The Forever

By: Craig Robertson

Narrated by: Scott Aiello

Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

Jon Ryan is irreverent, cocky, funny, and walks with a swagger. He says what he means, he says what he wants to, and, in fact, he says what needs to be said.

The cocky fighter pilot turned astronaut is also Earth's only chance for survival. The planet Jupiter, thrown off orbit, will destroy Earth in less than a century. Jon volunteers for the most ambitious, desperate mission ever conceived: His consciousness must be transferred into an experimental android host, where he'll live an immortal - and lonely - life. Jon's only companion on his 50-year voyage is his ship's irritable AI.

After successfully journeying for decades and locating a suitable human resettlement, Jon begins to discover the wonders life can hold, including the power of family and, for once, true peace. But no good deed, or good man, goes unpunished.

The US president wants him dead and is willing to sacrifice his own people to eliminate Jon. An alien species has vowed a holy war to eliminate all humans, either on Earth or wherever they might run. Only Jon can protect humans from their enemies.

With the best planet for colonization ruled by an ancient, malevolent species, there may be no hope for humans in a crowded galaxy. The limits of human technology may not be sufficient. The limits of Jon's endurance may not be enough. His endless enemies may prove to be unstoppable.

Jon may have forever, but does humanity have any future at all?

©2016 Craig Robertson (P)2018 Podium Publishing

Pass if you want smart sci-fi

This is not the Bobiverse. The protagonist wanders from planet to planet encountering a variety of dumb aliens. This isn't to say that they all lack intelligence, just that they all act very stupidly.
The AI companion is sufficiently toxic and stupid that you wish it wasn't part of the story... until it inexplicably becomes cooperative during times of stress.
The protagonist just bounces between scenarios with no apparent growth, but doesn't need it as every malevolent space-faring species can be overcome with a very small bag of tricks.
Perhaps I needed to suspend disbelief and take it as the comical space romp that it was written to be, but I just didn't enjoy it.

30 of 33 people found this review helpful

Not so great...

Let’s start with Galaxy Outlaws was way better if your looking for a fun sci-fi crew of misfits and Expeditionary Force has the AI you need to hear. This book has a weak plot with huge holes in the storyline. The main character’s banter is reminiscent of deadpool if deadpool was written by a 14 year old. Finally there is a heavy and unnecessary political slant.

36 of 40 people found this review helpful

Ridiculous. Predictable. All Ex Machina.

Avoid This book.

This book feels like it was trying to ride the coattails of "We Are Legion (We Are Bob)" Very similar ideas that are poorly executed. AS well as a lot of other "inspired" ideas from much better novels.

To start, The Protagonist is suppose to be one of mankind's "best". He is one of a few astronauts selected to find a place for humankind to relocate and save the species. So, that being said, it is ridiculous for him to be so ignorant of many obvious solutions to obstacles in this book. One of the major problems is, is that the author writes himself into a corner by providing the protagonist with too much over powered equipment. Going into spoilers a bit here, but this needs to be said because of how ridiculous it is. The first alien race the protagonist encounters, is what is essentially an alien god race. They don't want to "help" the humans and just want to be left alone. They wont use their almighty alien god magic to help humanity or provide them with knowledge on how they can be saved because morality is strictly a human concept that they themselves don't have. Instead for some asinine reason, they decide to give the protagonist a multipurpose device that will tell him the details of anything it touches and can use threads like octopus arms and is super strong so it can get him out of most problems with a bit of imagination. This device, if anyone tries to study it, will self-destruct so no one can replicate it. They also provide him with a super alien gun so he can protect this device so no one can steal it from him and what? study it and replicate it? But isn't that what the self-destruct is for? The Protagonist also never likes using his super alien space gun because he rather "save" it as his ace in the hole and doesn't want anyone else to know he has it.

He then gets captured by an alien race, with inferior technology, and yet, he doesn't want to use his alien tech to escape because that would be too easy and this book needs tension. Instead the author spends like 3 chapters with him running away and ultimately realizing. Oh. Duh. I can just have my ship's A.I. Pilot the shuttle for me and come rescue me(His super intelligent A.I. did not even think of this). There is no reason for him, an astronaut, who early in the book claimed to have studied every knook and krany of his ship before they launched and knows ALL of its features, forget this one detail that woulda saved him days of hassle. no. and the fact that the A.I. didn't think of it, is also just absurd.

Also he visits a planet where there are varying populations of aliens that look like different earth snack foods. <---DUMB.

ALso ALso. He gets Alien god exmachina'd 3 times. they randomly gift him with soooooooooo much tech. It is absurd they still tried to evacuate earth instead of saving it. Given the technology they had access to. I could list a dozen ways they coulda saved earth and never had to evacuate the planet at all.

ALso Also Also, The president in the future is some insane super dictator. And the protagonist, instead of using his magic unbeatable alien tech to stop him, He lets the human resistance struggle with fighting him and focuses on his own problems.

Overall, The book has no real tension since the protagonist has ultimately, no weaknesses and power that no normal being can contend with. The only tension comes from the author forcing what should be smart characters, to act dumb and limit themselves only because the obvious easy solutions woulda made this book 1/3 it size.

24 of 28 people found this review helpful

Maybe less political attacks and more story.

The political commentary detracts from an interesting story. It would be one thing if it were woven into the story, but it feels like specific political jabs are inserted at the last minute and don't make sense in context.

8 of 9 people found this review helpful

Fun, but...

A fun, delightful story for science fiction fans, right up to the point where the author thought it was wise to insert his political opinions into the story, something I find highly annoying.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

I loved this book!...BUT...

This book began in a similar vein to Bobiverse ( but not as good. The Bobiverse series is exceptional imho). It then came to have several more layers and some satisfying character growth. This not to say it is deep, hard scifi. As another reviewer says, if you're looking for something like Stephenson's book Sevenses, well...look elsewhere.
This book is not like Sevenses but it is creative, and funny and a great light read. Just be ready to go with the flow on the "science" involved. I love a good superhero story so I have the ability to suspend my scientific beliefs in exchange for a good plot.
One more warning. Though he has many great qualities like loyalty, a sense of humor, forgiveness, the willingness to die for those he loves and an inability to stand for anything but a fair and democratic statehood, the book's protagonist has one major flaw I had trouble overlooking. John Ryan, whose POV this story is told, is a chauvinist pig.
After the story had already hooked me, a love interest is introduced at which point we begin to hear more and more of J.R.'s frat boy mentality and flat out sexist commentary .
Feminist that I am, I still really enjoyed ot and would definitely read the next in series.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

was great fun until...(spoilers}

current political references were thrown into the story. also painting the United States in such a negative light during the OBVIOUS propaganda push (UN=global agenda being the good guys) really put a sour taste in my mouth. if the authors had but left it pure science fiction and not unashamedly name dropped current political actors, it would have been an enjoyable story. I, and I'm sure many others like me, enjoy this genre to escape our realities, if only for a brief time. so to interject such a blatant propaganda theme into the story completely diluted it. the narrator was great tho. he was the only reason I was able to slog through its entirety. he made this crap bearable... please give that man a raise. I'm off to get my money back... and I don't recommend spending yours on this.

17 of 23 people found this review helpful

Very entertaining!

This book had me laughing out loud from start to finish. The narrator, couldn’t have done a better job. I recommend this book to anyone that enjoys science fiction and humor. Make sure to purchase the Audible version, as it is well worth the price.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

The Forever 1st book

The narrator Scott Aiello made it even better!
Can’t wait to see hear the rest of the series.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

More Science Fantasy than Science Fiction

I don't get all the 4+ reviews for this book. It's okay but it's not excellent or even great. It's a interesting story and I can tell it's building up to some interesting plot twists but it's a bit of a slog to get through for me. The story telling has a lot of hand waving, so much so that deus ex machina should be it's sub-title. The author has is familiar with a lot of scientific concepts like time dilation but if you're expecting or need hard science, this is not the book for you. Beyond that, the snarkiness of some of the main characters is over the top, the first contacts that I've gotten through so far are cringing and unbelievable. Snarkiness is good in controlled doses (Skippy from the Columbus Day series as an example) but this book force feeds it to you. If you have a credit to burn, go for it... but in my opinion there are a lot of better books to download first.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Scott Aiellos performance saved the day!

Overall good audio book keeps.your entertained, a few far fetched sections but the narrator helps it to keep it moving. I will purchase the second book as I'm intrigued as to what's going to happen to John and his Brood.!

Not has well written as the Bob series but still worth listening to.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great narration but parts of the story seem rushed

This reminded me of Expeditionary Force with the humourous and sarcastic nature of the main character and banter.

It's also really frustrating that the characters seem to miss glaringly obvious plot points for many chapters.

I really enjoyed the narration and the sorry has some great character development but all of the perilous situations that build that character seem forced with Ex Machina solutions seemingly plucked out of thin air.

Overall I still really enjoyed it but I'm not sure if I will listen to the second book.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

sorry . but no...

a pale version of similar concepts and characters already out there.. not often I dont finish a book, but this was one of them.. characters were thin and uninteresting.. by the time I got to the fishy aliens I had lost interest and just found the whole thing annoying.. sorry to be so scathing but this was the third book in a row i had struggled through (different authors) and it is putting me off trying new authors...

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

I do not understand this book.

Ok I would describe the main character as Deadpool in space and complete lovable idiot.
stories interesting but I do feel like there was no plan is just write what ever came to mind by the author.
the audio narration performance was very good. it was one of the main reasons I kept listening to it and the other being hate unfinished story.
the most annoying thing about this book was the logic or the lack of it. No consistency at all frustrating.
Even with all that said its not a bad book.
I would give It 2 and a half stars many be to 3 stars all depending on your mood.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Entertaining but no depth

My first impression was a dislike of the smarmy voice the reader uses.
I also didn't like the main character who had no diplomatic or other skill or wisdom, just dump luck.
There is very little science, just make believe.
Having said all that I listened to the end so i guess it dragged me along.
i strongly recommend the Bobiverse series instead.

Gary Stu in Space

Just disgusting, very shallow story, I couldn't bare to listen anymore after a few chapters into the 3rd book, physically made me nauseous. If you like Gary Stu as your protagonist, by all means download this trash.

Enjoyed especially towards to later half.

New twist on the the world of politics containing evil at the same time. Looking forward to the next 2 berks I have already purchased.

Excellent

A great tale that moves along nicely requiring no effort to enjoy. Great narration enhances it.

An entertaining romp

Androids, mind transfer, destruction of the Earth by Jupiter, which has been dragged out of orbit by a rogue planet, megalomaniacal politicians, using discovered alien tech, hate consumed xenophobic fish people, cross species fertilisation, aliens with four eyes, semi-sentient furballs, hollowed asteroids serving as world ships, faster than light travel and a hero. Nothing new, but put together in a fun way, with terrific narration.

Almost

I enjoyed this book but less so as it progressed.

I wished that the author had allowed John to mature as the years went by but his cavalier attitude becomes boringly predictable and his rebellious outbursts seem less justified and more childlike the older he gets. This isn't helped by an almost similarly juvenile AI (Al).

As an overall plot, I'd give 5 stars (less 2 for the bit above). I loved the si-fi and the varied alien species that the team encounters even though most seem to become mortal enemies.

Scott Aiello absolutely killed it! He literally got me to the end of the book. Bravo & encore; I'll be looking for more by you sir.

I'll have to take a break before book two but I'll get there.