The Disappeared: A Retrieval Artist Novel

Ok, I must admit this was actually my 2nd attempt at this book.

On my fist attempt I found the initial 20mins a struggle to get into - but with hindsight it was just the style of writing - with several story lines running in parallel.

Predominately this is a detective novel within a sci-fi framework. The writer twists several threads that come together at the finale.

I thoroughly enjoyed this - right to the end. Am definitely getting the next in the series and looking forward to seeing Flint progress. The narrator Jay Synder is great - reminds me of Scott Brick.

I had for some reason, held off on listening to any of KK Rusch's books and feel like I've been holding out on myself. Well, no more, holding back!
This was a really interesting book. Rusch has really thought about this idea and developed it so that it sounds plausible. Sort of like witness protection with quite a twist. The alien cultures the she has created sound scary, but also plausible, and I wanted to know more about them. Why do they think the way they do, how did their sense of justice develop, what do their worlds look like, and how do they live? There are just glimpses of these races, a tantalizing taste that piques the curiosity.
Character development starts of strong and just builds as the story continues. You care about these people, you want them to succeed. Also, the issues that are the heart of the story are frightening and look to be unsolvable. There aren't any nicely packaged solutions that are applied here. Here are imperfect solutions, sort of like real life.
I also greatly enjoyed Jay Snyder's reading. He has a voice that is easy to listen to, and if you really must know, he sort of "disappears" into the reading. Its as if you aren't really aware that someone else is reading the story to you.
Excellent read, I am looking forward to my next KK Rusch book!

Stolen children, betrayals, high stakes and murder - all the things a good mystery is made of only this mystery takes place in future time. Whether a person is a science fiction fan or not would not detract from enjoying this novel because Rusch gets the reader involved in the characters and also in trying to solve the mystery before Miles Flint, the cop. Flint, relatively new on the job, shows his skills to veteran partner to the point where she develops a respect for him that is earned. But in the end, Flint realizes the job isn't exactly what he's looking for and Rusch takes us into a different direction which she actually foreshadows very subtly in the beginning. The character development is good and the plot is intricate without being confusing. I found myself listening to the book in my garage when I would arrive home from work, unwilling to turn it off to go into the house. So for me, this was a book that pulled me in. And it made me want to buy other retrieval artist novels. Jay Snyder does a nice job of reading and bringing the characters to life. This is a good buy and a good read. I recommend it.

This is a fast, interesting and well-developed novel with interesting aliens and a suspenseful plot.

There are some gaps where the story seems to jump and a major story thread gets concluded "behind the scenes" (i.e. we last see one character on the run from the police then at the end of the book we find out she's been relocated to Earth, but there is no indication of how or when this happened).

The narration is very good; the characters are distinctly voiced and I will certainly be reading more in the series.

This is a terrific combination of SF and Mystery. Very well read and a real page-tuner (if you can use that term with audio).

It took a bit of effort in the beginning, but the story just kept expanding until the threads all came together......I thought the narrator did a fine job with all the different voices and the story line kept me listening... found myself almost late for work by sitting in my car for just a few more minutes....

Mr. Snyder has a smooth voice, in fact I found it way too smooth and dramatic for my taste. I was always conscious that someone was reading and couldn't lose myself in the story. I kept thinking about the over the top deep-voiced narrators of action-flic trailers that are now parodied for other commercials.

I was so happy to find a sci-fi series that I hadn't read yet and I am interested in the "world" that has been created by the author. I will listen to the next in the series and see if I can get over the narrator.

This story has a few surprises in it that you do not expect. A few twists and turns that keep you interested throughout. I like the way in which the story unfolds, slowly but, without boredom becoming an issue. So the plot is a good one, and it is well written without the plodding unimaginative prose that so often goes along with this genre. The narrator does a fine job with only one of the voices that does not quite fit the character in my humble opinion. That being said, the character only plays a minor part, so this isn’t a huge issue. Hence if you like this genre I would certainly recommend you buy this book.

I chose this book based upon the reviews at Audible and they were right, it is a very good listen. Jay Snyder turns in a very good performance bringing the characters to life and giving each one a uniqueness that makes them come alive.

This is the first book in a series that is currently up to 9 books, there is a lot of good reading here and it is a nice step away from the John Scalzi books I have been listening to.

What I like most about this book is how clear the main characters motives are, they are driven by things that make sense to me, their emotions feel real and easy to understand. They are very human.

In this universe Human’s have agreed to respect and uphold the laws of many different alien cultures. This has created a lot of problems for the police and the court systems because many of the alien laws, punishable in amazingly horrible ways, are not obvious to the humans who regularly break those laws accidentally by doing things that are not considered illegal by the humans.

Those that find themselves in trouble disappear; they change their identities and their lives to escape the alien punishments that await them. They spend the rest of their lives on the run from both the human and alien courts.

There are bounty hunters known as "Trackers" who hunt down the disappeared to bring them back to the courts while "Retrieval Artists" who search for the disappeared to help them in different ways.

Kristine Rusch has developed a great hook with this series, and she's joined with Jay Snyder as narrator to come out with a great new story arc--at last-a NEW SiFi story line.

Rusch writes tight dialog, both human and alien and Snyder does a wonderful job of inventing the aliens speech patterns and voices. Together they have a intriguing new idea that caught my attention in the first hour.

Other reviews have covered the story line so I won't-I just have encourage those who love good tight SiFi thats not based in uber tech but reads like it's just the normal day except hundreds of years in the future, to check this first novel out. As for me, I'm on to # 2