Shadow Corps

Shadow Corps, Book 1

By: Justin Sloan

Narrated by: Tess Irondale

Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Death isn't so bad if it means saving the universe.

Samantha was badass even before she learned magic. Fending for herself in the cauldron of a planet torn apart by an alien invasion taught Samantha how to kill. Ruthlessly efficient, her abilities have caught the attention of the Shadow Corps.

A group comprised of deadly warriors who focus on galactic safety, using any means necessary.

A battle-hardened warlord causing you trouble? The Shadow Corps will ruin their day.

Her first mission puts her team up against a space dragon, death reapers, and the ultimate sorcerer.

Samantha had better learn to master her alien magic, or be forced to watch her world, and many others, burn.

A Seppukarian universe series for fans of Destiny and Warhammer 40K.

Note: For fans of LitRPG who like level-ups and skill trees without being in a video game.

©2018 Podium Publishing; 2017 Justin Sloan

Climb a skill tree and level up! Old ones approach

I like that this has the feel of LitRPG with skill trees and leveling, but does not have nor need the game elements to go with it. I just reviewed a book that was similar in that it was set in an awesome fantasy setting, with a great magic setting, and it had LitRPG elements, elements it did NOT need at all. Sloan plays it smart, and gives his characters a world with a Lit feel, but not into an actual game, and I think it plays out well.

Admission, I did not know anything about books preceding this particular series, but after some talk about syndicate wars I looked it up, and there are books tied to this one, but they shall not be spoken of since I have no clue about them or how this book fits into their series.

I am first going to discuss the cover, I think that they get overlooked to often in a review, and they are literally what catches your eye when seeking a new series. I think the cover itself is beautiful, albeit a bit overly blue. You get to see the main character in her armor, and that helps as you listen/read along. Further, I appreciate that it is of high quality, it looks like a professionally done book, and so it made me want to read it.

Next, Tess Irondale kills the narration (in a good way)! She does an amazing job, and you sometimes get the feeling that she isn't just playing or reading a character, you feel like she actually is Samantha. She also plays out the other characters, male and female, and gives all of them 100% of her attention when they are in the batters box, so to speak. I really liked her cadence and pacing, and her standard narration voice was both soothing and stimulating. I enjoyed listening to her.

The story itself is full of what I guess you could call graphic violence if it was on HBO, and there is some swearing, but nothing you shouldn't be able to live with. The story itself is paced wonderfully, and is blocked out beautifully. Each scene occurs in order to drive the story forward, and nothing trivial appears just to fill up space or create some secondary story that isn't needed. The Gamelit elements include Samantha leveling herself and her sword up, and gaining skills. And she needs to increase her abilities, since so beings known as the Old Ones are making a comeback, and she is called upon to help stop them.

This is very clearly a book one of a series, and I look forward to reading the rest of the books. Samantha is fascinating, and her powers are pretty cool. I think that the arc will only get better as time goes on. Give Sloan and Samantha a chance, pick up this book now, and get blown away by its great writing and characterizations, and be prepared to be swept up into the amazing story that begins here! Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. In fact, getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.


If this review helped, please press the YES below. Thank you immensely!!!

Fun and engrossing

fun and engrossing, yet an engrossing littlestory that leaves the readers wanting to learn more about these wonderful lands and those that populate these land

Good story, disappointed by narration.

Intriguing story, would like to hear more.

Disappointed in the narration. I felt like none of the characters had their own voice.

Could have probably given a 5* with a different narrator.

Excellent

I loved this book, i can't wait to get through the rest of the series. I just wish that there was some notification to let me know that the sentinal wars is the story before the shadow corps series based on the brief summary i happened to find on it. I'll probably go thtough tjose afterwards.

Tolerable at best

I've listened to my fair share of space books and this one is a bit of a struggle. Honestly it sounds like something a 12 year old boy would write. There are worse out there, but the characters are bland, the story just kind of goes from 0 to 100, and honestly it has more than few holes. If you've got nothing better listen away

Cool but empty

There's a lot of cool alien fighting, cool armor, cool swords, cool alien teammates.

And also a lot of mindless military hoo-rah. Like literally a room full of aliens saying hoo-rah.
And uncomfortably unquestioning loyalty. Towards the end a bad guy says "actually you might be on the wrong side" and the response is "well, I'll definitely not question my superior and just trust that it's fine, despite not really having any political issues about this conflict explained to me."

Like, don't think about this too hard. If you do you'll realize that it would be terrifyingly easy to deceive literally all the protagonists by saying" trust me, I'm a good person" and get them to commit genocide for you. Maybe that happens in a later novel. I hope so. If not, the protagonist is literally just following orders without their own control over their story.

Great Storytelling!

I like the diversity in character’s right off. They each develop nicely in a version of the galaxy. The story moves fast with good detail. I’m not going to say anything about the actual story it’s dope tho… But very forward thinking in its approach to social and cultural norms in other worlds and our. I’m starting Shadow Worlds next!

amazing

I am truly amazed at the details of this book I'm a huge fan already I'm on the book 2 thanks guys

Meh

Not overly impressed with this story line but some might like it more than I did.

Outstanding job!

I loved this particular installment into this universe. can't wait to see what's next. I highly recommend it to anyone.