Starcrasher

Shades Space Opera, Book 1

By: Rock Forsberg

Narrated by: Nick Howden-Steenstra

Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

What if the stars collided?

If you love space opera with twists, you'll instantly love Starcrasher and the Shades Space Opera series.

Tredd Bounty is a navy reject turned bounty hunter, living in the grimy world of Spit City on orbit around gas giant Heeg. When he is given the chance to take on a dangerous yet lucrative mission to find and capture the mysterious Starcrasher device, rumored to have the power to move the stars themselves, it seems like his luck is about to turn.

He gathers a motley crew: an ex-navy pilot suffering from random black-outs; a Jindalar groupie hiding a shocking secret; a strapping Andron mechanic unable to step foot on any planet; and an eccentric doctor. Together, they take their battered Rutger-class cargo ship on a journey to uncharted star systems, luxurious space stations, and, against all odds, up against the unyielding Dawn Alliance Navy.

But Tredd is hiding a superhuman secret: the ability to stop time. It is both a blessing that has kept him alive through many a suicide mission, and a curse that has dragged him down. As he travels across the universe, he finds that he can no longer ignore his past and must face his lost childhood sweetheart and the men who betrayed him years ago.

As he begins to close in on the Starcrasher, so do other darker forces. Tredd realizes he's not the only one with a dark secret and that the mythical gods, the Shades, might just be more than just the bedtime story he heard as a child.

Starcrasher is an exhilarating adventure, moving faster than the speed of light through an original universe that combines the technological wonders of the sci-fi genre with urban fantasy. If you loved Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy, the Space Quest video game series, and the Firefly TV series, you'll love Starcrasher and the Shades Space Opera series.

©2017 Rock Forsberg (P)2018 Rock Forsberg

Brilliant

Brilliant storyline with ever building intensity. Love how the bigger picture unveils. Narrator was pleasant surprise 😀.

Excellent space opera!

Loved this highly entertaining listen. Complex characters and story, lots of humor, and just a touch of romance. Loved the narrators varied accents and how he captured the emotions and personalities of the characters. Would definitely listen to the other books in this series and highly recommend this one. I received a free review copy of this audiobook at my request and I have voluntarily left this review.

misses the mark for me

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

I like when authors mix genres to make them their own. Yes, it can make things a bit more complicated, but that is not always a bad thing. That being said, I didn't always care for how this was done in this book. The narration was mediocre. He had very little variation in his voicing of characters and was pretty unemotional in his reading. About halfway through, I started to lose interest in this book. Even as I write this review, I'm unsure if that was because of the story or the narration. I suspect it is a combination of both.

Stay Away

What did you like best about Starcrasher? What did you like least?

Did not like the story..... it is a confusing mess..... American customers will have trouble understanding the narrator.

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

The story is much too complicated.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Nick Howden-Steenstra?

No he is difficult to understand.

Was Starcrasher worth the listening time?

Not worth listening to at any point in the Space Time Continuum.

Any additional comments?

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

The book didn't hit the mark...

This book didn't quite hit the mark for me. When you start mixing mysticism, magic, and gods into a space opera, you are walking a very fine line between a great story on one hand, and a sad failure on the other...
My first reaction to the story's protagonist was, "Oh, he cheats", but I kept listening and soon enough, I fell in love with said protagonist, Tredd Bounty. I was completely entranced with all the fun and action, and I put up with it's, well, thorny bits...
5 hours into the book, I'm anxiously  rushing to the end, and then the 6th hour happens... WTF?!!?
I really should have stopped when I had (seemingly) reached a satisfying conclusion to the space opera, somewhere towards the end of 5th hour!  What happens in the 6th hour was just too pear-shaped for my taste, and it pulled me completely out of the story as I lost the suspension of disbelief! So much wasted potential is a sad thing to bear witness to...
Nick Howden-Steenstra did a fine job narrating this story, but it wasn't enough to salvage the 6th hour train wreck!

not the best

the story maybe was interesting but I think the narrator didn't preform the best he could and I will explain...
the world's War like cutout sometimes you read truslow and sometimes you couldn't understand the word very clearly I don't really know what to write about the story because I think I would have liked it more if the narrator was someone else or read it in other way
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Not for me......

First, this is one of the few narrators I really have to complain about. He ruined the book as much of not more than the author. Aside from a somewhat interesting working class English accent he was SO UNEMOTIONAL and had no differentiation between characters I was constantly trying to figure out who was thinking /saying what.

The author may have fared better with his story but it was out there without enough background story to figure out what he's trying to get across. Aside from the brutal Vice-Admiral (Admiral) leading the mission and ze doktor is anyone sure who's on what side and who's being controlled or what? I lost my program, lost the roles of the characters and who thinks what so I'm giving up.

ADVICE for the author and the editor, remember when you are presenting your story to your readers without your detailed mental matursturbation confusing your audience. Decent premise totally mismanaged.