Down Below Beyond

De: T. A. Bruno

Narrado por: Kyle Snyder

Lodespace is a collection of worlds dominated by the Fessenog Fleet trade empire. Thanks to the Voyalten portals, alien civilizations from all over the universe can gather for glorious trade. For the wealthy, there has never been a more lucrative circle.

But the Fleet is hiding something from its investors. A secret that, if exposed, could bring the empire to its knees.

Levort Aatra is a prospector on the planet Tayoxe. While scavenging the wastes of the abandoned world, he discovers a mysterious starship and stakes his claim on it. Little does he know, he just made himself the most wanted man in Lodespace.

DOWN BELOW BEYOND is a stand-alone sci-fi fantasy adventure filled with aliens, planets, and portals set in a universe crafted by T. A. Bruno, author of the award-winning Song of Kamaria trilogy.

©2023 Thomas Bruno (P)2025 Thomas Bruno

Lovely Story

To be honest when I first started listening to this book I was a little uncertain, mostly because I am snob about narration. Once I heard the narrator doing voices though I was comforted by his skill and embodiment of the individual characters. That being said I still feel like he could work on varying his pacing and tonal inflection while narrating.

Now as far as the story goes I was pleased with simple but elegant style of writing as well as the characters and overall storyline. Initially I felt like The MC was a bit naive but I just realized he was an extremely kind and considerate individual. Yes still naive but likeable and enjoyable to see how compassionate he was and I appreciate his ideals.

As far as story telling goes I felt very satisfied with the story Arc and was content with the ending. I didn't feel like anything was left unanswered or dissatisfied with the group's final choice.

All in all this is a fun, enjoyable, happy story, (for the most part) and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a comfortable adventure.

Thank you T.A. Bruno!

Really well done narration

Narrator did great. Story had its slow moments (and some characters who didn’t get much time) but the narrator pulled me through.

A completely unique world.

Great narration with a variety of voices. I like a book that can take me to an entirely new universe. This was had me engaged from the beginning.

A fantastic scifi fantasy adventure

I won an audible code prelaunch of the book via a giveaway done by the author. The narration by Kyle Snyder is fantastic and brings the characters to life.

This is my first read from this author, but it certainly won’t be the last. This is a scifi fantasy novel that heavily features found family and friends. It really is at its core about choosing your people and making the best of things. Everyone knows loss and hardship, certainly so does Levort Aatra. Perhaps even more than others. As a prospector, he has to forage and search for every little bit he can call his own, which makes sense, as that is his actual arc throughout the novel itself too.

My favorite thing about the mixture of scifi/fantasy is that it doesn’t feature hard science. The author is creating languages, races, planets. I don’t need to have heavily believable science backing it, I can allow being told what is, is just what it is. And the novel itself progresses at such a pace that you won’t even have time to dive too deep.

I really loved the villain role being kind of ambiguously filled by Levort’s best friend Bayfo. It exists as this really incredible way of showing two sides of the same coin as each of them just want to make a better life for themselves. I love the utilization of the ‘villain’ thinking his friend is so misled that he has to save him no matter what, therefore becoming blinded himself.

Personally a 5/5* for me. I need a physical copy and so do you.

Friends don't keep you small....

Down Below Beyond is a cozy standalone Sci-Fi novel that you will breeze through as T.A. Bruno nailed the pacing. I’m impressed at how expansive this world is for a book that is just over 300 pages long.

The story centers around two characters Levort and Bayfo who throughout the story are accompanied by an eclectic cast that is sure to have you laughing. If you are a fan of the found family trope then you will surely enjoy this story.

Bruno’s ability to show to write characters that you can easily connect and relate to shines once again in this book. While Levort and Bayfo are both working towards the same end goal of building a better life for themselves, the path each takes and the lengths they are willing to go to accomplish it are completely different.

This book tackles many issues we face today, such as discerning truth from false information, what true friendship looks like and does blood make you family or is a family something more than just some shared DNA. Bruno does a stellar job at showing how one's perception of these types of topics can send them down totally different paths. One creates hope for those it comes in contact with and the other leaves those in its path experiencing destruction and despair.

Beyond the two main characters Bruno's writing really does a fantastic job of bringing your own imagination to life as I could clearly see the story playing out in my mind as I made my way through which is not always the case for me. The different alien races/species he created are fantastic and reminds me of the movie “Guardians of the Galaxy” which is a personal favorite of mine.

I know this book was a standalone and I’m not sure if Bruno has any plans to expand on this but I sure hope he does. While the ending of the book left me 100% satisfied with warm fuzzies on the inside. I feel like he wrote this in a way where he can write plenty more spin offs allowing us to experience more of the Beyond with all new characters and then one day bring it all full circle and have us reconnect with some of the main cast to close out the series as a whole if he chooses to expand. Personally I hope he does and I might have to team up with some other friends and heckle him into doing so :)