Star Nomad

Fallen Empire, Book 1

By: Lindsay Buroker

Narrated by: Kate Reading

The Alliance has toppled the tyrannical empire. It should be a time for celebration, but not for fighter pilot Captain Alisa Marchenko. After barely surviving a crash in the final battle for freedom, she's stranded on a dustball of a planet, billions of miles from her young daughter. She has no money or resources, and there are no transports heading to Perun, her former home and the last imperial stronghold.

But she has a plan.

Steal a dilapidated and malfunctioning freighter from a junkyard full of lawless savages. Slightly suicidal, but she believes she can do it. Her plan, however, does not account for the elite cyborg soldier squatting in the freighter, intending to use it for his own purposes. As an imperial soldier, he has no love for Alliance pilots. In fact he's quite fond of killing them.

Alisa has more problems than she can count, but she can't let cyborgs, savages, or ancient malfunctioning ships stand in her way. If she does she'll never see her daughter again.

Fans of Firefly and Star Wars should enjoy this fun, fast-paced new series from USA Today best-selling author Lindsay Buroker.

©2016 Lindsay Buroker (P)2016 Podium Publishing

Promise if a Great Series

This is the fourth series I have started listening (audiobook) to by Lindsay Buroker, she has a style that is witty coupled with her complex plots and subplots. I am always amazed at her ability to develop a character that is fully described, providing a unique background that compels you to become either enamored or resentful of the character, depending on the description provided. Lindsay draws you into her characters and allows you into the mind of at least one of her major characters opening their thoughts and actions to the reader. I look forward to the rest of the series and other series written by her, she is an excellent author. These are the books that good movies are made from.

Solid SF with Great Narration

In this book Buroker puts together a team of misfits, yeah a bit cliche-ish, that have disparate needs and missions. The main character, the captain of the Nomad, is a cheeky former space fighter jock post-war, yeah, I know still cliche-ish, who has to find her way home and meets a former enemy, or two, and some other people who need her help and can help her in a world just getting over the war.

This sounds formulaic, but it's not. Buroker develops the characters quickly and adds to their profile more and more information while keeping the story moving. You can see Buroker's strong heroic fantasy roots, but it is not all that obtrusive and the story and characters are enjoyable. Is it the best SF ever written, no, but it is entertaining and well written with no "why would any moron ever do that" moments.

In my mind the writing is a clean 4.5 so I rounded up.

The Narration by Kate Reading is outstanding. She does a great job of reading the book without "acting". She differentiates the characters with no jarring voices or hoky accents. She is consistent. You always know who is talking. You don't notice her reading after the books starts. Her narration is smooth and is consistent with what is going on in the book.

She gives a 5-star performance.

Overall I found this book enjoyable and easy to listen to. Time passed so quickly the deep voiced "Audible hopes you've enjoyed this program," came almost as a surprise.

Overall is a 5-star for me, too.

Snarky Banter. Action. MatureTheme. good 1st book

Yet One Voice cannot do justice to all the characters (Especially Males)
The Series is consitent. Not hard SciFi by any means. Similar to Robert Heinlein but mature themed a snarky banter.
At 13-15yrs old I would've devoured it and proclaimed its greatness. I am a romantic at heart so will likely continue series.

Fun Romp

Audible had a sale on this book and I certainly love a good space opera. The book had some really good parts: nice snark, amusing interactions, and some good battles. But the writing style is oddly like a romance writer's (though i don't believe the author has written romance?) and so that threw me off a bit. As well, I didn't necessarily believe a lot of what was going on. (EVERY single character has a secret that will aid the protagonist?) I did stay entertained, though, and base the rating on that success.

Story: Alisa is stranded at an off world, injured in battles that led a successful rebellion against the empire. She has one goal; get back to her daughter on a distant world and start her life again now that the war is done. To do so, she'll have to recruit an engineer, get her ship working again out of the scrap heap, and then find passengers to pay for the trip off world. All seems fine until she finds a dreaded cyborg warrior (enemies of her rebellion) squatting on her ship and with a requirement she will have to fulfill first. And let's not forget the quirky passengers who end up hiring her services.

Star Nomad feels very much like a first novel - a way for the author to introduce the key characters in preparation for the main plot in further books. That doesn't mean it is bad, necessarily, but in putting all her eggs in one basket, we have to get all the key characters together at the same time. And of course, they will all be diverse but have key skills that will affect later plot points. Doctor, warrior, engineer, pilot, scientist - everything you need for a crew just drops into Alisa's lucky lap.

The dialogue is snappy but I admit to 'romance novel' fatigue of snarky female and brooding alpha male. She admires his muscles, he admires her rudeness. All the bad guys just want to jump her, sexism is rampant, the leads have several intimate moments, etc. etc. This is written better than most sci fi romances but at the same time, the influences are definitely there and somewhat distracting. I wanted more grit, determination, and drive than admiring glances, sexy pecs, and male quirking mouths. It's yet another case where the seemingly powerful male finds the rude female's constant nastiness entrancing rather than loathsome. At least the author tries to explain it away as a personality quirk (she gets mouthy when she's scared/nervous) rather than the usual romance cliche of trying to show that the female has 'personality' and is 'strong.'

The adventure parts are will written and fun. Admittedly, most will have figured out the 'secrets' of the passengers well in advance and know how they will affect the outcomes in the dramatic scenes. But that's ok - the side characters are well written and with wonderfully distinct personalities.

I would characterize Star Nomad as sci fi lite. An enjoyable adventure that worked very well in the narrated version. Of note, the Audible narrator did a good job.

OH YES, WERE A CHATTY BUNCH

DID I OFFEND HIM. HE WAS BEING CRANKY. DUST BUNNIES
I applaud the author and they way she treats her main character. The woman is a woman, but she is military trained and she can take care of her self. We are not beat over the head with how mistreated she was because of her gender, their is none of that kind of thing. It is obvious that she is setting up a series and getting her crew together. A cyborg for muscle, a pessimistic engineer, a kind of flighty science officer, etc.

WORM SUCK
My low rating is for a few other things. I got sick and tired of the junior high school bickering between the main character and cyborg, even though we know by the end of the book, they are going to be buddies. I am guessing, cause I quit at 5 hours. I thought the cargo hauler out running and out maneuvering war ships and everybody was a little hard to believe. Mostly I got tired of all the talking. Every single moved had to be discussed.

Kate Reading
It is always a pleasure to hear Reading's voice.

It was okay

It took more than two tries to get into this book. I found Leonidas to be a more interesting character than the protagonist. Leonidas is the one who potentially has a dramatic character arc and quest going. Alisa has the goal of returning to find her daughter, but that's it, and it gets lost in everything that happens in the story. Then there's the obvious parallels between Firefly, which are many. I did eventually get in far enough that I finished the book, but not sure I'll move on from here.

An entertaining Space romp

I really enjoyed this book. The main character is a female who uses wit and smarts to overcome major difficulties. (pirates, cyborgs.)

Short Firefly/Serenity Clone w/ few improvements

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Characters should have more depth and more of the story should be told in each book.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Felt like a short story, improve length and include an entire story arc.

What about Kate Reading’s performance did you like?

Kate Reading always does well and was the reason I bought the book to begin with.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No, it would take six such books to make a single movie

Any additional comments?

Story was short and failed to resolve any issues hinted at. Completed first two books and still little satisfaction. I recommend waiting until the first three books are packaged together to buy them.

Fall into Fallen Empire for action and adventure!

This is going to be a fun crew to follow through the galaxy! Kate Reading does a great job of embodying all the characters from the feisty pilot to the taciturn cyborg. I'm looking forward to the next book already.

great series and it has kate reading!!

Happy to have found another great series to start. easy to follow and imaginative. definitely found a new author. great choice in getting kate reading to narrate. found this series by searching what else she narrated. i could probably listen to kate narrate a medical journal.