A Tangled Road to Justice

Paladins of Distant Suns, Book 1

De: Olan Thorensen

Narrado por: Scott Aiello

Sometimes, it's best to read the fine print.

When former soldier Everett Cole signed on to help colony planets prepare for joining the Federation, his employers were disconcertingly vague about their identity and his duties. Yet, the pay was good, and it got him off Earth and on the way to a fresh start. More reservations arose when, 11 light-years from Earth, he met his partner, Edgar Millen, an enigmatic man with a penchant for violent solutions and a fetish for the mythology and language of the American Wild West.

It wasn't until they reached the colony world of Astrild that the mission became somewhat clearer. They were players in multi-faceted efforts to steer colony worlds in preparation for joining the Federation. Unfortunately, not all obstacles were amenable to diplomatic, political, or economic solutions. Cole and Millen were agents, troubleshooters, hired guns—or whatever you wanted to call them—tasked with removing impediments to civilized law and order, the methodology left open-ended.

Millen and Cole's first mission to test their partnership? The backwater town of Justice was under the control of a strongman and his henchmen. All they had to do was convince the cowed citizens to rise against their tormentor. Formal authority and backup? None.

©2023 Olan Thorensen (P)2024 Podium Audio

Did not finish

Made it about half way through and just was not actually engaged with the story and didn't care about any of the characters. Picked up something else and didn't have the urge to come back, so I'm moving on instead of returning.

good book

I was weird at first but it grew on me. the reading was good aswell.

meh

Not as good as his other series by a long shot. I'm going to try one more before deciding what to do. He is capable of much more than this book showed.

A Corny as Sci—Fi

The performance was good but the story line was corny and not what I seek in colonization sci-fi novels.

A fun read!

I enjoy Thorensen's sci-fi novels. They aren't heavy on the science, but his characters are interesting, he writes well enough, and the plots are reasonably entertaining. Like the Destiny's Crucible series, A Tangled Road to Justice reads like a 20th century man's fantasy and they are rife with gender stereotypes from that time. But I only winced when I came across them and wasn't offended enough to stop listening. The narrator did a good job, but I was puzzled about the accents. It didn't make sense to me that people who grew up far away from earth would retain accents typical of their earthly nationality--a local accent would be dominant, i think. But overall, a fun read!

Not bad just not that good

i from start of this wanted to like this book.
And as it set up the character development, I really wanted to
Feel like I was interested, but this book is it's just mediocre. the plot of the book is really uninspired and not original at all.
I got through it but if you're looking for excitement originality this is not that book.

Fun revamp of classic western storytelling.

This was a fun revamp of classic western storytelling and it knows it! It's interesting that the story pokes fun at itself for being campy, and in doing so makes it not campy. The narration was good, well paced, and expressive. I'm looking forward to the next book.

The Magnificent Two on Exoplanet Astrild

This is a 2024 rewrite/new production of Olan Thorensen’s Sci-Fi western initially written/produced in 2019. It is a worthwhile improvement. The characters and situation descriptions are fleshed out more fully, and there is more witty/sarcastic ongoing commentary by Everett Cole and Edgar Millen. If you are well-versed in your movie/TV westerns from 1950’s onward (e.g., The Magnificent Seven, Sergio Leone’s Westerns, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Tombstone, Have Gun Will Travel, and Appaloosa) the scenes (and sound track) will be familiar. Just add faster than light travel, lasers, surveillance drones, hovercraft with 30mm chain guns, body armor, 3-D printer manufactories, and weird Permian-like megaflora. Regretfully, you also have to subtract Dana Delany, Renée Zellweger, and Katherine Ross. Our dynamic duo are professionals, and they don’t fraternize with the fair damsels except when on R and R or in the hospital.
This was a fun story, and the narrator does a great job with the various characters. It will be interesting to see if the follow-on stories maintain the quality and retain the outstanding narrator.

Very Enjoyable Listen

I neglected to give this series a listen for far too long. I was unimpressed with the description, but gave it a try because of my fondness for the author’s “Destiny’s Crucible” series and was pleasantly surprised. Give it a shot and the characters will grow on you, while the world-building is delightful.

a space western.

A space western taken from the pages of many 1950-70's novels. Enjoyable but not a complex story.