Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue

The Bern Saga, Book 1

By: Hugh Howey

Narrated by: Jennette Selig

Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

It wasn't easy for Molly being the only girl in Flight Academy, but getting expelled was even worse. Abandoned by her family when she was young and now tossed from the only home she's ever known, her future looks bleak.

But then Molly hears that her father's old starship has turned up halfway across the galaxy. Setting off to retrieve the old craft, she hopes it will hold clues to his disappearance. Accompanying her as a chaperone is Cole, her old flight partner from the Academy.

Molly can't believe it. She's now the proud owner of her own starship. Her spring break is going to be spent traveling across the galaxy with a cute boy. Could things possibly get any better?

Little does Molly know, they are about to get much, much worse....

©2009 Hugh Howey (P)2013 Hugh Howey

No Wool, but not bad

If I remember correctly, this is Hugh Howey's first book, and it shows. The writing lacks the finesse and style of his later work, yet he still somehow manages to hook me with a compelling story. It reads like a young adult novel, but is not saturated with unrequited teen love angst. Molly is mature, yet naive about the real world, as you would expect a former Naval Academy student to be. He drops in just enough reminders that she's just a teenager without making her seem like a typical teenager. By the end, I was hooked and I have already added the second book to my library.

The narrator leaves much to be desired. As others have mentioned, her voice is breathy and there are awkward pauses and pacing. Her intonation in places makes you question the characters motives. She doesn't create enough of a difference in voices, so it's hard in certain parts to know who is speaking. She pronounces "chaff" incorrectly, which drove me up a wall. I'd forgive one or two occurrences, but the use of chaff and the aftermath comes up throughout the book, and in a battle scene it was distracting enough to ruin the tension for me. Most people probably won't even notice, but it bugged me. I hope the new narrator in the next book is better.

I guess it is nice to build a universe

The book was good although a bit to pat just running one direction and uncovering a whole new planet, picking up stray kids along the trail. but on the other hand I am buying the next book right now, so that must tell you Huge Howey is always Huge Howey and he just pulls you I with every writing

Decent story but whispery narration

The story is good, if a little too fiddly with butterflies and teen love angst. Completely forgiveable, because the sci and fi and action are good, even if the disrespect and ignorance of naval command is way over-played.

But the narration is very difficult to accept. Jennette has a beautiful voice that trails off for the second half of so many words. It's as if she is whispering, or struggling with a paralyzed vocal cord. Crank up the bass from -5 to plus 10, and as loud as I can bear, and it still requires focus to make out some of what's being said. Some terms are pronounced as if never heard, but only read. And "enemy" sounds like "eminy".

Well done!

Ali around around great story! I've enjoyed every one of Hugh Howey's stories. Narration was also great.

A good story.

I usually "think" ahead as to where the story is going but the author doesn't take that path..lots of surprises!

Definitely juvenile

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I am used to the quality of David Weber and Clive Cussler. This book is a waste of time. The story is very repetitive.

What was most disappointing about Hugh Howey’s story?

Slow moving and repetitive

What about Jennette Selig’s performance did you like?

Very good reader. Makes the story as interesting as possivle.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Not a chance.

An absolutely wonderful book.

I had just finished listening to the Scorch Trials and I was feeling a bit down emotionally after it had finished. I needed a book with a slightly different and lighter atmosphere. This book was exactly what the doctor ordered to cheer me back up again. It was an absolutely wonderful pleasure to listen to it. Great story line with more than enough mystery to keep me intrigued but not overwhelmed. I am so looking forwards to book two in the series. I really feel for the characters and enjoy the sense of family that the main characters share with a light dash of romance thrown in to top it all off. Simply Brilliant.

poor narration

I disliked the reading a lot. This reader has a screechy and irritating voice. I forced myself to finish it. That involved a lot of skipping to the end of chapters. It took me months, maybe years to finally finish. I didn't care for the MC. She didn't meet an obstacle she couldn't overcome or someone save her. I also hated the attempt to justify genocide of an entire planet. A planet not at war. A plant with inhabitants who want to stay there. Those same inhabitants who aggresdively discourage off worlders. The killer justifies this because the inhabitants MIGHT decide to change this attitude. In doing so, the inhabitants MIGHT and succed in conquoring the universe. A mass murderer is a murderer. They use any reason for this. This same murderer describes his race as being nearly immortal. The only die from outside events. So how is he going to survive on that space station? He's going to run out of supplies. The equipment is going to wear out.

good clean, fast book.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

yes, gave it to the grandsons. thought they would love all the different people in it, and their interaction.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I liked Walter. He is a fighter. and tries very hard. in a very weird way.

Which character – as performed by Jennette Selig – was your favorite?

Walter

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, I could stop and start as needed. it took me 3 days to finish. I enjoyed it.

The Forced Was With Them

Before he wrote Wool, the groundbreaking self-published series about a dystopian future, which I have read in its entirety and loved, Hugh Howey's first book was Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue -- in fact, he wrote four entries in Molly Fyde's Bern series, plus two other novels, before Wool put him on the map. There was a reason it took that long for him to break through -- he was still cutting his teeth as a writer and wasn't really there yet, especially in the creativity department.

If it was me, I would not have published this book without first going through a rewrite (or two or three) and rethinking all of the incredibly derivative events. For example, after writing the opening section, I would have asked myself, where have I seen this before? An action sequence that turns out to be a training simulation for academy cadets bearing an Asian title. Oh yeah, Star Trek -- the Kobayashi Maru. Better rethink that and come up with something more original.

Then: A planet full of intelligent beings who resemble humanoid bears. Hmmm. Sounds like -- Wookies! OK, these guys are more intelligent than the dog-like Chewbacca (or at least what we thought was the intelligence level of Wookies before Solo), but still -- why write a species that is almost identical to one that was quite original when it first appeared in Star Wars? There are an infinite number of alternatives (no one has ever done intelligent giraffe-like humanoids, giraffes are actually far more intelligent than people realize), including those that may exist only within your own imagination. Why not get creative?

Similarly: Jump into hyperspace and suddenly, unexpectedly appear in an asteroid belt. Wait, this is no asteroid belt, this is the debris of what was until recently a planet! Seriously Hugh? Nothing more original came to mind? You didn't think about rewriting this when you went back and reread your first draft? Or did you never go back to rethink and rewrite your first draft? Did you think that no one has ever seen Star Wars?

There is not an ounce of originality here. This is just a plain vanilla space opera that is totally derivative of the seminal space opera, Star Wars. Guy and girl who pine for each other but refuse to admit it, accompanied by a metallic looking guy and a giant furry guy, ride their dilapidated space ship as they escape from one predicament just to fall directly into another, making totally unorthodox moves that somehow work out just right, and saving the free world(s) in the process. Seriously?

Even Howey's high concept ("a tale of a teenager from the 25th century who is repeatedly told that girls can't do certain things -- and then does them anyway") is embarrassingly unoriginal -- in Goodread's list of "Best Kick-Ass Female Characters From YA and Children's Fantasy and Science Fiction" in which Hunger Games is #1, Molly Fyde ranks down past #2000. Having been published after Hunger Games, it's almost laughable that Howey would promote it that way, as if he was the first person to think it up.

I listened to this book because I was so impressed by Howey's totally original Wool -- also set in a dystopian post-apocalyptic near-future, but a totally adult version, highly nuanced and texturally paced, a surprisingly creative entry in a crowded field. I knew going in that Molly Fyde was YA, but I still expected Howey to be original, unorthodox. I never once expected him to be so, so derivative, so shamelessly or obliviously derivative.

I once told a friend why I didn't like a particular movie, bashing it, as I have this book, for rehashing so many familiar characters and conventions and plot points from well known movies of the past. My friend's precocious ten-year-old son was listening in, and he cut me down to size by noting, quite correctly, that he was too young to have seen all those other movies, so this was his first experience with that type of movie, and he liked it.

Fair enough. Same could be true here. If you've never seen Star Wars or know nothing about it, maybe this will come off as an original work, maybe this will be your introduction to cadet simulations and hyperspace landings in asteroid fields and intelligent bear-like aliens and empowered girls. Otherwise, fuggedaboutit.