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In the 20th century Earth sent probes, transmissions, and welcoming messages to the stars. Unfortunately, someone noticed. The Galactics arrived with their battle fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined their vast Empire. Swearing allegiance to our distant alien overlords wasn't the only requirement for survival. We also had to have something of value to trade, something that neighboring planets would pay their hard-earned credits to buy. As most of the local worlds were too civilized to have a proper army, the only valuable service Earth could provide came in the form of soldiers....
The Hundred Worlds have withstood invasion by the relentless Hok for decades. The human worlds are strong, but the Hok have the resources of a thousand planets behind them, and their fleets attack in endless waves. The long war has transformed the Hundred Worlds into heavily fortified star systems. Their economies are geared for military output, and they raise specialized soldiers to save our species. Assault Captain Derek Straker is one such man among many.
They hunt us. They bomb our worlds for target practice. A star cluster in the constellation of Orion rotates once every 1,000 years. Those who rule there have an ancient tradition: When each cycle ends, they train their fleets by spilling the blood of lesser beings. The enemy fleets are coming again. In response, the Rebel Worlds gather their starships to face the terrifying threat, and this time humanity is asked to stand with them. The last time they considered Earth, Vikings in longboats were raiding English coastlines. Today, we're less primitive. Today, we're a target.
Death awaits the curious! Out along the rim of the galaxy hangs a loose configuration of some 60 stars known as the Faustian Chain. This whorl of sparkling suns is rich in planets and occupies an irregular volume of space some 20 light years in diameter. From an external viewpoint, the Chain presents a colorful display of plasma-streams, luminous nebulae and sparkling pinpoints of light.
Kyle Riggs is snatched by an alien spacecraft sometime after midnight. The ship is testing everyone it catches and murdering the weak. The good news is that Kyle keeps passing tests and staying alive. The bad news is the aliens who sent this ship are the nicest ones out there.
One starship will either save Earth or destroy her. A century ago our star erupted, destroying Earth's wormhole network and closing off trade with her colonized planets. After being out of contact with the younger worlds for so many years, humanity is shocked when a huge ship appears at the edge of the solar system. Our outdated navy investigates, both curious and fearful. What they learn from the massive vessel shocks the planet.
In the 20th century Earth sent probes, transmissions, and welcoming messages to the stars. Unfortunately, someone noticed. The Galactics arrived with their battle fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined their vast Empire. Swearing allegiance to our distant alien overlords wasn't the only requirement for survival. We also had to have something of value to trade, something that neighboring planets would pay their hard-earned credits to buy. As most of the local worlds were too civilized to have a proper army, the only valuable service Earth could provide came in the form of soldiers....
The Hundred Worlds have withstood invasion by the relentless Hok for decades. The human worlds are strong, but the Hok have the resources of a thousand planets behind them, and their fleets attack in endless waves. The long war has transformed the Hundred Worlds into heavily fortified star systems. Their economies are geared for military output, and they raise specialized soldiers to save our species. Assault Captain Derek Straker is one such man among many.
They hunt us. They bomb our worlds for target practice. A star cluster in the constellation of Orion rotates once every 1,000 years. Those who rule there have an ancient tradition: When each cycle ends, they train their fleets by spilling the blood of lesser beings. The enemy fleets are coming again. In response, the Rebel Worlds gather their starships to face the terrifying threat, and this time humanity is asked to stand with them. The last time they considered Earth, Vikings in longboats were raiding English coastlines. Today, we're less primitive. Today, we're a target.
Death awaits the curious! Out along the rim of the galaxy hangs a loose configuration of some 60 stars known as the Faustian Chain. This whorl of sparkling suns is rich in planets and occupies an irregular volume of space some 20 light years in diameter. From an external viewpoint, the Chain presents a colorful display of plasma-streams, luminous nebulae and sparkling pinpoints of light.
Kyle Riggs is snatched by an alien spacecraft sometime after midnight. The ship is testing everyone it catches and murdering the weak. The good news is that Kyle keeps passing tests and staying alive. The bad news is the aliens who sent this ship are the nicest ones out there.
One starship will either save Earth or destroy her. A century ago our star erupted, destroying Earth's wormhole network and closing off trade with her colonized planets. After being out of contact with the younger worlds for so many years, humanity is shocked when a huge ship appears at the edge of the solar system. Our outdated navy investigates, both curious and fearful. What they learn from the massive vessel shocks the planet.
Control dinosaurs. Tame women. Rule the world. Victor Shelby and his tribe of beautiful alien women have built a fortress to keep themselves safe, but when they encounter another tribe of survivors, Victor must leverage his dinosaur-taming abilities to negotiate either peace or violence. And violence is what Dinosaurland is all about.
When Quentin Draith wakes up in a private sanatorium, he has no memory of who he is or how he received the injuries riddling his body. All he knows is that he has to get out, away from the drugs being pumped into him and back to the real world to search for answers. His first question: How did his friend Tony’s internal organs fill with sand, killing him in a Las Vegas car crash? After a narrow escape, he tracks down the basic facts: He is an investigator and blogger specializing in the supernatural - which is a good thing, because Quentin’s life is getting stranger by the minute.
When a huge alien spacecraft crashes on the island of Cuba, the world scrambles to investigate. Secretive organizations have waited for generations for this opportunity, and they do not hesitate to send in recovery teams. Cooperation between nations breaks down as every government wants the newly discovered technology for themselves. Naturally, the Cubans have beaten everyone else, and the island is beginning to change. Aircraft flying reconnaissance are swatted from the skies.
The Phage War had been a devastating conflict for the Terran Confederacy. Even with the destruction of their terrifying, implacable foe, humanity is still reeling. Political alliances are crumbling, and their mighty fleet is in tatters. There is nothing to celebrate, even after such a complete victory. They soon learn that there are other stellar neighbors - and they've been watching the conflict with great interest. One species comes with an offer of friendship and alliance, but humanity is weary and distrustful.
It came from deep space. It sent the signal. Now our computers are killing us, helping the enemy drive us into extinction. But some of us refuse to die. We fight back. We learn. Jon Hawkins revives from cryogenic sleep in a drifting SLN battleship. The crew is dead and the main computer has been destroyed. Jon is a soldier, the start of the resistance, the one man with the will to beat the alien death machines that have terminated 1000 races. This is our hour as we face the ultimate evil, the galactic destroyer of life.
Captain Keyes is loved by the public but hated by Command. He captains the UHS Providence, an aging supercarrier and the last human ship not dependent on dark tech - technology humanity has used to rule over the galaxy since barely defeating the Ixa in the First Galactic War.
The humans have no magic and are hunted for sport, but that is about to change. War is coming....
The Sun Dragon spawned nine lesser dragons which devoured their parent for the power the elder possessed. These young dragons fought for choice bits of the Sun Dragon, but each only managed to eat a portion, thus giving them specific powers. Over time, these foul dragons were hunted down and slain by heroes of old. When each body rotted away, nothing remained save for nine Jewels - each the lens of a dragon's left eye. These Nine Eyes, or Jewels, form the basis for all magic in the world.
The Haven Series is a fantasy epic about the Nine Jewels of Power, each of which represents a different form of magic. The Red Jewel, known as Sang, gives the wielder power over Blood Magic. The Blue, named Lavatis, can call the Rainbow and rules the Sky. Amber Magic is a short introductory book in this epic series of fantasy novels by best-selling author B. V. Larson.
What did you like best about Amber Magic? What did you like least?
I liked the characters, I liked the story. I didn't like the way it ended. It seemed cut off and only half finished.
If you’ve listened to books by B. V. Larson before, how does this one compare?
The other books I've listened to were full of action, and adventure. This one seemed to move very slowly and almost nothing happened.
What do you think the narrator could have done better?
Nothing. I like the way he reads.
Was Amber Magic worth the listening time?
Everything from B.V. Larson is worth listening to (At least once). I've listened to his other series Undying Mercenaries and Star Force. I enjoyed them greatly. Enjoyed so much that I thought I would follow him from the Sci-Fi worlds and try his Fantasy worlds. Though I'm a huge Fantasy fan as well, I'll probably just finish the Haven series and go back to his Sci-Fi stuff. I'll look to other authors for my Fantasy fix.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
With the story sporting both B.V. Larson and Mark Boyett, I've wanted to purchase this novel for close to a year but kept putting it off hoping that the following books in the series would eventually also be offered in the Whispersync format. I decided not to wait any longer and purchased this first in the Haven series.
Most of the novel seems to be backstory for the follow-on series but, even so, it was interesting learning about all the various characters that inhabit this realm.
I look forward to book 2; hopefully, in Whispersync format by the time I'm ready.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
What did you like best about Amber Magic? What did you like least?
This story showed a lot of potential. I'm going to get the next book in the series. That having been said, the story takes way too long to get rolling. You basically don't get to the point of the plot until at least half the way through. This is not helped by the nature of the narrator's voice. He was putting me to sleep, it was a struggle. He had a decent variance in voice from character to character, but the delivery was that of a bedtime story. Seriously, it was delivered exactly the way I used to read stories to my nieces to get them to go to sleep.
If you’ve listened to books by B. V. Larson before, how does this one compare?
This is the first of B. V. Larson's work that I have listened to. I have several of the sci-fi end of their writing in my libray, but I went with this one first.
How could the performance have been better?
More energy in the narrator's voice.
Was Amber Magic worth the listening time?
Yes. This is a pretty short book and it did eventually capture my interest, but that took most of the book to happen.
Great read! Love the characters and the story. At first a bit slow but a gripping story well painted by both Author and Narrator.
I gave up on fantasy when I left my teens. B V is such a wonderful author that I thought to give it a go. Struggled reading it myself and stopped early in. The book builds the story slowly. I then picked it up on audio. I read to my kids mind you, but the narrator here was top notch. Felt like I was IN the story. Couldn't stop it once I started. Rich story once you stay with it and traditional fantasy lovers will eat it up is my guess. Going to buy the next audio book right NOW. Love your work BV! Keep going!
just rubbish, no idea what the author was thinking. this book is all over the map.
This audio book is good, but it is extremely short. After lessening to it I fell more like it was the first half to a longer book than a book in it own right.
Retained my attention, but not Larson's best work. Apparent pacing & character development flaws. Still good enough to check out the next two Haven books to see if these minor qualms get sorted out.
Would you try another book from B. V. Larson and/or Mark Boyett?
I really enjoy his Star Force series
What aspect of Mark Boyett’s performance would you have changed?
Performance was fine but did not like the book
Any additional comments?
I found the book boring, I do like his Star Force series.
overall I like the story. larson is a great author but..lacks meat, the central storyline floats a bit