Retrospect

By: Bryan Deminico

Narrated by: Pablo Nagengast

Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

A novus hit squad is chasing you, and they are getting closer...

In the year 3421, human, novus, and alien races coexist through political strife, perpetuated by daily United Planetary Congress interactions - the foundation of political theater. An encrypted code, capable of crippling a newly developed artificial earth planet, is stolen from an atmospheric control outpost orbiting Atlas.

Agent Jonah, Galactic Interpol Society top priority agent, must immerse himself within the violent shadows surrounding his new mission as he enters the Revised Washington District. A novus crime lord leading a reputable novus terrorist organization lends aid to a powerful political figure pulling the strings. To further complicate Jonah's investigation, a rogue galactic agent bites at his heels every step of the way.

Follow Agent Jonah through vivid action sequences and futuristic locales to find out if he can overcome all obstacles and save Atlas from an evil politician's plot for power dominance in the galaxy.

Army combat veteran Bryan DeMinico gives listeners a sci-fi world full of hi-tech spy activities, sleek technologies, socio-political interactions spanning across two Earth planets, mixing in a new humanoid race, colonized space worlds, and a dash of discovered aliens on Planet Amephirous.

Check out Agent Jonah's debut mission. Enter the world of Retrospect, performed by Pablo Nagengast.

Praise for the book:

"With his debut novel, DeMinico will appeal to readers who are intrigued by futuristic battles and gadgets. Both Jonah and Trigarous receive intriguing tactical goodies before starting their missions, and they use them to good effect; these elements, along with the novel's many action sequences, are well-thought-out." (Kirkus Reviews)

©2019 Bryan Deminico (P)2020 Bryan Deminico

Dry, overly descriptive, and void of color.

The writing style was far too wordy for my taste. Every detail is overly explained in excruciating details that got frustrating quickly. It’s become very taxing to wade through all of the unnecessary descriptive details to figure out what is actually going on. Every single sentence was embellished into an entire paragraph. For what could have just been “Jonah pressed a button on his chest” was elongated into:

Jonah flung his hand at the center of his vest as more slim branches snapped against his falling body, He gathered all coordinated strength to steady his arm long enough for tense fingers to feel for the switch, He sensed the small circular bump. With utmost confidence, he pressed the button.

The book was 90% excruciating detail plucked from a thesaurus Most of the time is spent describing every single movement or muscle twitch but void of color doing nothing to actually describe who anyone looks like,

Kudos to the reader for keeping up with the barrage of needless overly complicated descriptive words. However, the reading was dry with no inflection making it hard to make sense of what is going on. But that could have a lot to do with the writing style. The audio was well edited, clean, and easy to understand the reader,

Never Judge a Book by Its Cover

Retrospect has a nice cover; but that's about the only good thing I can say about it. Don't get me wrong: it could have been good. The premise was interesting. Heck, it sounded like it would be right up my alley.

The execution, however, left much to be desired. And no, it wasn't due to narration; though I couldn't give that any more than 2 stars because the writing was so cumbersome that it muddied everything else up. This book seriously needs an editor. Mr. Deminico should listen to the narration for himself. Maybe then he'd understand just how much work this novel needs. Or try reading it himself.

Very early on, he was using "something" and "soon" too frequently when more specific details would have worked better. Most of the time though, the details are so overdone that they slow everything down to a crawl. He uses 30 words to explain 5.

"He stretched his fingers and unlatched the pouch charge unit. Jonah carried his composure in a defensive mode; his pistol and posture ready for any surprise. He shifted weight and slid knees."

You don't need to detail every action. Walk, run, open a door, climb into a vehicle,... we know and can relate to these actions. The trick is to provide enough detail to convey emotions, while limiting detail while menial tasks are being performed.

The dialogue was also dry. There was no emotion in it. One word comments, idle chit-chat while characters were sneaking about, referring to people who have not been previously mentioned in the same scene as "he" or "she". You get the idea.

This could be a worthwhile read someday. As it stands, it has way too much going against it for me to give anymore than a 1 star overall rating. In the future, I'd suggest revising your work first, then seeking an editor before getting a nice cover and audio recording.