Formation: Age of Expansion

The Ghost Squadron, Book 1

By: Michael Anderle, Sarah Noffke, J. N. Chaney

Narrated by: Chris Abernathy

Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Kill the bad guys. Save the galaxy. All in a hard day’s work.

After 10 years of wandering the outer rim of the galaxy, Eddie Teach is a man without a purpose. He was one of the toughest pilots in the Federation, but now he’s just a regular guy, getting into bar fights and making a difference wherever he can. It’s not the same as flying a ship and saving colonies, but it’ll have to do.

That is, until General Lance Reynolds tracks Eddie down and offers him a job. There are bad people out there, plotting terrible things, killing innocent people, and destroying entire colonies.

Someone has to stop them.

Eddie, along with the genetically-enhanced combat pilot, Julianna Fregin, and her trusty E.I. named Pip, must recruit a diverse team of specialists, both human and alien. They’ll need to master their new Q-Ship, one of the most powerful strike ships ever constructed. And finally, they’ll have to stop a faceless enemy so powerful, it threatens to destroy the entire Federation.

All in a day’s work, right?

Experience this exciting military sci-fi saga and the latest addition to the expanded Kurtherian Gambit universe. If you’re a fan of Mass Effect, Firefly, or Star Wars, you’ll love this riveting new space opera.

Note: If cursing is a problem, then this might not be for you.

©2017 Sarah Noffke, J. N. Chaney, Michael Anderle (P)2017 LMBPN Publishing

light and unpretentious

First of all, I want to mention that I decided to listen to this book because I really admire Noffke and Channey's work. I was not familiar with the Kurtherian Gambit series, so I took a bet on this one.

It is an action-packed space opera with likable but also archetypal characters. We have the old hero, now an antihero, and the beautiful and skillful female counterpart. There are many fights, hilarious moments, and a couple of twists that will delight many. Also mentions about some of the characters in the mainKurtherian Gambit series, so this will be a pleasant read for the loyal fans.

From the point of view of a Noffke and Channey's fan, the book is a bit disappointing. It's not that I didn't enjoy it but one of the things I enjoy the most from these two authors are their characters, which are usually quite developed and easy to connect to. This didn't happen for me here, the characters are one-dimensional, and despite their funny dialogs, I didn't much care for them.

Chris Abernathy's narration was also okay. His character interpretations were really good but his voice range quite limited. His female voices were not great and sounded like the male characters, moreover, the male characters sounded all quite similar, which caused me some troubles to follow some dialogs. The audio production had no issues.

All in all it was an okay book, light and unpretentious, enjoyable but forgettable.
Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog.

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I don’t like the narrator

I love the new series and hope Ricky Bobby makes an appearance. I do not, however, like Chris Abernathy for any Kurtherian Gambit book/ series. IMO he ruined The Dark Messiah series and he is not doing any better with these. Apparently he just can’t swing a female voice. This makes it very difficult to know who is speaking. Additionally his male voices aren’t even good. Hate to say it but Emily Beresford and Kate Rudd have better male voices. I will probably continue to listen just because I want to “read” all of the books, but please no more Abernathy for Kurtherian Gambit.

another fantastic book in the kurtherian Gambit

great read can't wait for the next one my sister turned me on to this series the whole kurtherian Gambit universe and I still get mad at her because the audiobooks come out so much slower than the Kindle unlimited which I have the Kindle unlimited many different

Fun space opera

This was a pretty entertaining sci-fi space opera. The plot had me hooked right away since Teach was a down and out hero brought back to his glory. Kind of like Han Solo. It was action packed though there were a few lulls. I liked the different aliens and the characters were likable. I usually reach for more fantasy focused books so sci-fi space stuff isn’t really my thing but there was a lot of action and along with the humor inserted in all the right places this was a fun experience. I’m a huge Sarah Noffke fan and though I enjoyed this collaboration it’s not my favorite of her work.

I would like to thank the author/narrator/publisher for generously providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an unbiased and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Great bok

Wow Chris Abernathy has a great voice i can just listen to him read the phonebook. But thankful I don't have to instead he is reading a great space adventure sci-fi book. This book kept me enthused from beginning g to end and I really want to listen to book 2.

Black Beard

I recognized the name Edward Teach as Blackbeard immediately. But I am a naval history nerd.
Of course the real Blackbeard was a psychopath, not a hero. To turn him into a hero is a challenge for us history nerds. So far, so good. Keep up the good work

Best merge of syfy/fantacy! Great narration job!!!

loved the book, couldn't put it down. Each character had its distinct sound. The story is very entertaining. It is hard to imagine that one person is able to construct the individual sounds for each character and keep them straight through out the book.

Holding out for improvement

This book did not feel like a “Sara Noffke” book to me. I have not previously read/ listened to anything written by the other two authors. It’s quite a bit cookie cutter and predictable and the dialogue is pretty generic and basic. There’s not much detail about this world or depth to the characters- although I’m curious about their story, I don’t truly feel attached to them. Despite this, I am intrigued by the story. I was thinking I would give one more book a try to see if it improved. Then I learned Sara Noffke did not have as much of a role in writing this book as she did with the rest in this series. That makes me much more interested to listen to subsequent books! I’ve previously listened to eleven books by Sara Noffke and loved them all.

This is the first book I’ve listened to by this narrator (Chris Abernathy). He does a pretty good job reading this book. He has many distinct character voices, and did well reading the story to submerge the reader into it. What I found awkward was the voices he choose for Hatch and Eddie. Their voices are kinda high and it was as though they were always yelling (even when he was hungover).

There are no explicit sex scenes. There is a lot of fighting but not overly descriptive violence. There is swearing.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this unbiased review.

It takes off like a jet from an aircraft carrier

My first read from the collaborative efforts of authors Sarah Noffke, J.N. Chaney & Michael Anderle. The book takes off like a jet from an aircraft carrier and builds & gets faster from there! Military space opera with well-written & well-developed characters. An exciting, enjoyable read. Narrator Chris Abernathy adds greatly to the book’s enjoyment

A cool space adventure

If you enjoy reading space operas and watching shows like Star Trek, you should get a kick out of Formation (so long as you aren't bothered by swear words). The space adventure is loads of fun with cool characters and lots of action. This is part of the Kurtherian Gambit universe, and it is the beginning of a series, but it works fine as a standalone book if you haven't read any of the rest of the series.

I liked the narrator, but he has room for improvement. His women all sound like guys (a common problem with male book narrators).