Mutineer

Kris Longknife, Book 1

By: Mike Shepherd

Narrated by: Dina Pearlman

Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Kris Longknife is a daughter of privilege, born to money and power. Her father is the prime minister of her home planet, her mother the consummate politician's wife. She's been raised only to be beautiful and marry well. But the heritage of the military Longknifes courses through Kris' blood - and, against her parents' objections, she enlists in the Marines.

She has a lot to live up to and a lot to prove in the long-running struggle among her powerful family, a highly defensive - and offensive - Earth, and the hundreds of warring colonies. Then an ill-conceived attack brings the war close to home, putting Kris' life on the line. Now she has only one choice: certain death on the front lines of rim space - or mutiny.

©2004 Mike Moscoe (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

An enjoyable light space adventure

Kris Longknife is the daughter of a distinguished political family. Her father is the prime minister of the planet Wardhaven, a member of the Society of Humanity, a union of nearly six hundred worlds. She's joined the navy rather than pursuing either a political or a social career because she wants to do something useful.

She's smart and capable and sincere, and she has no idea what she's in for.

Her first assignment as an ensign is rescuing a kidnapped six-year-old girl, the daughter of another prominent political family on another planet. And Kris is nearly killed by a shuttle malfunction that only affects Kris's shuttle.

Her next is a relief mission on a planet that is suffering the climate disaster following a major volcanic eruption. Relief supplies that include modifiable boats and bridges also malfunction even though no similar equipment from those companies have ever malfunctioned. These crises aren't a coincidence. Competing political forces are stoking a crisis that will produce a war.

The plot is solid and keeps moving. I like the characters.

But Kris Longknife is improbably capable. She keeps being the best at pretty much everything, right through at least three quarters of the way through the book. Around that point, she starts to have experiences in which she really learns things, including that being smart doesn't always mean being right.

All in all, it's fun and enjoyable, but it has some over the top passages that flirt with being really annoying.

Still, it is enjoyable, and a worthwhile light read or listen.

I bought this audiobook.

The series has promise....

I will be looking forward to reading the next book. As a fan of Honor Harrington, I think the series has promise.

Brain Candy with problem

Over the last 2-3 months, I listened to the entire 8 book series (and more are coming). I actually own these in book form as well, and regardless of the format, this is good brain candy. These adventures of Kris Longknife don't make you think, raise questions about morality or do anything but provide a pleasant diversion from life.

That being said, these audiobooks have a major flaw. Miss Pearlman has a pleasant enough voice and does a better and better job of presenting these books the further along in the series she goes. However, she also has two rather distracting flaws in her performance. Throughout all 8 novels, she regularly presents the wrong voice for a character, particularly using Jack's voice in place of Kris' quite frequently. The other problem I have might more fairly be described as a personal preference. Particularly in the early novels, Miss Pearlman regularly slips into a sort of children's storytelling cadence during the exposition. Its jarring to be hearing about a battle, when the rhythms of her voice sound almost fairytalish.

Great SciFi Military Adventure

Well written, highly interesting scifi adventure story that keeps your interest throughout the audio book. Excellent narration. This first in a series holds promise to keep you interested from cover to cover of each book. I highly recommend this for those who enjoy high adventure, solid and entertaining stories, that keep your interest throughout. David in Kuwait

A good story!

Where does Mutineer rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Lots of good and interesting characters. Kris is head strong and very determined. Lots of fun.

What did you like best about this story?

The characters.

Which character – as performed by Dina Pearlman – was your favorite?

I love her performance of all the characters. Very enjoyable.

Story not engaging, pirate voices

What made the experience of listening to Mutineer the most enjoyable?

Nothing. Couldn't get pass the narration.

What was most disappointing about Mike Shepherd’s story?

Don't know. Didn't read pass the first hour or so and kept drifting off because the story was not interesting

What didn’t you like about Dina Pearlman’s performance?

Apparently a lot of us, men, sound like pirates. Didn't like the performance.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Irritation.

Pretty good - if you can stand the reading.

It's not a clip it's a magazine! Oh wait, she got it right that time. What do you mean her clip was empty? Clips are just things that hold rounds together for loading in to a magazine. A clip can't in the rifle when it is firing... with the single exception of the M1 Garand. The words mean different things and you are using them wrong.

Apparently the only military men this reader has ever heard were angry, sarcastic and threatening. Even the senior officers, when in a good mood, can't say anything without trying to make it sound like an angry insult. Was the book really written that way? If you try the words again without the sneering delivery they sound kind of reasonable.

The story? Lacks credible progress. If you discover a plot where major interests appear to be funding the attacks you don't then ignore it while allowing what appears to be another attempt at furthering their ends to proceed unopposed. Is everyone in this universe stupid?

I haven't finished it yet. The reading has currently irritated me to the point where I can't continue. I don't know whether I'd ever listen to this reader again. Probably not.

Not One of His Short Stories

Mike Shepherd (aka Mike Moscoe) puts together an ok opening to this new series. It has always been my belief that Moscoe needed to work on holding his longer stories together. He makes a legitimate effort with Mutineer, and does a much better job later in the series with some of the other books. Two things left to work on are first his tendancy to be predictable (also something he works on in later books), and second his habit of underdeveloping lesser characters. Many readers with a military background would also say he needs to work on his overall military understanding; however I would disagree. Many of our wonderful men and women that have served in the armed forces have never served with someone like a Kris Longknife. They've served with alot of "important" people, but only about 1 in 1000 have ever served with someone that is "important" and the military is trying to discredit at the same time. Politics play a huge role in the Longknife world so if you have a hard time grasping it you won't like this book. I could see the plot, the politics, and the main characters, but had a real hard time picturing some of the side characters. This was a little distracting and thus made this good story line, just an ok book.

As for Dina Pearlman's performance it was very good. I think it could have been better, but I'm not sure that it was entirely Pearlman's fault. I believe that some of the blame falls on Moscoe and his writing style. There were a couple of times in the book that I thought Pearlman's performance was the one thing holding the book together and keeping it moving. I think that without Pearlman's performance this book may actually have rated a lower star.

One of the best Military Sci-Fi series

I have listened to the entire series several times now and have never gotten bored with the characters, story line, or narration. Even the short side/filler stories are solid and answers questions you might have.
Recommend listening to his "Jump Universe" and "Rita Longknife" series to get the backstory.
The world building is well developed and very consistent across all four series. The humor is spot on and not over-the-top at any point.
I usually plug in Vicky Peterwald "Target" after book 9 "Daring", "Rebel" after book 13 "Unrelenting", "Dominator" and after book 14 "Bold" since they mesh well together. Admiral Santiago series is more-or-less stand-alone but plug in well after book 12 "Tenacious"
If I have any criticism It would the use of 'he' said 'she' said method of changing character focus. Enjoy This id one of the best

Harsh reviews seem undeserved to me

I'm not military nor do I know about military protocols, so any slip-ups in that area went past me and did not bother me. On the other hand, this series is supposed to be set in the far future, and who can know how things will change. Also, I thought they were pretty clear that she wasn't supposed to be in the situations she was in. The original drop mission was a setup to kill her, so I don't see the problem with the plot there. I don't dissect books that I read/listen, I read them for enjoyment. I guess if you are a big military enthusiast looking for ultra-realism, this book will probably disappoint you. I found it to be entertaining enough that I plan to download the next one.

As to Dina's reading, I was entertained by the different voices. Did I stop and check them for realism and quality? No, I just took them as they were and enjoyed the book. Dina spoke clearly, did not have any voice mannerisms that drove me crazy, and I thought did a good job and was consistent when using a particular voice for a particular character.

I don't know why there is such a gulf in opinions, but I would suggest you listen to the sample online and if you like the sample, then you will probably like the book.