Espero

A Silver Ships Novel

By: S. H. Jucha

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 15 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Trouble infiltrated the Harakens' capital city of Espero, in the form of New Terra criminal gangs who grew wealthy and powerful on the moons of Ganymede, hiding behind the cover of an ill-conceived mining charter. The gangs brought stims and addictive hallucinogenic drugs to Espero, distributing them to the young on the planet.

Christie Racine and her friends visited a hidden club rumored to be a source of the dangerous drugs and have run afoul of the criminals running the illegal establishment. Kidnapped and transported out of Hellébore's system aboard a freighter, the girls become desperate to free themselves.

Alex Racine, Christie's brother and president of the Harakens, races to discover where the girls were taken. The trail leads Alex from Espero to the pleasure domes of Jolares, a moon orbiting a gas giant in Oistos, the New Terrans' home system. Alex's search is complicated by the discovery of not one, but three sets of pleasure domes, each on its own moon and run by its own criminal mastermind.

It becomes a dangerous game of hide-and-seek as the Harakens attempt to recover their girls and locate the biochemist who created the dangerous hallucinogen, without panicking the kidnappers. The Harakens' efforts are complicated by the duplicitous scheme of "Mr. Blue" and "Sniffer", two gang leaders, who seek to steal the domes of "Craze", the third gang leader, in a dangerous double-cross.

Alex and his people thought things couldn't get any more complicated until they discover the gangs have gone to war with deadly stunners and plasma rifles in a fight for possession of the Haraken girls, who are caught between the rivals.

©2017 S. H. Jucha (P)2017 Hannon Books, Inc.

Gangs and Drugs

I did not find this book as enjoyable as the other books in the series. It is because of the theme of the story. The story is about New Terran criminal gangs, drugs and human trafficking. Alex Racine, the President of Haraken, finds out his sister, Christie, has been kidnapped by the human traffickers and has been taken off world. Alex sets out to get her back and shut down the criminal gangs.

This book is well written, but I did not enjoy the story about criminal gangs and corrupt politicians. I know that people will be the same on Earth or wherever they go, but I would prefer more about the cool silver ships and space adventures. It maybe my mood that turned me off the story and I am sure many readers will enjoy the story. I wonder what will happen to Miranda? Can Z create a new SAGE or is that even possible?

The book is fifteen hours and fifteen minutes long. Grover Gardner does an excellent job narrating the book. Gardner is an award-winning audiobook narrator.

Not as good as the previous books in this series

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I was hoping for more of a journey in exploration and coming across new things. This book takes a turn into the internal crime issues of a city and the political issues associated with it. Not nearly as exciting to listen to as the previous books. I often found myself losing interest and not really listening. Hopefully the next in the series will get back to the direction of the first few.

One if the best series

I cannot recommend these books enough. It has really well developed and interesting characters. Get them.

Incredibly bland and predicable

The main character is a sociopath that uses his "super human" "abilities" to circumvent laws he sees as inconvenient and does whatever he wants according to his own moral code, which seems to change randomly. sometimes he's super altruistic and other times downright cruel. At least the author didn't make the same joke for the millionth time in this book about him being an "alien" because of how much better he is than everybody at everything, like he did in the other books. He often opposes his will unilaterally on others with force, threat of force and it's supposed to be ok because he's the "good guy". there are never any challenges they don't overcome, there's no stress to any situation any "stakes" feel meaningless and any real bad things happen to either the bad guys, or throwaway random characters who's injury and death you're supposed to feel bad about but means nothing because they're names you only see once. I really wanted to like the series, I made it six books on but this is the last one.

It's a shame became the universe is pretty compelling and the audiobook narration is very good but that can't carry the totally unlikable main character.

The story continues

6 read more to come. The enjoyment continues. Read summary for this book and thought “? Don’t know” but it was as good as the rest of the series.

Filler book but still decent.

I almost skipped this one based on other reviews, but I'm glad I didnt. The blue collar chip on my shoulder and dissatisfaction with my country's politics especially enjoyed the later part of this book.

No space combat.

This is the first book in this series that has no space combat. Its entirely a ground story. :(

Drug lords & organized crime in space

Espero is S. H. Jucha's 6th installment in the Silver Ships series. As Haraken has been humming along nicely, some of the seedier elements from New Terra have slowly established themselves in Espero, the Haraken main city. When Alex's sister is kidnapped by a drug gang, Alex and crew come to the rescue and end up dealing with crime organizations, hamstrung New Terran investigators, clueless local leaders, and corrupt politicians. As always, the Haraken direct and indirect approach is entertaining to follow.

Nothing new in terms of sci-fi elements relative to earlier installments, but Haraken is building bigger, more powerful spacecraft that might augur some more futuristic plotlines. The SADEs meanwhile are fully mobile and play a central role in solving the numerous crimes. This tale is largely a social commentary on political and legal structures that serve to enrich the few well connected. From the outcome, Alex looks to be about done with Earth, New Terra, being president, and ready for a real space adventure.

The narration is quite superb with an excellent range of voices and good pacing.

Not the same

The previous books had something that this one did not. I'm not sure what it was, but I got frustratingly sick of political garble. It seems to me that most long series' eventually drag on about the most uninteresting things, like a made up religion, politics, or war strategies. This book falls flat for me because it feels like a nonsense filler episode of a sitcom. The voice acting feels like watching tv on a monochrome screen, but the previous stories make up for it. The one saving grace, and the reason I chose 3 stars overall is the heart displayed with the sades, and one character development in particular that I don't want to give away!

I really enjoy this series

I can easily see why my friends recommended Silver Ships.

For me the real test of a book is weather or not I look forward to the next chapter, in this series I always look forward to hearing more.

I always enjoy narration by Grover Gardner as well.

Another awesome one !!!!

I’m tired trying to find the words for reviewing a series which every one of its book should have the same review so I’ll just write one word “ EXCELLENT !!!! “ and here is hoping that it will continue to be which till now I don’t see a reason why it wouldn’t.

Fully recommended !!!

maybe its me...

Would you try another book written by S. H. Jucha or narrated by Grover Gardner?

sorry but I struggled to keep interested so.. nope

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed the last few books in the series but I just couldn't get into this one.. it dragged on & on, the lack of concern at the kidnapping of a sister was laughable.. im writing this without having finished the book which in my opinion is just rude.. but I just cant be bothered to read it anymore.. don't care what happens to the characters.. find the Chicago gangster voices irritating and have totally lost interest at this point.. im going to put it on hold in case I ever get bored & desperate and give the next book a miss..

Really good story continues!

Another great episode! Much longer and different as it has less space and more action.

Great book

Great book can't wait to listen to the next one I highly recommend listening to this book series 👍👍👍

slow and uninteresting.

Sadly this series has lost its way. Bogged In political intrigue and sycophancy for the main character.

Continuing Lovely SiFi

If you could sum up Espero in three words, what would they be?

This is a great book in the continuing development of this Silver Ship series. I enjoyed this story, and true to nature, life does not always go well.

What had happen with good series....?

The worst in Silver Ship novels.... I come to hate characters .. they are acting like bullies from some empire, protecting 3 girls by indirect threats sometimes to 'friendly; star system ???***SMALL SPOILER*** Killing the prisoner that they captured (yes trick prisoner to duel against his captor is still killing a prisoner - one of the most disgusting crime committed and presented as act of heroism?!?!?! can't write more without spoilers... so I'll say this: the worst book in Silver Ships series - I had to force myself to end this book - I can't stand what those characters become, on top of that very poor story with not bad narration (4,5 performance for me). Overall if you liked previous Silvers Ships novels - skip this one - You won't lose anything - and perhaps it will keep overall good impression of silver ships.

Characters

I love the characters in these books and often and often re-listen to the first book of the series