Hollow Space: Venture

Xantoverse Series

By: C.F. Barnes, T. F. Grant

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Forced to hyperjump during a brutal ambush, Sara Lorelle, navigator of the Venture, the last human colony ship, discovers a terrible truth: They've jumped to somewhere that shouldn't exist.

Trapped inside a pocket universe known only as Hollow Space, where technology inexplicably fails, Sara and her crew have to face the lethal politics of their only destination, Haven - a decrepit station, home to deadly aliens and rival factions that soon sees the Venture crew up to their necks in danger.

With their only hope placed in Tairon Cauder, a reckless scoundrel, they will battle impossible species, confront their fears, and uncover ancient and terrible secrets. In a place where those who shoot first live the longest, the Venture crew will have to push their limits if they are to save themselves and the human race from extinction.

Hollow Space: Venture, a Xantoverse novel, will delight those who relish high adventure, high stakes, and low morals. For fans of Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, and Deep Space Nine.

©2014 C.F. Barnes, T.F. Grant (P)2015 Podium Publishing

loved it! sad there won't be a sequal :(

great story, great chars, doesn't take itself too seriously. sad there won't be a sequal but I understand why the author chose not to write one from his blog.

Firefly Meets Babylon 5/Galactica/Star Wars Hybrid

This was a pretty interesting series beginning. It reminded me heavily of the sic-fi series Firefly, and had elements of all the famous Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, and Star Wars series as well.
When all is said and done, I thought it was a good start to what will probably be a decent trilogy or series.

The story begins with a colony ship making an emergency jump into hyperspace while trying to escape the species that has essentially exterminated the human race (or so the human characters believe…). The ship finds itself at a strange destination in space with most of their ship’s electronic systems inoperable. Theirs becomes another one of thousands of ships in an enormous space scrapyard, full of ships that suffered the same fate. The only refuge is a truly gigantic space station filled with dozens of diverse alien species. The society that has developed is controlled by money, cheating, fighting, and salvage.

The Babylon 5 reference, again, comes from the fact that most of the story occurs on an enormous space station filled with aliens. The Galactica aspect is seen with the crew fleeing their (supposed..) sworn enemies out to exterminate humanity. Another review compared this book also to Star Wars, and I think that has some merit too… There were a lot of diverse lifeforms (including giant dog aliens, space dragons, and monster hornet things that live in space), kind of like Star Wars.
The author did a great job incorporating many of the elements of so many other series and storylines, but still keeping the story original.

The book is full of action, fighting, shady deals, and tons of twists and interesting developments. It was by no means predictable, and I never found myself board while listening.

The narrator wasn’t bad, but he seemed to be trying to put a little too much enthusiasm into his voices for some of the characters, and there were times I had a hard time distinguishing which character was speaking. I gave the narration 4 stars, but to be honest he rated more of a 3 or 3.5.

This was an interesting and entertaining book and well worth the credit I spent. I will definitely buy the next in the series when it is released.

Great story brilliant narration as always

Great story brilliant narration as always by Luke Daniels, can't wait for the next book will be looking out for it

Fun listen

Interesting story and characters. I can't wait for more. A good solid book to enjoy. Worth a listen

Pretty good

Characters were interesting enough to keep my attention. Lots of action. Sort of reminds me of the seedier side of Deep Space Nine with the space station back ground and the wheeling & dealing (Quark's). Also a bit of Han Solo in Tai. All-in-all a pretty good romp.