Ethan: Cyborg of Honor

By: T.J. Quinn

Narrated by: Craig Bowles

Length: 4 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's Summary

In a devastated postwar planet Earth, a group of cyborg warriors gathered to search the universe for the best place for people to relocate. Some of their clients had some very particular demands. 

When Kawan Gyeon, a Korean warlord, came to visit Ethan Hunter, the cyborg's leader, Ethan knew his demands wouldn’t be like the others. Gyeon wanted to take his people to a planet with no other human settlements, one where he could set the rules himself. So, he hired Ethan and his men to find the perfect place for that. Ethan was the first one to find a planet that satisfied the conditions requested by their client - a planet with water, a perfect atmosphere, fertile soils, and ruled by an alien race that had turned the planet into some sort of welcoming grounds for those with no home. 

The Dreshanians had built several colonies they sold to those people in need who were willing to accept their rules. Apparently, everything looked perfect, but once Ethan started to dig deeper, he found out things weren’t ideal as they seemed. 

Despite all the problems, Ethan met an alien female who reminded him he was still human, that inside his powerful body, there was still a beating heart with very human needs. Neela slid into his heart, and now, he would have to find a way to keep her in his life.

©2017 GTQ LLC (P)2018 GTQ LLC

A solid start to this series.

(Drawback to reviewing an audiobook, have no idea how to spell many of the names and locations, so I apologize for misspellngs.)

Ethan is the leader of such a band of cyborgs, along with some like-minded humans and humanoid aliens. The story begins when he is approached by a client willing to pay a vast amount of money for Ethan’s business to find a new planet for his group to call home. The search must start immediately and involve all of Ethan’s ships. This will be enough money for the cyborgs to find their own home. It doesn’t take long to reach the fourth quadrant, where, after a few attempts at exploring different planets, Ethan’s group reaches the planet Dreshian, which seems perfect with it’s atmosphere and Earth-like environment. There are already some colonies there, but they are welcoming and there is enough space available to support new colonies.

Ethan and some of his group meet with the planet’s ruling council, who themselves are colonists from another world. Ethan also encounters a group of more primitive people known as the Athians, who are native to the planet. The Dreshanians discuss how welcoming the Athians have been and mostly accepting of the advanced technology that the Dreshanians introduced to the planet, although some Athians have chosen to follow their own primitive lifestyle.

I don’t want to give away too much of the story but from that point Ethan discovers all if not what is seems, as he finds himself drawn ever closer to a particular Athian and gets drawn into political, cultural, physical and emotional situations that he wasn’t expecting.

In general, I liked the idea of post-war cyborgs tired of war and wanting to find a home of their own off a devastated Earth. The idea of these cyborg funding their search by providing assistance to other groups wanting to move off Earth is also appealing.

I felt the opening was too fast and a little too incredible. Really, ALL ships are available to leave today? No calling in ships from other pursuits? No time necessary to stock supplies? No recalling crew from shore leave with families? And the time to reach a little-explored quadrant was only a couple of weeks – so close why wasn’t this area previously explored? (I can think of a few explanations, but none were given.) The story itself is a fun ‘read’ but I think aspects could have been expanded – more time for the hero and heroine to grow attached to each other for starters. As it is, the relationship was a bit rushed and a little too easy.

Finally, I found the narrator difficult to get used to. I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and a number of British narrators, so I don’t think it’s the accent but not sure why.

Bottomline: I know this author is capable of more, so I expect further books in this series to be better. Had to do a lot of origin and world-building starting a new series, so it's not uncommon for the first book to leave me expecting more. Definitely worth giving more of the series a chance.

Hooked!

At the beginning I thought I wasn't going to like this book, because I thought it would be confusing and hard to follow, but it wasn't, thigh a little slow. It was a wonderful story, that explains things and recapped everything well, allowing you to become trapped in the story. This was my first alien book, and couldn't have been better, though the "aliens" weren't what I thought they'd be like, which we totally okay be me!

The narrator did a wonderful job! Sexy, and British!

Well done!