Allies and Enemies: Fallen

Allies and Enemies Series, Book 1

By: Amy J. Murphy

Narrated by: Erin Bateman

Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Fight. Survive. Repeat. The rules of a soldier are simple.

Born into service of the Regime, Commander Sela Tyron is about as subtle as a hammer. To hammers, any problem can look like a nail, but things aren't always that easy. When Sela is abandoned with her team on a planet full of insurrectionists, things get complicated.

A daredevil rescue by her commanding officer reaps deadly consequences, forcing Sela to choose between the only life she's ever known and the fate of the man she's duty-bound to protect.

Her whole life was a lie. And that's the good news.

Shirking a life of privilege, Erelah Veradin dreamt of building spaceships and exploring the stars in the service of the Regime. When a monstrous truth about her true heritage is revealed, Erelah finds herself at the unwilling center of a scheming mastermind's bid for power.

Suit up. Time to join the fight.

Praise for Allies and Enemies: Fallen

"Plenty of kick-assery with a refreshing gender reversal." (Seven Days VT)

"A solid SF tale. It has a nice layered storyline with a relatively fast paced plot...everything you would want in a SF suspense space opera." (Midwest Book Review, Feb 2017)

©2015 Amy J. Murphy (P)2018 Amy J. Murphy

Fantastic military space opera with women leads

“Allies and Enemies: Fallen: Allies and Enemies Series, Book 1” is a terrific sci-fi story with great narration!

The book opens in the middle of battle action and never slows down! This is not a lesfic story, but the hetero interests and actions are light and definitely fade-to-black. That’s not to say the story is all action with little focus on characters. Indeed, the many characters are well crafted and interesting, it’s just that romance and sex are a very minor part of the story. Staying alive…now that’s much more part of the story for everyone!

In the tradition of all well-done space operas, we are presented with an all-powerful “Regime” which, err, discourages any individuality. There are clear caste systems, corrupt politicians, sycophants, and OMG an evil villain to put all other evil villains to shame. Seriously, Darth Vader is a boy scout considered to Tristic!! Well, ok, boy scouts are in the news for villainy of their own, but work with me here.

MC Sela Tyron is a “breeder”…a warrior class grunt who is determined to protect her Captain: Jon Veradin. And NOT to fall in love or lust with her superior. Nope. Not.going.to.happen. Perhaps not. Jon, it turns out, must learn a surprise or two of his own, as must his sister, Erelah.

“Allies and Enemies” is a fantastic military sci-fi story featuring strong women leads. Lots of action with plenty of creepy sci-fi bodysnatcher stuff that you may lose sleep…at least to finish the book! 5*…things only get better than this book when it’s lesfic!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

My rating and my review was not in anyway affected by my having been provided a review copy.

A Really Good Story

Great Sci Fi book.

It started out a little slow, but it really picked up and kept me going. The plot was great, the characters were great.
There were plenty of details to make it seem real, just a great story.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Returned

note to author: when readers are introduced to a character who is bleeding to death in the first scene or so, it's not a good time to spend two chapters on backstory and then just pass them off, pretending it was dealt with. Then to go into a religious argument.

Sorry I didn't want to stick around to see if the story was going to get better

The book takes an hour to get into. Excited for the second book

Took a bit to get centered. Then the story was interesting and compelling. Enjoyable and ready for book too.

Sci-Fi Action with a great story

Allies and Enemies: Fallen is a great sci-fi story with compelling take on what is right and wrong, who is friend and foe and what to believe when everything you have ever been taught doesn't seem to make sense anymore.

The story follows Commander Sela Tyron who is a 'Breeder' which is a genetically engineered soldier that has been raised from birth to fight and not question there orders. They are not necessarily slaves but definitely a lower caste with really only one purpose. Her and her team at the beginning of the story are essentially stranded on a planet behind enemy lines and seemingly abandoned to their fate by the fleet in orbit. Sela's commanding officer Captain Jon Varadin a "Crester" or high born in this world defies his orders and refuses to abandon them and makes a daring rescue.

This sets up much of the rest of the story as will Sela stand by her Captain or by watch she has been taught her entire life. The story then interweaves with Jon's sister Erelah Varadin who has been working as a scientist on a secret military project to perfect easier space travel by making lightspeed jumps without the use of current fixed point nodes that are needed currently. She runs into the evil Defenser Tristik a genetically engineered half-breed with special powers and plans of her own who wants to use Erelah for her own purposes.

The story is quite good, mixed with great action, cool science, a love story and some philosophical dilemmas to go along with it. The narration by Erin Bateman was quite good and lends itself well to the story. You can definitely tell she is Canadian though by the way she says Sorry(more like Sorey) and it is used often in the book. She also pronounces the word insidious a bit strangely but besides that she was great and has a very pleasant voice. The book leaves you wanting more and to see where the story is going to go from here. I would definitely recommend it.

"Please note I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

Great Story

I loved the story! The narrator did an okay job. She could have made the lead sound a little less like a whiny robot. I am sure if I read this instead of listened to it I would have liked it a lot better. The book itself was sound in the writing, characters and world building. There was a lot going on and some really evil people. It is kind of funny to have humans thought of as lesser beings and enemies. Being held captive was harsh for the sister and Sela could have been a bit more understanding. They all go out with a bang in the end and the story continues.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from StoryOrigin for an honest review.

4.75★s

Ahh what a great start to a new series! Now I will warn you, it took me 2 times to get past the first couple of chapters but that may have been me. You have to concentrate on everything that is happening. Also, the book does alternate between POVs and, of course, genders. The narrator, unfortunately, didn't attempt to make any vocal changes to indicate them. :-/ 

Once into the story, it really hooked me in! :-D It was original and had several twists and turns. And then bam, it was over! :-( 

I was frustrated with Ty often but had to remind myself that she was raised to behave and believe a certain way. Her sharpness, I believe was often when she didn't know how to properly deal with situations. Jon, dear Jon, he was harder for me to connect with. Perhaps, because he was a secondary character overshadowed by a strong lead. Not a bad thing! Just difficult for me to nail down. He does have a wonderful, loving & forgiving heart. =)

World building was okay but the ending was great!! :-D


My star ratings include these 5 elements:

1★ story line
1★ engaging characters
.75★ use of world building/descriptions
1★ the ending
1★ narration or editing

"I was given this free review copy/audiobook at *MY* request and have voluntarily left this review."

Wow! Xclnt storytelling movie in my head!!!

Loved this story. Easy to visualize, loved the voices and will definitely invest in rest of series!! Perfect pictures in my head. Great escape, time flew!

I lost time listening to this story.

Great story, really interesting and flawed characters. Hard Sci fi! The story moves fast and look forward to the following books. The performance was a bit inconsistent at the beginning but ended strong. Overall well worth the 11 hours frankly it went fast felt more like 2 hours listening. That's a very good sign.

SciFi / Mystical Fantasy

The book would have been better around 8 hours instead of 11+ but...it did introduce a large galaxy+ where the Regime reigns supreme, a distinct class system is in place, and humans are basically extinct. Come to find out factions of the Regime are fighting within and our protagonists are caught in the middle. I've heard "Firefly" mentioned in some reviews, but this is No Firefly. Good SciFi with some mystical elements. The storyline meanders but the characters are sympathetic, and it does come to an exciting, climactic finish.