The Legion Awakes

The Sleeping Legion, Book 1

By: J. R. Handley

Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer

Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's Summary

A century ago, all but two members of Lance Scipio's unit were executed for bringing dishonor to his regiment.

Now, he is woken into a strange new time, and tasked with whipping into shape the worst squad of misfits in the entire Human Marine Corps.

The price of failure: Death!

AD 2565. Tranquility-4 near the frontier of the White Knight Empire. Guided by mysterious orders, the authorities at the Human Marine Corps base of Beta City thaw Lance Scipio. In 2441, an entire Marine company was executed with the exception of Captain Grimgerde and Sergeant Lance Scipio, the usual punishment for running in the face of the enemy. But these two were preserved...as if they would be required in the future.

Scipio is not expected to escape execution for long, but he has been given a slim chance. For a Marine, a chance can be all that's needed to change the fate of worlds.

The Sleeping Legion is an action-filled sequence of military science fiction novels set in the worlds of the hit series The Human Legion by Tim C. Taylor.

©2016 J. R. Handley (P)2017 Podium Publishing

Gimme that Old Time Marine Corp

Interesting Military Sci-Fi. In the same vein as the Forever War. Need a warrior, thaw me out an old breed Marine. Good Start to a new Series

WHAT A LET DOWN!!

How has this book got so many four and five star reviews??? This is an embarrassing piece of garbage. The made up words are stupid sounding. The storyline in itself is highly erratic and confusing! Jeffery Kafer makes it even more ridiculous. His monotone and poor voice effects make this book even worse than just reading it.

Free Fantasy Book

If you enjoy fantasy and sci-fi mixed together it may be for you. I couldn’t maki it an hour of the wolf human astronauts.

Unsat

Appreciated the nods to the Marine Corps.
The story was bland, there was major potential for the main and secondary characters to have real connections between all the moments of training. Those character building moments were given absolute minimum of attention and hurt the story in my opinion. It felt like Rod Serling narrated the authors outline of a story, the end specifically jumped around.

Interesting

The story is improving with each book and there is enough mystery/suspense to keep me interested in the next section. The writing style is similar to past science fiction, but can present itself as frustrating/confusing if one is unfamiliar with the style.

Breathless cadence

I tried to get Into the story but I found the narrators cadence annoying and couldn’t get past it. Not every sentence needs to sound dramatic.

Hard to believe this was written by a debut Author

Having listened to the prequel Demons of Kor-Lir, this story simply gained speed in all the right ways.

The author again did not lose me in the weeds of military life. I was pulled into the culture and demands of the characters without having to figure out acronyms and nick names. The action was at a blistering pace. New characters were brought in for the story arc without having to replay sections to understand.

As complex as the story moved (because that is what military operations can be like) I was able to follow all of it. The Author preserved the main character from the prequel. There was no ridiculous change in personality as Scipio’s responsibilities grew. Every non-com ever caught coasting along and suddenly hit with a job bigger than they are, will identify with this novel.

This is the classic “Battle Brings Out the Real You” conundrum that happens in military life, when in active deployment. This is the “coaster” we all knew when serving who stopped coasting, because suddenly great big things depended on HIM making the right decisions. This is a real thing that is hard to capture well. I think the Author knocked it out of the park.

The world grew as the story grew, in the details and nuance that keeps readers reading. Loved the whole story. There was no “pushing through” to the good parts. All of it was good.

Highly recommend. This was the opposite of disappointment. The narrator kept true to the prequel and story intent. This was the right guy for this story.
5 out of 5 stars, all three categories.

Better than 1st, BUT...

Better than 1st of series, but still not great. Maybe OK. Narrator does not do a good job IMO & this makes it that much harder to assess.

There's lots of simplistic concepts, premises & characters. People aren't fully fleshed out. Dialogue, including self thoughts seems stilted.

The stories take place with gaps of 35 years plus in between because of cryostorage & this book includes a "flash freezing" system where people where ever they are (walking, sitting, etc.) within the confines of a room or section of rooms in a bldg are "instantly" frozen & then automatically unfrozen 35 years later as a default setting. Seems a tad unrealistic IMO & hard to swallow.

It's things like that which cause me to say this book is sub par. It's also really hard to follow because every voice is the same. With no delineation between characters I can't tell who's talking or when new chapters start or scenes & people change.

Because of the monotonous droning narrative, it's easy to drift off & really hard to go back & figure out where I stopped paying attention. I really have to concentrate to follow the story. When I can manage that, then the story gets a little interesting.

I'll probably listen to the next book because it's free (incl. w/membership) & Im a glutton for punishment - or maybe optimist - always hoping beyond hope that the story improves & the characters escape their cookie cutters & become more multidimensional.

And that the story will eventually make sense. Right now it seems like a lot of threads are woven only to just poof - disappear & never get moved forward or resolved, so much so, I'm really not even sure what the heck is going on anymore.

Could be I missed some parts & didn't realize it, I suppose.... Or could be the plot line ia a tangled ball of shredded yarn that fell in the corner & is collecting dust?

And, I don't know, maybe it's just a pet peeve or mine &/or naivety, but why do so many authors write about alien races that enslave mankind & use them as servants &/or cannon fodder fighters, devolving their lives to a serfdom not unlike the middle ages in structure & mindset?

Culling the ranks of cadets by 1st demoting them to a sub-servant class that can be abused by alien masters & other humans w/o regards to life or limb? Then further culling of the cadets at graduation by executing the lowest ranking platoons?

Really? That's how other space faring races treat each other? Seems if a race has evolved enough to travel the stars, they would be more enlightened? Just saying.....

So, bottom line, IMO, don't buy this book, certainly don't waste a credit on it, but if it's free, your bored & don't have time to search out a better series, you might just want to check it out & decide for yourself.

(I think I might've read in a few reviews there's people who think this narrator is great. I don't know what planet they're from, but opinions are opinions & everyone's got a right to them!)

Bored

Found myself really bored with the performance and very jumpy. The story was ok but could have been improved

No Blasphemy Please

The story started off great. Lots of action. I liked the characters. The reader was good. I was really getting into the story. And then the author started throwing in blasphemy. It ruined the story for me. I'm very disappointed.

Unique

What a unique and interesting story with a background which leaves lots of questions as to how the humans got to where they are. A unique tale with interesting stories along the way.

Great story

loved it just wish it was a omnibus so i could hear the next part

to jumpy and without out back plot.

this feels like a first attempt at writing. the universe is promising but the writing is lacking, misses lots of back drop. it's not helped by an over dromatic narration that tried to over tell the story, over punctuating every sentence.

Space Marines Kick Ass

Love this series. The military humour and action is superb. Read like Gunnery Sargent Hartman in Full Metal Jacket. Brilliant 👍😀

not booyah, or boohoo apparently, but ooh rah!

future MC 'procedural'!

for gung ho merchants!

some tongue in cheek, maybe? 🤔 pls enjoy

Brilliantly written military science fiction

One of the best military science fiction series of books I have ever had the pleasure to continue with. This book takes you further into the story and characters grow into your team members as you listen