Impulse

By: Dave Bara

Narrated by: Julian Elfer

Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

Lieutenant Peter Cochrane of the Quantar Royal Navy believes he has his future clearly mapped out. It begins with his new assignment as an officer on Her Majesty's Spaceship Starbound, a lightship bound for deep-space voyages of exploration. But everything changes when Peter is summoned to the office of his father, Grand Admiral Nathan Cochrane, and given devastating news: the death of a loved one.

In a distant solar system, a mysterious and unprovoked attack upon lightship Impulse resulted in the deaths of Peter's former girlfriend and many of her shipmates.

©2015 Dave Bara (P)2015 Recorded Books

Like Star Trek? You'll love Impulse

What a book. A great start to a hopefully long series. This book reminds me of the promise of Into Darkness if they hadn't have made the twist to the past. I'm excited for what's to come. Bara build the action, science, intrigue and romance into a compelling narrative that leaves you wanting to know what's next.

Decent Space Opera, Thoroughly Unlikeable Characters

FYSA: This book plays to the fantasy of a man being so universally irresistible to women that each one he meets and desires falls in love with him, but he doesn’t have to deal with unwanted attentions; the fantasy of otherwise “strong” women suddenly losing so much self-respect that they decide to wait for and on a moment’s notice make themselves available to a man who is keeping a bevy of women dancing, and despite the women knowing and knowing of each other, the only consequence he has to deal with is a few sad looks; and the illusion that a man can still call himself a “gentleman” when he makes a “conditional commitment” to a woman that amounts to, “I’ll be back for you if I haven’t found a better offer by the time I’m done sewing my wild oats.”

That’s the situation with the prince/lieutenant main character and his can’t-really-be-called-romantic entanglements. It’s pretty clear that he’s supposed to be some sort of amalgam of Charles Windsor and Captain Kirk. If you can ignore him and the superior officer, planetary co-leader, brothel attendants, and other women who end up as his conquests, the adventure portions of the book are pretty good.

There are ship-to-ship battles, strange-enough-to-be-familiar technologies, explorations of ancient ruins that are still active, bizarre blends of technocracy and theocracy, obscured history and hidden figures, dashing-though-idealistic subordinates, enemies-to-friends diplomacy, bad guys who telegraph their identities so it’s safe to dislike them, deus ex machina last-minute technological modifications, and one incident that scratches the “buried treasure” itch. The adventure scenes are lovingly described in rich texture that the audiobook narrator really digs his teeth into, so they can be immersive and keep the listener tense. Several of the persistent side-characters, like the Historian, show amazing levels of patience and indulgence, but can be very charming and are often the better drivers of the plot.

There is one potential “trigger” that some former military members may need to brace for: during one fleet action, nine of the ten ships that go into battle self-immolate to give the tenth ship a chance to destroy the enemy ship, and after the at best Pyrrhic victory is accomplished, a character who should know better recommends going home to celebrate. The author elides any celebration and moves to a memorial ceremony, but that narrative note is discordant and potentially provocative to survivors of desperate battles.

On the whole, this would be an excellent novel without the main character being who he is. As it stands, I do not want to continue listening to the series.

Looking forward to the next...

Fantastic world and history crafting!
Really love the yang protagonist and became fast invested in the story! Looking forward to the next one!
Heberson

“A simple man’s Revelation Space” by Dan Bara

Without revealing too much of the plot, I found this story somewhat engaging. I wanted to what happened, and quite frankly it felt a tad cliche. Typical love triangle, honor for family and country (or in this case, planet), and the use of religious ideals jam-packed into a science fiction narrative that, on the surface feels like it works, but a deeper contemplation shows that it in fact seems like it’s ripping off of other stories. Of course, most if not all stories copy the structure of some and may take inspiration from others, but after reading this, I had felt I had read this before. I hadn’t of course but it felt like I was re-reading one of my favorite author’s books. Whether that was inspirational intention or purely by accident, I can’t say. But if you enjoy navy-esque settings amid cosmic battles with a romantic subplot here and there and a collection of science and mathematics that doesn’t really add up (no pun intended), then this is the book for you.

Meh.

This book was a chore to get through. It was only 9 hours long but it felt like an eternity. The sci fi tech was too hokey and things were over explained in parts and not explained at all in others. There were too many "just in time" reveals that something had a previously unknown capability so it now does what they need at just that moment. The world building was shoddy. They favor republics but they have a Royal Navy? Also, author doesn't seem to have any technical knowledge. The movement and combat in space was too unrealistic and frankly too boring. Took way too long for something to actually happen and when it did, meh.

Also, a marine colonel outranks a lt commander in any service. Do a little research at least.

The reader was excellent, though. I probably would've quit this book if not for his performance.

Doubt I'll get the second book. Maybe if I can't find anything else interesting and I have a spare credit. Otherwise, pass on this.