Deserter: Kris Longknife, Book 2

Courtesy of Lost Art Audiobook Review

There were parts of the first book, Mutineer, that I thought could have been improved and Deserter addresses everything I found lacking. Nelly, Kris’s personal pet computer, was not fantastic enough (probably a bit less powerful than the newest Android). In Deserter, Nelly gets a major upgrade. Nelly now docks into Kris’s head and talks with Kris mentally. Nelly also starts developing a personality, one of a spoiled Justin Bieber fan. In Mutineer, Kris seemed more a soldier than a 22-year-old chick. In Deserter, with no military-appointed mission to follow, our heroine gets a lot more fem. Thanks to Kris’s new governess, we have some serious wardrobe changes, clothes descriptions, and other womanly upgrades.

Unlike in Mutineer, there's cohesion with Deserter. The subplots tie to together smoothly, and dip back to Mutineer, making the story flow easily from Kris arriving like a princess on Turantic via a Titanic-like luxury cruise ship to her going incognito as a limping Arabic boy. She seamlessly goes from a whore, to a maid, to a pregnant girl in a burqa. I also felt that Mutineer lacked the politicking I expected from a prime minister’s daughter. There’s so much of it in Deserter: the royal “we,” the dressing up, the appearances. Oh, and finally, things get sexier as well as more sophisticated. There’s tension, there’s flirting – no sex, but it’s not really needed. Also, I love the more-developed supporting character, like Abigail, the Q to Kris’s Bond. Hence the booby traps – actual falsies that turn into bombs!

On Narration:
I’ve previously mentioned how much I liked Dina Pearlman’s reading of the Mutineer, where she did a great job with internal dialogue versus external dialogue. This becomes more important in Deserter since Nelly and Kris now talk both externally and in Kris’s mind. On a textbook, that’s easy to figure out. In an audiobook, it’s all Dina Pearlman’s skill.

This is a very well written series. It reminds me a bit of David Weber's Honor Harrington series in scope, but it has a life and flavor all its own. I have listened to the first three books and each one is an exciting stand alone thriller with twists and turns that you will not see coming. But, each one is also a smoothly crafted extension of the whole. I enjoyed them all. Kris Longknife will leave you wanting more...

I wasn't sure that Dina Pearlman had the voice range to carry this series, but she has proven to be up to the task. Her only problem is her phrasing. She refuses to follow the written punctuation and adds pauses where none are called for. This bad habit destroys the flow and continuity of action in many, many cases. Other than that, which can be lived with if you grit your teeth, she does very well.

I give the series 4 stars and Pearlman 3 stars. It's a good combination and a fine listen.

Though this book was predictable, it was well written. As with most sequels to a fiction book, lots of bread crumbs were dropped in this one to steer you to the next book in the series. a pleasant read.

I liked the first book, I can't believe this is the sequel. This has some very bad writing. Expect sentences such as "The men left standing were running". ?? Well, which is it, were they standing or running?? Also, all of a sudden Kris seems very desperate for male attention. One second she's teasing her bodyguard Jack by asking him what he thinks of her ass, then 2 pages later you hear that being straddled by her old friend Tom is something she's been "dreaming of for so long". Which by itself is fine, I suppose, but sex-starved heroines was not what I was looking for when I bought this book. I wanted a female heroine that kicks ass and judging from this book, Kris is not it.

I almost felt sorry for the narrator, who is forced to read this and not groan at some of the mainstream cliches and the author's wishful thinking about what women are like and how they react to men. But I didn't pity the narrator too much, because she's exaggeratedly dramatic all the time, regardless of what pitiful, unimportant sentence she's reading. At the same time, she reads all the dialog with a flat bored voice. For example, the text goes "'Oh my god!', the agent gasped" and the narrator reads it like nobody's gasping at all, with a completely flat and unemotional voice. It's difficult to explain how she sounds, sorry. But it's confusing, and it gets tiresome very fast.

As good if not better than the 1st book

Kris Longknife is a great character in a fun adventure story. If you're a fan of military sci-fi, then you'll get a kick out of this adventure.

I loved the humor in this book. It was a wonderful mix of characters, Parts of the book are tense, others brooding ... a very good book indeed.

Whenever Abby was on the scene.

The humor! I hope some of those characters surface again.

I am writing this because i think it is one of the best series books out there. Mike Shepherd always tells a good action packed story. This one has a female lead and she has some great friends that are willing to die for her and what she stands for. The narrator Dina Pearlman is also one of the best !!
ALWAYS REMEMBER TO READ THE BOOKS IN ORDER.

good narration, good story, good technology, very nice space action
you should read the first couple books of this series at least..after the third, it becomes same old same old

Excellent ballance of character, story and imagination; whereby none dominates the other.The story line(s) allow the reader a bit of anticipation without loosing the excitement. And best of all, here is an author that knows the value of finishing their story, rounding it of and making it complete, even if there is a part 2..

Congratulations Mike Shepherd and a good job by the narrator Dina Perlman.