EVE: Templar One

By: Tony Gonzales

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

“There will be neither compassion nor mercy;
Nor peace, nor solace
For those who bear witness to these Signs
And still do not believe." Book of Reclaiming 25:10

New Eden: the celestial battleground of a catastrophic war that has claimed countless lives.

The immortal starship captains spearheading this epic conflict continue their unstoppable dominance, shaping the universe to their will and ensuring a bloody, everlasting stalemate. But a powerful empire is on the verge of a breakthrough that could end the war and secure their rule over mankind forever. For deep in a prison reclamation camp, a secret program is underway... one that will unlock dangerous secrets of New Eden’s past.

It all begins with inmate 487980-A.... Templar One. Prepare for DUST 514.

©2011 CCP hf. (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

Very good reading

Templar One is a very good book for anyone with a tacit interest in the EVE Online universe. It does help to know a little bit about EVE's lore in order to have a little background knowledge about some people and organizations, but that isn't absolutely vital. It also helps, but is not vital, to have read the previous two EVE books--The Empyrean Age and The Burning Life since there are minor tie-ins with those books.

This book is a perfect read for anyone who knows a bit (or more) about the current EVE Online universe and is interested in learning more about the backstory for the upcoming Dust 514 game that is upcoming.

One nice thing about the physical book was that it had QR codes scattered about with some minor supplementary videos to give a visual representation of some of the ships and such involved. They're absolutely unnecessary, but kinda cool. It would be nice for those who don't own the physical book if the audiobook came with a list of those URLs and appropriate timecodes at which to look at them.

Sean Runnette does a very satisfactory job with this material.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

nice book for eve players

I really liked this book, but then again I am an eve online player, so a lot of the locations where recognizable for me, as well as certain behavior from the factions in the book.

For a none eve online player it might be a bit overwhelming, while some back-story about the factions can be inferred the book might be a bit less digestible for those not already familiar with the setting.

I really liked the performance, the voices felt distinct and the pacing of the narration was good for my tastes.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

I love Sci-fi

I loved this book
If you have any other from Eve I will be the first one to get it..

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

If only EVE Online were like this...

If you are an EVE Online player or fan this story will give you some background on Dust. I hope there will be a sequel.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

DIfficult to follow

This book suffers from complexity. Too many plot lines, locations, and characters. It is very difficult to follow as a audiobook, especially in segments over time (driving). The concept is unique and interesting. I just wish Mr. Gonzales had kept to a simpler structure. If you like very complicated story lines, many characters, and many locations jumping at you every five minutes, you will like this one. Otherwise, pass.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Hard to follow if not a lore fan

Would you try another book from Tony Gonzales and/or Sean Runnette?

Probably not.

What character would you cut from EVE: Templar One?

None, not a one of them was able to get me to give a darn what happened to them.

Any additional comments?

If you've not been very carefully following the lore & political storyline of the EVE online game, you'll be completely lost as far as the plot of the story. By

4 of 7 people found this review helpful

internet spaceships are serious business

good book if you are a fan of eve online. you will probably be lost without some knowledge of the game.

Amazing Story, Amazing Twists

This is one of the greatest scifi books ever written, imo. It brings the EVE universe alive in many ways. The storyline itself twists in totally reasonable, but utterly unforeseen means, just when you thought you had it figured out. It has deep characters, Mack being my personal favorite, excellent tech descriptions, glorious battle scenes that make you feel the pain of the characters, no one is safe.

My only complaint is the author's overuse of certain adverbs. This is why it recieved a 3 star in one category while receiving 5 in the others.

I highly recommend if you are a scifi or military fiction reader. I recommend it for every reader, but those categories especially. I hope you enjoy

Absolutely Excellent

Absolutely wonderful book and fantastic narrator! Very disappointed that there aren't more audio books in this series. Story kept me interested and honestly had me get back into EVE online again.

Not the best.

I really did try and get into this book... I got about 5 hours into it before finally giving up and moved onto something else. The story itself was vaguely interesting but was taking far too long to develope any sort of conflict. There were so many different characters that it was hard to follow along and really root for.

But above all else the narrator was, I'm sad to say, not good. He was reading everything in hushed tones even when the characters were in a heated conversation. I've never heard a drill sargent whisper to there recruits the way this guy does. Also every characters seemed to have the same voice which adds to the confusion of story.

Over all I gave it a three star rating because I believe the story was going somewhere interesting but the narration was ultimately the reason why I just couldn't go any further.

loved it?

loved it! read the book before wanted to test listening to it, great story and good narrative, hope to see more.from the duo

Good book, good narration.

Sean did a good job narrating this title. although for whatever reason he said "battlecruiser" twice whenever it came up. That was slightly immersion breaking, but nonetheless a good narration.