Prominence

By: A. C. Hadfield

Narrated by: Marc Vietor

Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

They tried to destroy our planets. Our way of life. They tried to send us into extinction. But we, the Coalition, fought them and won. That was a decade ago. We had assumed they were beaten for good. 

We were wrong. 

They’re known as the Host: a cabal of aliens seeking to dominate our sector of space. And they’re back - with help from a powerful new enemy. 

Against their wrath, we must stand. We’re outnumbered and unprepared. If we lose, we lose everything. 

But there is hope. An ancient race of long-dead but technologically advanced aliens called the Navigators have a ship called the Blackstar that could potentially turn the tide. That is if I, Kai Locke, a humble ship racer, can find it and learn how to harness its power in time. 

If I fail, the Coalition will fall, and the Host will consign us to a distant memory. I refuse to let that happen. I will fight to my last breath for the Coalition’s survival. 

For fans of Star Wars, Firefly, Battlestar, and Guardians of the Galaxy.

©2017 A.C. Hadfield & Colin F. Barnes (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Newly found love.

I thought I’d like this, but I don’t - I love it! Just enough tension and twists, just enough serious and humorous. Light and compelling, the reader is fantastic. I can’t wait to listen to the continuing adventure..

AWESOME! GOOD START.

Excellent storyline with lots of action. Kai Locke is an interesting protagonist. He got pulled into the battles between the Host and the Coalition. There is an on-going mystery about his missing father whom he is trying to find. Intrigues and lots of action, battles in the galaxy. Well written and well performed by Marc Vietor. Worth a credit.

Should have been a cartoon

Blackstar review

This is definitely a young adult book, clearly aimed at 8-12 year olds. If you are looking for more mature scifi (aka: more than a saturday morning cartoon) or any hard science in your fiction, you are likely to be disappointed. I would not listen again, would not spend a credit (bought it as a daily deal and still paid too much).

Spoilers below. I try to avoid key items but... if you want a pristine experience then dont read this.

Let’s begin with the good: The performance is very strong. Marc Vietor did an excellent job with variety annunciation and pacing. He kept things rolling and added a lot of value.

This book reads like a cartoon from the 80s. Which can be a lot of fun. There is no worrying about physics or explaining things or laws and so forth. Its a fast paced run from one node to the next and perform the required action. Hmmm... maybe more like a video game.

Not so good: The plot is wholly derivative. All the tropes are there and you will not be surprised when reveals happen.

Things that should be challenging aren’t: have 3 spacefaring vessels destroyed on you, bah don’t worry about it. Cause major gravity issues near a planet, that’s no big deal. Steal a spaceship without much effort in the middle of an alien assault. Use technology way beyond you and in a new language... well you get the idea.

The writing is not very strong. Sections are confused, word choice in poor, and the flow is distracting.

And the end isn’t very good. Rushed, not well explained, and set up for the next book. Oh and technically a cliffhanger. If I cared.

I couldn't take even an hour of this book

Introduce a character and his of her sidekick for a couple minutes, then let the combat begin. Rinse and repeat. Pretty hard for me to care about the characters with no story line to base anything on.

You say, maybe I should have stuck with it for a while, I say there are better things for me to do (and read, and listen to).

Slow and boring

I barely got an hour into this book. Maybe I didn't give it enough time, but man, it was so boring, I just couldn't keep going.

It was hard to tell who the MC was, as perspectives kept shifting. But even when it was on a single person, the author gave me no reason to like these characters. It was as if the characters were just there to explain the world and what was happening in the story. The characters themselves were unimportant. Great premise ruined by a terrible story.

Bad

Not worth $3. Probably could’ve fell sleep to it if the narrator wasn’t so annoying.

Just bad

This series looked interesting based on the description. But 5hrs in and it feels like nothing is going on. The writing is bad. I mean really basically bad. Poor use of adjectives, contradicting sentences. I couldn’t even finish it. One of the worst books I’ve listened to in a while. The narrator is ok. Not my favorite, but he didn’t have much to work with here.

narration of protagonist didn't fit character

overall a really good book, but the protagonist was narrated with the voice of an old man, despite being in his 20's

Good idea, pacing is off

Roughly halfway through the book, I was ready to give this book a fairly high rating....and then the book started to breakdown. This book should have been 3-4 hours longer, allowing the MC to develop, and providing more beef behind many of the scenes in the book. The book is rushed. When you get to the final battle, you are still hoping for something to pull things together, but there isn't anything....its just rushed.

The idea is interesting, but it's just not developed enough for me to continue with the series.

No attempts at reader investment.

Well I was unimpressed with the beginning. It openned up with combat basically and although it was technically well written. It wasnt enough time for me to get invested in the situation nor was I aware of the context of the armaments. Which left it boring.

It didnt really get better though. There were just no hooks. Everything was so trite yet emphasized I thought it was leading to some sort of twist any moment that would serve as a hook. But it never happened

2.5 hours in there there was a long scene that heaviliy detailed the sensation of FTL travel and tried to develop the main character's mother's character. I had no interest in having the former painted so vividly at that moment since I wasnt yet invested in the setting. As for the latter, I wasnt invested in what she was doing or even had much of an idea of what she was doing and although it helped paint her mentality, at least part of it, its the kind of development that is generally reserved for characters that have already have some investment in or as part of setting up an alternate Point of view. So I was bored, it was just a step above having a random bystander suddenly detailed.

And thats pretty indicative of the book as a whole. The author never seemed to bother hooking my interest and investing me in anything, just waxed on about what was happening leaving me to invest the mental energy in paying attention to something I wasnt interested in.

I just gave up at the three hour point. Just so bored. Of the author reads this, I suggest take some time to study ways of hooking a reader. I think the actual plot and ideas here might actually be the basis of a good story. But books arent tv, a lot more time needs to be put into hooking reader interest. Action hooks TV viewers long enough to appreciate the narrative and plot, but Narrative hooks readers long enough to enjoy the action and plot.

If the book had started with the MC first reaching the planet, and spent some time with him getting acclimated and struggling through those local circuits, that would have been a great way to invest me. Show dont tell.

A Little Disappointing

Could not get excited about this one and, although I finished it, just, I was still none the wiser, perhaps because the characters were a non-event.

It seemed to be more suited to a younger audience I think.