Exigency

By: Michael Siemsen

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Nine brilliant scientists travel light-years on a one-way trip to an Earthlike planet. Their mission is to study from orbit the two species of intelligent lifeforms on the surface. The first: an isolated people embarking on civilization and building their world's first city. The second: a brutal race of massive predators, spread thick and still growing across the dominant landmass - destined to breed and eat their way to extinction within a few centuries.

After eight years of observation, disaster strikes the orbiting station, and only two crewmembers eject successfully. Drifting down through a dark, alien sky, the pair realizes their escape pod launched not toward the safety of the city but to the other side of the planet, touching down deep inside a land no human could possibly survive.

©2014 Michael Siemsen (P)2015 Podium Publishing

I am continually amazed by the this Author!

Michael Siemens has amazed me with every book I read! This was a new take on what one would think was an overdone topic. The characters are brought to life and depth throughout the story, leaving us, once again, looking forward to a sequel!

Solid

Whether or not you end up liking this book and its story, you won’t be able to deny that it is solid. The world-building isn’t skimped on. The character-development isn’t short-changed or mishandled. The conflicts and plot-twists are all effective. This book didn’t dazzle me but it was quite good and I do recommend it. 5 well-deserved stars!

Wow!

Picked this up at random, and couldn't put it down! A masterpiece of world building and hard-sf, with a great suspense and adventure story woven in between. Wow!

Enjoyable

Liked it but did not love it. The reader has a very pleasant voice but she should not try to imitate a man's voice but instead just keep with her own.

A fun story

Good narration, but story drags on and on with events that could be shortened. No explanation of GPS source. Species Translations are creative.

A Terrific Book!

Any additional comments?

This is an Awesome Book! If you like great characters, interesting aliens, and a fascinating alien world, then this book is for you. The narrator did a great job bringing out the personalities of all the scientists, and making the story enjoyable and interesting. I loved the alien world with all the attention to detail describing a fascinating ecosystem on an alien world. My favorite characters were definitely the aliens, they were great! I couldn't stop listening until the story was finished.

Amazing

Really strong story, hard sci-fi performed better than I've ever heard. Ms. Whelan's voice characterizations covered a range unlike any I've ever heard, and the scope of the story was world-sized.

The descriptions of the technology, the areas and peoples of the new world, and the interactions among the human crew and their alien counterparts was masterful.

Highly recommended.

Great story but hard to follow

This was the hardest story to follow that I've ever listened to. That being said the reader did an outstanding job with the different characters. Also the story itself was great, I just wish it was writren in a different way. There were such long gaps in between different characters stories that by the time it got back to that storyline I had forgotten it or confused it with another.

Enjoyed It Thoroughly

Well written and creative story, likeable characters that I could engage with. Liked the narrator very much. Would read/listen to more by this author and by this narrator.

Exigency is entertaining

The dictionary.com definition of the word exigency is as follows:
[ek-si-juh n-see, ig-zij-uh n-]

noun, plural exigencies.
1. exigent state or character; urgency.
2.Usually, exigencies. the need, demand, or requirement intrinsic to a circumstance, condition, etc.:
the exigencies of city life.
3. a case or situation that demands prompt action or remedy; emergency:
He promised help in any exigency.

The title of this book by Michael Siemsen immediately made me interested in listening to it. It’s catchy, feels fast paced and lured me in. Narrated by Julia Whelan Exigency is the story of a team of scientists in the far future who are in orbit studying a developing planet. They observe flora and most… urgently the fauna. There are two species of note on the planet, the Hyanka and the Threck. Both species are intelligent and are developing societies, science and such.

Calamity of course strikes the space station they are on and they must evacuate. Their escape pod lands in a dangerous region of the planet and the exigency begins. They can’t survive for long on their own, and they now must enlist the aid of the aliens.

The main character in the book is a neurotic, ill scientist named Minnie(Minerva) I found her to very well developed and deep as a unique character but ultimately unlikable. The remainder of the book’s human characters are fairly shallow and don’t add much other than skill sets or dialogue partners for Minnie. The aliens in the book are very alien and are well done. They don’t feel anthropomorphized in the least and they’re spoke in such a way by Julia that they feel like they’re not just ‘other humans.’

In audio the book suffered from the back and forth written communication style. There’s a messaging system the humans use that’s essentially like modern day texting and on paper I can imagine that it’s far easier to read. In audio however I felt irritated by the prefacing of initials, abbreviations and the ‘l33t sp33k’ feel of it. It didn’t register as entertaining or particularly clever to me, though I can see how it would be much better in the written book.

Despite its anything but urgent start, and lower level of the action I expected out of a book about scientists stranded on a dangerous alien planet Exigency is entertaining. It seemed far more about cultural clashes and the language barrier of meeting new civilizations, and I found that element well written and interesting. If you’re into hard science fiction and the future of space exploration Exigency has something to offer you.

Julia Whelan’s performance of the title is entertaining and well done. Her fluid dance between character voices and species becomes easy to follow very quickly and makes the book a pleasure to listen to.

Audiobook was provided for review by the publisher.

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