Shadow of Empire

Far Stars Book One

By: Jay Allan

Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer

The first installment in the Far Star series, a swashbuckling space saga that introduces the daring pirate Blackhawk and the loyal crew of the Wolf’s Claw, from Jay Allan, the author of the bestselling Crimson Worlds saga.

Smuggler and mercenary Arkarin Blackhawk and the crew of the ship Wolf’s Claw are freelance adventurers who live on the fringe of human society in the Far Stars. A veteran fighter as deadly with a blade as he is with a gun, Blackhawk is a man haunted by a dark past. Even his cynicism cannot banish the guilt and pain that threaten his sanity.

Sent to rescue the kidnapped daughter of his longtime friend Marshal Augustin Lucerne, Blackhawk and his crew find themselves drawn into one deadly fight after another. When the Wolf’s Claw is damaged, they are forced to land on a remote planet subsumed by civil war. Pulled unwittingly into the conflict, they uncover disturbing information about secret imperial involvement that could upset the plans of Lucerne.

For the Marshal is determined to forge a Far Stars Confederation powerful enough to eliminate all imperial influence and threats in the sector. He needs a skilled warrior like Blackhawk on his side, but the mercenary, plagued by dark memories from the past, refuses to join the cause. All too soon, though, he and his crew will have to take a stand.

very entertaining looking forward to the next book

very entertaining loved it looking forward to the next book. read the first book before this one.

Great

I really enjoyed this audio book the characters brought out all the action it was a great science fiction story great writing I look forward to book two great narrator h

great book

Enjoyed listening to it and the story was great, only downside for me would be the amount of characters it followed made it sort of confusing sometimes.

very entertaining

very fast pace an enjoyable read. non stop tiller. keeps you on the edge of your seat

Jay Allen's worst work

Contrived nonsense, but good narration. Jay Allen's "Black Hawk" book was far superior to this outing. Astra is grating and an unlikable spoiled brat. Black Hawk in this story is so full of clichés that he becomes inconsistent and unbelievable.

Overweight & underpowered..

Hot, high, heavy, and dirty is a dangerous combination when you are trying to get an airplane off the ground with only a few thousand feet of runway... lucky for Shadow of Empire that swashbuckling Sci-fi always gets an Edwards/Rogers 24,000ft runway from me :-) Jay Allen can thank Harry Harrison, Heinlein, and Alan Dean Foster (among others) for that!

Even so, this book chewed up almost all of that runway as I forced myself to choke it down. I would not have made it past chapter four if I were actually reading it.

There was just SOOOOOOO much superfluous inflection... it felt like an attempt to wrap a Harlequin novel in a blackbeard-starwars mashup. The sentences were just, well...silly. Wading through the predictability and weak character development was "challenging"... like slogging through a Louisiana swamp in August.

In attempting to wrap up this unfortunate review on a positive note, i will say: A spark of hope remains, albeit hiding somewhere under a sagging weight of disappointment. Any ex-cubscout that can recall the excitement of their first snipe hunt (and its conclusion) will likely understand my meaning.

in it's defence, the back story and the universe are decent, so perhaps the author will improve upon his future stories. He has some good ideas, they were just not executed well here (imo). good luck in the future.

The narrator is quite good though and his solid delivery saves this one, allowing it to stall out, just above the runway, pehaps causing a few spilled drinks, nervous smiles... and more than a few cheers from the surviving passengers.

turn it up

The author's voice was often too low to hear well. then it got very loud.

Surprise!

I was pleasently surprised to find that the characters were known to me and they were as amazing as before. This story flowed smoothly and was at the same time full of action. Another winner for Jay Allen.

Clichés galore

I liked the story, and the performance is fine, but I almost drove off the road from rolling my eyes so hard. I found myself talking to my car stereo, says, "OK. I get it. He is haunted by his past. Move on."

fast fun and multifaceted!

I didn't think this would be more then a bit of fluff to pass the time. But it turned out to be a well-rounded story with fun characters a good backdrop and a lot of great action. definitely going to continue this series!