Steelstriker

By: Marie Lu

Narrated by: Natalie Naudus, Raymond J. Lee

Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Praise for the instant New York Times bestseller SKYHUNTER
“Riveting.” –POPSUGAR
“Action-packed.” –BuzzFeed
“Fresh.” –Los Angeles Times
“Exhilarating…a rollercoaster” –The Nerd Daily

Explosive action and swoon-worthy suspense collide in Steelstriker, the riveting conclusion to Marie Lu’s instant New York Times bestseller Skyhunter.

The world’s last free nation has fallen. And behind enemy lines, Talin stands alone.

With her friends scattered by combat and her mother held captive, Talin has no choice but to submit to the Federation’s experiments and become their most deadly war machine—a Skyhunter.

But Red hasn’t given up on Talin. Though the link between them is weak, it could be enough. To find their way back to each other. To reunite the Strikers. To fight back against the Federation, against all odds, against all hope.

Because the battle has only just begun.

A Macmillan Audio production from Roaring Brook Press

©2021 Marie Lu (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Male narrator frustrated me

I loved the female narrarator (Natalie) but I feel the male narrators (Raymond) parts with the exception of Red were way off base. It was severely distracting every time he spoke as another character. Other that that I was happy with the story. I'd give her 5 star on performance and him a 1.

Enjoyable characters and action.

I enjoyed the story and have enjoyed spending time with these characters. The male voice actor was the wrong fit and in my opinion a bad decision. It was annoying having the voices shift. I wanted to hear the end of this story so I kept listening and am glad for it.

Great if you read the 1st book. Good performance.

Great if you read the 1st book. Good performance. Probably best to read the 1st book before this one.
it's not quite as interesting as the first book, but still enjoyable.

But why does Jarron sound stupid?

Love the book. Love the story. I’m a huge fan! All of the narration was great except Jarron. He sounded like a stereotypical dumb jock. The voice makes no sense for his character. Yes, he was dominated by an abusive father but that doesn’t mean he is dumb and weak. I’m certain that isn’t what the author intended for this important character.

Story fizzled out

I loved the first book. This book is boring and the male narrator is not very fitting to the character.

Wonderful story

The storyline and the 2-book set are fast-paced and well built. It was my first acquaintance with this writer and I loved her style. The fiction is a poignant meditation and reaction to human flaws and an ode to the true values that can help our world move always forward in a better way.

The female narrator has done a wonderful job with almost all of the characyers' voices, but the male narrator was like a brain scrape, feeling completely inadequate for all the characters he voiced, unfortunately.

I will continue to read other novels written by Marie Lu; I am glad to have discovered her through Audible. :)

I was honestly dissatisfied

This book was alright but no where near as good as the first book. I don’t like giving bad reviews but if I am going to be honest this book just wasn’t as riveting as the last one. I quit reading less than halfway through the first time I read it (And I hate not finishing books) After a while I re-read it and got disinterested many times but pushed through to finish it.


What I liked: The female narrator was great and did a wonderful job of portraying emotion and other characters.
The characters were well-written and had good backstories.

What I felt neutral about:
The description and writing itself was alright, I didn’t hate it but didn’t love it.

What I disliked:
The plot was often stagnant and/or predictable and failed to keep my attention.
The male narrator was fine for Red’s voice but often strained syllables (maybe to emphasize that Red wasn’t fluent in Maran?) but when it came to any other characters voices he was awful. He made Jarin sound like a stereo typical dumb jock even though Jarin is written to be sensitive, light, and quiet. The male narrator also made Adena sound nasally and mean girl- ish which greatly annoyed me because Adena is one of my favorite characters in this Duo logy.
Last but not least, the romance between Talin and Red. Frankly, it felt forced and fake. The lead up to the “first kiss” also felt like it was dragged out. The whole ordeal felt dry and fake and I would’ve preferred that either the author wrote in more romantic action between the two to make it balanced or just kept the two platonic.

Overall I would recommend just reading the first book as a stand alone and imagining a happy ending or something like that by yourself. This book wasn’t unbearable but it was definitely a huge let down after the first one.

Wanted one narrator

The male narrator was just not as good as the female. His character voices sounded a little like he was trying to be silly.

I couldn’t have asked for a better ending

When I first saw the first SkyHunter book I wasn’t sure if I was gonna like this series. I decided to give it a try though. It wasn’t in my normal genre, but I thought I would give something new a try. I quickly fell in love with SkyHunter, and I loved all the action in it. However Skyhunter left off at a huge cliffhanger. I was dying to find out what would happen next. I couldn’t wait for Steelstriker to come out.
It has taken me a couple of days to finish this audiobook and I don’t regret a single second. This book was as good if not even better than SkyHunter. I love that we get to hear from Red‘s point of View too. I also love how much Talon grows. She goes from a fighter, to almost hopeless, then she becomes triumphant. I honestly couldn’t have envisioned a better end for the series if I’d tried.

…I’m tired already.

I’m halfway thru the book. It’s rough. The male narrator makes me laugh a lot. Unfortunately.