The Catalyst

Targon Tales, Book 1

By: Chris Reher

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

It's no easy tour of duty for Lt. Nova Whiteside when her interstellar transport is taken by pirates, and she is then tagged for termination. Could it have something to do with the mysterious alien they were transporting? Having gone from merely MIA to technically AWOL, any chance of escape leaves her no choice but to rely on Sethran Kada, a former lover, for help. Unfortunately, she realizes, they are now on opposite sides of an escalating war between the Commonwealth Union of Planets and an increasingly dangerous rebel organization.

In trying to find who is threatening her life, they discover a plot to destroy a distant planet - a world inhabited by creatures that are the key to Nova's survival - and a conspiracy that threatens the stability of the Union Commonwealth. Can Nova go beyond her strict military training to cooperate with people whom she is sworn to destroy?

©2012 Chris Reher (P)2016 Podium Publishing

It gets better…

This is the 2nd book I’ve listened to in the series and it keeps getting better. Life isn’t easy for the main characters and the integrity of Nova gets her through the hardest trials. The action keeps me up at all hours.

It’s a fun but shallow story

The story is fun and well-paced but does not go deeper than that. There’s no real themes or thought provocation. For what it is, I enjoyed it.

Emily Woo Zeller is one of my favorite voice actor / narrators. Bumped my rating up from 3 to a 4.

Nice balance between the sci-fi and romance

I am a big fan of world building and this story did a great job with new unique aliens and interspersed politics balanced by believable characters and an exciting plot. The narrator nailed the voice acting.

An all time new favorite!

This book series peaked, caught, and held my interest. Can’t wait for more. I love this whole multiple series from Cat to Nova! Awesome read.

Entertaining

This was a decent story. I found it entertaining and not too predictable. Worth checking out.

horrible narrator

I could not get past the first chapter because the female narrator's fake male voice was absolutely horrible and intolerable. also the Frantic yelling female voice is also intolerable, basically this narrator is horrible

Narration Was Bad

I had a very hard time with the performance. The female affecting male voices just didn't translate well. The story was good, but this needs to switch narrators to gain more listeners.

A struggle to finish

It would have been a really great book if it didn't center around Is the main characters love interest. Because of this it was a struggle to finish
I'm always looking for sci fi military that has a strong female lead. This should have been in the romance novel category. Thank goodness it was free I will not be listening to the next books if there anything like this one

Not bad

I enjoyed the story and think the action scenes were well-written compared to most comparable novels. I wish the dialogue and characters were better written. They both seemed trite. So much so that I don’t really care for the main character. At least not enough to purchase the next book in the series. But I am curious about the species that appear in the story.

Time killer book

Not a really great plot. Not the best narrator for this book. Narrator was good, I just couldn’t put her with the character’s. Book seeded to keep struggling for action.
I won’t listen to another one free or otherwise. As I said it was just an audio book to have noise in the background. I would have returned it after first chapter had I paid for it