The Best of Us

By: Karen Traviss

Narrated by: Fred Tatasciore

Length: 18 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Half the world is a wasteland; the other half is on borrowed time. 

The West has been devastated by epidemics, bio-terrorism, war, and famine. Asia has shut its borders to keep the threats at bay, and some with power and influence have already abandoned Earth. Now an escape route a century in the making - the Nomad mission - finally offers hope to a small town and a secret research centre hidden in a rural American backwater.  

Shrouded in lies and concealed even from the research centre's staff, Nomad is about to fulfil its long-dead founder's vision of preserving the best of humanity to forge a new future. But who decides who's worthy? The mission is now in the hands of a unique AI called Solomon, and an encounter with a band of military veterans reshapes his plans for mankind's future after the arrival of a scientist with a grudge threatens the whole mission.  

Don’t miss this breathtaking new series from New York Times best-selling author Karen Traviss.     

©2019 Karen Traviss & Galaxy’s Edge LLC (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

what the hell? not galaxys edge. total retcon.

yeah not galaxys edge. suprising Jason anspach let this in.
the US government is gone 100% because they asked Asia to nuke them for some reason because defoliants dont work except at the end of the book. So no NASA discovery of FTL and of course that means Casper cant join NASA, also no US Army so No Tyrus joining the Rangers.
Solomon is kind of a neat character at first and then collapses into an idiot who despite being a super intelligent AI is out smarter by a bumbling CEO. the story is awkward and jerky. For some reason the only company left in the US was able to send people to another world created a SUPER intelligent moral AI and a wormhole but then quit preparing for the next phase or advancing wormhole tech "FTL" l.
It doesn't fit, not Galaxy's edge.
The story is ok to listen to on a free credit dont spend money on this.

Disappointing

This was an extremely disappointing listen. None of the characters were interesting, and the dialogue was stilted. The lore is heavily retconned. I was really hoping for something that was consistent with Rechs, Casper, and Raina's past.

How does this tie in?

I thought this was a Goth Sullus or Rechs origin story. Turns out it's just a way-too-detailed look at pre-colonization Earth. I might have slept through parts of it, but I didn't see the point nor were any burning questions answered. Also, the narrator is amazing, but the volume mixing and engineering is the worst I've ever heard. Loud then soft, weird splices, totally distracts from an already lackluster story.

This was a chore.

This was seriously tough to finish. The narrator, the story, the editing of the recording, all of it. I don't know what all goes into making an enjoyable audiobook but this wasn't it. I'm a huge fan of the Galaxy's Edge series and I was really hoping to get some cool backstory on the beginnings of this universe. I didn't expect it to be non-stop fan service or anything but damn, I would have had zero idea this was a Galaxy's Edge story if I hadn't looked at the cover. Whoever is responsible for this, please stop. Please don't make another one. I'm begging you.

OMG the bombshell at the end!

Having Karen Travis's write this triology was the right choice. The Galaxy's Edge universe and lore has been by far my favorite Sci-Fi I have ever come across. It's a rich build with plenty of action, military, humor, and wonder all mixed together.

So when I found out that the author of the Kilo-5 trilogy in one of my favorite Sci-fi universes, Halo, was writing the Nomad trilogy, I had to listen.

The Best of Us is a brilliant story. Real and heavy enough to feel the high stakes the characters find themselves in but not so bleak and depressing as to take away from the wonder and idea of humanity finally settling the stars.

Fred Tatasciore does an amazing job as well! A very good job voicing characters and bringing them to life, so much so that I'm going to be looking out for his other narrative work and see if anything sparks my interest. R.C. Bray has so far done all the main Galaxy's Edge books and I'd say Fred is right up there with him in performance value.

I can't wait for the next two books to see how the beginnings of humanity's jump into the Galaxy turns into the empire that struggles with the "Dumpster Fire” we were introduced to at the beginning of Legionnaire.

Can't wait for more Solomon, and to see how people find home and what comes of our special friends at the end.

Your doing amazing work Karen.
Glad you were the one trusted with this triology!

An amazing change of pace in GE

Kate Traviss did an amazing job of welcoming us into a new adventure in the Galaxy’s Edge universe and giving us new characters and a story that we can care about.

My only complaint is with the production crew. I apologize that this count as a bad rating for Fred Tatasciore. There were at least 20 points in the book, more dense in some chapters than others, where there was retake of a line. The problem is the production team didn’t synchronize the volume of the retake to the before and after. This results in choppy parts with spikes and drops in volume. Fred did a great job reading it, but there is definite room for improvement in production.

Looking forward to the next one!

How We Got From There To Here

Explore the origin of how we got to Galaxy's Edge in the first part of this new series.

Not Galaxy's Edge

and that's fine, but if the frenetic action and combat mixed with SciFi is your thing, then this isn't for you. It's certainly not for me. It was ok for what it is, but I felt it was too drawn out, and honestly, boring. Will I get the next one? Yes, but only because I'm invested in the universe.

THE BLASTED EARTH!

I'll admit, at first I was nervous about a new writer playing in the Edgeverse, but Karen Traviss knocked it out of the park. Setting it on earth, after the light huggers left, but before the invention of F.T.L. was brilliant. It allowed her to tell a unique story in her own way without fear of bumping into any familiar charcters. Well worth it.

Good Prequal to GE Saga But the Performance...

The Good. Though the pacing is much slower than the other GE story's, I liked the destitute Earth Traviss created and the society and characters that live there. A small, simple farming society living peaceably alongside a high-tech one seemed odd but was pulled off convincingly. The story built up with just enough growing threats and plot twists despite there being no real "bad guy" or evil antagonist - just characters making tough, questionable decisions.

A number of future-tech was introduced; sentient AI, cryogenics, wormholes, etc., and even though they were present throughout the story, there really wasn't any attempt to explain how they worked, which I would have liked.

Having read all the other GE stories, I know that the FTL breakthrough came from the "nerds" and was eventually provided open-sourced to the rest of the world to use, so I'm interested in how the twist (or wrench) thrown in at the end will be explained later.

The Bad. I guess I've been spoiled by all the other Galaxy's Edge audiobooks, RC Bray and the clean, professional productions (I even got use to Ray Porter's performance). I honestly don't know how this production was allowed to hit the streets. The narrator, Fred Tatasciore was a horrible choice. He's clearly talented, but his wheelhouse, and what he's best known for is with cartoon voice overs and not with epic military sci-fi stories. His inflections and range of dialects makes it often difficult to keep track of what character is actually talking. He also likes to end just about every characters dialogue with varying degrees of exasperation. If you have a collection of classic Christmas stories you need narrated, he's your guy.

Then there's the audio production/editing. The first dozen chapters are littered with really bad audio patches of varying tone/volume. It is so bad. fortunately, they clean up a lot more later. More frustrating than the audio patches, are the "breaks/pauses" between the dialogue of two characters can be agonizingly long, awkward and frustrating (I listen at 1.15 speed and it's still bad) and continue throughout the whole listen. Whoever edited the audio needs to be fired.

Again, the story is a good one. If I had the attention span to sit and read a book like a normal person, I might have nothing but good things to say about it.

Can't wait for book 2

I love this book and I hope to see more in the series. The story left me wanting more.
One improvement for the future would be to have a better audio team. Otherwise the narration was good and story amazing.

Great beginning to Galaxy's Edge

I found this to be a well thought out, intricate and cleverly constructed opening book in what will be a great series. Full of the things that makes human beings weak and shallow but also showing us at our best in adversity. I liked the narrator- there is more to life than RC Bray people!! Really looking forward to what comes next.

Great story! fascinating ending!

Another great story by Karen! The story took some great turns that were entirely unexpected and the ending DEFINITELY had me wanting to know more about the planet of Opus!
looking forward to more!

Great addition to the GE universe

Nothing like previous books in the GE universe but very very good, highly recommended, great narration too

not even sure its galaxys edge

this one is a struggle started out ok but fell apart fairly quickly. story is lack luster and for an all powerful near human moral AI he was out witted fairly easily by a not so quick witted CEO.
in the end it just got a bit stupid and was boring, didn't really care much in the end and wish i skipped it to be honest. at 18 hours long its a bug book but could have been cut shorter
characters are not very interesting and after been built up at the start they don't really seem to matter in the end and are all the same, it seems to be a very very startof the universe prequel type of book and has no bearing on the series, so much so that it could be its own stand alone series

Audible production is also terrible sound jumps to loud then soft and audio jumps. its just all round not good
Narrator is great though

Too long

Didn’t enjoy content or bland delivery. Ended up completely losing interest in this meandering story

Too innocent and with recording editings

So easiest part first:
Book is ok, a little innocent and there are parts that have been modified I guess, they sound different out of the blue and it is annoying especially in the beginning.
Got over it after the story gripped me.
The end is where it gets most interesting.
Ok book but seemed like it was PG13.

Ruined by terrible audio

The story seems quite interesting but every few minutes the audio mixing/style switches, sometimes mid sentence, which is very distracting and takes you out of the book. Both the narrator and story are good so far but the audio is very unprofessional and badly put together, souring the experience.

Wonderful!

Really can’t wait to listen to Book 2, hopefully by same narrator. Fred did fantastic job impersonating all the characters.
On verge of the collapse of our civilisation, this story line gives you something to think about. We can’t save all. So who do we try to save. Enjoy

Excellent

Really enjoyed this book, a pity that the next book is not available on audio