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.

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

Join the 24th Century Navy; see the Universe!

Courtesy of Lost Art Audio

This book has some really wonderful elements. Even though it's sci fi, it's more a military novel, following the Navy career of Kris Longknife and the political structure of 100 planets with human life. We don't see any aliens, and most fantastic elements have to do with computers and technology. I should mention that the book was written in 1994, meaning that Nelly - Kris's personal (pet) AI computer - is probably a bit less powerful than the newest Android. Be it as it may, the story is excellent, and very, very military. If you're into the politics of internal command hierarchy, or into rescue and humanitarian distress mission, it's a fun read. Mike Shepherd does a good job with a 22-year-old female, but I think it's more because she's a soldier, and Mike Shepherd was Navy himself, so he knows a thing or two in the regard.

My only real criticism is that this book was a lack of cohesion - it seemed to be separated in three parts: rescue mission & return home (very well done; we really understand Kris's history from the mission, and we get a good understanding of her family - the prime minister family of an entire planet - from her return home); humanitarian mission on Olympia (this part sags. It tells us a lot of Kris's character and leadership abilities, but it gets too bogged down in the moral implications and reflections on a soldier's duties); and mission to attack (this is the crowning moment and the name-sake of the book). Unfortunately, these three parts don't meld too well. I would have liked to see a bit less soldiering, and more politicking, maybe more love interest.

On Narration:
Dina Pearlman is excellent (Anna Strong series, or Weather Warden series). She does a wonderful Irish accent, which takes up a good half-hour of reading when the Highlanders visit Olympia. She also does a great job with internal dialogue versus external dialogue is very important to the listener, and she does it well.

Great Series

For those who like having a female character as the focus, this is another one to listen to.Having listened to the whole series available I can highly recommend this audio book. Finish this one and you won't be able to help yourself but download the rest of the series.

Excellent story, inappropriate narrator

I quite like the story, but the narrator doesn't do a good job for this story. For other stories, she'd probably be good, but for the Kris Longknife series, she's not as appropriate as others would be. Make sure you listen to the sample before purchase. I still enjoy it, even with the narrator, so I'm getting the others in the series.

Not as good as I'd hoped

I really wanted to like this book but for me there were several problems. The main character had major problems but for me there were 2 big ones. The first was for me this character is a prime example of why guys shouldn't write female characters and vice versa. In a lot of ways the main character was just a guy with boobs. She didn't read like a female. The second problem was that she spends all the book trying to convince people that she isn't like her family and she acts like it the whole way. Arrogant and entitled. And even by the end of the book she'd come to think this was a good thing. To me it just made her more unlikable. Then there was the logic that was demonstrated by everyone. Maybe I just haven't read enough political fiction, but I couldn't fathom why people did the things they did in this book. I will be reading the next book but if its not better that will be it. I managed to finish this one but only through my will, not because of the book.

Drama Queen

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I almost didn't get passed the first chapter because the narrator was such a drama queen, but I toughed it out. The story is good, so I'll try the next in the series. Hope the narrator tones it down, though.

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

Too much...drama, voice, passion