Orphanage

Jason Wander, Book 1

By: Robert Buettner

Narrated by: Adam Epstein

Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Mankind's first alien contact tears into Earth: Projectiles launched from Jupiter's moon, Ganymede, vaporize whole cities. Under siege, humanity gambles on one desperate counterstrike. In a spacecraft scavenged from scraps and armed with Vietnam-era weapons, foot soldiers like 18-year-old Jason Wander-orphans that no one will miss-must dare man's first interplanetary voyage and invade Ganymede.

They have one chance to attack, one ship to attack with. Their failure is our extinction.

©2004 Robert Buettner (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

a mediocre sci-fi with horrendous voice acting.

this story may be an ok story on its own. I may have been able to overlook the shoddy story build up, and forced main character.

But the voice acting... oh god, the voice acting! the narrator sounds like he has been punched in the nose. and he only has two or three whiny or preppy voice. he may do good for young children's novel, but this book tries to be serious, and that's just not this actor!

don't buy. it's a waste as it is.

Too convenient

So this was a bit of popcorn SF. Not deep, and overall it was a book that since I had already read the first 1/4 I wasn't going to stop, but I was pretty sure that I wouldn't read any further in the series. Everything in the story seemed too convenient for the hero, everything from being in the right place to be grabbed for various tasks to the crazy promotion stuff that happened later in the book. Not the worst book I have read but my eye's can only roll so much before I hit my threshold.

A mediocre retelling of Starship Troopers

What was most disappointing about Robert Buettner’s story?

Buettner uses Heinlen's "Starship Troopers" as a template. While events names, places and the general world have been tweaked, the overall structure is the same. What is different is the quality of writing. Characters are two dimensional, motives are not explored, there is no instance of growth or transfer in the main character. In short, all of the features of a good story are present, yet the substance of a good story is missing. All in all this is a waste of time.

worst narrator EVER!

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

The narrator is so bad the half the time you can't understand him.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Orphanage?

Couldn't begin to tell you. The story wasn't bad but the narration sucked.

How could the performance have been better?

the narrator puts the emphasis on the wrong words, adds emphasis where it doesn't belong, and reads in the same tone of voice throughout the book as if every word was the most important in the whole book.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Orphanage?

if I could hear this story read by someone who could actually read I might be able to answer this. Every scene was as unimportant as every other scene.

Any additional comments?

a new narrator might make a difference but this guy makes buying this book a total waste of money, in I addition to making it one of the most irritating books ever. I gave the story three stars because the story was compelling enough to keep me listening for quite a while before I had to give up due to the irritating narrator.

groan

This book is just not put together very well. From the writing style to story to character.

What I liked least was the fact that the main character and his friend are in highschool when the story starts. If I make it out right, 6 months later his friend is an internationally known space pilot who cavalierly takes control of Space Shuttles etc.

Mainly, this is a war story. VERY BADLY WRITTEN WAR STORY.

If you want a good book that is totally the opposite of this writing wise, try either Old Man's War or Armour by Steakley.