Star Runner

By: B. V. Larson

Narrated by: Mark Boyett

Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

Two centuries after humanity colonized the stars, new dangers emerge. The peaceful inhabitants of the Conclave are threatened by expanding alien powers. Invaders threaten the star cluster, attacking our fringe settlements. 

Captain Bill Gorman has mysteriously disappeared. His clone, set aside for a dark day like this, awakens and begins to put together the pieces. What’s gone wrong out on the frontier? Why are our colonies being attacked by aliens while the Conclave worlds dream of better days? And what happened to the original Captain Gorman? 

Find out in Star Runner, a thrilling all-new interstellar adventure by B. V. Larson, the king of military science fiction.

©2020 Iron Tower Press (P)2020 Iron Tower Press

Meh

I loved "Space Force" and I loved "Undying Mercenaries", both narrated by MB as well. I also love MB but I do get flashbacks of the aforementioned books and the characters he used those voices for so that can be a bit distracting here, but if this is your first experience then your in for a treat. Hes one of my favorite narrators.
The story I feel was a solid meh. 2.5/5 stars at best. not what I expect from one of my top 5 favorite authors.
the character bonds were tuff to accept and felt shallow. The "stash" too convenient...how did he find it? how did those things get there? the end battle felt forced. I guess I have to listen to the end again because I think I drifted off.

Do you like Mr. Larson's Undying Mercenary series?

If you enjoy BV Larson's Undying Mercenaries series you will 100% enjoy this new series by him. The MC definitely has the same vibe as James McGill.

I can't wait until the next one.

Cheezier than usual?

Don't remember BV Larson's sci fi adventures being quite so cheesy or schmarmy in this disjointed of a way? I'm all caught up on good ole James McGill & It's been a while since I read others bu BV Larson, but I remembered liking them more in the past, just usually not on sale & pricey for length.

Started off as a fun book, a bit silly. Medical clone escapes facility due to nonpayment by original human & his wiley cunning & ability to sway even a hardened no nonsense older female clerk. (Classic James McGill.)

After escape, which includes help from bored little rich girl, he manages to make off with her Important Conclave high muckety muck Mom's swift starship, then gets on the wrong side of a goofy but beefy & crazy stong, but not quite so smart, easily outwitted foe he swindled, which he turns into his faithful & enamored sidekick & goes on into improbable tales of a space faring sorta good guy gun runner.

He & his sidekick, Jort (name?), are saddled with Sora (name?), a hard luck, care worn, but extremely tough & surly female forced spy for enemy crime boss that he comes to understand & sorta care for, in a saving the damsel in distress sorta way, then inadvertantly does save her from alien tormentor (well, the ships med pod does the real saving, but he helped by killing the villionous symbiotic cruel alien) & already mentioned evil crime boss, & she turns into partner/sometimes lover/girlfriend?

All's well & dandy to this point, then his solution to the next predicament he gets them into involves boldly waltzing back into 'The Conclave' & abscounding with same bored little rich girl (who of course has been missing him & his exciting, but admittedly scary, not as cool as her fantasies, real ife, but is soooo bored she goes with him anyway), who instead of becoming a vital means to an end (that was by no means clear, but was implied), becomes another crew member & new lover, right in the face of his had been current lover, & also crew member, Sora.

That's where he lost me. Maybe because it offends my sensibilities. It made no sense to add the little rich girl back in advancing the story. Sora was, in my opinion, much more interesting (& practicality speaking, more valuable), crew member. She gets shunted to the side with little to no treatment of resolving the transition to the new girl.

Sora just pretty much disappears into the background as someone once major to story, but now barely mentioned. This made our earstwhile bad guy hero into a bonafide zero in my book (pun hadn't intended but there it is...). Jort winds up being the only character I actually like (& who stays consistent throughout.).

The rest of the story went from unbelievable, but I'll go along for the ride, to unbelievable, who is this jerk & does the author think what he's portraying this lead as is appealing? Left a bad taste in my mouth.

His callous disregard for Sora rubbed me the wrong way. Yup, sorry, repeating myself. I've read stories where the male lead was a womanizer & did transition from sleeping with one female crew to another one, but they either know upfront the guy is incapable of monogamy (ie McGill) or that relationship is usually in remission or on the outs or over at the time & the complexities of how it affects all involved parties & that between the 2 woman themselves is normally resolved into something workable.

That don't just dismiss & by doing so, demean & relegate first woman to one of those non existant crew members you didn't even know the ship had until there's battle damage & the number of dead are tallied, as happens here (except for the whole analogy to battle damage & dead crew that is, just the abrupt ignoring of what was a main side character).

There's only 4 crew members total, so to drop pretty much any but a passing rare mention of a 1/4 of the crew leaves just too big of a gapping hole of believability. I just couldn't jump over it.

That wasn't the only glaring inconsistency that made it impossible to figure out who this Captain Gorman is supposed to be. The huge part of the book devoted to how & why he joined the locals (for months!) in fighting the "Ducks" made no sense at all. Motivations for numerous characters seemed to change on a whim with no rhyme or reason?

I saw in other reviews just now, alot said similar things about pieced together disjointed stories, shallow characters & shallow &/or changing motivations, no logical plot progressions, feeling rushed & unedited. Meh several times & not his best work, not up to caliber with Undying Mercenaries, etc.

They said it all - and with a whole lot less words &/or details! What I think was the intended premise of the story has the makings for a fine series. The author just needs to put the time, effort & creativity into it as he did in the beginning of UD. (I say beginning, because UD has become a bit repetitive in the last few books, but I still keep getting them in the hopes it'll freshen up. And at least it's the Devil I know. He's familiar & still kinda funny at least).

This one starts off on a very lame footing. It'd have to be on sale at a very low price for me to chance it improving to what the author is capable of, in order to get the bext book in this, (soon to be, I'm sure), series.

Mark Boyette is, as always, a comfort & a joy to listen to.

If you haven't read BV Larson before, don't start with this book, pick up the 1st in Undying Mercanies.

If you find this review helpful in any way, a click, if available, is always appreciated. Thanks!

Good not great several times the author reversed

I like B.V. Larson but this feels rushed and poorly edited. I feel like he didn't read or listen to it after writing it. Several times we are told something and then it changes...

As good as UM but not to be compared

This title stands on its own. It doesn’t borrow tropes from UM. There’s familiarity from Mark Boyett, in a good way by narration. Just enough to make you feel at home. But the character is smarter, more practical.

Bottom line highly recommend. If your new to bv Larson this is as a good a book to get into, but you’ll have more traction with undying mercenaries simply because there are so many books in the series.

Great story!

Marks reading is amazing as always. B. V. Larson never fails to keep you on the edge of your seat and he makes you fall in love with the characters. One thing with this book that stands out, I laughed to the point of tears a few times. 5 full stars!

Not as great as Undying Mercenaries or Star Force

Meh. As my title suggests, its not as great as Larson's other series. That being said, I'll likely keep listening and hope that the story gets better. Mark Boyett, is awesome as always.

Weak at best.

I was optimistic about this book. Unfortunately, it felt like several unrelated stories that had been cobbled together and tweaked to fit the narrative. The plot was sadly predictable and fraught with inconsistencies. I almost stopped it multiple times but I didn’t have anything exciting to listen to as an alternative. Do yourself a favor and skip this one.

Nothing Special

Average space story with notable incongruities. If you have another book on your list, go for it first.

good story good performance

I like the character hope to hear more of these gun running tales its a different spin

Total let down. (spoiler free)

I'd like to start by saying I love BV Larsons other work. star force, undying mercenaries, and the others. I've listend to well over 30 books form him and I've really enjoyed them all.

So naturally I was excited at the idea of a new series of scifi action. However this is by far the worst BV larson book I have listend to.

The story has some potential but seems under developed and not up to the usual high standards. I just found myself being uninterested.

The characters are by far the worst thing about the book. The main character seems like a more boring and less developed James McGill. He has none of the charm of james but with all of the frustrating bits. He has no depth.

The other characters are just so boring and flat. they arent intresting, they bring little to the story and are sometimes irritating. This is also truly the worst ever portrayal of female characters I have ever seen in a book. the only thing the women add to the story is providing the main character someone to flirt with. It's almost like this was the first book he had ever written and if so these blunders could be forgiven.

a perfect example of how the characters are underdeveloped is the two female characters. for example other BV characters like Galina Turov have their own ambitions and motivations independent form the main character. This often leads to the main character and these characters clashing in interesting ways. The female characters in this book however seem to only exist for the main character to flirt with and have someone to protect. They are just so flat and empty.

ultimately I am only writing this review because I genuinely love BV Larsons other books. This book not only does not live up to them, it is also a bad book in it's own right. it's just a shame.

Disappointed

I suppose I am spoilt you see. Having listened to the undying mercenary series, of which I became deeply entertained, I expected more of the same or similar themed antics. Sadly Star Runner falls well short in terms of plot, excitement and narration. Don't get me wrong the book is ok, it's just not as emersive as the Undying Mercenary series. Even Mark Boyatt didn't seem as enthusiastic.

Hoping more undying mercenary books are written.

Gary

could have been so much more

The premise is good one, space pirates? sign me up! but the story is all over the place, it's just terrible. The characters two dimensional, the solutions all too convenient and zero consequences. I kept having to check if I'd accidentally bought a book for teens, I'm genuinely not sure if this book is meant for adults.

decent but....

This is a hard one to explain, i love the main story ideas but there just seems to be something missing to make it truly great.
especially as a fan of B V Larson books like undying mercenaries.
Again i reiterate that i did find it enjoyable and i do hope there is a bit more backstory for all characters in the next addition!

It’s ok, but

This author can’t write women, to him they all seem to be two dimensional doe eyed morons who attach themselves to any ‘strong’ man who approaches. I think this would’ve been an interesting novel had I not been constantly bombarded with such asinine characters.

A funny book for men, good sci-fi

This is a funny book for men who like sci-fi, full of sexiest comments and light hearted. predictable storyline but well read.

Pirate scoundrel and rebellious princess fight for

Very like Harry Harrison Stainless Steel Rat series . The Harrison original hero and heroine are better from thirty years ago but BV Larson is the best of the current generation of writers in that H.Harrison mould. ABSOLUTELY NEEDS SEQUELS ASAP.

Dissapointing

Does not hold a candle to the undying mercenaries series and overall feels weak. Doesn't pull off the space battles that rebel fleet or dreadnaught do, it's a jack of all trades but a master of none. Overall i'm dissapointed

Good beginning.

Not very exciding but promising start to a series. B.V. Larson and Mark Boyett combo never disappoints.

A nice new series

(this may contain what you consider spoilers)

Of course Mark Boyett's performance is without question superb, it is funny hearing some of the voices from other characters in this though.

I enjoyed the first book in this series, I look forward to seeing where it will go, lots of room for development, I like the crew mostly, not sure how I feel about Rose.

I see lots of ways this can develop. pre-ordered #2