Mutineer

Kris Longknife, Book 1

By: Mike Shepherd

Narrated by: Dina Pearlman

Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Kris Longknife is a daughter of privilege, born to money and power. Her father is the prime minister of her home planet, her mother the consummate politician's wife. She's been raised only to be beautiful and marry well. But the heritage of the military Longknifes courses through Kris' blood - and, against her parents' objections, she enlists in the Marines.

She has a lot to live up to and a lot to prove in the long-running struggle among her powerful family, a highly defensive - and offensive - Earth, and the hundreds of warring colonies. Then an ill-conceived attack brings the war close to home, putting Kris' life on the line. Now she has only one choice: certain death on the front lines of rim space - or mutiny.

©2004 Mike Moscoe (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Not so military. Not so sci-fi.

When the main character Kris, a newly minted officer, leads marines she’s known for only four days on a hostage rescue, I thought I was reading the story of a degenerating navy and the people caught in the drama surrounding. By the time Kris successfully leads a platoon of untrained rear echelon, many of whom have never fired a rifle before the day, against 200 desperate locals, on their home ground… I was pretty sure the author hadn’t done much research on how such things usually go. The sci-fi elements seem equally poorly considered. It’s just not well thought out.

Definitely a very young kids book

After listening for about an hour I just gave up. The reader sounds like she is reading to a room of grade school kids. Many miss pronounced words just made it worse.

Religious swearing & blasphemy brought it tumbling down.

If it wasn't for the poor taste in religious fouling, this story would've received close on to 4,5 stars from me. And this is only the 1st book in the series. I shudder to think how the other books would go in this division - keeping in mind that it was written in even more liberal times than the first.

Story started very slow and "heavy" on the emotions.

Apart from abovementioned issues, it was a good listen.

Can anybody inform me on the religious blasphemy and swearing in the rest of the series - would like to know before I try...

It just didn't catch me - but it might be me

Sometimes it's just the wrong moment. This should have been good and it's gotten good reviews. But it didn't grab me. I might give it another try at another moment.

Ripping off David Weber's Honorverse

What would have made Mutineer better?

Character development for a start, a story line that was less predictable would have also lent some entertainment value.

Has Mutineer turned you off from other books in this genre?

I bought and listened to three of them, and I had just as well have listened to one three times. The scenery changes, but the story line stays the same. One dimensional characters, as deep as the print on this page.

Which character – as performed by Dina Pearlman – was your favorite?

The reader did well, and hopefully she will show up on other books.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

It is a straight up space opera, but could have been much more. I like the genre immensely, but a little more authorship was expected.

Ouch

Ouch! This is really a painful audio to hear. It reads like the author wanted to be a writer of romance novels for 14 year old girls. Lots about Kris Longknife wanting kittens, hugs and father figure attention.

Beware the Narrator

What would have made Mutineer better?

A less distracting narrator. Seriously, I listened to the sample and thought it was "not so good, but doable". 10 minutes in I realized I was BADLY mistaken.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Trying to return it now.

Would you be willing to try another one of Dina Pearlman’s performances?

No. While I'm sure she's done some wonderful work, I'm not looking to taking any chances.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Couldn't get past the first 10 minutes

Not much Sci-Fi

This was disappointing: full of clichés and the whole scenario felt more like the early 21st century with space travel... the world of the main character missed a really sci-fi evolution to where we are now.

I listened to the Audible version and found the narrator not to be a good fit for this book either.

A better title is "A Rich Brat in the Navy".

The story line, in my opinion, doesn't fit the title. The event in the story that the title comes from doesn't happen until the very end. I was so disappointed that it was more a story about a rich brat in the military than an actual story about a mutineer on a spaceship. Also the audiobook performance by Dina Pearlman, was very bad. Many of the characters are male, so why not have a guy do the performance? Instead, you end up with many of the male characters with the same voice. Maybe I'll try the normal book version of the next book in a few years.

Not Impressed

This book left an odd taste in the mouth and it is a shame because I thought the universe Mike Shepherd created had great potential. We have a futuristic society where humans have expanded across the galaxy. There is mention of another alien race and a conflict between Earth and the Rim worlds. Also there is a heroine who is coming into her own person wanting to detach herself from the reputation of her family and showing her true mettle. She is brave and there is opportunity for her to be a leader. However, the execution of this book was off and this one fell short of my expectations. The main character doesn't have quite the mature commanding presence and tactical genius of a Honor Harrington. The story doesn't have the cohesion and intrigue of a Miles Vorkosigan novel. And the battles lack the suspense and excitement of a Prince Rogers or Black Jack Geary book. In short, I thought the characters and stories fall a little flat compared to these other greats.

The title "Mutineer" seems like an after thought. Most of this story is about Kris Longknife's career in the military. The story starts off with a rescue mission. Next, she is transported to an alien world. As the lowest ranking marine officer, Kris finds herself in a position where the military is doing everything wrong and this situation forces her to take charge, fix things, and show her leadership skills. In the very end of this book Longknife finally escapes her planet side marine life and enters the bridge of a spaceship in a possible entanglement with an enemy fleet. During these adventures she is also facing outside threats against her life by a mystery group or person.

It seemed like many of the pieces were there but a massive editing job was needed. The characters all gave Kris Longknife a hard time because she comes from a privilege background, so in this respect the book is similar to Lois McMasters Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series. However, Kris is very distant with her family and her choice to join the military was not a popular one. The story didn't really elicit any emotional responses, such a sympathy, for the main character for me. Parts of this book seemed off and at times un-fullfilling. And there were moments I tuned out for a little bit. Also, I thought the ending was anticlimactic and poorly done because it felt fake a bit forced. In the end Kris seems to be more lucky than smart. I have no motivation to download the next book, but I am up to giving Shepard a second chance if a sale comes along.

A good narrator can help make a mediocre book great. This narration might have hindered the listen. The different accents were not particularly enjoyable to listen through.