Destroyer

Hidden Planet, Book 1

By: Anna Carven

Narrated by: Jonathan Sleep

Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

A hair-raising ambush. A malfunctioning ship. A distant, uncharted part of the Universe.

Calexa Acura and her crew of misfits are lost, and their ship is in desperate need of repairs. When a massive spacecraft appears in their radius, they're helpless to resist its magnetic pull.

The terrifying ship is bigger than any craft she's seen in her life, and somehow, she doubts its occupants will turn out to be the friendly sort.

First Encounters are always better when they're amicable, but if necessary, Calexa and her crew will fight.

It's what they've always done.

Contains mature themes.

©2017 Anna Carven (P)2023 Tantor

Good story but a rough start

I liked the new world and species. but the beginning was a bit too much info overload and not enough time or relatable examples to relate to that info. Made it a little hard to get into the story. I enjoyed it enough to finish and I’ll be interested in the next story, but i don’t love it like i love the Kordolians. Yet. but Im keeping an open mind.

Is this even the same author?

I was very excited for the new Anna Carven book. I have read all the adventures with the Kordolians. I knew this would be different going in. It was different, but it wasn’t. Seems like the ideas were a mishmash of the other books, without the smooth narration or world building. I hesitated to write a review because I generally just don’t like to go out of my way to be negative. But I really liked Anna Carven and so I’m writing this in the hopes that the next book gets back to what she is good at. Maybe next time don’t make all the ships and aliens out of stuff that is very nearly impossible to describe without a visual. I didn’t feel like I had a good grasp in my mind about the appearance of any of the aliens, the ships, the change in the main character, anything. And spread out the explanations of the new world, that first chapter was a doozy and not in the good way. And the narrator…. His voice is not made for this type of book. Also hard to understand how sexy time with Ares (i can’t remember how she spells it) could be so meh….

With her other series I was excited for the next book. With this, I find myself wishing this was a one-off. I read books y other authors like this and it doesn’t bother me.. I think I just had higher hopes based on her other books.

Fighting for Survival

I liked the fierceness of Calixa and how she never gave up. The two were perfectly matched although that ending was kind of wild. I wonder which one of the humans will fall next and if it will be another thruple? Hmm???

Good read

This was a good start to book. However, I wish the storyline was a little bit better. It didn’t really give any true context of what happened. It’s just like a whole bunch of chaos going on given that this is the first book so I’m gonna say it’s gonna set the scene for other books, but I wish there was just a little bit more questions answered about the history of the planet and everything that was going on all in all good

Well, that was … something

“It terrified the living daylights out of her, but it also made her feel warm and fuzzy.”
Um, what? Just like Calexa’s thoughts, this book was all over the map for me, and sometimes I found myself loving and hating things at the same time. Frankly, having just finished this, I’m still not sure what to make of it. Perhaps that’s because I went into this expecting campy, smutty alien romance.
And, this was 10% that … but also 90% other things.

“Ba bum … ba bum … ba bum …”
A big hurdle for me was the narration which felt very monotone, with odd pops of emotion and the ladies sounding the same. I even thought it was virtual voiced for a bit. Considering the switches between Calexa’s and Ares’s POVs, the story begged for dual or duet narration. I will say that Mr. Sleep’s voicing for the males was growly and excellent. To be fair, the writing may also have contributed to the narration struggles, especially where sound effects were written, like the beating hearts. Hmm, perhaps graphic audio narration would have best sold this.

“One by one the bricks in her hard fortress of memories were being stolen
by a creature who was made of metal and flesh and dreams.”
This was more sci-fi and fantasy than romance, and felt vaguely like Event Horizon meets Star Gate meets John Carter Goes to Mars. I know! What?! Ares’s people are primitive and shun science, yet this is mostly set on board a Goliath spaceship. There’s zombie-alien hordes, an unhinged A.I. (add Borg vibes), a magic-like assimilation that allows for melting walls and ship wide control (yep, definitely Borg vibes), and multiple factions who were once slaves and are now charting their own, very different paths:
Ares’s people shun tech, the Naga have co-opted tech left behind by advanced beings, and Calexa’s crew have augmented themselves to ensure they can never be enslaved again. Yeah. A lot of to digest. It hits you non-stop and scattershot.

Calexa: “Stars!”
Ares: “F!”
What’s up with the human using creative cussing,
but the purple skinned, three toed, barb-tailed aliens using F bombs?

Calexa: “You got this?”
Mai: “Grumpy a holes, language barriers, outnumbered … yep, I got this.”
But, by the end, it turns out it is the campy alien romance I was expecting. It’s clear there will be future pairings between Calexa’s and Ares’s people, amid fun, danger, and alien-human shenanigans. And the romance between Calexa and Ares was strangely, uniquely compelling, with the enemies to lovers trope
I enjoy. There are only two sex scenes, you need to get through 8 hrs to get to the first one, and it was 90% deep feelings of the universe metaphorically exploding and 10% “take it” awkwardly smutty exclamations (the narration did NOT help with the cries of ecstasy). I was one starring this as far as
half way into this book … and yet was still intrigued enough to continue. I’m not sure if I liked this or not,
but I upped my rating a star on the originality alone; this was indeed something.

I liked it

I know some did not appreciate the world building buy I enjoy it. I like the vivid details of the planet and seem like a nice set up for other stories emerge. it could use some more hot sex scenes, I am here for that all day lol. the story plot is solid and I would read the rest of the series to see how the other stories unfold. Ares and calixa were a perfect match.

Surprise Ménage? (Spoilers)

This book does not have the spark that her other books had. Reader is fine I guess but his women’s voices aren’t great and not great for the sexy parts. The book was pretty confusing and had flashbacks and inner monologues dragging the story down. All the fast fighting action on pause while the characters think in their own heads slows everything down and makes the action confusing. I didn’t get a feel for what all the different aliens looked like, nor the inside of the ship(s), or even what was going on in the first half of the book.

I actually put this one down for some time and started listening to it because I didn’t have another book picked out. I actually would never have gotten it due to the three way arrangement near the end - I am soooo not into that - and don’t really want to listen to it any more with 50 min left. Adding in another sexual partner is just icky. Description should have a warning on it.

Overall this was not up to the standards of the Kardolian books and it has been a project to get through it this far. Not sure if I will try to finish with some fast forwarding or not.

Missed

I have read all her books, listened to a few more than twice, but this one wasn’t one of the ones, It was difficult to listen to and very disinteresting. Please save your time.

Omg! Destroyers Voice!

Tried several times to listen. The Destroyer has a feminine voice!
Could not focus on the story with the voice being out of character.