Space Carrier Avalon

By: Glynn Stewart

Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer

Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

Avalon was the flagship of the Castle Federation in the last war, now 20 years past. The first of the deep space carriers, no other warship in the fleet holds as many honors or has recorded as many kills. No other warship in the fleet is as old. Accepting the inevitable, the Federation Space Navy has decided to refit her and send her on a tour of the frontier, showing the flag to their allies and enemies as a reminder of her glory - and then decommission her for good.

But Avalon has been a backwater posting for 10 years and has problems a mere refit can't fix. The systems along her planned tour have been seeing pirates for the first time in decades, and there are rumblings of Commonwealth scouting ships all along the border. It may be Avalon's final tour, but it looks to be anything but quiet.

©2015 Glynn Stewart (P)2015 Tantor

Could have been 5 star most might consider it so

The story was excellent and engrossing
The characters fully developed and believable. You would probably recognize them in person

The science was fascinating and fun
The scenes were vivid and easy to immerse myself in

The performance was nothing short of superb! The narrator's delivery and voices were a pleasure to hear. The separation of character voices is impeccable. I think he could bring a dictionary to life!

So why only 4 stars? The segues giving date ,time, earth standard meridian time /date statement, the call number of the ship, the ships name the location within the ship and often more nearly every time anyone walked through a door was almost unbearable! If I had been reading instead of listening I would have ignored this litany every time!

I actually began to resent the author after a while for wasting my time and interrupting my train of thought I will listen to other works of his but not if he continues to use the same segue technique.

20 of 21 people found this review helpful

New CAG Curses Legendary Star Carrier

The story is about a soon to be decommissioned legendary star carrier and the tumultuous event that occur to her as soon as a new Commander, Air Group (CAG) reports for duty. After a too long (1/3+ of book) backstory buildup to size up the primary characters, the carrier enters into its first battle with pirates. Then, within a few weeks it encounters a couple of battles with an opposing fleet. In every battle, the underdog Avalon and its crew wins each battle using boldness, guile and space age legerdemain. Unfortunately, this battling technique is over-done to a point of lightly touching the farcical.

The Good: The writing was and narration were both done well.

The Bad: Too much time is spend on the love relationships between the various characters to the point of being distracting to focus of the novel. Also, the new CAQ ends up going from commander, to XO, to Captain within a timespan of a few weeks. Lastly, there was an overuse of 20th century idioms which gave those sections a cliche-ish feel them.

14 of 15 people found this review helpful

A good start for a series, but needs improvement

Would you recommend Space Carrier Avalon to your friends? Why or why not?

This is the first time I've listened to a book by Glynn Stewart. I liked the action, the pace, and a few surprises. Having the Date, Time, and location included with every scene change become very tiresome. I was in the military and I understand the purpose. But it took away the enjoyment of the story. The other issue are the sexual encounters. The detail was unnecessary. The story at times sounded a little like soap opera.

Any additional comments?

Overall a good story, I might listen to another Glynn Stewart book depending on the reviews.

11 of 12 people found this review helpful

Familiarity with twists

When you consume a lot of scifi, it's inevitable that any new titles end up being defined as "the tech from X", "the characters from Y", and "the story from Z". Space Carrier Avalon however shows that that's not necessarily a bad thing, and in some cases, that sense of familiarity lures you in just far enough that the twists actually do surprise you.

Despite being the first book in the series, the universe seems well established here. The tech is believable, balanced, and seemingly established before the story was written - shaping the latter in certain ways. The characters are also well-developed, and while they are familiar they certainly stand on their own.

What perhaps surprised me the most about the book was that it's essentially a story I've heard a few times before, but polished to the point it feels new. If someone were to give you the premise and the status of the Castle Federation universe at the beginning and end of the book, you would likely assume you knew the parts in between, but you would also likely be wrong.

All in all, I truly recommend this book to those who like military scifi but who feel it should be based in a recognizable and science-based universe.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Amazing as always from this author.

These stories are always amazing. This is one of few authors I make time to read with my eyes, but audiobook is better.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Excellent Series for Military Space fans

What did you love best about Space Carrier Avalon?

Author does an excellent job of building his characters, equipment and science. It is believable, and he apparently did his homework regarding the physics involved. Unlike some reviews, the descriptions of characters physical appearance helps to build a picture of what they look like, as well as what is going on when things start getting rough. Very well thought out, original work. I highly recommend it to anyone liking good, well developed storylines and characters.

What did you like best about this story?

Author develops his characters and the social structure of 800 years in the future, and doesn't make it an issue or "preaching". He simply has extrapolated what goes on today to a future society. That is all a good sci fi writer can do, and is right along with Heinlein's work.

What does Eric Michael Summerer bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Outstanding story teller, all the characters are unique, clear, and his females are feminine, and males are males. There is no confusion as to who is speaking, and what is said.

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

No, just enjoyed a well written story that was very well read.

Any additional comments?

Excellent series, will love to see it continue.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

should be turned into a movie

What made the experience of listening to Space Carrier Avalon the most enjoyable?

good pacing, and EXCELLENT ending!

Who was your favorite character and why?

the original Kag stole the show

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

better than starwars

Any additional comments?

I would like to be in the movie

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great Sci Fi!

The overall plot was somewhat predictable but, aren't all great stories like that? Very well narrated. The action was well described. This book lays the foundation for many more. I can't wait!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

I wish it was mroe then just OK

Would you try another book from Glynn Stewart and/or Eric Michael Summerer?

I'd listen to the narrator again. The author's writing style is not appealing to draw me into another of his stories.

Would you ever listen to anything by Glynn Stewart again?

The author would have to really improve his writing style. The main issue is that in this book it was written/formatted as if it was prose style script for a movie or TV show rather then an actual novel. Chapters are treated liked Acts in a play with each "Chapter" broken into multiple scenes that are headlined by a location/date/time declaration. This just adds tothe "play" feeling of the book.

What three words best describe Eric Michael Summerer’s performance?

uninspired, overeager, energetic

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Space Carrier Avalon?

I wouldn't have cut a particular scene per se. I would have required the author to smooth out the narration and remove the "scene" header lines (e.g. location/date/time) that break the flow of the narrative and sometimes give information that would have been better palced in the narrative itself.

Any additional comments?

I wanted to like this book. It was a nice change from the info dumps of a Weber novel and it had an interesting premise. The writing style however sucked the life from it for me.

5 of 7 people found this review helpful

slow and very progressive story line.

Please just write good sci-fi stories without putting personal sexual preferences and religious condemnation. TIRED of this!

6 of 9 people found this review helpful

Very enjoyable story with good characters

Good story easy to listen to some plot twists and characters you want to know more about.
Well narrated good pace and tone of voice.
The only problem I have is it feels like it starts half way through a longer story.
It is possible this series follows a story I've not listened too this doesn't hurt the story or plot in anyway.
If you like stories like Empire's Corps or Ark Royal by Christopher G. Nuttall you will like this

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

pleasantly surprised<br />

This was my first audio book and I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to listen too. I have read all the castle federation books which I really enjoyed, the audio version with its excellent narration felt like it was discovering the books for the first time.

Good listen to an already great book

having read the book prior, I knew what was coming, having listened I can say it was just as if not more enjoyable to relive the story via audio, give the whole series a read and a listen

OK

This could have been really good, apart from the irritating dialogue every few minutes telling everyone date, time, location ..... every few minutes!!

Why did the author find it necessary to include this repetitive dialogue which, in my opinion, only served to interrupt the plot every few minutes and irritate the hell out of listeners.

Hence the reason for my rating.

Battlestar Galactica of books

Where does Space Carrier Avalon rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Very high among Scifi books. The reader did a fantastic job with the material. I had never ever heard about the author, but he jumped to number two or three on my top list.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The CAG. Simply put perfect!

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Every scene on the Avalon. Cause the fealing the author managed to create.

Any additional comments?

As the title states this feals like BSG of books. Very gripping story. Allready bought the next two books in the series! A must do.

bit slow

After listening to the book I still could not know more than one character found it very hard to engage with all the characters in The Book