Wreck of the Nebula Dream

By: Veronica Scott

Narrated by: Michael Riffle

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

A reimagining of the Titanic disaster set in the far future among the stars....

Traveling unexpectedly aboard the luxury liner Nebula Dream on its maiden voyage across the galaxy, Sectors Special Forces Captain Nick Jameson is ready for ten relaxing days, and hoping to forget his last disastrous mission behind enemy lines. He figures he'll gamble at the casino, take in the shows, maybe even have a shipboard fling with Mara Lyrae, the beautiful but reserved businesswoman he meets.

All his plans vaporize when the ship suffers a wreck of Titanic proportions. Captain and crew abandon ship, leaving the 8000 passengers stranded without enough lifeboats and drifting unarmed in enemy territory. Aided by Mara, Nick must find a way off the doomed ship for himself and several other innocent people before deadly enemy forces reach them or the ship's malfunctioning engines finish ticking down to self destruction.

But can Nick conquer the demons from his past that tell him he'll fail these innocent people just as he failed to save his Special Forces team? Will he outpace his own doubts to win this vital race against time?

©2012 Jean D Walker (P)2013 Jean D Walker

Action Packed!

This was a great action packed love story. If you like Titanic and you like Battle Star Galactica, then you should read this ;)

The string line, of course. Wonderful tale.

The narrators were perfect choice. They brought incredible life to the characters. I would listen to any book they were reading in. Great story

Review

Would you listen to Wreck of the Nebula Dream again? Why?

Overal a decent read. I would listen to it again because some of the characters were rather interesting.

Which scene was your favorite?

The conversation between Nick and the Elder in the Planetarium

Clean sci-fi adventure with a mild romance.

Great action, adventure, sci-fi romance. It was an audiobook that kept me interested the whole time and in fact made my day at work fly by. I liked the characters, a nice mix of different types of personality mixed into a group to liven things up. Also the few alien races introduced were believable. The story reminds me of a mix between Titanic, Poseidon's Adventure, The Fifth Element, and Final Destination, all movies I like. Which makes me glad I bought this story. I will definitely be continuing on with the series. The romance was mild and there was no sex, so if you're looking for a good story this one was exciting and adventurous. Narrator does an excellent job, I would be happy to listen to him again. If you like this type of book I recommend reading Sherrilyn Kenyon's League series.

Adventure in Space - Sci-fi Titanic Parallel

Would you listen to Wreck of the Nebula Dream again? Why?

I listened twice. It is so great, fast paced, exciting, well formulated characters, romance adventure. Sci-fi fiction is one of the genres I am partial to.The Timpani and his allegiance to Nick's authority was very much a part of my enjoyment of the audiobook. So it is a resounding YES, I have listened again.

What did you like best about this story?

The fast paced adventure reminiscent of the Titanic disaster. But set in deep space with pirates, sentients, (loved Lady Damais) wonderful characters, with a tightly woven plot and developed with attention to detail and the techie knowledge and so much more.

Which character – as performed by Michael Riffle – was your favorite?

Nick was my favourite character. Mr. Take Charge himself. Alpha male character - Nick, representing compassion, down to earth, romantic but oh so empathetic to others and willing to assist, even though he was reluctant to do so. Not perfect, but who is? . Michael's rendition of Nick was near perfect. He portrayed his take charge attitude so well.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The episode in the grav lift was awesome. Nick shone and his protective attitude to the persons with him was awesome. Then following with the encounter with the Red Lady deity and the intervention of the White Lady deity.

Any additional comments?

Scott sets up her story nicely, and introduces Jameson. He has a past that troubles him and is uncertain of his next step, after his messed up last mission. Scott uses her introduction of Nick to set up the fabric of her key characters and the progression of the book is predicated on her brilliant definition of their personas. They are each allowed their glorious moment in the limelight and they are allowed to shine. Romance is in the air, but gratuitous sex is fore sworn. No time to mess around. Action packed, nail biting suspense, lots of twists and narrow escapes.The women in the book were strong in spirit and character, even the batty socialite. I liked that portrayal of feminine strength.Disaster book notwithstanding, but then again that's real life where not everyone makes it to a happy ending. Great listening and read. I'm checking out your other books.

Wonderful

A wonderful rendition of a wonderful well written absorbing book would recommend to any who love the genre

similar to the story of Titanic

Special Forces Captain Nick Jameson is aboard the Nebula Dream, a colossal spaceship on its first trip. This spaceship is one of a kind, with luxurious entertainment and full with rich passengers in their way to Sector Hub. Suddenly one night Nick is shaken awake, and after several deceptions from the captain of the ship, things go south and then it is clear that the Nebula Dream does not have all the safety measures in order. And some want to take advantage of this.

The first half of the book mirrored the ill-fated journey of the Titanic. I found this part interesting and while similar to the Titanic it was delivered in a fresh new way using a spaceship and a possible happier ending. Here we also get the characters' introductions, and we learn that Nick is a Special Forces Captain, always alert and very efficient at his job. Nick is left to rescue the 8000 passengers from the wreck; this is what Nick does, he’s in the middle of everything saving the day. Another character is Mara, a businesswoman with special abilities that provide Nick with some much needed assistance in saving what’s left. Nick’s time frame is short and 8,000 lives depend on him and him alone!

The second part of the book is about what happens after the incident, and despite being interesting and being well written too, this is the part I least enjoyed. In my opinion, it did not seem as if the characters continued to grow. Some parts of the book appeared to be forced – the romantic aspect of it specifically. I do not enjoy romance in any book that I read, so this is just my opinion while others may find it refreshing. The forced part of the romance comes from the feeling of impending danger and where would they find time and energy to even care about relationships with everything going on? Again, this is my opinion and my preferences.

Mara spent too much time trying to show how capable she was, and Nick had an arrogant attitude towards civilians in general and women in particular. This is typical given the usual expectations that we, females, face almost daily, I was hoping not to have to face it in this book. I was surprised that although this book is written by a female writer, there were too many damsels in distress moments. Mara was very capable yet she was not allowed to grow to her full potential leaving her plain. I could not connect with her.

The action is slow at first but then picks up and moves forward quickly. The other characters were interesting. This was very similar to the disaster films from the 70’s and 80’s.

Michael Riffle's narration was very clear but his reading rhythm was something I had to get used to. He made so many pauses, that there seemed to be more punctuation signs than the ones meant by the author, making the reading a bit artificial and distracting at first. It was correct enough and the voices were distinct, but it seems Riffle's heart was not in it. The rhythm improved a bit along the way but it still felt unnatural. There were some subtle noises at the beginning of the book, which reminded me of turning pages or fingers rubbing against paper. They disappeared after a while.

I was really captivated by the world created by Veronica Scott; in my opinion a bit more character depth and evolution was needed.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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Good idea, weak writing

The story idea is a good one, but Veronica Scott is not adept at writing dialogue or letting the characters show their characteristics rather than telling us directly. And, having met a few special forces folks, pretty much the last thing they do is brag about being special forces.

More annoyingly, the women are lacking in agency and independence. Romance springs up out of nowhere, and the characters fail to develop over the course of the story.

The narration by Michael Riffle had some weird pauses and pacing, but I'll give him a pass since I would have taken time away for drink or two trying to get through narrating this book's dialogue.

Way too much “telling not showing” *plus update*

I’m really struggling with the amateur writing style. The uninteresting inner dialogue of the MC combined with the over-abundance of telling not showing (I.e. He went to the bathroom and then he washed his hands. There was blood on his fingers. Then he asked himself... etc) has me on the brink of deleting this book from my library and getting my credit back. The plot is intriguing though, so I’m pushing on.

Update: I just couldn’t spend another minute listening to this book. I returned it partway through the fourth chapter. I’m sitting here stewing about the reviews. Have readers/listeners become accustomed to unintelligent and poor writing? I don’t understand the commendations and praise. This is not a good book, plain and simple.

This story had potential, but the author couldn’t handle it. It wasn’t smart and the characters had little to recommend them, and they were definitely NOT smart people.

The dialogue was impractical—what they said was irrelevant or unlikely or just badly written. The inner dialogue was the absolute worst part of the story, however. Men do not think that way and they do not think those things, and, in general, inner dialogue is NOT neatly laid out in a sentence the way it was. There was also so much of it I had to wonder why the author didn’t write the book in first person POV.

I try not to be a jerk when it comes to reviews. I support independent authors as a rule, but there are always exceptions, and this is one of them. Showing not telling is one of the most important tools in storytelling, and the author completely ignored it, and I can’t comprehend the how and why of it.