First Line of Defense 2

First Line of Defense, Book 2

De: Benjamin Kerei

Narrado por: Travis Baldree, Gary Furlong

Morgan Mars is doing everything he can to protect humanity from alien invasion.

But even his new organization, The First Line of Defence, isn’t enough to save what’s already lost. Sectors are collapsing like dominoes as the aftermath of the 20th Cycle invasion leaves everyone trapped in the falling Sectors. No one knows what to do. No one, that is, except Nicholas Thistlebush. He has a plan to save Sector 6. The only question is, what will it cost him?

©2024 Benjamin Kerei (P)2024 Podium Audio

Question on existence, done in a fun Sci/fi way.

While a departure from book 1, it is a great, fun alternative perspective of the Great Game.

Great book two

I think this is as a great book two in this series and I cannot wait for another. I enjoy the rejuvenating story in this one

A+ story

Seen they did duel narration. I normally hate these but they did a good job on their character. The part I hated was which ever narrator’s chapter they did all character. Took me almost an entire chapter before I realized they didn’t introduce d a new character just due to this. I’m sure this was done to another Travis scheduling issue issue but the author can only do what he can do. While Travis is in my top 3 favorite narrator his lack of schedule management makes me say just drop him completely. Rant over

The good - the writing/story is awesome as usual. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

Not what I expected

It's not very similar to the other books by Benjamin Kerei. It doesn't even feel like it's in the same universe as the first book and only has brief appearances by Morgan. I can see how this might have been a chance for the author to play with different concepts, including some psychological trauma, but it really didn't fit well with the first book.

There were some interesting developments, but since they were with Morgan and weren't the focus, they feel brushed over.

Isaac Asimov of Isekai

While this is labeled as a sequel it's more like a parallel book taking place in the same universe as the first book with cameos from Morgan. Initially it felt like i'd been tricked, but after the first chapter i became just as addicted to it as the first book and unable to stop listening until the end. This author has quickly become my favorite, maybe because Rothfuss hasn't written anything in a decade, because he tackles unusual subjects with very grounded and realistic perspectives and this book is no different. As with many of his characters, this is an exploration of someone's self-awareness only taken to an extreme degree after an early in-game class boost of the main character. He is a man with flaws who is tackling those flaws using some weird methods.

This author has me excited for his next books in a way that i haven't been in years. He's grounded and without a lot of fluff. It feels like every 'scene' has a purpose and i'm not wasting time, unlike so many other books who write like they're being paid by the letter or are aimless. I recommend any book he's written, partially because the others are voice acted by Travis Baldtree who is amazing and seems to be in perfect sync with Kerei's style. Cannot rate this book series high enough.

A Separate Vignette May Have Been Better

This is a tough review to write because the author is a marvelous human and I sincerely respect him and his writing.

It's tough because the first book was so enjoyable! I loved the first book and I was absolutely thrilled to see a sequel. I went into the book with the expectation that it would follow Morgan as the main protagonist and would introduce new story arcs around him. The book went a different route with a different "main" protagonist. Morgan is definitely in this book, but he's really only 30% of the protagonist compared to the other character.

To that end, I feel like this book was written to try something new and experiment and I genuinely respect the author for doing that, I just didn't like the end result personally.

The book does bring about some fascinating new perspectives and some pretty deep-thought inducing monologue that are along similar lines of The Three Body Problem, but ultimately I think the book fell flat as it was trying to be 2 different books at once.

I think if the new character had been a separate novel or a vignette it would have been a better fit in the end as it would have allowed those who were interested in learning about him to explore the new (and different) story arch, but with 2 separate stories coupled with 2 completely separate narrators, it was a bit of a disjointed experience.

An unexpected change to the story

The story is much less station defense in this book and explores the ascension of a godlike class in the book and its effects on the human that becomes it. Not what I was expecting and it did get a little boring for a bit but I liked it and I feel it was a very important story beat to set up the future success of the human faction.

Pretty good almost there

The story is decent the split of main characters unlike book one is a little jarring , but my only complaint was we didn’t get more Morgon and his wife. I didn’t really like the pirate character as much. Hopefully book 3 has more system Tom foolery.

Existentialism

So big change of pace. this book was not bad by any means but it was much less humorous and much more series. book one was a five star this one definitely a four.

Amazing blend of reality and chaos

Avoid the reviews that are salty about the change in POV. There is plenty of Morgan in this book! The change in POV did not mean a dip in writing and story telling excellence. Kerei does a great job of adding another perspective that many of us were wondering about while reading the first book! If there is a downside, it is that it ends in a hurry