First Encounter

Ascension Wars, Book 1

By: Jasper T. Scott

Narrated by: Ben Jaeger-Thomas

Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's Summary

FROM MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER JASPER T. SCOTT

The Forerunners set out from Earth to colonize neighboring star systems

And to search for intelligent life...

The United Nations of Earth sent out the Forerunner ships to explore and colonize the four most promising star systems within 50 light-years of Earth.

Forerunner One left Earth under the command of Captain Clayton Cross, heading for Trappist-1. After a ninety year journey to reach it, the crew encountered not only a habitable world, but alien life already inhabiting it, and dark secrets lurking beneath the surface.

The revelation of who these aliens are and what they want proves more terrifying than promising, and Captain Cross is forced to make tough decisions that will affect not only his crew, but the fate of the entire human race.

©2019 Jasper T. Scott (P)2020 Audible, Inc.

Good Story and Concept; Narrator mispronouncing

I really like the story, especially the first contact and resulting actions.

My only complaint is the constant mispronounced words by the narrator. The worst is "corpsman" or "corpsmen". It should be pronounced similar to Marine Corps (sounds like "core"). The narrator pronounced it as "corpse" (corpse-man or corpse-men). A corpsman is a medic; a corpse is a dead person. I cringed EVERY TIME he said the word. There are others but this particular one was repeated often. To his credit, he did a great job distinguishing the character voices.

smart story for 1920s, not 2020s

The book started out alright, albeit lacking in originality, but soon I realized that the author relied on way too may cliches, the characters made too may assumptions that wouldn't make sense in the real world or even a future technologically advanced world and there were way too many dumb things done by supposedly trained professionals. To me, the writer is imaginative because the story concept is original but he lacks in writing and storytelling skills. On the other hand, I gave the narrator 5 stars because in my opinion he is talented with a good range of voices and I feel he was able to properly portray the characters. However, and I know this may sound nit-picky, but in the first half of the book that I was able to listen to, he mispronounced a couple of words; corpsman as "corpse-man" and wan as "wane". In the end, I didn't return the book because I managed to listen to half of it before I finally gave up on it. Someday if I'm really hard up for something not too deep, I may finish it.

BETTER THAN EXPECTED

A good sci-fi story that gets better as the story progresses. Will be purchasing the second book when it becomes available.

Hours lost.....

Just not my cup of tea? Not sure. Just never held my attention with the plot. The narrator had some issues pronouncing words correctly, wondering where audible editors are?

Gripping and unique. Not predictable.

Gripping and unique story. Not predictable or boring like many formulaic stories. Will have to get next book to see what happens.

Awesome story

I enjoyed listening to this audiobook. The author did a great job pulling you into the story. The narrator does an awesome job of bringing the characters to life. This story was a fresh take on finding intelligent life and the Joy's and dangers associated with such a discovery. I reccomend this audio book.

very animated narrative active story

very intense creatively written. animated narrative. would read a sequel if one exists. Scott and Thomas have done it again thanks.

Great

This book was a great beginning for a series. The development of the characters was unexpected and added to the mystery of what was going on. I really enjoyed listening to this book.

The narrator did an outstanding job of amplifying the emotions of the characters as well as the multiple voices required for the characters.

Great beginning

Solid sci fi great narration. Great beginning to a series I can’t wait to finish.

Great story and great narration!!

This is one of Scott's best. Can't wait for the next in the series!

Plot holes big enough to drive an asteroid through

Whilst the narrator makes a valiant effort to engage the listener the fact that base material has the intellectual level of an amebic slug makes this a challenge that just can’t be achieved.

The plot has massive holes and characters make stupid decisions purely to move the abysmal plot forward in a non sensical manner. The basic premise has merit but it is so poorly handled it makes this audio book insufferable. Go and listen to something better with a grounding in reality like the Expanse, rather than loose 8 hours of your life that would be better spent watching paint dry.

Meh

It was ok, but after listening to about half of the sequel I gave up and bought another book. I wouldn’t recommend it

A really enjoyable start

A really good start to the series. I wasn't sure at the start but I stuck with it, I'm glad I did. It different to the normal Post-apocalyptic novels I listen to, but alien invasion and human survival fits in nicely.

Ben does a great job narrating.

Science fiction at its absolute best!

This story has it all! The story-line is excellent, there are wonderful characters, and the alien species, well you will just have to listen to it yourself to discover how clever and cunning they are!

This is the first book my husband and I have listened to by this talented and well known author, and we are now totally hooked. His fantastic plot kept us on the edge of our seats as we listened eagerly to discover the next stage of the adventure.

A true thrilling roller-coaster of a ride, not to be missed by lovers of great science fiction.

Got me hooked

What a great book got me hooked after first chapter.
Started to read it and could not put it down, the story is is just the type I love, lot of things going on it was so interesting that I listened to it in one go, I do lots of hobbies so normally I do 1 or 2 hours a day reading and then other stuff but with this book I finished it in one go and can’t wait for follow up book.