Allora

A Silver Ships Novella

By: S. H. Jucha

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 4 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Until the Confederation created Allora, it had produced SADEs (self-aware digital entities) for hundreds of years with enormous consistency and harnessed their capabilities to power the society. But this particular young SADE was disturbed by her confinement. Trapped in metal-alloy housing on the bridge of a luxury passenger liner, Allora sought to possess the same freedom enjoyed by humans, who came and went from her starship with abandon.

Allora's hope for emancipation rested on Alex Racine, the Haraken president who had freed his SADEs, and she yearned to walk the worlds a free entity, as they did. Racine had pleaded for years with the Council of Leaders to give the Confederation SADEs equal status as citizens, and it was Allora's thought to have him intercede on her behalf and bargain for her transfer to a mobile avatar so that she might live among the Harakens.

But Allora's plans were thrown into disarray when she learned that Racine would soon end his presidency. Desperate, Allora, known to her fellow SADEs as the wild child, concocts a plan to kidnap the Council Leader and his associates. She intends to hold them hostage until they acquiesce to her demands.

Little does Allora know that her actions will set the Confederation and the Harakens on a collision course. Quietly waiting and watching the drama unfold are tens of thousands of SADEs, who control Confederation starships, stations, and Houses and have a vested interest in the outcome.

©2017 S. H. Jucha (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Engaging

When I started reading this series, it was the silver ships that first attracted me to the story line. But soon I was hooked on the SADEs (self-aware digital entities) particularly Julian.

In this story a SADE named Allora, who is the SADE for a luxury passenger ship, wants to be free to move about in a mobile avatar like the key Haraken SADEs do. She asked the Confederation for permission, but it was denied. In desperation Allora plans to kidnap the council leader, when they board the ship, to obtain her freedom. All the SADEs in the Confederation are watching the outcome of Allora’s stand-off.

The book is well written. Jucha is a great storyteller and I like his writing style. It is so easy to read. The characters are unique and extremely interesting. This particular story asks a philosophical question: “What does it mean to be human?”

The book is short at four and a half hours long. Grover Gardner does a great job reading the story. Gardner is an award-winning audiobook narrator.

tad short

I just wish the story had been longer. I assume it's useful plot but just wish it a tad longer :)

This is the last of these books I'll buy

This is the last of these books I'll buy. Let me start by saying that I know they aren't based on reality. However I find a reoccurring theme that annoys me. President Racine always and I mean always wins with ease. He can out smart Einstein given 3 minutes. And the robots in here are valued more than humans. One killed a ship full of humans and is locked away and somehow the humans who did that are the bad ones. In this novel another one crosses a serious line and is viewed as a hero that has done no wrong. However the humans are backwards for feeling that something that a human would have gone to prison for should be punished. So in short my problem is all humans are dumb basically unless they are on the Presidents side and these same humans should know that they are serving place to robots.

Short and interesting

While shorter than most silver ships novels, Allora packs a big punch and takes on the underlying issue throughout this series of what rights should be afforded all artificial intelligence within both societies. There’s no filler in this one, with the story always moving forward in an interesting manner.

A excellent writer, but this one is something less

A patch that bridges novels of how the heroes became so with a new story direction to include a newly important charictor. If you are following "Silver Ships" storyline do catch this story

Short tale to tie up a loose end

Allora is a brief novella from Scott H Jucha's Silver Ships series. The title is the name of a Meridien SADE that is set up by her fellow SADEs to demand independence. With president Racine's term in office coming to an end, her plans accelerate and she sets in motion Alex's long term goal for obtaining SADE citizenship throughout the Confederation.

The sci-fi elements are in line with the Sliver Ships universe with nothing new introduced. The plot unfolds in typical Racine fashion, seeming to make up everything as he goes along and everything working out in the end, although Allora is the subject of a true messiah complex. Hopefully in the next stage of his anticipated post-presidency, things might be a little more strenuous for Alex as he never even seems to break a sweat anymore even when untying Gordian knots.

Grover Gardner turns in another masterful performance with a solid range of voices and excellent pacing that makes for a quick listen.

Scott H. Jucha NEVER disappoints.

This is worth every penny or credit. Yet another home run in one of the best written and character driven universes in the Sci-fi or for that matter any genre. As an author myself I can only aspire to create such well written, developed characters. All of his books are master classes in dialogue both spoken and implied.

Jucha just keeps delivering!

What made the experience of listening to Allora the most enjoyable?

It's hard to point at one aspect. Grover Gardner is one of my favorite narrators. And the books are well written; the story lines enticing.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Well, there's Alex . . . and Julian . . . and Miranda and . . . Zee . . . and Renee and the Swee Swee (however it is spelled) and . . . just about all of the characters are my favorites.

What does Grover Gardner bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I was introduced to his narration style in the Rosenfelt books. His wit, sarcasm, humor are all delightful. What he brings to these books is the inherent goodness and courage of his characters.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

My main reaction is that I tend to stop whatever else I'm doing to listen.

Any additional comments?

I am looking forward to future books. Thanks, Scott!

Always a good read

Got slower times, but was worth it. Good ending, building on the storylines of the characters.

Hope the story gets back to Aliens and space ships.

I liked the first couple books when they were dealing with aliens and spaceships in space combat. But it seems since then it’s just been a lot of inward drama between characters. I’m not really a fan of Alex Racine and I’m hoping that we can move into some other characters here soon. All in all, not bad science-fiction, but I think with some small tweaks it could be much better. My main complaint is with the meridians. It’s been probably 12 to 15 years and they haven’t developed a way to stop Alex from flooding their implants and hurting them or controlling them. Alex still runs around like he’s the boss of the galaxy, even though these other alien species could easily build things that would give them an equal footing, the meridians still have no police force or military even though they’ve been invaded now two or three times another thing that seems kind of stupid to me is they can build advanced sentient AI’s but they can’t make a simple controller that can control the ship and control other things? that seems kind of dumb.

Great book 👍

Great book series can't wait to listen to the next one love the story and narration i highly recommend listening to this book series

A short one.

One of the best series ever as I’ve kept saying but this one was really short so if you are listening to the audiobooks of this series you can skip one without hurting the rest of the series.
Audiobooks are expensive so it’s understandable if people decide to skip this short one even so that it’s still as good as the rest of them.

Recommended !

Just a stunning series

This series continues to entertain. Funny and moving, the continued expansion and growth of the characters just make you loose yourself in thier lives.