Astray

The Adventures of a Xeno-Archaeologist, Book 1

De: Jenny Schwartz

Narrado por: Emily Woo Zeller

Nora Devi is a xeno-archaeologist with a complicated past.

She has buried more secrets than she’s dug up. Widowed in the recently ended twelve year war between Capitoline and Palantine, she now makes a living as an independent tagger in border space.

Captain Liam Kimani could be credited with ending the latest royal war. Instead, he’s blamed for it. Dirty commoners aren’t meant to lay their hands on royalty.

He has no regrets.

When Liam and his crew of the battlecruiser RC Genghis Khan are exiled to Capitoline’s border they discover that life in unexplored space can be more dangerous than war, and that their best chance of survival lies with a mysterious, elusive tagger.

The only problem is that Nora’s secrets might destroy the precarious stability of the entire Human Sector.

Astray is a fast-paced, enthralling space opera of lost societies, ancient aliens, rugged warriors and semi-legal pirates.

©2021 Jenny Schwartz (P)2022 Podium Audio

Good

Hope the series is as good as book is intend to continue hope I can count. to fifteen wordsl

Good plot. Decent narrator.

Not the best sci-fi but engaging enough to make me want to find the sequels on a library based platform. The only really annoying bit was the fake curse words that made the story feel childish at times. It made it hard to believe in the supposedly ‘tough as nails’ protagonist.

Great Story & Storytelling!

I love Jenny Schwartz’s writing and Emily Woo Zeller’s storytelling. So, this was a double win for me. I find this a unique Sci-Fi story with a strong smart lead and adorable secondary characters. I rarely read and listen to a book but this series is one of those series I absolutely will do both. If you are decided give it a try. You will not be disappointed.

it took a while

It took me a while to get into this book, but now I'm intrigued. On to the second volume.

DNR:Grear slow burner ruined by overpowered AI

Setting: 7 generation ships got dumped in a star system other than what they had routed for after using FTL travel. Encountering a presumably alien relic group of 15 went to inspect it, unlocking the power to wield the alien relic power (not explained in story). Over generations six habitable planets were found each to a generation ship and it's new ruling monarch that emerged from the 15 people who manifested powers to interact with alien tech and ship captains lineage.

Last ship wandered but never found a place, having at last settled to orbit latest planet and people split in all directions. Rare fantasy metal necessary for most high tech and found in abundance in Earths periphery is almost non-existant in this new place. Due to something unexplained, possibly gene modifications done on humans as they hurriedly settled habitable planets or the societal zeitgeist people have continuously bred as rabbits. Each time sustainable population limits are reached a new resource war between the kingdoms that emerged from generation ship and their monarchy starts.

Story takes place on border region of two such interstellar kingdoms. Main protagonist is an ex-military officer that is coping with loss of her husband and hiding a bloodline secret that would put her life at risk. Going through the stages of grief she is changing the environment to put her past behind her. A complicated romantic dynamic is growing between protagonist and a space navy lt., who is romantically interested in her, while in exile due to being the person who boarded and took captive opposing royalty's heir apparent. Protagonists finds sudden new family in an alien sentient AI android who has decided to gather data on humans hands on.

Series plot is the wanderers, monarchy of last generation ship who have supposedly blended into general populace while having the ability of other monarch. As well as, exploring beyond the known stellar space in hopes of finding new deposits of precious high tech essential metal. Exploring familiar bonds, what it means to be a family.

Conclusion: 3/5. Listened on Audible included in plus catalogue. Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller. The emergence of aristocracy ruling class in likeness to Workosigan saga's, by Lois McMaster Bujold, Barrayar's time of isolation is a science fiction writing narrative I would like to see explored more. Pacing is on the slow side, but doesn't sacrifice realism or continuity for action, which is always a merit to the story. Would like to listen to the next book in series, but have been sucker punched one too many times into buying contemporary sci-fi 2nd book in the series for the writing to just drop off the cliff. Inclusion of sentient AI is a miss for me. Personally, it distracts from the wanderers story line and feels like an interloper, disrupting the power dynamics, no investment huge payoff. Terrible value for the length of the book - 4.36 $/hour ( 33.90 $ / 07 hrs 47 mins ).

Values:
Terrible: >1.66 $/hour
Bad: 1 - 1.66 $/hour
Good: <1 $/hour
Dream: 0.4 - 0.27 $/hour

Stars:
1 - Not worth the resources to reproduce/preserve this title.
2 -Bad
3 -Good
4 - Personally, love it
5 - Recommended to everyone