The Navigator

A Sci Fi Thriller (Impermanent Universe, Book 2)

By: Vern Buzarde

Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin

Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

The navigator has a message....

A message from another dimension for the first sentient android. But she’s not listening.

Tess has her own ideas about what the world should look like. And she’s very creative.

Will Manning seems to have it all. But he’s hiding a secret. As he embarks on a desperate journey to find a cure for the pain that haunts him, Will finds himself on a path that leads to the first sentient android, Tess, with whom he shares a strange connection.

As the bond between Will and Tess grows, Will realizes they are linked by an event he witnessed as a child. When the consequences of that night begin to unfold, they are pulled into a world where nothing is as it seems. Once pieces of the puzzle start to come together, secrets are revealed, and a race against time for the survival of the world begins.

A rousing, otherworldly mix of science fiction, action, and...humor. Although part of the Impermanent Universe series, this book can be enjoyed as a stand-alone. Strap in, and enjoy the ride.

©2020 Vern Buzarde (P)2022 Vern Buzarde

AI that Challenges Yours

I was captivated from beginning to end, never able to anticipate what would happen next let alone where it would finish. An all-to-realistic look at a possible near-future with Sci-Fi and Fantasy elements, some romance, action-adventure and even some humor! There is no fluff in the 9 hours so pay attention to every detail as it rolls out...Highly Recommended.

Incredible, Original, and Mesmerizing

The author grabs you from page 1, as he did with the prequel “Impermanent Universe”, and never lets you go. It’s the type of book that you promise yourself that you will only read one more chapter- only to find yourself way past normal lights out time burning into your budgeted sleep allotment.
SciFi doesn’t quite encapsulate the original ideas in this book and the character development is first class. It’s complex but not overly complicated.
Take this ride- it’s worth it- even if you don’t make your typical bedtime if you pick this up at night!

Great SciFi Technnothriller

This is my first experience with Vern Buzarde's work. The story is about the first sentient android which is something that is closer to a reality than it has ever been in the past and therefore the book does bring up some very important thought provoking issues. I found this book to be entertaining and enjoyable and I recommend it without reservations. Eric Jason Martin does a great job with the narration. I requested this audio book from Audiobooks Unleashed and have voluntarily left this review.

Shamans and psychics are NOT Sci-Fi

Shamans? Psychics? There is nothing science fiction about a shaman being a “guide” for a main character involved in a psychedelic spirit journey to review their life’s destiny. Also there is nothing science fiction about a psychic who is “never wrong” about major psychic predictions. Just because the author throws in a quantum AI evolving to sentience doesn’t make this a sci-fi book. Extremely disappointed. I was waiting to the very end, hoping there would be some type of technological context explaining the psychic’s magic mind power but no, there wasn’t. The shaman that urges a character to drink a liquid then instant hallucinations while the shaman speaks like a stereotypical caricature was never going to be salvageable in a sci-fi context.

What is happening in this book?

I'm 6 hours into this book and essentially nothing has happened. This isn't Neal Stephenson "nothing is happening", either, where world building supplants plot. There is almost zero continuity between the original novel and this sequel. It's almost a retelling of the original story in certain respects. Instead, we get a bunch of **edgy** characters experiencing **mysterious** things tangentially related to what happened in the previous novel. The novel has departed from its science-fiction origins as well, in my opinion, diving head first into fantasy and the fantastical.

I don't think I'll finish this book. I'm used to thrillers taking a while to build, but this hasn't been able to engage me in any meaningful way.

The narration by Eric Martin is easily understandable, but very robotic and artificial in my opinion.