Refuge

Exile, Book 2

By: Glynn Stewart

Narrated by: JD Jackson

Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's Summary

A dying world, shattered by a broken machine. A desperate flight, their only hope for refuge. A robotic race, ally and destroyer alike.

The Republic of Exilium has grown in strength and confidence at the far end of the galaxy from the rest of mankind, sending out scout ships to survey the worlds around them as they try to learn more about the mysterious Construction Matrix AIs.

Finding one of the genocidal rogues of that mysterious “race” in the process of destroying an inhabited world, Captain Octavio Catalan takes his ship into a desperate battle. He is victorious - but he is too late. The world of the strange aliens he has encountered is doomed.

The distant Republic can barely help, but the honor of their leaders will not permit them to stand idly by. Ships and crews are set into motion to commence a desperate evacuation of their newfound friends, and debts with the strange Matrices are called in.

One branch of Matrices destroyed the planet. Another may well save it - but the AIs have their own agenda and the price they ask may be beyond the Republic and its new allies....

©2019 Glynn Stewart (P)2019 Podium Publishing

Predictable, shallow and tedious compared with much of the authors other works.

Not a scratch on other titles by Stewart. The choice of performer makes a big difference in audio books and this didn’t work for me. Characterizations felt thin, plot predictable. I have enjoyed Starships Mage, Vigilante, UnArcana, Terra series. Hope things get back to where they were.

great followup to book 1

I would rate book 1 just a tad better than book 2, but mainly due to book 1 being new and fresh...while book 2 continues this universe. JD Jackson is a little better than book 1 and that was a good thing. he was decent to solid but had to speed up the narration to 1.05 - 1.10x. perhaps book 3 he will nail it and get to 5 stars!

Been a great continuation of the saga thus far.

It has been a fun series to date. I have enjoyed the premise of an exiled fleet and their discovery of other species in the void. The ongoing battle against the rogue matrices adds a great antagonist. I am not as fond of the narrator only because of his pauses at odd times and stilted emotional impressions. He is not overly distracting but just not my favorite for this series.

Painful at Best

The narrator oh my God I'll keep it clean. I barely made it thru 3 chapter and gave up. I wasted money on book 2 I guess I should've listen to the preview first but book 1 was so good I jumped into book 2 without checking. The narration was so bad I couldn't say if the actual book was good or not, I would give it minus stars if I could.

Slow start but great 2nd act!

I loved the first installment of this series and I was ready to jump right into some new excitement, but I was disappointed. I understand the need to develop the universe but the story dragged when introducing some new neighbors (trying not to spoil). while it was interesting to learn about them I found myself not caring and wanting them to hurry up and get to the point. that lasted for a lot of chapters.

but once I muscled through the beginning the story finally took off! there was plenty of action and we get some answers to many of the questions our heroes were looking for in the first book.

my opinion is that the story needs work on character relationships. I don't really feel any connection between the crew. one day it's so and so is there and the next so and so has a relationship with a main character and they are in love... like when did that happen! I think its also the reason the first half of the book was so dry. it was just telling us what was happening with no real character development. I think I only grew to like 1 person throughout the whole 1st half. the first book did a much better job of introducing characters and giving them passion and drive.

the narration was ok. some of the voices are starting to sound too much a like and it threw me off, but it wasn't horrible.

overall the second half of the book is worth it! I will continue with the next book!

Excellent opera. Beautifully narrated.

Narrator was perfect.
Story was very good..
Eager to hear the third book.
I'm hooked.

Different Narrator than book 1, Not the best.

Really enjoyed the first book with the first narrator.

Blindly assumed they would use the same narrator and I was wrong.

JD Jackson's performance is painfully slow and halting, I'm still not sure if he is pausing to try to build tension or if he is mentally sounding out words he doesn't recognize before speaking them out loud.

Part of my decision to buy this book is that it was shown as a 14hr listen. After hearing the new narrator with his oddly slow performance, i'm convinced that 20% of this will be consumed by the slow ramble, so weird that they chose this guy with the gaps and pauses in the performance. Overall it just feels awkward and off :(

Refuge Rocks!

I'll admit, the time gap between Exile and Refuge caught me by surprise at first, and the voices of a new alien species were an adjustment, but the story still drives this fast paced scifi war adventure. All the characters from Exile are there and thriving and Stewart does a fantastic job of storytelling. I especially love the ethnic, racial, gender forward nature of Stewart's characters...especially with regard to female leadership. JD Jackson's narration is inspired!

Good story once it builds speed

The story itself I find to be good and I am a fan of the writer. My issue stems from the lack of any patriarchal society, as a matter of fact the men all seem to be inferior when compared to their female counterparts. I just would like it to be closer to real life, equal but different and value our differences.

Good trilogy out of nowhere

Saw this and liked the thought of book one...then decided I must read them all. Finally a book two that isn’t just a long useless voyage. You learn more of the plot and it moves the story forward as a middle book should...good action and good performance

excellent space opera

A great space opera and good storyline well worth a listen to with good narration

You have to listen to it

A great book loved the story great narration 5 stars I highly recommend listening to this book 👍👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️