• Koinobi

  • Koinobi Trilogy, Book 1
  • By: Reid Minnich
  • Narrated by: Benjamin Cole
  • Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (14 ratings)

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Koinobi

By: Reid Minnich
Narrated by: Benjamin Cole
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Publisher's Summary

How far would you go to help a parasitic insect from the stars?

Tweeskzaht nudges human civilization and technology forward from the shadows. Unaware of the war in the stars above it, Earth is in the cross-hairs of both sides. To save her adopted home, she must reveal herself to a small band of humans. Will Mike's self-sacrifice, Kindra's cunning, and David's intelligence be enough to save Earth from becoming a hunting ground?

©2016, 2017 Reid Minnich (P)2017 Reid Minnich

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What listeners say about Koinobi

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Listener received this title free

Challenging instinctual responses to the strange

This is a well-written YA story that lays out the advantages of not responding to the strange or unusual as if it were an automatic threat. The author uses a symiotic insectoid alien with a sweet and generous nature to drive the point home. The idea of having an alien bug living inside you is instinctively revolting to us (I think I can speak for the human race, here!), but not all our instincts are useful once we’re past hunting and gathering.

We often seem hardwired to respond to the unusual as if it were dangerous, and this book illustrates how we must rise above our evolutionary instinctive settings to behave in a civilized manner with others.

I received this free audiobook and voluntarily left this honest review.

1 person found this helpful

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Listener received this title free

Surprisingly Good

Took a bit to start, and got going and never slowed down. I'm almost done with book 3 and don't want it to end. I hope there is more to come.

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Listener received this title free

Not for me

The koinobi are a scorpion-like shape parasitic alien species. They provide with great longevity and knowledge to their host, which may turn then into lonely individuals. Mike was already alone all his life, confined to a wheelchair and with no real human contact, when the possibility of hosting a koinobi changes his life forever.

I was looking forward to this audiobook, as I had read several great reviews, and I tend to find weird sci-fi quite appealing, but after a while I realized this book was not for me. The views were just too simplistic, the characters shallow, and the dialogs forced and unnatural. I also did not understand why the characters acted how they did. The world-building was quite naive: there were other planets where the main race was animal-like and they had their own version of humans, but as witless beings, without more intelligence than a herd animal. In many ways, this felt like a children’s book, with too simplistic views, and animal-like aliens. I really struggled to finish it, as I did not feel the urgency of the matter, and I did not care about any of the characters. There was also too much tell instead of show.

Sometimes I find redeeming qualities in the narration of a less than good book, but this was, sadly, not the case. Checking Benjamin Cole’s profile on Audible, I see that this is his first audiobook, and it shows. The first thing that I noticed was how the music he used at the beginning of the book did not fade out cleanly, ending quite abruptly. The narration was okay, but all voices sounded the same, making dialogs difficult to follow. He tried with female voices, but the times they sounded different, they were too forced. It was not consistent. There were several mic noises, not only due to plosives, but as if the recording volume was too high and it was saturating. There were also volume changes and more reverberation, in general, than what is desired.

This was the only time I heard the word “gesture” pronounced with a hard G. It would have been okay, but this word was used many times throughout the book, so I found it distracting.

This book is the first of a series that I will not continue reading and that I won’t recommend.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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Listener received this title free

good story

pretty good book. kept me entertained throughout and the narrator does a good job with the different characters. I wish there had been more focus on koinobi, but it was interesting nonetheless. The premise reminded me of stargate to an extent. I think I'll probably finish the series, if anything, to see what happens to the characters!

I received this book for free in exchange for an unbiased review.

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Listener received this title free

I would take one

This was different from most "alien" Sci-Fi stories and I rather enjoyed it for the most part. Koinobi is science fiction at its finest combining action and drama with a philosophical twist. looking forward to parts 2 and 3!

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

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a new twist on a saturated genre

good listen all the way through. was different than most sci-fi's I have read and I appreciated that. the narration was great. it's worth the credit!

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

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Listener received this title free

It was ok

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

I was hoping for better. The story was nothing special, and a bit hard to follow at some points.

The narration was hard to follow at some points. At points in the book, you could hear that it was a recording, if that makes sense.

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Listener received this title free

A well written novel

The book as a vary good overall good approach to creating; an atmosphere, intelligently aliens, character motivation, and excellent world building. The characters views and motives are vary well designed made not are not blatant, creating a vary interesting what will they do next feel.

I would highly recommend this for anyone who is a Science fiction fan.

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A Fantastic Science Ficton Adventure

This book understands that importance of science in science fiction. it's a fantastic adventure staring interesting and complex characters, well thought out alien species which are significantly different from humans.

the narrator for the book was fantastic, and was able to make it very clear who is speaking at what times. he has a good sense of pacing, when to slow down or speed up to stay within the scene.

overall a highly recommended book for all science fiction fans, who have wanted something in the same realm as Star Trek but with the human condition of today.

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  • Longears
  • 04-25-20

Who you are is more important than what you are.

This is the first part of a trilogy where we meet the triggering entity of all that follows. For a long time Earth has been an outpost abandoned to its failed slave species, the humans. Originally these dumb brutes hardly had a language and didn't have a civilisation. Amongst them lived in secret a single creature that carried knowledge from extended life to extended life living inside it's human hosts. Now Humans are an entirely different creature and their radio broadcasts are radiating out into space and the sole creature that can prevent humanity being a tipping point in the middle of an interstellar war is reaching out.

I liked this story. The concept was neat, and the thought sharing was nicely done. It takes a little time before the story begins to flow and it doesn't present it's best face first, so stick with it because once it warms up it is an entertaining, warmhearted and thoughtful take on first contact.



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  • Norma Miles
  • 03-13-20
Listener received this title free

How did you make that human talk?

The first book in a trilogy, Koinobi is a surprisingly charming look at first contact, even if the initial pages are very much of the horror genre. In fact, there are three new alien races encountered. The first is a scorpion-like bug, named Tweeskyaht, who has made Earth her hiding place and home for thousands of years, living on through her host human and quiet!y aiding humanity's advancement, preparing Earth for a conflict she is certain will one day come. She might be sympathetic to humans but, from our point of view, has some very unpleasant habits. Then there are the two warring societies, with Earth caught in the middle...

The author has a straightforward writing style, simple but effective, and he is very capable of creating an aura of hostility or fear, or simple pleasure of being (like shopping amidst bright attractive fabrics in a market), yet at times becomes somewhat clunky in his interpersonal relationships. Almost awkward. But then, so too are the relationships being described. Narration by Benjamin Cole is well paced and modulated, the characters individually voiced. The recording quality, however, can be less than perfect on occasion - not echoing but with a feeling of vastness behind it. A pity as this distracts from the otherwise good performance.

Readers will, if they enjoy this book, definitely want to continue with book two in the tri!ogy, as this volume ends with a sense that things have only just begun. I know that I want to know what happens next. I was very fortunate in being freely gifted with a complimentary copy of Koinobi at my request, by the rights holder, via Audiobook Boom. Thank you. It was an u usual take on two of science fiction's more popular topics: first contact and inter galactic war. Recommended.