Outcast

Star Force, Book 10

By: B. V. Larson, David VanDyke

Narrated by: Mark Boyett

Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Star Force is called to arms again! Outcast is a new beginning, the first book in a new spin-off series.

Many peaceful years have passed since the Macro Wars ended. Most of those who fought against the heartless machines have aged - but not the ingenious artificial construct known as Marvin. His insatiable curiosity is as strong as ever, and he’s brought home fresh perils to humanity’s doorstep.

The new Saga in the Star Force universe begins with Outcast, the longest book in the series. A full-length novel of military science fiction by best-selling authors B. V. Larson and David VanDyke.

©2014 B.V. Larson, David VanDyke (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Captain Marvin Takes Command

Where does Outcast rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Outcast scores a competitive 9.16 on my Modified Integrated Listening Fun (MILF) Scale. Why? Because it just does. Cody Riggs, Adrienne the Oxford educated fair haired rocket who also is the sister of Cody's murdered girlfriend (nice scenario B.V., you sick bastard) , the Master Sergeant and Marvin - the greatest "artificial construct" in the Milky Way Galaxy all find themselves in deep intergalactic excreta through no fault of their own. Cody told the Captain to go armed to the feast - you will know what I mean very early in the story.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Marvin. He is the driver of the action, the brains of the operation and, when all hell breaks loose as humanity is 9/10's through its collective circling of the toilet flush of extinction, the ultimate savior of Earth based sentient life.

Which scene was your favorite?

Marvin got the word that his dreams of finally assuming command of a ship were crushed after Cody recited the "Law of Trover" pointing out that Marvin never left the ship. I had a mind camera playing that showed Marvin drooping at what you may call his waist, all of his once flagellating arms limp and his head bowed in a posture of total resignation and defeat. I felt so sad for him. However, as is always the case, Marvin found a way to circumvent the situation and through sheer force of personality and shameless manipulation persuaded Cody to brevet him as Warrant Officer thereby elevating him to de facto Captain Marvin. I felt so proud of Marvin.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I didn't cry. This wasn't really a "get the tissues ready" kind of audiobook. I did laugh a bunch of times whenever Marvin inserted his presence. As I have said before, and I will say it again, Marvin is the greatest non-human character in the history of everywhere. It doesn't matter what he says, I just start smiling and usually end up thrusting both hands in the air and shouting "Marvin!" I guess that is kind of extreme.

Any additional comments?

Get this audiobook. New characters, some old ones, conniving homicidal carnivorous panda bears and tons of laser beam firing kill vehicles. Even the smarmy Crustacean professor guy is in the mix. All I can say is thank you Mr. Larsen for keeping Marvin alive as a character. My day got a bit brighter and lighter as I listened to Outcast.

Marvelous Marvin

This book feels like both a reboot and a sequel. It was enjoyable and opens an entirely new chapter in the Star Force Universe. I look forward to many more to come.

So VERY GLAD it DIDN'T END!!

Rigs son is Very Much like his Father. A world of Bears! and another of Bird People. New bad things to fight. Lots of action. I can't Wait for the Next One!!

Its Like A Start of A New Series

I have really enjoyed listening to this addition of star force. Maybe it should have been a new series rather than a continuation???

This addition is all about Cody Riggs and Captain Marvin.. I do really like Marvin and I'm quite excited into knowing how his future will be like.... This book is a different adventure than the previous ones, so don't think you are going back to the same spin and theme, its different, and different is goooooood!!!!!

I think there are few things here and there that could have been better, but they are minor things... Still, the book was really good.

A very good star force novel !

I was glad to see star force didn`t die out,this book is in the top 5.I especially enjoyed the underwater world(reminding of europa).New wolds and new species, professor hune `s crustecean talking down to humans really made me laugh,very good book,the best narrator for this type of story!

Another great book from BV Larson

Where does Outcast rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This audible book would be in my top 25 ! It's a very good action filled story read by one of the best narrators . The whole series is very good.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Of corse my favorite would have to be Riggs but I love Qwan as well. This is the first book with Kyle Riggs being the main character but he picks up right where his dad left off in the book before this one.

Have you listened to any of Mark Boyett’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Mark Boyett has done a great job on all of the Star Force books. I hope they don't ever do one without him being the voice of it. He does a very good job of changing his voice for all the deferent characters and is very fluent .

Cody Riggs and Marvin FTW!

Cody Riggs is an adult now and off on his own adventures with Marvin. He's a chip off the old block and Marvin is just as funny and mischievous as ever. We see a couple of old characters and lots of new aliens and "rings"... It ain't easy living in the shadow of Kyle Riggs, so it's kind of a coming of age story for Cody. Luckily he met Marvin as a child and knows how to deal with him.

I'm so happy to have this spin off. I always wondered what Marvin would be getting up to once Kyle went back to the farm. Give me more please!

Totally template-based. Totally worth it.

What Larson did here was just swap the main character with his son and left everything else the same. Literally. And you know what? I'm a sucker for it. Keep them coming.

B.V. Larson does it again

What did you love best about Outcast?

Mr. Larson does space opera on a grand scale, while still keeping the human interest story line engaging. I was not sure how well the story would transfer from Kyle Riggs to Cody Riggs. It was a success. There is enough difference between the two to keep the tale interesting. Mark Boyett does an excellent job as narrator.

What did you like best about this story?

Reading the maturation process of Cody Riggs. B.V. Larson writes fun books with great characters.

What about Mark Boyett’s performance did you like?

Mr. Boyett is the voice of this franchise as well as the Undying Mercenaries books. He has an excellent range of emotion and characterization.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Several laughs, Marvin the Robot is a delight.

Any additional comments?

nope.

NOT SO GOOD

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I WOUD HAVE CONTINUED THE STORY WITH KYLE RIGGS INSTEAD OF SUBSTITUTING HIM WITH HIS SON.

What do you think your next listen will be?

I DO NOT REALLY KNOW.

Have you listened to any of Mark Boyett’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

HE'S PERFORMANCE IS GREAT BUT THIS STORY IS NOT SO GREAT.

Was Outcast worth the listening time?

YES.

Any additional comments?

THIS BOOK DID NOT NEED TO BE WRITTEN UNLESS IT WAS ABOUT KYLE AND HIS SON.

Excellent!

Outcast opens a new chapter in the Star Force series now seeing Kyle Riggs's son, Cody Riggs playing the lead character and pretty much taking over from where his retired father left off although in a different and fresh direction. The macros, the implacable machine based enemy of all biotic life has been defeated and no longer reigns supreme within the series of rings connecting several star systems.

I wasn't sure quite what to expect from Outcast given that the series as I had known it had ran its course and concluded with the previous book. I knew this book was a sort of spin-off but it really is a continuation of the Riggs family tree now seeing Kyle Riggs's son, Cody Riggs getting into all sorts of trouble as a freshly commissioned Ensign in Star Force. With no Macros forces to fight this book explores the tantalising destinations of the rings which are known to link several star systems. During the entire 9 Star Force books preceding Outcast only a half dozen systems connected via these rings had been explored but it was hinted at that some 200 systems were linked and so there was huge scope for expansion which I am happy to say this book now begins to deal with. Larson now with his co-writer David Van Dyke depict three new and very different alien species and does it extremely well. In the previous stories, Larson managed cleverly to paint us a picture of alien cultures that were very different from our own and avoided many of the human-like attributes often given to "aliens" that we see so much of on TV. The imaginative rendering of these new species brings refreshing expansion to the Star Force universe with new foes that function in very different ways to what we have seen before.

As I approached the end of this excellent story I found myself comparing the situation of Cody Riggs and his crew to be somewhat similar to that depicted in the Star Trek Voyager television series wherein a small band of humanity is effectively stranded far away from home and must make and sometimes break alliances in order to survive and also learn how not all is what it appears to be.

I found Outcast a gripping and action packed read and was amazed at the pace and amount crammed into this story. Larson has always had the ability to write lengthy and exciting combat sequences that immerse the reader in the danger and action which makes for a listen that you will just not want to stop.

My only slight critique of the story is that I have my doubts that such a young and inexperienced junior officer regardless of who his father was and the stories learned from that father would be quite so battle hardened and exhibit such wisdom and tactical prowess without several years of hard battling under his belt. He just seems a little too young and green to me to be quite so incisive and self assured. In many respects, when reading this story we can easily forget that it is supposed to be Kyle Riggs son we're listening too and it does seem that the old war horse, Kyle Riggs is at the helm of this adventure once more. This doesn't bother me and I don't see this as a reason to mark the story down a star as it has fantastic entertainment value and is just so well written that it becomes irrelevant really. I suppose if a twenty-something young fresh faced officer was written more realistically then he and his crew would have been dead very quickly and so there would be no story at all.

Mark Boyett as ever deserves a mention as the narrator of Outcast and has been for all prior books in the saga. In this story he gets to show us that his repertoire of voices and accents is larger than the previous stories allowed and we hear new characters voiced superbly. Not sure if it's the writing or a reading error by Boyett but I have noticed a couple of mistakes in the narration. One was when he said "Back Packing" when it was clear that based on context that it should have been "Back Slapping" and I even think that he may have said "Barned the burn down" instead of "burned the barn down" but that might have been just me! Nevertheless, Boyett's narration is excellent and I can think of no better to voice the Star Force series.

Oh, one other minor thing I noticed that amused me as a UK listener is that it does seem that many American authors tend to depict British characters in a very outdated stereotypical way. This usually means that they are stiff upper lipped, very posh and use some vernacular that is somewhat outdated. Still, I have to giggle when I hear such things as I remember an American cousin of mine back in the early 80's once ask me "Do they have telephones in England?".

Outcast is a thoroughly enjoyable read and is already one of my favourites so far in the Star Force series of books. It explores new star systems and new and very different alien life in a refreshing and interesting way and has plenty of action to keep even the most battle hardened story veterans happy.

Read it, you will not be disappointed.

Another Great Book

I can't wait for the next in the series, all three, the two authors and Mark Boyett combined to make the whole storey addictive, the ten books have gone by in the blink of an eye,
I highly reccomend this as a great listen/read.

Excellent next gen starforce

A brilliant mix of old and new characters as well as a whole new set of battles.
Mostly Loved it apart from one slightly lengthy drawn out boring section mid way but overall a great continuation of the Riggs timeline.

excellent star force continues

if you loved the star force series then you will be v happy with the next book which stars the son. It kind of reminds me of the expanse and Star Trek which is great and I am still hooked.

surprisingly refreshing

great way to continue the Riggs Pigs saga. I very much liked how you could except the fast forward in time and get on with the new characters and storyline was compelling with loads of future easter eggs to come.

Segway to Cody’s story just not pulled off sufficiently

Kyle Riggs is replaced by his son Cody Riggs but his thoughts and actions are identical to his fathers so feels like a weak contrivance to continue the series with younger love interest
The usual merry go round of fighting machines to save biotics continues and they are always on the point of destruction
I think the technical aspects of captaincy is well handled and so is the scientific constructs of the technology but it needs a fresh angle
I have listened to 23 Larson books and enjoyed them all but I felt this series had reached its conclusion
Larsons writing gets better (even if co written) and he maintains a compelling narrative and suspense that ensures you have to listen
Perhaps I’m too old for his target audience which I guess is male and between 15 and 30
BTW I can’t imaging the books being read by anyone other then Boyett, his great

great book

Love the book great story 5 stars great book series highly recommend listening to it 🙂

about the same

i liked the idea at first but i feel its now becoming a continuation of old storys

Golly gumdrops!

Ok its written by yanks for yanks but THE English stereotype is sooooo boring. Why are Americans so obsessed with the English upper class?? Its something between a fetish and a massive chip on the shoulder. All the characters speak like they were alive to fight George Washington in the American War of Independence, cos thats how we all speak 200 years later. Lol. By yanks for yanks. Time to hit the fast forward again.

More star force!

I thought the series had ended - it's more of the same but I love the battles so def worth a read if you enjoy this series! Son of Riggs now in charge!