Sol Arbiter

Sol Arbiter, Book 1

By: Jia Shen, J. N. Chaney

Narrated by: Greg Tremblay

Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

"They call us Arbiters. We arbitrate conflict to keep the peace."

In 2853, humanity has established a presence across the solar system. Linked by a network of FTL gateways called Boson Apertures, travel between the seven colonized worlds and thousands of space colonies takes only hours.

The Sol Federation is the final authority, and the Arbiters travel the system to maintain order.

Arbiters Gabriel Anderson and Tycho Barrett have just been sent to intervene in a growing crisis on Venus. Information is limited, but they know two things: Tower 7 has gone completely dark, and security androids are killing civilians.

No one knows what has become of the tower's 520,000 residents or who is responsible for the mysterious assault, but the priority of the mission is clear.

Tycho and Gabriel must breach the tower, investigate the missing civilians, and locate the one responsible…all while trying to stay alive.

Witness the beginning of an expansive sci-fi epic in this first entry to the Sol Arbiter series. If you're a fan of Altered Carbon, Dredd, or Blade Runner, you'll love this cyberpunk thrill ride.

©2019 Variant Publications (P)2020 Podium Audio

I just couldn't take it any longer...

I'm not going to spend time with a lengthy review, it's not worth it.

I just can't stand stupid characters... He's supposed to be an elite solider/law enforcer yet he's dumber than a box of rocks...

So disappointing.

Doom meets SAW

I’m usually not a sci-fi horror fan but this book is probably excellent for those who are.

As a veteran I really don’t enjoy books that try to cope/indulge in the PTSD games so many authors are trying to do nowadays but those who don’t have a clue often try to imitate.

The narrator did a great job and that did help with the story line.

what a ride

This book starts off a little slower than other Chaney books, but it picks up and doesn't let off the gas. I've already listened to book 2 and let me tell you, it's amazing! If you pick this one up, stick around for the rest as they only get better.

Must've missed something?

Enjoyed this story as i have all the others I've read/listened to by Chaney, except for what appeared to be one glaring hole.
it's so glaring I can't imagine it wouldn't have been caught long ago by the Author or at least in editing, so I can only assume that I must've missed something.
Without giving away part of the suspense of the story, the best I can say is something happens that affects a group of specific people, but not the rest. The explanation of what that was didn't cover why it didn't affect everyone, other than it didn't suit the story.
If it weren't for that I'd give this 5 stars for it's genre, a good guys vs bad guys shoot em up action sci fy. No typical interfering politics to speak of. Instead you get some fun off beat spy intrigue stuff, which was a refreshing change..
A pair of Galactic spanning 'super cops' from main governing body, Sol, are sent to colony settlements as 'problem solvers' with a lot of independent authority. Story starts with their latest assignment to a space habitat where they face overwhelming odds, confounding villan(s) & get aid from encounter s with a retired crusty old ex military type & a non existent government agency that's also on the job.
Hopefully that's not giving away too much of the story. They have to defeat a powerful leader of the local enforcement agency gone rouge in a confusing & inexplainable situation that appears it could have a number of explanations, none of which make sense. This makes for a lot of suspense & it isn't as easy as usual to predetermine what the enemy's up to or ccx all about , which adds to the story & one of the things that sets Chaney's stories above the cookie cutter masses.
His characters are unique & interesting, while still following some of the typical configurations, and aren't boring and staae like many other's out there.
His books would make some great tv series or movies.
Of course, he leaves you still pondering some unsolved but vaugely hinted at additional depth to the villian & his scope of involvement, making it clear we're not done yet & another book is in the wings. Looking forward to seeing where he takes this & I hope I catch up on the one thing I missed the explanation on first mentioned above.
If you want an entertaing, action packed cops & spys adventure situated in an on ground based (planets/space stations) futuristic sci fi (ie no space battles, Navy etc ), here you go.
Enjoy.

More more more

I'm off to get book 2! I need more of this story ASAP. Thanks for the ride!

Great listen

This was very well written and I can’t wait to dive into the rest of the series.

One Hell Of A Story.

Excellent audiobook.
This book was not on my radar whatsoever but I'm extremely glad I stumbled across it. Can't wait for the rest of the series.

good story, good narration, idiot character

this is one of those stories that I enjoy despite the main character's level of intelligence. some good action some good mystery some good surprises they all add up to a really fun story with a little bit of a twist that I can't say I've seen before. totally worth a listen.

the main character is in a weird limbo between elite military professional and high school idiot. it's only his cycling between the two that drives me up the wall.

I would just prefer more military style communications between the main characters since they're supposed to be elite units. They just don't sound like soldiers.

Other than that it's a thumbs up for sure.

Immature Hero

decent story line.
immature hero, can't make a decision and can't think outside the box.
constantly being made to look like a fool.

glad it was free

Loved It: Shmaybe not everybody's cup of tea

So, I enjoyed the renegade star series and generally like Chenney. Some of the reviews prevented me from pulling the trigger on the series. Once this came included in Audible I had know excuse. 4 purchased books later I think it's a very good series.

Space opera-esk detective. Definately not military Sci fi. No cutting edge physics or science concept. Whole series is character driven with q who done it style of plot.

The performance is excellent.

Sol Arbiter

Thoroughly enjoyed the story from start to finish. The narration was excellent it seamlessly flowed, didn’t want to put the story down once started. Looking forward to the next one.

Great sci fi for action fans

Loved this, it started slow but picked up pace and was very much a roller coaster ride to the end. The characters are good, well thought out, It has the typical action movie feel with the highs and lows in the right places but it keeps you interested. After listening to this i ended up getting the whole series.

Sloppy and clunky

Interesting story concept, but the execution is clumsy. First half is nothing but run and gun, while the second half is a barrage of information dumps, with too much repetition and nothing really happening, while the story grinds to a halt. These info dumps are interrupted by other characters quipping, joking, or just babbling about random stuff - making them even more drawn out and pointless.

The characters are overly "quippy" and quirky, even when it makes no sense. The main character is incompetent when it suits the story, and suddenly invulnerable when it is needed to advance the plotline.

The writer constantly has to excuse this poor plotting by making the character "remember something", or having the enemies act foolishly because of X, Y, or Z, but it just comes off as not having been planned ahead of time. Too often things just happen, and the writer spends 2 minutes of main-character monologue trying to convince you that it really makes sense. Which it doesn't.

This book could easily have its size cut in half, and nothing of relevance to the plot, characters, or world-building would be lost. I'm assuming the writer had extreme time constraints on getting it out, and was forced to make it a certain duration/size.

The narrator is mostly competent and sounds pretty natural, but has a limited vocal range for voices. It doesn't become much of a problem, though.

Good idea, bad passing and consistency

The overall idea is good, but the character consistency is bad, many times the characters do things that don't work with the personality that is being presented (there is a passage on the first encounter with the enemies that is cringy to say the least).

The group we met on the end of the book, feels more like teenagers than combat/army specialists.

I liked the idea of arbiters as the peacekeepers and the control applied into the colonies. I even liked some of the whys and how presented. I just think it would


****** very light spoilers ******
The arbiters are introduced as a elite force, but by the actions of the protagonist they just look like very light trained with high end equipment.
Even the way their equipment and capabilities are described don't make much sense, they are capable to deal with a platoon of enemies armed with light weapons, but any shot on the weak spot will pass through the armor, it doesn't seem like the author ever saw a full auto smg spraying bullets.
Also their deduction skills are awful, the amount of time they took to see something was off is bafling.
Anyhow it seems like they wanted to create something amazing as equipment and training, but they had to force some weaknesses to make the story being exciting.
The enemies are always refered as night watch, but by the end it's very clear they shouldn't be just night watch officers.
In the end when Young or whatever his name is didn't answer Tyco call it was cringe an his explanation for that was childish as had no logic.

really enjoyable

wasn't sure what to expect but I really enjoyed , great story action tension, hoping there's another to follow

An enjoyable cliché

It's a good story which, I assume, sets up the rest of the series. Unfortunately I found the characters a bit clichéd, from their personality to the stereotypical clothing. Overall it was enjoyable but there weren't enough new ideas to make me listen to the rest of the series.

Really great book

I struggled at first. Greg's narration was a bit wooden. but as Greg relaxed more into the character I started to really enjoy the book. so much so that I've just bought the second book.

One fight/battle after another and another ......

Started off ok. For about 5 minutes. Then it was just one fight sequence after another! For hours!! Literally hours! I just found myself constantly fast forwarding. There is definitely a story in there, possibly a decent one, but it needs to be rewritten with 90% of the fight sequences removed, they are NOT necessary! Greg Tremblay did a decent enough job it has to be said.

Stunning

I am so please I listened to this book. A wonderful story. Getting the next one now!