First Command

De: Michael Simon

Narrado por: Ryan Kennard Burke

An alien attack leaves them adrift in space.

Survive, rebuild, and rejoin the war.

Fresh out of the Academy, Ensign Cole Jackson’s first posting to Freedom couldn’t have come at a worse time. All over the Alliance, planets and colonies are suddenly under attack by the vicious Coven Empire.

Freedom and her sister ship, Hood, are ambushed by alien warships, leaving Hood drifting dead in the void.

Cole is ordered to salvage parts from the powerless Hood, but when he arrives on the unpowered hulk, Freedom is called away, marooning him and a group of malcontent techs in deep space.

With the timer on survival ticking down, Cole must find the confidence to take control, whip his tiny crew into shape, bring Hood back to life–repairing communications, propulsion and even weapons.

He's got one chance to transform the derelict ship into a combat-ready vessel. One he can take into battle and alter the course of the war.

Don't miss the start of this science fiction thrill ride about a crew of young soldiers mustering the courage to fight back against both a vicious alien enemy, and the terrifying void of being stranded in space. It's perfect for fans of Daniel Gibbs, J.N. Chaney, and Vaughn Heppner!

©2025 Aethon Books (P)2025 Aethon Audio

Purchased 2 & 3 just before 1 ended.

If you like "On Basilisk Station" by David Weber, you will like this. Purchased 2 & 3 just before 1 ended.

Very shallow SCI Fi.

Liked the characters, hated the writing. Even tried to return the title.Not sure how this got so many good reviews.

If you like Honor Harrington series read this

good book with decent performance. I was getting tired of the hit and miss of the run of the mill military sci fi with the hero wielding a gun in each hand battling 10 feet tall aliens...

Great book, presented by tallented reader

This is a nice little gem of a space military story.
The writer does a great job of balancing high stakes action, with excitement and character development,
The character ensemble add an extra layer to an otherwise action packed story, and the writer does an excellent job making the listener invested

Mr. Ryan Kennard Burke does an amazing job reading this book, changing his pitch ever so slightly, so as to make destinct voices for all the characters speaking.
Even going so far as to make a recognisable voices, resulting in a book, where not only do you know that several people are having a conversation, but as the book goes on, the recognisable voices even mean that an attentive listener are able to hear WHO is talking.
There was even a character who was given an audible lisp, that actually had be laughing at times.

Honestly amazed as to how mr. Ryan Kennard Burke kan keep track of all the voices!

I am however deducting some points as it seems that chapter 22 seems to be duplicated resulting in chapter 23 missing entirely. I hope this get fixed as it seems like an obvious error by the publisher.
Chapter 23 is not the last chapter in the book but is does feel like you miss something, when you factor in how action packed this book is, There should be an easy fix to this though "HINT" publisher "HINT"

Nicely Executed Story

Well written simple story. Better than average. A bit linear but still enjoyable. I'll be continuing in this series

very well done characters

This story rides a very thin line between thrilling and punishing. Explosions and gore that are entertaining and visiral. Yet it's a story that presses you every step of the way.

Somewhere between Star Trek fan fic and a 2 star action movie.

The story used hard scifi terms in ways that showed the author did not have the rules of their universe well defined. These ill defined rules left blatant holes in descriptions where the same event could yeild different results based on the drama of the moment.

The captain is a rookie savant that seems to run a. entire ship on his own, with the crew being lackeys who turn wrenches to meet his secret design.

I just could not buy into it.

Plot is implausible.

The reader’s performance was adequate. He handled the required accents well but I could not get past the fact that he sounded like Clint Eastwood to me. It was distracting. The plot suffers from too many implausible situations. Moreover, the real central character of this novel is Sergay the engineer. None of what the hero accomplishes is possible without the engineer’s accomplishments. In fact the character of the steward is more intriguing than that of the hero. I may read the next one in the series but I won’t rush to do it.

First listening to both the author and narrator. I do recommend.

This is a fun read. It has me wanting to know what was coming next often enough that I would sit in my car listening after getting home. I will say that it has a lot of Star Trek to it. some of it felt taken directly from it. Still they managed a good story.

Eh ending was disappointing

Terrible choice by author at the he end for a pointless character kill off for some kind of cheap emotional spike. It’s a dumb trope that needs to end. Ruined the whole book honestly by leaving a bitter taste.