A Learning Experience, Book 1

By: Christopher G. Nuttall

Narrated by: Christian Rummel

Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Earth is not alone. There is a towering civilization out in the galaxy, far greater than anything we can imagine. But we are isolated from the galaxy...until now.

When a bunch of interstellar scavengers approach Earth intending to abduct a few dozen humans and sell them into slavery in the darkest, they make the mistake of picking on Steve Stuart and his friends, ex-military veterans all. Unprepared for humans who can actually fight, unaware of the true capabilities of their stolen starships, the scavengers rapidly lose control of the ship - and their lives.

To Steve the captured starship represents a great opportunity, one to establish a new civilization away from Earth and its increasingly oppressive bureaucracy. But with the aliens plotting their revenge and human factions suspicious of the new technology, it will be far from easy to create a whole new world....

©2014 Christopher G. Nuttall (P)2016 Podium Publishing

Great concept / Hated the prosletyzing

What would have made A Learning Experience, Book 1 better?

I wanted to love it I really did, the concept is awesome. But the endless prosletyzing was exhausting. Everytime I was getting into the story, I was pulled out of it about by the author talking about the MSM, the uslessness of the government, and the rapaciousness of lawyers. Topics I at least sympathize with him on, but MAKE IT INTEGRAL TO THE STORY. Just mentioning the character hated working in medicine because (insert political viewpoint here) is jarring.

Whew.

Sorry about that.

What was most disappointing about Christopher G. Nuttall’s story?

the preaching

Trying so hard to finish

well the whole idea of the story was awesome and I couldn't wait to dig in, then it became very clear very fast that Nuttell was instead of writing a great sci fi novel, he was writing his anti establishment, anti American,anti everything manifesto disguised in a sci-fi story. It just got worst and worst to the point that I could almost picture him just writing away with a pissed off look on his face & it completely took away from what could have been a really fun story. Also, the repetitive he said,she said,Steve said,she said,Steve said... geeze. I'm really dissapointed, I was really looking forward to this story. Do yourself a favor & skip to last chapter & the prologue literally sums up the book without Nuttall's personal gripes,hate & reasons why he lives on an island far from Western ideology. Overall I'm very dissapointed.

Snowflakes need not open

Very good story without the political correctness that makes so much Audible content nauseating. A few parts are a little formulaic, but even those don't take away from being enjoyable.

Lost Oppertunity

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Mr Nuttall is a powerful storyteller. The narrator has a strong alpha male delivery and I am normally a big fan.The storyline had the opportunity to be insightful on a wide range of current and relevant social, political and science issues. It passed on those opportunities.I would actually like to see this book(series?) researched and rewritten with some depth that would add credibility and dimension to the story. The characters must have real struggles and more complex emotions than are expressed. The science for what they are doing has a lot of interesting nuance, drama and history. The backdrop of a citizenry defined by a long series of wars in foreign lands would be compelling. Those intrigues combined with the exploration of the wide disparities in experience between rural and urban America would make this book award winning. That dichotomy of urban versus rural or the impacts of culture and politics in a dense population(like in space) or a dispersed population seems to particular relevant for this work of fiction.

Any additional comments?

If this book was a dinner it was boiled with no seasoning, herbs or spices... Since I like meat and potato I would eat it but be looking for the salt the whole time.

libertarian diatribe

I'm 8 hours in and can't take the political rants any longer. main character is an ex military militia member doing what he can to insult the us government at every turn...arrrrgggghhh! (sigh) I used to respect nuttall...

Libertarian Rant

This story was a right wing libertarian rant from beginning to end. The politics detracted from and took any enjoyment out of the story. We all understand the shortcomings overarching bureaucracy but this screed was relentless and boring.

Brain-Dead Libertarian Secessionist Claptrap

First, the narration is great; no problems there.

I've listened to many of Nuttall's military scifi books, and I have always enjoyed the tales of fragments of military units grasping for life amid the death throes of a huge galactic empire collapsing under its own weight. This one is not that sort of book, and I wish I'd read some of the other reviews first instead of just trusting in Nuttall's work.

Here, the otherwise good storytelling can't mask a fundamentally flawed story. Maybe the stories set in the more distant future make up for or render irrelevant poor assumptions about military knowledge and functions that this book, set in the present, means that my own knowledge of military training and capabilities keeps coming up. For example, some future combat engineers might be experts in space and naval architecture and working with unintelligible technologies to produce works in months that would take civilian engineers years just to design, but present-day combat engineers are high school educated technicians more skilled in breaking things than building them. But that's only a small piece of what's wrong, and is only bolstered by the ex machina -- I control it with my brain because technology and my shiny headband -- solutions to everything.

The main characters are all right-wing, secessionist sovereign citizens (look it up), who think their perusing of a few online constitutions prepares them to rewrite society in an afternoon. They are full of anger about how things are, while simultaneously demonstrating fundamental misunderstandings about both the facts and the history of their points of contention. Likewise, while complaining about wealth and corruption, they put "those who can pay" at the front of the line for cancer treatments and the like, while making everyone else wait. Oh, and not to forget the constant referrals to only allowing people those who agree with their laws and rules to live in their new nation, and then talking about how they haven't gotten around to getting even the most fundamental laws codified. However, they did build a city on the moon, complete with a carefully screened population, wide-ranging economy, and a school system, in just two months through heaps of jury-rigging and 'Merica-isms from a group of what amounts to Montanan hillbillies in a space ship.

I'm totally willing to ignore the storytelling conveniences, such as the super doctor/vet girlfriend who can't be older than 40, somehow is a master of both disciplines -- I guess she went to college when she was six -- but whose only medical practice is the family farm. Totally good with that (really). Likewise, the I know this world class so-and-so in every single field imaginable and can convince them over coffee to give us their products, conduct illegal trade in a dozen, and fix their product lines to make everything possible immediately. Likewise, totally good with that too (really).

Everything in the book is anti-government, anti-big business, anti-large city, anti-rules, anti-taxes, etc., all while using bribes, spies (nanodrones), lie detectors, arbitrary powers, and bullying willy-nilly. Every time there is just the briefest note of sanity from one of the main characters, it just stops cold. Another reviewer called it something like right-wing militia masturbation, which is about how it works out in the end.

In general, I recommend Nuttall's books, but not this one. Stick with the Empire's Corps series and similar.

Refreshing step away from political correctness

I have always loved sci-fi, but it always caterers to a certain political view. Christopher Nuttall combines masterful science fiction with right of center political view (US right of center). Love the story line and can’t wait until I dive back in.

Awful

Just bad writing with a large dose of ultra conservative tea party ideology. Government bad, They're coming for your guns nonsense, etc. it had potential but in the end I just couldn't stop laughing or rolling my eyes.

Libertarians take over the universe

What did you like best about A Learning Experience, Book 1? What did you like least?

It was interesting to see a sci-fi story told from such an extreme libertarian point of view. Though I found many viewpoints grating ("ethnic" entitlement, women studies, health care), preposterous (collusion between environmentalist and oil producers), and condescending (gun rights, Edward Snowden, muslim countries is general), they weren't actually a big part of the story and the author seems to be socially liberal (gay marriage), and in spite of enormous moral blind spots, could actually hold balanced opinions on many issues.

So what happens if a bunch of ex-servicemen find all the technology to actually create their libertarian utopia? Certainly not a whole bunch of realistic stuff. Nevertheless, I wanted to know the end and, perversely, wanted to see if human reality would knock some sense into them.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I wish the author had delved a little deeper about the social and political issues that would be big problems in such a gun-totting libertarian society. Every one was a little too agreeable. There was one "right" point of view and anyone with "common sense" agreed with it. Unavoidable, I guess, otherwise the whole society would have collapsed half-way through the book.

There's also the fact that they get a machine that can almost instantly heal anything at apparently no cost, but then set-up a system that only rich people can afford, 'cause, you know, socialism is bad.

What about Christian Rummel’s performance did you like?

I liked his strong American accent. Completely appropriate for the characters.

Moroninc, red neck dross.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A different book.

What was most disappointing about Christopher G. Nuttall’s story?

This is a cringe worthy crawl through a red neck teenager's mind.
Let me count the offences it caused me.
1. It’s full of anti gun control crap.
2. Every leader in the book is male, even the sodding aliens are patriarchal.
3. Brothels seem to be an acceptable solution to calm male troops. Quote "there are plenty of desperate women on Earth" oh that's ok then!
4. Being Islamic or from a country where Islam is predominant is, out of hand, grounds for suspicion.
5. The idiotic idea that all politicians are liars and full of self interest is, again out of hand, bounded about.
6. The idea that all lawyers are evil is given the same childish treatment.
7. The biggest female character is a doctor but not really because all doctors are so terrified of being sued (by the evil lawyers and the evil families of the deceased) that they hate their jobs, so she decided to become a vet! I'm not joking it's really in the book.
8. Anyone who dares to protest about anything is a whiner.
9. The idea of political correctness is made out to be some kind of great evil, dividing society.
10. All forms of law enforcement are nothing but a hindrance to the gun totting good ol boys who make up the main characters.
I could go on, and there is a lot more, but what's the point.

Which character – as performed by Christian Rummel – was your favourite?

Does it matter, the fact that he managed to keep his voice straight was quite an achievement, unless he came from the same special community as the author. But he did manage to make them all sound a bit stupid which was, in hindsight, genius.

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The actual story wasn't terrible, it got 2 stars for a reason.

Any additional comments?

Please listen to something intelligent, or just take this as the comedy, red-neck, self congratulatory, rubbish it really is.

Rednecks in space!

I found the opening scene of country guys from Montana being abducted by aliens initially amusing and initially thought that the story was being told with a heavy dose of irony. It dawned on me that the libertarian and reactionary views being espoused were meant in all seriousness! The narrative took on ridiculous proportions when we were asked to believe that a small group of gung-ho gun-toting guys could capture space ships, establish colonies on the Moon and Mars, defeat the Taliban and contact other galactic species all within the space of a year! I only persisted to the end ( increasingly irritated) because I'd paid for it! I shall not be purchasing the sequel!

A morons book.

Couldn't finish it, clearly written by an pro gun American nutter with a limited imagination.

Poorly narrated by a gentleman with a droning voice and difficulties with his pronunciation.

rampant libertarianisn<br /><br />

the heavy handed pulpit thumping against all things government added to the complete lack of even a vague scientific framework made this a perfect Trump manifesto.. only finished it to have the chance to review it and warn the unsuspecting away.. stay away!!!!

Another disappointment

I was hoping for escapism with this book but it was not going to happen. I put up with the glaring lack of depth of character for the protagonists and kept hoping things would improve. Unfortunately when the story started involving the Taliban and Afghanistan I lost the will to listen. I wanted escapism not realism mixed with a badly written story. I listened for nearly five hours before giving up so I think I gave it a good try before deciding it was rubbish.

Strange and incongruous usage of words.

While I am aware that the work is a piece of fiction, it does often seem difficult to find it believable.
Good performance, although a wee tad strong on the Silvester Stallone impression.

Bit too right wing for my taste

Didn't actually finish this because, frankly, I found its obviously right-wing, gung-ho, gun loving attitude offensive.

Story was pretty weak too, but maybe that picks up later on. Couldn't stomach it myself though and returned it. Not for me.

White Man cultural Fantasy

What disappointed you about A Learning Experience, Book 1?

I thought the Author was trying hard to mask his own Racism. The Story was quite contrived and whilst not quite white supremiscist , it was culturally supremicist.

What didn’t you like about Christian Rummel’s performance?

The overly deep bass voices assigned to the military characters

Any additional comments?

Disappointing

Good fun

A few massive plot holes gleefully ignored, and you have to like libertarianism Montana-style, but an enjoyable and rather addictive listen based on wish fulfilment if nothing else! Will buy the second instalment, just to see if the main characters grow a little depth now that they are effectively immortal...or are they?

Ant bodied aliens and right wing Americans ... NO!

I didn't read further than 1st chapter as characters were right wing. I don't know whether it improves but I didn't want to listen to silliness