Lyssa's Dream

The Sentience Wars - Origins, Book 1

By: James S. Aaron, M. D. Cooper

Narrated by: Laura Jennings

It has been 175 years since the birth of the first truly sentient AI. It has been just two short years since Lyssa's birth....

Captain Andy Sykes just wants to keep his family in one piece.

Once a combat pilot for the TSF, he gave it all up for love and a family. But two years ago, his wife disappeared, leaving him with two mouths to feed: eight-year-old Tim and 10-year-old Cara.

Since then, he's managed to scrape a living hauling cargo between the Jovian Combine and InnerSol. It's not glamorous, his ship's falling apart, and it's boring as hell, but it keeps them in fuel and calories.

When a cargo run to Cruithne Station meets with more than one catastrophe, Andy finds himself accepting an offer a less desperate man would refuse: delivering an illegal AI named Lyssa.

The AI is the property of Heartbridge, a powerful, interplanetary corporation, and they want their latest weapon back. With a private army, gangs, and pirates all vying for the precious cargo Andy carries, it's going to take everything Andy has to keep his ship flying and his kids safe, and to get Lyssa to her destination.

Even if he succeeds, Lyssa's very existence may spark a war like no other humanity has ever seen.

©2017 M. D. Cooper & James S. Aaron (P)2018 M. D. Cooper & James S. Aaron

Excellent series: Increasingly sophisticated plots

This is a space-opera / military Sci-fi book with some family sub-issues. I write this having just completed the third book. When I read the first (Lyssa's Dream) I thought is was very well written and extremely well narrated -- but was not overwhelmed. The second book got much better. The third book is really wonderful. It is complex, the characters have been fleshed out, the relationships are intricate and the AI byplay is really sophisticated. I would recommend. Also, I now realize that the narrator is much more nuanced than I initially appreciated. A fun, interesting and engaging series ! Five and a half stars.

Where is the 2nd Audible Book !?!?

This a a great starting novel to a series, but if you are an Audible listener, I would recommend delaying the purchase of this first volume until you have confirmed that at least volume two is also available. You'll be frustrated and disappointed otherwise.

NOTE: Audible version does NOT have the epilogue

Good story with narration passable but not my favorite. Subjective, of course. NOTE: Audible version does NOT have the epilogue that is in the written version. When I went to close the Kindle version, I discovered that there's several more pages of epilogue. Not sure why the Audible version omits this, as it is pertinent to the story.

Excellent beginning to a promising series.

First of all, I only finish about 1/3 of the books I purchase, so I'm not so easy to please. I not only finished this book, but I burned through it because I cared about the characters and wanted to know what happened. It is always a good sign when I still want to listen to my book after my commute is over.
It is not a perfect book. It does tend to do flashbacks at the moments where you'd rather stay in the present because something is going on. That was annoying at times.
However, I really did like the main character, which is a problem with many novels nowadays. Everybody wants to make the next GoT where everybody is a jerk, and anybody who is actually a good person dies a horrible death. Lyssa's Dream is not that. In addition, every character in the story seems three dimensional,
The children were realistically portrayed, and there is plenty of action. The realism was quite good, with just enough explanation of the technical detail without getting bogged down in geek stuff. The writing was good; The dialog seemed natural and unforced, the pacing was good, and the plot interesting.
In summation, I highly recommend Lyssa's Dream for science fiction fans and even non-science fiction fans, and I look forward to the next book in the series.

interesting take on life

It kept me guessing. Right vs wrong. Overall, the start of a great series. I hope the next book gets here soonest.

All Sizzle, No Steak

The story included several hours of dialog and drivel that are not germane to the plot or to world building. At the end of this book, I found my self asking "What exactly happened in this book?" and the answer was "Not much".
I sense that there is a real story here, but I am not willing to sift through the words to find it.

The narration was troublesome because it was done in just above a whisper. On my car stereo, it caused the "s" and "t" and "p" sounds to be accentuated. This interfered with the rest of the spoken words.

I am not inclined to continue this series.

Terrible Narrator

One of the worst narrations I've heard. She whispers through the entire book, not at low volume but in the tone of voice she uses.