learns, the greater his disillusionment grows. He can feel the madness building inside him, slowly taking control.

But when he discovers the ultimate betrayal, a secret more horrific than anything he'd ever imagined, he must decide who is the real enemy…and how to contain the fury and lust for vengeance that threatens to consume him. How far will he go to destroy the true evil and right a horrendous wrong? And if he does what he must to prevail against overwhelming odds and win the final victory, will be become the very thing he has sworn to destroy?

©2013 Jay Allan Books (P)2014 Jay Allan Books

Good story

I liked the story and narration quite a bit. Not my favorite military sci fi but good. I will definitely read more of his books.

This world isn’t believable

The story is ok. The narration is generally good, but the accents and dying characters need work. The biggest issue is from and immersion aspect this story doesn’t work. The UN world government is too evil to exist. It’s something out of a tin foil hat, Qanon subscribing wet dream. What’s worse is that the developing world “drives” this government’s formation. It’s a bit of joke and kills the story. Would have better to go with ineptitude or a more plausible reason for a lot of the justifications for the war policy. Sorry but this system would have folded in reality after 6 months.

Just a way to pass the time

This is poorly written and full of contradictions. But it you have some time to kill and you can get the book for free — go for it.

Too much preaching and anti UN propaganda

I love military sci-fi. I'm sure most read it looking for action and characters we can sympathize with. The author ruined the story with way too much internal dialog about the bond of warriors and the evil world government. Then the warrior turns into a Facist killer.

Terrible editing, sometimes ludicrous voice acting

I'm not a review kind of guy. I like reading them, but I'm far too lazy and self-centered to write them. However, with this book I felt I had to comment: The editing is extremely sloppy. A chapter will end, and without a heartbeat between them the next will beginThe effect is extremely jarring. See what I did there? Yeah, you noticed it. Pretty annoying, yeah?

Secondly, the narrator does caricature "ethnic" voices. It was irritating at first, but when he jumped into his "Super Mario" voice during the italian soldier's dialogue, it became so horrible I didn't know whether to laugh or simply stop listening. Thankfully, the passages where the narrator attempts ethnic dialects are generally very short.

Thirdly, the narrator is far too enthusiastic in playing up the emotions of the characters. The grunting and the silly voices I can really do without. Just.. read the book aloud, man. That's all we really need.

This book needs to be sent back to the editor, and Liam Owen needs to go back to school.

A pity, because I rather enjoyed the story line, even if the main character comes across a little childish at times and rather reminds me of the curious nature of the main character of BV Larson's Star Force series. There, I constantly expected him to suddenly blow a fuse and declare himself a living god, he's such a pompous ass. Here, the main character simply seems to believe he is the son of a living god.

Allan and Larson are both quite evidently casting themselves as the main characters. A fine trait in a daydream, but slightly less useful in litterature.

Glenn Beck and the future Alien War

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

The book offers little to the genre with each piece of tech better introduced and implemented in other books. Here we have an ancient race leaving gates for us to travel to other worlds - heard that one before? What turned this book from average to below is the over the top portrayal of the United Nations as some Naziesk institution taking over the world and using a trumpted up war to do it. It's right out of right-wing radio.

Would you be willing to try another one of Liam Owen’s performances?

Yes, I thought that narration was fine.

I could not keep my focus on the book

I could not keep my focus on the Audiobook, it was very poorly performed/produced. And what’s up with those weirds sound effects at the end of the chapters? Not for me… I will request my credit back.

The book is not bad, and the story is actually pretty good, but the audio performance just ruined the book experience in this case.