Colony One

The Elderon Chronicles, Book 1

By: Tarah Benner

Narrated by: Jacqueline DeGraff

Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's Summary

Maggie Barnes is at the end of her rope. She’s young and broke living in New York, and her newspaper job has been taken by robots. When she’s offered a job aboard the first civilian space colony, Maggie thinks it’s her lucky break. 

For Jonah Wyatt, the Space Force is his last shot at a military career. After years of tracking down the members of a deadly cyberterrorism ring, he was discharged from the army and stuck working one menial job after another. Now this disgraced combat specialist is headed to space. 

At first glance, Elderon seems to be a futuristic utopia: Bots do the laundry, meat comes from a lab, and the latest technology expands the scope of human capability. But as Maggie digs deeper, she realizes that Elderon is not at all what it seems. When she receives a tip from an unknown source, she’ll go undercover to learn the truth and place herself in the crosshairs of an all-out war.

©2018 Tarah Benner (P)2020 Tarah Benner

just so so.

I struggled to finish this book. Even though the narration was good, it took way too long for the story to develop. Maggie/Magnolia was a royal PIA and I got really tired of her dramatics. Jonah was, well he just was. All the characters seemed to not fully develop during the story.

This is one series I won't follow and am sad I spent a credit for it.

Loved it!

I learned about this book from a dystopian/apocalyptic group I am in. I was excited to give it a try. I can say that I didn't love it during the first 2 chapters. However, it quickly sucked me in and I couldn't stop listening. I wanted to know more and more about the characters. It is such a great story and I can't wait to listen to the next book! I'm hooked!!

Out of this world

What a great listen, time just flew by. A very well written book that felt very realistic, even though it is science fiction. cant wait to listen to the next one.

fun listen

narrator did a great job, made story come to life. enjoyed listening as I feel asleep nightly.

A slow first half, but picks up!

So I have already read this series and won a copy of the audio book. I was excited by this as this is the only way I will 're-read' a series these days. There are so many awesome books out there, I am never satiated.
When I first read BOOK ONE I was not overly excited by it, as I had been pulled in faster with some of Tarah Benner's other series (apoc), and this first book seemed really slow and didn't stand out too much. It was a little better listening to it, either my expectations were too high the first read through, or the audible variation is slightly more captivating.
What brings down my review a bit was that there were a couple of things that don't seem hugely plausible (like a specific infiltration, without saying too much), and although there were some explanations, it still felt a little stretched. But OK, once you get over that and get half way through the book, then the story really gets exciting with a series of confrontations and plenty of action. The twists are intriguing enough to make you read the following books, and I am glad that I did, and although it might not be my favorite series of Tarah's, it is still very entertaining and very eye-opening to the world that we live in now. The author's note at the end of the book is very interesting!
The narrator I was not overly keen with, there are bits to how she reads the narration parts that were a little lilting and unnatural (although you can get past it). But she does manage to give each character a defining voice, which was pretty good. I hope that the narration sections improves in the following books.

Tarah is an all-star!

Tarah Benner is the author that got me into all things dystopian. I havr read every series that she's put out except for the rest of this one, and the newest one due to my lack of reading time having a two-year-old now. As soon as the audiobooks come out I will be reading every single one. The way she builds characters in her overall stories is absolutely amazing.
Maggie's character is extremely relatable as she worked a job in the newspaper, and she has the General Life that most women would be able to relate to in some way. This story, as with all her other stories, take relatable characters and bring out their best qualities and a truly badass way. Maggie has her heart and soul in writing but is also a barista to help pay the bills with her quirky BFF.
Magnolia AKA Maggie gets the chance of a lifetime when she's offered a job to write for the new space colony. She always is able to find an important story so naturally things don't change in space.

Jonah is an ex-army Soldier now Gym trainer in Los Angeles for the rich fake women of the area. His heart is still in combat oh, but he can't go back to the regular army. When somebody from the past shows up and gives him the chance of a lifetime training combat in space he surely couldn't say no.

As with every single one of Tarah Benner stories thus far, it's very easy to see these characters as real people and people you would want to be real friends with. A chance to go on to the elderon sounds amazing, but is it really what it's made out to be? Follow the clues with Maggie and find out what's really going on!

If you've not read this book or any of her other series I definitely can say that you are missing out. The Fringe is an exciting Adventure where you get a taste of living inside a compound. The defectors series is great for anybody who likes stories about people getting infected with zombie like viruses and government Personnel chipping and tracking what's left of the population. Also don't forget Lark and her adventures escaping a prison where everyone is out for themselves and the guards don't bother to let them know the world around them is completely gone. (Lark is one of my favorites)

Anyway if you've not gotten anything else from this review, go now and read ALL of her stories. You will not regret it.

Awesome!

Fantastic from start to finish. very gripping story that sucks you in. The ending was a perfect hook to get you into the next in the series. Fantastic narrator! Can't wait to start book 2.

Tarah Benner Never Disappoints

If you’re a fan of dystopian novels, this is for you. I loved The Fringe and Lawless series so when I saw Tarah Benner released a new audible novel I had to buy it. I listened to the whole book in less than 24 hours!
I’ll be honest... the narrator isn’t my favorite but you get used to her after a couple of chapters.

Interesting idea but too long

The characters were interesting but it was way too long for its plot. Clearly a lot of world building for a future series. There is a bunch of running about that is poorly motivated (but funny) and no actually satisfying ending.

I received this book for free in exchange for a review.

good story and a new really enjoyed authors notes

the author did a tremondous amount of research which she explains at the end. love that piece. Narrator is good .

5 stars

I would highly recommend this book it's a great listen and narrated by a great narrator

Great book

Stay with it. Gets better as you go along with the story
It’s a great audio book

Quite enjoyable

This was quite enjoyable to listen too, it takes a while to get going but once it does it flows at a decent pace, I did think not too much happened until the last few chapters but then thinking that it’s a series then it’s understandable why and how long it takes for character building. The narration was quite good too.

If you enjoy your space dramas I’d highly recommend this audiobook

I was given this audiobook free for a fair review !

A great start.

I was given a free copy of this book and I'm leaving an honest and voluntary.
I was instantly drawn in by this thrilling book. The story is well though out and delivered perfectly. The characters are great and easily likeable. the progression of the characters only makes them more believable. The deeper the story took me the more immersed I felt.
The narration is flawless and brings this story to life, making the the whole experience all the more enjoyable.
I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone.

Good sci-fi for my day off

I like this book a lot it has everything I need.
Great characters action and adventure and a world I really could lose myself in

Loved every second of it

Great story

I really enjoyed this first instalment of the series and the narration was very good will definitely be listening to the rest of the series

Just too slow.

I was provided a copy of this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

A well written book with perfectly good narration but I just found it really boring. Apart from lots of angst and subtly pre-romance fluttering between the protagonist and her training instructure, nothing really happened to the last 2 hours of the book. THose last 2 hours though are, thankfully, very enjoyableand setup book 2 extremely well. Very frustrating as it started so interestingly and is really well written but, regrettably, not ofmuch interest to me.

A good story

I enjoyed this story and characters it took quite a bit of time to get started but can't wait to listen to the second installment A+ 👍

Realistically futuristic

Easy listening. Well narrated and fast paced...Maggie Barnes sounds like an interesting woman.
I'm looking forward to the rest of the series

Sci-fi, robots, hacking and a space colony!

I'm a sucker for sci-fi and the blurb of this book picked my interesting.

I must say I thought about DNFing about half way through. The pace is painfully slow. Ao much so that the blurb basically tell you the whole story, it took about 40% until something other than what's in the blurb, to happened. And even so, it's not very important to the story, although it was fun.

But I'm happy I continue because the story pickup the pace after 60% and became very interesting, as well as the characters. I'm curious about what's gonna happen next!

The narrator is new to me and I really enjoyed her work. She has a good pace, a nice voice and the characters are distinguishable.