Stardust Runner 1

Stardust Runner, Book 1

By: Dante King, Ryan Vermont

Narrated by: Gabriel Michael, Katana Jones

Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

My name is Simon Jackson: former soldier in the Elynese Special Forces and current fixer for mob boss Krahmin the voidtouched.

Myan Station is my home. Dwarves, goblins, gnomes, grays, fey, even humans make up the melting pot that is Myan Station.

When Malak the half-ork and I stole an ancient starship, we set off a chain of events that could spell the end of Myan Station.

We’ve got space elves, gnome tinkerers, and goblin maniacs all looking to hunt down the starship and its mysterious key. And they’re willing to raze Myan Station to get their prize.

Except I’m not willing to let my home fall to these jokers. Alongside my beautiful half-orc companion Fiona, and with new additions along the way, we’re going to keep Myan Station safe.

©2022 Dante King and Ryan Vermont (P)2022 Podium Audio

Predictable

Whole thing was pretty predictable but even knowing the way it was going to turn out didn’t matter was still entertaining

Very Frustrating

Fair warning, some spoilers are used as examples...

Also, full disclosure, as I write this I'm on chapter 8 and just couldn't take it anymore and had to come here to vent. I will give an update when I manage to finish, but here are my gripes:

There are times when you can tell if an author, or in this case authors, were planning their story or pantsing it and pantsing it without going back and editing and taking out the ridiculous things they put in thinking it was a good idea in the heat of the moment while writing. This is one of the latter times.

There are problems with this story starting out. The first problem is that the story starts with MC, Simon, and partner-in-crime, Malak dock with, and hijack a starship. When the story starts you're left filling in some gaps thinking that maybe this was a derelict starship, or perhaps a ship with some maintenance and technical issues. Thus, the reason why MC and Malak had an easy time flying up to it, docking, hacking the airlock, and fighting their way through the ship. You felt that although the authors left out the beginning part of their arrival, dropping you in on the docking and fight, that maybe there was a decent reason this starship didn't fight them before they got there. THEN, later in the early chapters you learn that this starship not only has a combat capable AI, but has some high-powered weaponry capable of taking out one of the top tier, advanced ships of a top tier galactic civilization known to be capable of taking on other high level advanced civilizations in an all out war. This ship has offensive and defensive capabilities of that level.

So now you're left asking yourself a question? How did MC and Malak manage to get THAT close to this vessel to dock with it, hack the airlock and get inside without getting shot out of the void? Why did the bridge sit there and let this rust bucket (their words about their pirate vessel) with only two people in it fly up to their airlock and hack it without blasting them to the high heavens?

Reading some of the comments on Amazon and comparing it to some things that have already transpired, there's the implication that MC is the "key" to this ship, but the problem is that the AI listened to the previous crew before engaging with the MC. So, the AI was working with the crew members who weren't the MC. I know that's repetitive, but I wanted it to sink in, especially in the event if I get to a point in the story where the authors try to drudge up the excuse that the ship couldn't defend itself without the proper captain or some nonsense.

But the biggest issue with this story is the MC, Simon. He inner monologues about a lot of things, to the point of sidetracking you in the heat of a moment to tell you details about a gun or something he should've told you about earlier before getting to the point where he has the use the thing. He believes talking to hostile people will fix his problems, even when those hostile people have shown they'd rather kill him than negotiate and then those hostile people will let the idiot walk in their lair, pretending they want to chat with him, only to try to kill him and the idiot will repeat this process with other hostile people.

This started first with the aforementioned top tier galactic forces who for some reason wanted the same ship MC and his partner stole for their mob boss. Then with said mob boss who got pissed off MC didn't follow orders directly and of course knew the importance of MC and instead of working with him and paying him, just wanted to kill him and use MC's important part for whatever. That's all I'll say in that regard. The problem in this scenario came when MC's partner-in-crime came to his apartment with a hit squad. MC and his girlfriend kill them all and MC gets the bright idea to go to his mob boss to, you got it "talk" and negotiate and in this negotiation the idiot MC was going to AND DID, offer to give his mob boss what he wanted AND RETURN TO WORKING FOR HIM so long as Mr. Mob Boss let MC's girlfriend flee the station. It was beyond dumb. The iditot goes to his former Mob Boss' base of operations, allows himself and his girlfriend to be disarmed, and then walks in the den of lions fully aware that everyone there wants to kill him. Then he's stupidified to some degree when his former boss, who at this point holds all of the cards, rejects MC's negotiation "deal" since, of course, the Mob boss can just kill him instead. And no, King and Vermont, it doesn't help that you have the Mob Boss call MC stupid because we can obviously see that he's stupid.

And in these moments of stupidity from the MC (authors) the authors manage to have a very brief moment of clarity in thinking where they have the characters criticize MC for his stupidity only to forcefully make MC do the stupid thing. So, idiot for plot trope.

And this is all in the first 8 chapters.....sigh....