A Faded Star, Book 1

By: Michael Freeport

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews

Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

A forgotten colony of humans live on a water world circling a tiny, faded star on the edge of the galaxy. The crew of their newest flagship, the Rampart, encounters an alien scout who is being chased by a dangerous foe. The encounter shakes the beliefs held by the people of Lashmere. With the aid of the mysteries of the origin tablet, they discover the true origins of their colony. These may be the last humans in the universe. Can they survive against their ancient enemy? Their only choice is to embrace an unknown past and fight with everything they have.

©2016 Michael Freeport (P)2017 Podium Publishing

Surprising.

Honestly I just couldn't decide on a book so I clicked a recommended one from Audible.

Glad I did, this book was intelligent without being too dry, had excellent concepts of Military strategy without geeking out overly on gear.

The Captains made some odd choices at times when it came to diplomacy with Alien species, and the Aliens were conveniently dumb at times where I don't think they would have been.

overall tho I deeply recommend, audio performance was as good as they come.

5 people found this helpful

Excellent and exceptional story

This is an excellent start to a long journey to finding the Earthly Empire, perfect for science fiction fans!

3 people found this helpful

Strange Performance

This seems like a good story but I could not finish it -- because of the performance.

I realize that my reaction must be unusual, but I feel compelled to write it down anyway. Normally I like MacLeod Andrews as a narrator. In this book he uses three accents. One is a neutral "standard American" accent which he uses for general narration. That is fine. Another is a Scottish accent, which he uses for one of the two main human groups in the story. That is also fine. I have noticed that Scottish accents are often used in science fiction audio books to represent some foreign or minority group of humans.

However, the main human group is represented using the kind of "North Jersey" or New York City" accents used by gangsters in "the Sopranos" or in shows like "Jersey Shore". In that accent I would be "writin dis review" instead of "writing this review".

There is no reason why people in the future could not speak like that but, for me, it just seemed weird that scientists and senior military officers would speak in that way. Maybe one or two characters, but not everyone. I had to give up on the book. Possible I am only person on the planet who would be bothered by this.

6 people found this helpful

if you like reading technical manuals...

This book had potential, but that's about it. I finished it in hopes it would get better, but it didn't. The performance was pretty monotone although the different voices and accents were good. My mind kept drifting off especially in trying to detail the technical aspects. I loved "The Martian" with all its details but this book was like reading a technical manual .

2 people found this helpful

Excellent fast moving story

If you could sum up A Faded Star, Book 1 in three words, what would they be?

fast moving sci-fi

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

final battle scenes are excellent

Any additional comments?

obviously 1st in a series...I am eager for the rest!

2 people found this helpful

Unexpected

This books was awesome, and has a ton of very interesting and unexpected plot twists that are pulled of to perfection. I loved how he puts rebel factions into the political environment to give the story background and make it seem more realistic. As always MacLeod Andrews dose a superb job on the narration. To sum it all up, I eagerly await the next installment of this series.

7 people found this helpful

Mary Sue who

Started out good, then took a nose dive. Added generic aliens almost like an after thought. The dynamic between the two brothers was really quite good but is dumped out the airlock after the first meeting. After which most of the book is litterally reading percentage improvements to imaginary ship systems to which you have no basis of comparison to imagine. 20% more armor! Wow! that means it can withstand...20% more...fun. Characters are perfect Mary Sues except for their "low command scores." Oh god, many a night hard drinking to forget our pathetic LOW COMMAND SCORE! This story takes place immidiately after a clearly more interesting story the author felt not quite ready to tell. Good start and undefined finish because I got so bored I stopped trying. Too much is going on, author needs focus.

1 person found this helpful

Lacking in any detail

While I don't like books that overly tell every little bit of background and thought process that goes on in the book I do enjoy understanding a little background. This book jumps ahead weeks at a time without resolving any issues in the process. The narrator is a dull guy but he tries so I gave him a second star for the effort but really. This is a horrible read unless you are really good at guessing and making up your own plot.

1 person found this helpful

Outstanding fast paced battle sci-fi!

The story is the best I've heard since the Lost Starship series. Excellent character development and multiple story lines to keep the listener off balanced and engaged. MacLeod Andrews is one of the best orators on audible. His spot on accents and inflections bring life to the characters and make it easy to distinguish even in fast action. Highly recommend.

1 person found this helpful

The genre is saturated but this story is strong

There are only so many ways to tell the "future humans in space far from earth struggle for survival against aliens" story, and I have read a gazillion very similar variants. This one is a good bit more compelling than the average, though I'm not sure exactly why. Planning to go on to book 2 shortly.