The Fringe Series Omnibus: Books 1-5 in the Fringe Series

By: Rachel Aukes

Narrated by: James Anderson Foster

The first five thrilling novels in the Fringe Series are now available in a convenient audiobook bundle!

Featuring galactic conspiracies, epic interstellar missions, and three rebel captains at the front of an interplanetary war, this explosive collection includes the following titles:

1. Fringe Runner
2. Fringe Station
3. Fringe Campaign
4. Fringe War
5. Fringe Legacy

War looms on the horizon.... After the colonization of Mars and Europa, it took us fewer than five generations to reach beyond our solar system and colonize new planets capable of supporting human life. Power struggles have made a galactic war inevitable, and only an old mail runner, a space pirate, and their ragtag crews can prevent it.

©2019 Rachel Aukes (P)2024 Rachel Aukes

Interesting Space / Sci-fi Saga

This five book series in quite long and well worth a listen if you need to have a story playing in your ear most of the day (like me). At 25 hours, this series is a bargain. The character development is good and the multiple story lines keep you listening as does the excellent performance by Mr. Foster.

Good Story

Good story. well paced, and just enough suspense to be enjoyable. This is the second time I have read books from Rachel Aukes. She is an excellent sci-fi writer.

Amazingly Perfect!

This set was perfect! I can not find anything to complain about! I could, I guess, complain certain people didn't get what was coming to them, but it fits perfectly in the story.

It is not just a one-sided story. It has multiple players working to different ends, and the author executed that complexity with fantastic ease for the listener!

Entertaining Space Opera

The human race has expanded their horizons and now their destiny is tied to six planets far from the Solar System. They are governed by The Collective, but only people from two of the six worlds are considered citizens. The colonists, who live in the other four planets are forced to pay high taxes to the Collective, while people on the main two planets live the good life.

This is the story of an old captain and his crew, who survived the old war, and get the wheels in motion to start a new revolution, perhaps giving a fair chance to the colonists.

I thoroughly enjoyed this series, which reminded me a lot of Firefly. I especially liked the political intrigues, the conspiracies, and the newly formed alliances. I think the cast of characters was also quite interesting, each one with their particular baggage.

There are five books in the series, and I enjoyed some more than others. It took me quite some to get into the story, and I think it was mainly due to the lack of descriptions. I think knowing more about the scenes and the characters would have helped me to get hooked more quickly. For instance, we know little about the characters’ appearance. We know that the captain may be old because we read again and again about the pain in his joins, but we only get to know his age in the third book. It is the same with the rest. One of the characters is in a wheelchair, and another one has terrible scars on his face, but we don’t know a lot about how any of the characters should look like. I don’t really need a lot of information, I know readers need to exercise their imagination, but I could have done with a couple of clear characteristics about each character to file them separately in my mind. It happened the same with places, situations, and actions. I think I needed to ‘see’ more clearly how things were and what was happening.

Probably because of this, I felt detached from the characters and events. There were situations of enormous emotion, but for the life of me, I could not feel it. I felt the rhythm a bit slow on occasions. I enjoyed the story, it was entertaining, but I did not find it gripping.

James Anderson Foster’s narration was excellent. This is the second time I have the pleasure of listening to a book narrated by Foster, and he does a wonderful job interpreting the characters and using a compelling tone to keep the listener interested. Subtle variations helped to differentiate characters, and all in all, the narration improved the whole experience.

I would recommend this series to anyone into the genre, and also people nostalgic about Firefly. The worldbuilding was good but the story was not very original. Still a decent read.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Very Enjoyable Series

I received this audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review.

This series plays out much like a television series. There are plots and subplots that are examined, with interconnectivity that takes multiple books to play out. Even then, this omnibus only includes the first five books, and it is obvious that there are several unfinished story arcs at the end of book five.
The books are well written and involve complex plot lines. With six different worlds to visit, each with different histories and effects in its inhabitants, Rachel Aukes did a fine job of explaining them with ample details. The colonies’ desire for independence and the efforts of the two lead worlds to deny them is clearly reminiscent of the US colonial plight, though to an exaggerated level. In that regard it definitely appealed to me.
The performance from James Anderson Foster was strong. He voices many of the characters uniquely, making it clear who was speaking throughout. He performed all aspects well, giving life to the narrative sections as well as to the characters.

SciFi

If you love the Expanse then you will love this. It has a smiliar feel to it. There is plenty of action, suspense, tension, betrayal, family, love and some humour.
I would have listened to it in one go but that was not possible.
There is sporadic profanity, with some violence and no sexual content (happens behind closed doors but sex is talked about).
I would recommend it to those who like scifi with twists and turns.

What a nice surprise!

This was a great listen. As a healthcare provider during the COVID 19 pandemic, I needed an escape and this was it! I was able to lose myself in the life of the characters and the story. Rough and tough heroes to cheer on! The narrator did a good job of portraying the characters and all their nuances. Can’t wait to listen to more of this author’s works.

great story. all 5 books!

awesome tale about the struggle for independence, having a voice and standing up for what is right.

Loved the series

I liked the narration and the flow of the story. Great deal getting all 5 books for 1 credit.

Great series!!

Fantastic story line. I hesitate to try and compare to anything else. Maybe a cross between Star Wars and Firefly??
It has it all. Action, intrigue, love and loss, family and humor. I can’t want for the series to continue!!!

The narrator was perfect! This was my first audiobook with Mr. Foster as narrator but hope it’s not the last.

I received this audiobook free at my request for an unbiased review.

Thank you for the opportunity to listen it was my pleasure..