Dreadnought

Lost Colonies, Book 2

By: B. V. Larson

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

Captain William Sparhawk flies Earth's single starship on a voyage of exploration. His crew of veteran spacers begins the mission with high hopes and the best of intentions, but the universe has other plans. Instead of space merchants and potential allies, they discover Earth's impending doom. Sparhawk must decide whether to hunt down enemy scouts to keep Earth's new starship a secret or to head home to warn Star Guard of the danger. Either way, he's ignited an interstellar war.

Dreadnought, the second book of the Lost Colonies Trilogy, is a novel of military science fiction by best-selling author B. V. Larson.

©2015 B. V. Larson (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Worthy

Very entertaining! I'm very much hoping the journey continues. This storyline has great potential to go places.

the distant future

can't wait for book three, full of intrigue and gives us a view of what life would like if the dark ages plunge into barbàrism like the earth feel into at the gal of Roman civilisation in a fast of great space exploration!

Drg

I am a BV Larson fan who greatly enjoyed the Star Force Series and other works. This story and character is extremely juvenile in its writing and interactions. The main characters understanding of honor and his reactions to the environment is frankly ridiculous. The author's sexual encounters of military officers is also ridiculous. It seems that the captain always has to give an order two or three times before its followed. Maybe this was an early work because BV writings have not been so bad as this.

Another great book by B.V. Larson

Loved it couldn't wait for the end couldn't stop listening to it and can't wait for the next book by Mr. Larson.

another great one

this book was great can't wait for the next one I'll keep checking daily or weekly I can't wait to preorder the next one love the series great book what more can I say very very enjoyable

Great Sequel

Would you listen to Dreadnought again? Why?

I don't normally listen to books a second time unless they are really something special. Don't get me wrong, this is a great listen. But if I do decide to listen to this again it will be down the road. I am very happy I listened to this book though and look forward to more in this series if they are written.

What other book might you compare Dreadnought to and why?

This book and the one before it remind me of the style of Heinlein with a little Keith Laumer thrown in. It has the classic Sci Fi I love and a little humor thrown in.

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

I was able to keep the characters apart, that is the most important thing a narrator must do. His voice was just right to bring the story to life.

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

I seldom have extreme reactions to books. I enjoy being in the story and feeling like I am there. Although I may have chuckled a few times. :)

Any additional comments?

Keep em coming. I really like the style and the story. Very believable.

good story line

The store was great. The author had a good store. He adds a little to much filler. light explaining the same science fact several times in the story

The aliens are us

This story continues the saga of Earth's Star Guard heading out to reconnect with our earlier colonists. In books 1 and 2, we have met individuals from 2 of those colonies, and discovered that we are at war!

The most interesting aspect here is that the aliens we meet are the descendants of these Earth colonists from more than a hundred years ago. We've lost contact with these colonies due to the collapse of the worm hole system. Now things are up and running again, so Capt. William Sparhawk is out to reestablish relations with our lost cousins. The loss of contact with Earth has led to the specialization of the species in several distinct ways. These are still humans but not really.

This setup allows Larson to delve into the consequences of extreme cybernetics, cloning, life-extending treatments, and utopian society. As usual, his characters are all distinct, well developed, and engaging. There are cultural mores unique to the five sets of humans we meet here (including the oldsters) that make for misunderstandings, blunders, humor, and war. There is lots of Larson action, both in space, and planetside, so the pace is kept up all the way through. Edoardo Ballerini does the many voices superbly, and his refined, cultured pronunciation gives Sparhawk the princely manners he would of course have. It is all very interesting and exciting!

Great story - want more

Amazing! Waited a month for the audio version and it was worth every minute, every penny!!!

Loved the book, sounds familiar though.....

While I liked the book and will follow the series, I can't stop thinking of Vaughn Heppners's "Lost Starship", just about the same characters.
Young officer with an old sidekick, a strong woman and yes, swords in space....
Am I the only one drawing parallels here?

superb

great story . well read . highly recommended. can't wait for next one . great listen .

Flash is Back!

Having read the first in this series of stories by B V Larson entitled
Battle
Cruiser, I was in two minds whether to get the second instalment,
Dreadnought. I found the first story quaint and charming in itself but felt
it lacked the hard edge I'd come to enjoy in Larson's other sagas like the
Star Force and undying Mercenaries books. I felt that Battle Cruiser was
better suited to perhaps the slightly younger reader and afforded an
excellent path into the world of accessible science fiction for which Larson
is so good at producing. Although enjoyable, I couldn't say I found the
first in this series particularly satisfying but nonetheless I decided to
see what came next to see if things improved at all.

Dreadnought picks up where Battle Cruiser left off. We have all the familiar
characters plus a diplomatic envoy to which I will come to later. This
second book is also narrated by Eduardo Ballerini which is good from the
consistency standpoint and now he has been established in the first book it
makes sense to continue with him on the second. Don't get me wrong,
Ballerini is an excellent speaker able to deliver flawless, crisp diction
and able to do several voices although without the range of Mark Boyett who
is used for other Larson books. he voices the Sparhawk character just as
clipped and almost staccato in delivery at times which is probably my main
gripe with the way this character is voiced. Now, it might be that the
author has some influence on how he'd like certain characters narrated which
would mean this is how he wanted Sparhawk to sound but I find this somewhat
silly. This, combined with some of the terse dialogue traits Sparhawk has
makes him sound like a private school head master from somewhere around
the1930's. His command style seems rather brash at times which also lends
him the feel of a Flash Gordon type hero which is a little hard to swallow
for a novel written in the 21st century. Again, this may be intentional on
the part of Larson and he may want to endow this character with the rather
quaint and perhaps old fashioned attributes for good reason, I don't know.
It could just be that a lighter type of story was preferred by Larson to
contrast his more usual writing style.

I found Dreadnought to be a story of two halves in a way. I found myself
enjoying the second half of this book more than the first part. The opening
half of the story was of a similar ilk to the previous book but did pick up
in the second part. Either that or I just got used to Sparhawk and company
and went along with the flow with a more open mind, I don't know. I have
found that sometimes a new series can often have a shaky start. I felt
this way about the Star Force series from Larson but by the third book of
that saga I was hooked.

Larson has penned the rather typical diplomatic envoy character that is
usually in conflict with the captain, William Sparhawk and seems to do that
usual thing that diplomats seem to do in science fiction at least where they
are far too trusting of new aliens. Ballerini plays this character well I
have to say.

There was one of those weird plot inconsistencies I noticed which saw the
Battle Cruiser Defiant apparently have some difficulty facing down a half
dozen or so Stroge ships and yet in the previous book prior to the upgrades
put into place since the first book, the Defiant was able to take out
hundreds of enemy ships. Probably just me missing something but a point I
thought worth mentioning.

Also, the Stroge appear to be a combination of Borg and Herrogen from Star
Trek. They use cybernetic implants but also take trophies of human organs
too so I think I can see where Larson has drawn his inspiration from with
these characters.

Overall Dreadnought is a decent listen which picks up from around half way.
More hardened Larson fans may not like this "softer"series but Larson always
has the ability to weave a good yarn so this is an easy read that will
appeal to a broad audience I think.

Good follow on from Battlecruiser

What did you like most about Dreadnought?

the book took the universe of the lost colonies even further and added more conent

What was one of the most memorable moments of Dreadnought?

Alien encounters

What about Edoardo Ballerini’s performance did you like?

Very good, not a problem.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Captain and the Beta's encounter!

brilliant

Amazing plot, better narrator. Cant fault it at all. hurry up with the next one!

One of my favourites to date. ....

Weird repeated sexual encounters

Loved the first book. The narrator is excellent - quite quirky in how he reads the main character. The only thing that let this down for me was the story kept slipping from Sci Fi into the captains sexual thoughts and encounters. It just seemed incongruous and inconsistent with book one. It distracted the main thrust of the story for me, and I was even rolling my eyes by the 3rd.
Just out of place. But the rest of the book is great.

A bit predictable but good fun anyway.

A bit predictable but good fun anyway. Enough for me to have bought the 3rd instalment!

Good set of stories with some plot holes

Good set of stories with some plot holes which let it down.

Enjoyed all 3 books though

good performance

interesting story a little slow in place and some character lack depth. but overall very enjoyable listen.

Such a wonderful narrator

The fantastic and familiar twists and turns of a B V Larson plot are get wings here by the marvellous readings of Edoardo Ballerini. Sonorous and versatile, listening to Ballerini narrate is like listening to music, and you miss it when it's gone.

great

yes another good listen . this series great for my long commute! classical sci fi .