Into the Darkness

Crimson Worlds Refugees, Book 1

By: Jay Allan

Narrated by: Jay Snyder

Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

A brand-new series by the author of the best-selling Crimson Worlds saga.

Terrence Compton is one of Earth's greatest admirals, a warrior almost without equal. Alongside his oldest friend and brilliant colleague, Augustus Garret, he and his forces saved Earth from invasion by the robotic legions of the First Imperium's insane computer Regent. There is just one problem. The First Imperium was held back by the disruption of the sole warp gate connecting the two domains...and Compton and 300 of his ships are trapped on the wrong side, surrounded by the Regent's vast fleets and cut off from Earth.

Pursued by their deadly enemy, Compton and his fleet must flee into the darkness of unexplored space, seeking safety...and ultimately a new home. Their journey will take them deep into the heart of the First Imperium, to the silent, windswept worlds where the ancient race that built the Regent once dwelled...and uncover the lost secrets of its disappearance 500,000 years ago.

©2015 Jay Allan Books Inc. (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

IT WAS BRAVADO MORE THAN REASON

THE COLLOSSUS WAS VIRTUALLY SURROUNDED BY LEVIATHANS
I liked the book, it entertained me, which is what I ask for above all else. It takes place in space on spaceships. No planet of the week, time travel, romance, or scientific jargon. No detailed taking apart and putting back together of weapons. The story was predictable, matter of fact I kept thinking I had heard it before, but I had not. It was a lot like a 1950's war movie, with the cheese so thick you could cut it with a knife, but sometimes that is what I want. I don't want a steady diet of it, but it was a nice upbeat patriotic read.

I AM JUST A MAN
I must agree with another reviewer that Admiral Compton, the main character was a bit ego maniacal. Yet, he was an admiral and he was trying to save Earth. Democracy rarely works in these types of situations. While Admiral Compton was similar to a Captain Picard, it was a shame that the bad guys had to be Chinese and Russian. Roddenberry would have found better bad guys.

The narrator was good.

good book overall

it was kind of confusing at first. there should have been a prequel for this series. this is my first book by jay allen so i didnt realize he wrote another series b4 this one that kind of ties into it. after the first couple hours of listeni5to book i did get into it and listend all the way theough. now i am on the second book in series. if you are a sci-fi fan you will like this book.

Trapped behind enemy lines

Jay Allen's Into the Darkness is the 1st installment of the Crimson Worlds Refugees series. Earth has been saved by the destruction of the only known warp gate into the earth's solar system which has come under attack by a machine intelligence that appears to be the only remaining remnant of an extinct race. To manage the maneuver, Admiral Compton and 300 of his ships take on the suicide mission of holding the line on the other side of the gate and become trapped in Imperium space with no way home. The tale describes their journey deeper into the dead realm as they encounter alien artifacts, unstoppable robot war machines, and internal dissension and mutiny.

The sci-fi elements focus largely on physics with interstellar travel and high tech weaponry and assorted gadgets. At the same time, cyber aspects of artificial intelligence play heavily into the alien threat. The real focus however is the varying responses of the various characters when their fate has been sealed. Expectations for a bigger backstory on the alien origins and how they became extinct should play prominently in future installments.

The narration is quite well done with a solid rendition of genders and the extreme multicultural nature of the crews.

Quality military sci-fi

good at creating tone and atmosphere. although the plot has good pace there is not much of an arch. without being a spoiler, 30th character development has its pluses and minuses.

very predictable

was an alright book, but it was incredibly predictable. narrator was great and made me stick to it, otheewise, I probably wouldn't of finished it. will give it one more book to see if I stick with the series

Nothing special

Another mill-manufactured space opera that uses an admittedly interesting lost-in-space premise only to offer a story that uses present day political tropes to introduce conflict. Uninteresting in the extreme.

Enjoyable space opera

My 1st Jay Allen experience &, overall, I throughly enjoyed the story & characters enough to purchase Bk 2.
Unfortunately, many of the reviews for Bk 2 are not very complementary so I move forward into this trilogy with trepidation but, as they say, more will be revealed!

A very enjoyable though drawn out story

This story is a little reminiscent of Battlestar Galactica with a "rag tag" group of ships that are in deep space, hounded by robots moving towards a potentially human or human like target.

:The characters were well done, but the story in some places was overdone, in that there was a lot of time and verbiage that did not advance the plot.

Overall, it was a good read and I will continue to the next book in the series.

By the way, the narration was fantastic.

Incredibly repetitive sci-fi

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The story isn't that bad, but the writing style is annoying. The same points about all kinds of things, repeated over and over throughout the book, as if you might not have heard them the first time. Would have been 30% shorter without the repetition.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No, because there's just something missing. It's not a bad story, but it's not a good story either. It just is.

good story

I really enjoyed this book. The narrator is very good. it does become repetitive. Do you really need to say the same thing over and over? Almost like the author is reaching for words to fill out a word count. Whatever...