Battle Beyond Earth

Phoenix Odyssey, Book 1

By: Nick S. Thomas

Narrated by: Wesley Bryant

Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

The year is 2512, and war rages throughout the Alliance. Warriors are needed, those who have the will, the skills, and the strength to fight this new threat. The cry goes out for battle-hardened soldiers. Like those who fought in the brutal war that nearly destroyed Earth almost 400 years ago. A resurrection program has begun to bring back those few men who had been preserved, and CJ is next. But CJ is no ordinary soldier. He is a war criminal, a man who once fought against humanity. Now they want him to defend it.

The threat to the Alliance deepens further when a nightmarish creature returns from the dead, and with him a new kind of army. Prince Ganbaatar is back, and he wants revenge. If he is not stopped, his vast hordes will be unleashed against the Alliance. He must be beaten at any cost.

CJ awakens in a world that he no longer recognizes. The alien race that created him has united with humanity to form the Alliance. They give him a choice: to lead other military criminals like himself against the terrifying Ganbaatar, or to live the rest of his days behind bars. Posted to a highly advanced and partially organic ship called the Phoenix, CJ's squad must decide whether they will fight for the Alliance or against it. The fate of all civilization in the universe hangs in the balance. The Odyssey has begun!

Battle Beyond Earth, book one of the Phoenix Odyssey series, is a futuristic sci-fi action adventure. It is a standalone story set in the Battle Earth universe.

©2016 Nick S. Thomas (P)2017 Swordworks

This might be a good story.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
This story is totally ruined by the narration. Like I said in the headline, it might be good, but it's really hard to get by the narrators silly voices for hours and be unbiased.

Painful!!

I have read several books in this series and enjoyed them, but the narration in this book was beyond terrible. The narrator reads like he's performing to a group of kindergartners. I have listened to hundreds of audiobooks and this was by far the worst performance I have ever heard. I couldn't finish the book!! I made it about half way and just couldn't take it anymore. Painfully bad!!

Predictable story a overdone narration

Any additional comments?

I was offered a copy of this book in audio format from the narrator in exchange for an honest review.

In the year 2512, the Alliance is desperate fighting against a powerful enemy. Therefore Earth decides to resurrect war criminals that have been preserved or clone the ones that have not. CJ is one of these cloned criminals, dead 400 years ago fighting against Earth. He wakes up in a world he no longer knows, having to fight for his former enemies.

The idea of this book was a very good one but after a while it starts to be a bit predictable. I found the beginning quite funny due to CJ's stubborn attitude. It is an action packed story with not a single moment of boredom, but I would have appreciated more character development and more background information. Even though it is the first book on a series, it belongs to a bigger collection of books (Battle Beyond Earth), and although the story stands well on its own, I think it would be more enjoyable after listening to previous books. Mich Taylor was named many times and I would have liked to read more about his story before embarking on this book.

I am always disappointed when a narration is on the monotone and dull side, but the opposite can also spoil a book. Wesley Bryant's diction is very good, and he has good postproduction skills, but I think he needs to work on his narration. It was completely overdone, which is tiresome to the listener. The narration parts were like aimed at children, with variable cadence and pauses for effect. The characters voices were too exaggerated, with very hard accents and an overuse of pitch changes. It really helped to make the characters' voices more distinguishable but something more subtle would have been more pleasant to the ear. In general it should have been a more neutral narration. Checking on Audible, I see that this is the only book narrated by Bryant, so I understand these are just beginners' issues. He has potential though, with a pleasant voice and very good diction, and I have found no issues on the audio production, something that beginner narrators often have and is quite annoying to the listener. I hope he continues narrating books and I would love to listen to his evolution.

Narration two and a half stars, book three and a half.

Couldn't get past the narration.

Potential for great book, just couldn't get past the narration. Needs to be remastered.


"This book was provided at no charge for honest review."

Narration needs to be redone

Any additional comments?

This was hard listen for me. While the story itself was entertaining and interesting the narration makes it a hard to listen to. I had to listen to the book in short increments. Having listened to other books by this author I don't understand how this narration passed approval. Unless the story is re-narrated and re-released I would recommend reading it instead of listening to it.

The story is set in the same universe as the authors other stories. The synopsis gives you a perfect description to the overall story.

This is the first time I have listened to a book by Wesley Bryant. He seems to have a nice voice. He has some really great character voices. Female voices don't sound any different from the male voices which makes it hard at times to know exactly who is speaking. The regular narration non character parts did not flow smoothly. Each word was over emphasized and over spoken which effects the flow of the story. You find yourself fixating on the narration instead of the story. The narration should never detract from the story. On the flip side the in character voices were great. You can also tell that a lot of effort went into the narrators work with some of the character voices and sound effects. It looks like this is only the second book he has narrated. With a bit more time and taking into account the constructive criticism from avid audiobook listeners he could turn out to be a really good narrator.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher.

Narration Painful to the Ears

I have only ever written one other scathing narration, but I feel it necessary to be honest and warn potential listeners away from this audiobook...

I could only make it for about 30 minutes into this book before I had to stop. The narration was so bad I knew I wouldn't be able to finish. The narrator goes from ridiculously over the top, to horrible voices, to unrealistic tones, and was just so horrible I couldn't make it a minute longer...
The narrator didn't have a bad voice, but it was clear that he had little experience with performing book narrations. To be honest, I'm not even sure that I would hold out hope that he will ever be a good narrator if he thought that releasing this audiobook was a good idea. It really calls the author's judgment into question as well...

The story itself (as far as I got) seemed to be a little odd. I can't say for sure since I never finished, but I really didn't care for the story that was being laid out.

I really hate to do this, especially since I got this audiobook for free, but I must be completely honest...
Listeners need to steer clear!


I requested and received a free copy of this audiobook from the author, publisher, or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review. This review reflects my honest opinion of the work.

Naration ATROCIOUS !!!!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

nothing

What could Nick S. Thomas have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

I dont know couldnt listen long enough

How could the performance have been better?

Different narrator

What character would you cut from Battle Beyond Earth?

IDK couldnt listen long enough to identify characters

Any additional comments?

Not worth the credit

A cool and action packed story

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audio book by the author, narrator or publisher.

It was so cool and entertaining I hope this wasn't a standalone, there's so much to be said about CJ and this war. The plot was so well done and intriguing and CJ and Lysenko were for far my favorite characters CJ was nuts lovely and Lysenko wasn't far she was an amazing woman.

at first I thought the narrator will be hard to follow or understand but that proved to be wrong fast enough, really enjoyed the way he did all the voices.

a must for sci fi wars adepts.