Invincible

Ark Royal, Book 12

By: Christopher G. Nuttall

Narrated by: Ralph Lister

Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's Summary

All is not well in the Human Sphere. The alliance between the Great Powers is starting to fall apart, the human economy cannot keep up with the urgent need for newer and better starships, and politicians are demanding an end to military spending. For the Royal Navy, desperately trying to do too many tasks with too few ships, it is the worst possible time for a new threat to appear. 

When a generation starship is detected approaching a British colony world, HMS Invincible is dispatched to intercept the aliens before they can make landfall. But the newcomers bring with them tidings of a new and deadly threat, an expansionist alien race far too close to the Human Sphere for comfort...and a sinister horror beyond human understanding.

©2018 Christopher G. Nuttall (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

His only good series

While the author continues to use ridiculous sentences such as “his cock twitched angrily” and he is extremely repetitive (grit his/her teeth, smile don’t touch eyes) this remains a pretty decent series. He’d be wise to hire a skilled editor. Also, the author’s weird politics are starting to bleed into this series. I hope resists the urge to do so as he has in everything else he’s written that I’ve read.

This remains this author’s only good series. I look forward to more ark royal books. Don’t waste your credits on anything else he writes, though.

Nuttall has jumped the shark

I have been reading the Ark Royal works for the duration. I am a huge fan of the series. Until now.

This review encompasses the next 3 books. Spoilers, duh.

If you have gotten this far into the series you know it has a wonderful interplay of technology give and take, well developed characters, and a thoughtful universe. Every three books we see a new alien set and the interplay that creates amongst humanity.

Until now.

Space Zombies. Sigh.
These three books, which do not form a completed arc (apparently we are going for the ongoing neverending chains), bring you space zombies based on the disease scenario.

The disease isnt unexpected. It has been hinted at for several books. Unfortunately the implementation is not very interesting. Additionally, Nuttall breaks a number of his own rules, and completely ignores large aspects of his expanding universe. Example: the other races have no appearance in this arc, despite the obvious implications for each.

In addition, there are no appearances of our past favorites, excepting the first spacelord. And the new characters are simply not very engaging. They trend towards two dimensions.

Candidly, these three book feel like they were ghost written by someone who had only read a summary of the previous works. That might be due to Nuttall’s move into writing fantasy. I don’t know. What I do know is that I am done.

Thank you very much for the first 9 books, they were awesome.

As always the performance was outstanding and really kept me going through the story. Thank you very much Mr. Lister.

Slow and boring

I thought it would have been better. I liked the previous books as they grab you ad keeps you at attention. Long and drawn out.

not my favorite

characters introduced which are shallow at best. no depth to the storyline. the initial 10 chapters I couldn't wait to get through, as it was a Hodge podge of unrelated backstory for the vast majority of the actual book.

good as always but!

Good as always but it feels like 1 book broke into 2 short books as a cash grab.

Slow start, usual Ark Royal ish ending. Good book overall.

The book starts rehashing the past books in the series a bit excessively in my opinion. There was some tie in with the main character so it was kinda necessary. After you get thru that crap it gets good.

still getting sloppier...

there really isn't a huge amount of good Sci-Fi to choose from these days. Christopher Nuttall writes a good plot and tells a good story. my only real complaint centers around his inability to tell the difference between acceleration, speed and velocity.

this wasn't quite as bad early on but it's obvious that as he writes faster for a successful series to fill publisher demands, he's getting sloppier. he continuously sets up Fleet interactions where's the trauma depends on the difference between acceleration, constant velocity, and his idea of speed. over the past few books it has started to get on my nerves.

if a ship using the technology described in these books is trying not to be detected then it doesn't need to maintain a constant acceleration. the amount of time necessary to get to a destination in space is completely dependent on the relative velocity necessary at the point of arrival. if the plan is to get to a jump point then you can get there over a period of time completely dependent on your acceleration curve, which could be extremely flat or extremely steep. the slope of the Curve is completely dependent on the technology and the desired arrival time.

It went off the rails

Yeah this series went s little bit off the rails. You feel no sympathy or connection with new cast of characters. The realpolitik justifications are running thin and more towards jingoism. I have never 100% agreed with the author and he has stretched his political systems passed the breaking point. The reasons and justifications feel contrived and forced. It’s sad the last several arch’s were quite good. This on just falls flat.

I really want to like the series but....,

I really want to like the series but...., such potential with virtually no realistic details. Is this being ghost written by an AI ? The first couple of books are ok and I kept hoping the lack of realistic character development would get better. Nope, more simplistic and detail-less scenes without a hint of actual, believable combat action...sad.

Good book in the series

Enjoyed the story . Recommended to anyone who has enjoyed Nuttalls other works. Hope he continues the series.

A new set of characters facing new challenges

I loved this book. A new set of characters facing new challenges. A detailed and rationalised universe.

Excellent performance by Ralph Lister. I'm starting the next book in the series right away.

great book 😀 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

another great book loved the narration I highly recommend listening to this book and the rest of the series 5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

now I get the last book.

OK, after going through this book I now understand why we have that disappointing book 11 with all the new characters and all that.
anyway another excellent book in the series.

To Be Continued!?

Loving the tie in's to previous character's...
And White Knowledge references looking to the past...

Another cracking instalment

Yet again Nuttall proves why he’s one of my favourite authors of all time...
and Ralph Lister’s performance was as enjoyable as ever.
Keep them coming gents!