Star Crusades: Valentine

By: Michael G. Thomas

Narrated by: Shamaan Casey

Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Valentine never thought death would be so difficult. Tough, a crack shot and popular with her unit. She’s a young woman with a bright future in the Corps. But everything changed the day her unit boarded the dreaded "Burijas", a Leviathan Class Battleship and flagship of the invading Star Empire. The assault is a bloodbath, but little does she know it will be her last action. A devastating blast tears her fragile body apart, leaving her a broken woman close to death.

Nothing goes to waste in the Alliance, and trained and experienced marines are prized assets. Valentine is given a unique chance, one that could see her return to the frontline as part of the Novas. A brand-new elite unit of cybernetic super-soldiers, and lead by the charismatic Captain Olik. And he’s no regular marine, he’s an enhanced Jötnar that’s twice the size of a man, and 10 times more dangerous. Valentine will need to prove her worth as she fights for a place among the Novas. War is brewing on a distant world, a war that will need the Alliance’s best, and the Novas will be leading the charge.

Valentine is the first book in a brand-new saga in the style of Starship Troopers, Aliens, and Predator. A story which will take the listener to new worlds, to face new and deadly threats to the Alliance. This is an epic story with incredible characters and even more incredible and advanced technologies.

©2019 Michael G. Thomas (P)2019 Michael G. Thomas

A solid story and performance, wanted more depth

“Star Crusades: Valentine” is the first audiobook in what is to become an epic space marine sage under the series with the same title. If you are one who enjoys listening to large battles involving massive cruisers and battleships along with the men and women on the front line fighting for their lives, I think you may find this book to your liking. The story is written by Michael G. Thomas who is well known for his many science fiction space sagas. The audiobook is expertly narrated by Shamaan Casey who is an up and coming audiobook narrator with a unique sound and style. The story is that of a strong female Marine who during the heat of battle is severely injured and near death. The last thing she remembers seeing is a powerful explosion ripping though her ship and then things went black. No one could have survived such a blast, and she knew it. Surprisingly for her, she awakes broken and confused in a Marine medical facility. To her astonishment, she discovers that her body, while in a coma and recovering from her injuries, was modified using cybernetics. This had me recalling the old TV show, “The Six Million Dollar Man”, but this one is better. All of this work to restore her was done so she could become one of the elite fighting members of the newly formed Novas. If you like big battles and massive amounts of action, you may want to check out this audiobook and even the author’s other works if you like science fiction.

The audiobook has many scenes with action, violence, exploration, and discovery. There is a clear mission with a powerful foe who needs to be defeated. There are large ships, epic battles and some clearly unique and interesting technologies. Not only are we shown the advancement of things like autonomous mules for carrying goods, we see some quite amazing technology used to augment our wounded soldiers. The CORTEX integration system was both functional and snarky at the same time, and I liked its many quirks. Even in the future computers will have their issues. Maybe like today, turning them off and on might fix most of the problems. I quite enjoyed the character’s interaction with the cybernetic subsystem. As the book stated, these modifications provided the Marines the power of a god in the form of a human. My favorite aspect was the world building, ships, and technology. The writing was detailed and often well developed. I would also like to say that the military tactics and actions seemed realistic and researched. Even though the story took place in the future, it was believable.

I felt the book lacked a few of the things that make a story go from good too great. Although I liked the main characters, most of them seemed thin or flat. I wanted more than just information about them, I wanted to know and understand them. I did not feel a deep connection to most and a few flashbacks or other details on why these characters were who they were would have made the story more personal and connectable. The plot was solid, but I wanted to know more about the war, the reasons, cultures, etc. To me, it felt a bit like knowledge transfer than it did a story told. This is not saying the book was bad, not at all. I just like more depth and connection in my stories even if they contain space Marines.

The audiobook’s narration by Mr. Casey was deep, rich and clean. His professional voicing gave me a feeling of the vastness and coldness of space. He was able to clearly distinguish the various characters with their own voices and personalities which can be difficult when you have a number of characters along with mixed genders. For me, I was not a fan of Captain Olik’s voice, but I understand why he was voiced in this way. The narration had a few slight audio plugs where you could notice a correction was necessary, but these were very few and far between. The rest of the audio was well-produced and professional. I have enjoyed and reviewed other books by this narrator, and I look forward to many more.

For parents and younger readers, it should come as no surprise that the book contains violence and some of it being rather graphic. There is also vulgar language and crude humor sprinkled in the storyline, but I thought the author did a good job of limiting this to only sections unlike other space Marine stories I have listened to. Because of the violence I would not recommend this for younger listeners.

In summary, the plot and tech are solid. I like the character interaction and working together to achieve a goal. I would have like to have had more details on why and how they got to this place, more about the tech, more about the ships, etc. More back story, flashbacks, or other details making the characters feel more rounded and connected. The book’s narration was solid and rich. There is a concrete story here in the book, don’t get me wrong. For those who like the space military genre, I would say give it a listen.

Disclaimer: This audiobook was provided free of charge from the author, narrator, and/or publisher in exchange for an honest review.

If you like action, this is worthy

Excellent military Sci-Fi. Well read and worth the listen. I really recommend the book. Shades of Starship Troopers!

It was pretty good but not for me

** I received a free review copy of this book my review is voluntary and unbiased.**

The story was honestly pretty good, However, the way the action scenes were framed, the pacing of the narrator, and the cutaways to different perspectives just couldn't keep my attention the way I was hoping for a cyborg spacemarine novel. There were some slower exposition points and then some parts where they just gloss over something I thought would be interesting, honestly this book kinda felt like an extended prologue to what would be an excellent book series.

The story follows Valentine and a group crazy cybered up space soldiers who take on the toughest missions in the galaxy, many of which involve encounters with biomechanical monstrous alien creatures, most of the characters are interesting enough though I found Valentine herself to be just a bit boring.

There was enough interesting stuff that went into this book to justify the 4* rating though. Some really interesting world building and the bio cyberware stuff, and the mil-tech design was interesting. The biomech aliens were neat. There was a lot to like about this book it just felt like the pacing was off somewhere so I'd personally rate it about 3.7* out of 5

Action!

The narrator was amazing. The characters were beautifully portrayed, and I enjoyed listening to a story with strong female characters. No damsels in distress.

good scifi

I have enjoyed the start of the series and look forward to the next books. the characters are is to follow and the story has a good mystery to it both in the characters and the storyline. the only thing I did not like was a losing of so many characters in the first book.

Awesome Action

This is the second pairing of Michael G. Thomas and Shamaan Casey and wow I hope they stick together. I love action adventure books and Thomas has it down perfectly.

The book is almost non stop action in the vein of Alien and Predator. The soldiers are augmented in absolutely amazing ways. Having screwed up my back, I was daydreaming that I was one of the soldiers and able to do the same things they could. Yes, warrior woman here. Lately, only in spirit but still ... :) The technology is seriously amazing. The enemy they go up against later on is fascinating. I don't want to say too much but it wasn't what I expected but in a really good way.

And writing about women and men as fairly equal and interchangeable where abilities were concerned was fantastic to listen to. Michael G. Thomas writes from a woman's point of view and nails it. At least a woman I can totally relate to. Thank you, sir!

Now Shamaan Casey's voice. I'm actually a bit embarrassed to write this but ... think "expensive cognac". Fantastic voice to listen to. He also pulls off a credible woman's voice with his deep voice which is crazy talented. My other review said that the other books by Michael G Thomas need to be redone with Casey as the narrator and I still stand by that.

If you like action filled, science fiction, military space operas then you'll LOVE this series. Five stars all the way around.

Wish i had more story

I liked the story in this book,but feel a bit sad missing in a few areas. wish i had more backstory to make places, groupes and ppl more than just the name and a characters word on how awsome/bad this thing is. for some reason i keep seening a few people standing in a circkle talking about going somewhere for an extended period of time, and all of a sudden they apear in a new setting taling about going somwhere else..

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Sci Fi thrill ride

Thank you Michael G. Thomas for writing about strong female marines! I really enjoyed the story. Space battles and augmented soldiers with really cool weapons! Great narrator. I am not sure if there are more books that continue the story but I will be looking out for more books by this author.

Intense

Book was really intense and kept me on the edge of my seat as you never could tell what the author was going to throw at you next. Characters were well thought out as well as the story line. If you are into action then there is plenty of action in this book! Love this narrarator! He brough the characters to life and had me fully invested in them from the first chapter. Very soothing and easy to listen to him! Great book to add to you library if you are into sci fi!

I want some too!

I love the enhancements. To bad fantasy can't be real, at my age I could use several...Oh well.
Lots of intense action,. interesting characters, overall a great listen.
Narrator really brought out the personalities.
My only drawback, and this could be on me., somewhat confusing at first and took several chapters for the story to flow.
This audio was given to me free and I voluntarily gave this review.