Dark Minds

By: Michelle Diener

Narrated by: Christina Delaine

Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's Summary

The mind is the most powerful weapon of all.

Imogen Peters knows she's a pawn. She's been abducted from Earth, held prisoner, and abducted again. So when she gets a chance at freedom, she takes it with both hands, not realizing that doing so will turn her from pawn to kingmaker.

Captain Camlar Kalor expected to meet an Earth woman on his current mission, he just thought he'd be meeting her on Larga Ways, under the protection of his Battle Center colleague. Instead, he and Imogen are thrown together as prisoners in the hold of a Class 5 battleship. When he works out she's not the woman who sparked his mission, but another abductee, Cam realizes his investigation just got a lot more complicated, and the nations of the United Council just took a step closer to war.

Imogen's out of her depth in this crazy mind game playing out all around her, and she begins to understand her actions will have a massive impact on all the players. But she's good at mind games. She's been playing them since she was abducted. Guess they should have left her minding her own business back on Earth.

©2016 Michelle Diener (P)2016 Podium Publishing

Pick one book and don't bother with the rest!

I am coming back to rate this book after listening to the entire series. Change the characters names and write the same story, then you can sell three books instead of one! The books are well written and the narration is good. However, I am disappointed that the story never evolved from the first book. It's the exact same thing with different names. I feel like I have been had buying the third book hoping the story would evolve, but it never did. My initial rating was 5 stars like most of the other reviews, but I feel like I need to warn people before they plunk down their money. Go read the reviews from the third book and you will see I'm not the only one!

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Ho Hum

I'm giving this book an overall three star because I feel like I am listening to the same story, different characters as the first two books in the series. Maybe these three stories in this series thus far are lead-ups to a story where all three Earth women join together and do something spectacular but I don't have the patience to listen any further books in the series. While I do find the narrator as an excellent in her trade, listening to the the drone's flat dialogue is about to drive me up a wall.
I am about to return this book because I can't find a reason to continue listening to this story.
If this was the first book I read in the series, I might have given it higher marks except I feel like the plot and the issues were essentially the same as the first two and my opinion of the series has soured.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Repetitive Plot for Each Book

The audible performance with the multiple voices was entertaining. Unfortunately, the story became too predictable after the 3rd ship. I was hoping that the author would have taken the characters in a different direction. I kind of felt I read the same book 3 times.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Same story, different girl

This story is indistinct from the previous two. It was enjoyable enough, however, there was no additional meat on that bone

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great Series in a Class (5) All It's Own!

Ah, bliss! The third book in this amazing series is just as good, if not better, than the first two. More aliens, more action, more romance, and definitely more of . . . everything!

I hope Michelle Diener is kind and gives us 10 more books just like them!

Christina Delaine is PERFECT.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

A fun, romantic, sci-fi trilogy.

Another fun book, I enjoyed all three books. Although I do think that all of the main characters were almost the same person which makes me knock my rating down by a star. Luckily there was enough of a story line difference to have me continue enjoying the story. I wish there was more books coming but alas this is the end of the trilogy. I would be interested in see more into this world and going to each species planet and the adventures that could arise. I would have liked to have the grahotie and the parrot to have had more screen time, I like it when animals are incorporated into stories. Also, for those who don't like a lot of sex in their romance books, this series is very light in that department. It happens but it does not describe it in details. Narrator does an excellent job, the longer I listen the better she gets.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Ok and kept my interest, but weak conflicts & plot

I loved the first book in the series (Dark Horse). This is book 3. It’s set in the same world with Class 5 battleships. An earth female forms friendships with two artificial intelligences running two battleships. They have names. In this book Imogen meets Pax and Orace.

This didn’t feel like a story. It was more about things happening in that world, meeting characters and going places. It needed better plotting somehow.

The Gree love to hear earth women sing. After Imogen sings for Cam while they are waiting, she stopped and wouldn’t sing for him anymore. Her reason was she wanted him to like her for her, not for her singing. It’s like the author couldn’t think of a reason for conflict so she used that. It felt artificial and annoyed me. I remember Steven Spielberg’s wife Kate Capshaw telling Oprah that the first thing that drew her to him was his film making genius. It made him hot/sexy. (This is my memory from many years ago and the quote might be off.) But just because someone likes something about you, you don’t stop doing it. They were alone on a space-pod-thing traveling for many hours. What’s wrong with singing a few songs that would bring joy to your fellow passenger? Sorry, but that just got to me.

A major climax scene was not well done. It was stupid. Heroine goes somewhere alone when she should have and could have taken others with her to help her.

AUDIOBOOK NARRATOR:
Christina Delaine was excellent.

DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Genre: sci-fi with a little romance.

awe inspiring

all three parts were unbelievably awesome. the writing and audio stories had everything you would possibly want for an extremely captivating story. I highly highly recommend this series.

I love this series

Ms Diener and Ms Delaine make these novels perfect entertainment for cold, rainy days. Syfy plus romance in an fresh story of alien abduction without the porn I've found with some of this genre

SciFi Romance? Well Done!

All 3 current books in the Class 5 Series feature an Earth woman who is kidnapped by an alien race, the Tecran, but is "rescued" by a Grih Captain, another alien race. She also has a special relationship with an AI entity slaved into a Class 5 warship, is given special clothes, & a special weapon. This is the launching point for the M/F/AI characters to have their own adventures, which then link & overlap in a larger story arc. Books 2&3 are 65% plot driven, 25% character driven and 10% romance; book 1 had more suspense & romance.

Imogen & Cam survive their own adventures; but Book 3 rounds out the larger story arc nicely, with all 3 couples working together to get thru the final showdown.
Well worth the time and money.

Thrilling conclusion to the series

An intelligent and complex storyline with effortlessly enjoyable world building and detail. All the characters, human, alien and AI,were very well written and likeable. A rare treat. I would definitely recommend all three books in the series, best read in order: Dark horse, Dark Deeds, Dark minds.

Fantabulous

This is the last at present of the class 5 series ( boo hoo ) it is fun light and engaging and is one of the best alien stories in a long time