The Heart of Matter: Odyssey One, Book 2

Book 2. This one continues right from where book 1 left off. Most of the book is space battles and ground combat. Must reed book 1, into the black, before this one and if you liked it you will like this one.

Book 2 in the series is even better than book 1, and you get to the action much quicker; Currie is obviously getting better at his craft as he goes! Despite a few minor things, I enjoyed this book a lot!

I don't know if its the writing, or the Narration (I suspect it's the narrator), but every member of the Bridge Crew on every ship in the story sounds terrified every time they speak to someone with a higher rank... the stuttering and stammering that goes on in response to EVERY question put to them, and in EVERY report they give, is getting old, fast. Seems to me if you had a crew in vital positions that are this terrified of even speaking, you'd replace them with people who could actually get a report out in a timely, coherent, manner, without every sentence having to be dragged out of them.

There are places in the narration where sentence structure is broken up so badly, or paused in such an odd spot, that you have to back up to try to figure out what the author actually meant... But it's not too often, and you can work through it.

Those few things aside, the story moves along much faster than in the first book, the technical details are much improved and believable, and the "Tech-Talk" doesn't bog the story down at all... it's just enough to be interesting, and to enhance the story, without me feeling like the author is trying to tediously teach me how build the thing being described. A Lot of authors get WAY too caught up in trying to show how detailed their knowledge of some piece of physics or 'Tech' is... Currie deftly avoids that common mistake...

I hope there is a Book 3, and I hope it's soon!

Great characters, good fresh sci-fi ideas.

Jack Campbell Lost Fleet series without the political commentary.

**Spoiler Alert** The escape from the giant beach ball

Good humor mixed into the action.

Great Canadian author! Can't wait for more on this series.

I can't wait for book 3 the story continues from book 1 I could not stop listening. captivating

I knew who was speaking as soon as he started speaking

Just as good as the first book. Good action, good sci-fi, alien worlds all the things you need to take you away from your life for a while listening. Its starting to get more interesting the more we learn about the Drasin and their allies.....

I was a little disappointed. Most of this book is "war in space". With the first one there was more suspense, more discovery, more "edge of your seat" action. This installment was slow, redundant, a little boring and it just seemed to coast along. It's almost as if it was written just to keep readers interested until book 3 is released. Same basic characters nothing new! I'll download #3 when available and pray it's better!

ARRGGHHH!!! As you can see I am upset with you Evan! I'm going to buy the third book, but you better make it as good as the first one. Cause for some reason I am struggling to finish this second installment.

Great twist to a space war story. The second book in the series much improves the story as a whole. Normally I have a hard time keeping up with a story that is told by multiple characters, but this story does a great job making it work. The nonstop action kept my attention from start to finish and I can't wait for the next book. This book has a great plot and is well written. Though this book is already very good the narrator could take this book to another level but fails to do so. The narration doesn't hurt the book, but also doesn't do much help it either. I would think if Christian Rummel or Mark Boyett was the narrator it would be amazing across the board. All in all a great second installment to the series.

My husband and I both listened to this. While I enjoyed it for what it is, he really didn't like it at all. We both had read the first book. I enjoyed the action; he felt it was poorly written.

If you're read the first book (and I recommend you do), you can expect the same in the second. A mix of action, philosophizing about war, and a lot of perspectives on the same situation.

As with the first novel, the writing isn't as strong as you typically find in the genre. It's not terrible (read a few YA dystopian and you'll know what I mean) but does come off as a bit weak in the military sci fi/sci fi genre.

There is a LOT of philosophizing on the necessity of war and soldiers, told in a way that is a little too obvious (obvious comparisons to big issues in certain wars like Viet Nam and Iraq are rather glaringly obvious and takes away from the plot). But when the action kicks in, it's a fun roller coaster of a read.

The narrator is the same from the first book. I enjoyed him on the first and was glad he's on the second. However, as with the author, there are some issues in quality of the performance: odd pauses where there shouldn't be and especially in this book, an affectation that has him swallowing the words at the end of every sentence. Unlike the first book, this reading feels a bit too mannered and that is really distracting. That said, I like the way he reads and he brings an easy humanity and grace to the characters that suits the book.

That's becoming less and less likely.

It's a very interesting premise with a good story line

It was so, so.

Another good story ruined by amateurish writing. As in the first book of this series the author continues to make basic mistakes in continuity, mathamatics and nomenclature. As a former military aviator I was appalled by the improper use of military jargon. Every time I heard the narrator say "Roger, Wilco" I wanted to scream. All that being said, the blame cannot be laid entirely on the author, though his lack of proper research was certainly a large contributor to the novel's shortcomings. Most of the blame goes to the publisher who, for some unknown reason, failed to do even the barest of editing and proofing of the contents. The novel could have been much improved had they done their job.