Foundra

By: Emmanuel M Arriaga

Narrated by: Melissa Reizian

Length: 16 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

15th Annual National Indie Excellence Award Finalist

2021 Reader's Favorite Finalist for Best Sci-Fi Romance Novel

The Huzien Empire has existed for 80 millennia and a powerful invisible force known as the enesmic permeates every aspect of the Twin Galaxy.

Neven is an engineer working for the pinnacle of scientific achievement known as the MinSci on the Huzien homeworld of Thae. His genius draws the attention of one of the immortal Founders and he finds himself drafted into the military as part of an elite group of special forces known as the Founder’s Elites. Not given much time to adjust, his team is called to investigate stories of otherworldly creatures attacking fringe colony worlds.

Soahc is the most powerful wielder of the enesmic in the Twin Galaxy. He’s also incredibly cocky. That is, until he senses a powerful shifting in the enesmic that he can’t explain. Terrified that something is horribly wrong, Soahc leaves his comfortable planet and hitches a ride with Neven and the Founder’s Elites as they investigate the carnage on the fringes of the empire.

Neven, Soahc, and their allies discover something ancient from another plane of existence. Something that exposes the fragility of their galactic empire as they fight to survive annihilation from enesmic beings.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 EA Starchilde Company (P)2022 EA Starchilde Company

Critic reviews

"A magnificent and original sci-fi vision." (Self-Publishing Review)

"Delightful genre piece with all the right ingredients: monsters, warfare, and romance." (Kirkus Reviews)

"This novel had me on the edge of my seat and holding my breath." (Reader's Favorite)

Thrilling Sci-fi battles and characters

What a ride! Lots of unique names and places, so I strongly recommend reviewing the supplemental pdf.
There were a few hitches with the audio but overall it was a fine narrator.

⚠️ Content Notes: Explicit consensual sex, hand-to-hand combat, dismemberment, lots of battles and carnage with futuristic “firearms”.

🏳️‍🌈 Representation: diverse financial statuses, women in authority, women sexually confident,

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Intriguing Space Opera

Usually, it is earth defending itself against alien attacks and destruction, but this time we are told the story from a different point of view. This story revolves around other beings' worlds facing destruction which includes deadly creatures that can cloak themselves in hiding, vicious flesh-eating monsters, and more that keep the listener immersed in the story.

This is a complex epic story that involves significant world-building and detailed character development. The author, Emmanuel M. Arriaga delivers a unique story of a universe with two distinct galaxies. One is physical and in the here and now while the other is basically a plane unseen by most and must take great magic and talent to see it. Lots of action and adventure, unique yet distinct characters, and the plot twists were well delivered. The depth of the plot was intense mixed with some light-hearted humor.

The narrator, Melissa Reizian gives a powerful performance with multiple unique voices for the characters and her delivery is smooth and rich. This is a complex story and with Reizian’s performance, it is easier to keep things straight.
This was truly a captivating story that was intense and complex. The vivid details and the narrator helped provide clarity as the story moved forward.

The only issue I encountered with the quality and production of this audiobook was the echo technic that represented the telepathy.

Disclaimer: This Audiobook was provided free of charge by the author, narrator, and/or publisher in exchange for a non-bias, honest review.

felt like there was a little something more ...

Space Opera meets all the key points, with intrigue, monsters, mystery, various species, hidden talents/gifts, world destruction and more. If you take the time to look a little deeper. You will see many things. There was depth in the words. The world building was fantastic. I would love to see this visually. The audio narration brought it to life in my head. With each addition of characters Melissa Reizian gave the characters their own life. The storyline had a good pacing. I could keep up with the changes in location and characters.

I could not help but feel like there was a little something more not given in the story. This is a part of a series so there may still be more coming. Either ways this was a world to get lost in and maybe even find a few friends.

Interesting galactic-scale story!

I really enjoyed the plot, settings, characters, and arch of this book. The only reason it got 4 instead of 5 stars is due to two things; the writing style and the "softness" of the science.

This might be more of a byproduct of the audiobook, who's narration was excellent, but the style was somewhat off-putting. It kept feeling like a screenplay with the overt descriptions of things, versus being more immersive and experiential feeling like most other audiobooks I listen to.

I'm also a fan of hard sci-fi and this was pretty soft on any details of how the science/technology or "magic" system worked.

The characters were really great though, very intriguing exploration of the consequences of immortality.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.