The Lost Fleet: Galactic Search

A Slaver Wars Novel, Book 1

By: Raymond L. Weil

Narrated by: Liam Owen

Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

The battle at the galactic center had been a great victory for the Federation and the Alliance but at a tremendous cost. The Battleship Avenger and her fleets had vanished being drawn into a great white vortex at the moment of victory. For over four years, the mystery of what happened to the Avenger has haunted the Federation.

The last two survivors of the Special Five have built a powerful exploration cruiser to go off in search of the lost fleets. They are convinced that the fleets have survived and are trapped in another galaxy. What they find in their search will be a threat to the Federation far greater than the AIs and the Hocklyns had ever been. The fate of thousands of worlds will depend on the Distant Horizon finding those that were lost and stopping this new and dangerous menace.

In former Hocklyn space, the Borzon and the Shari are on the move. Their fleets are seizing large areas to add to their own Slave Empires. Admiral Race Tolsen and Third Fleet are sent to push the Borzon and Shari back to ensure the recently freed worlds don't once more fall into slavery. Unknown to Admiral Tolsen is the fact that he has an important role to play in the survival of the lost fleets, as well as the galaxy.

©2015 Raymond L. Weil (P)2015 Raymond L.Weil

Please use a different narrator. Please.

The wrong inflections are used in the wrong places. I kept thinking I would eventually get used to the narrator but it never happened. The story line is rushed and not very well fleshed out.

interesting yarn

An expansive tale with lots of characters. Very futuristic science ficton. I will look for the next chapter.

No Sync in Whispersynch

Any additional comments?

Very difficult following the reading of the book along with with whispersync.. the book was poorley written, and whispersync tried to improve the writing, constantly changing the writing .. which means you have to do one or the other.. not both at the same time .. Which is the only way whispersync is of any value.

Not For Me

I picked this up at an Audible sale recently, always looking for new and interesting sci fi series. Unfortunately, I could not get into this first book in a new series (and part of a larger collective). The writing is fairly simplistic, with the usual gender bias so rampant in this genre (men are men but woman are 'girls', girls cry a lot or spend time in front of mirrors making sure they are still trim and fit for when their men return from space). Sadly, this was coupled with an audio narration that only exacerbated uninspired writing - warning signs go up when a captain switches from sounding like William Shatner in full Star Trek glory to an effette British noble. Let's not get into the girly-girl voices.

Story: while Earth puts together a rescue mission to find the Lost Fleet, the individuals in the Lost Fleet themselves find themselves in an uncharted part of space - with a very new and hostile alien threat. The AIs and humans will have to forge an uneasy alliance if they hope to survive this new threat.

This is the type of writing that makes my teeth hurt from grinding them. Most characters say really stupid things just to begin an exposition of the situation. It's so silly because someone in that situation isn't going to state the obvious over and over again just so that someone else can start 'discussing' the plot. Take this example: the woman chosen to lead the rescue mission is a Rear Admiral in her own right and highly skilled. So her father, also an admiral, comes to her to say in concern, "Catherine, this will be a dangerous mission." (Thank you, Admiral obvious!). And then adding in helpful points such as, "you may never return." Because, yes, when a crew volunteers to go on a mission into unknown territory where a whole other fleet has disappeared, it's important to remind someone of these points, last minute, right before they leave, and after HE assigned her the mission. I know it's meant to show paternal love - but ugh.

There is a lot of old fashioned sexism in here - I don't believe the author even realized it, though. The 'girls' are always on the verge of tears when thinking about their missing husbands - I defy you to find one guy mourning his wife in the same way. And the 'girls' tend to get clumped together, always seeming to be attached at the hips. Because, yes, women cluck and cluster like hens whereas men are lone wolves in their determination and resolve.

There were several plot and character issues I just couldn't get past to enjoy the story. The unfortunate narration didn't help matters, either. The narrator has a great voice but the acting skills were painful and accents/dialogue either cliched or derisive.

At heart, this is a story about good people trying to survive in a harsh modern milieu. The characters are likable in their everyman simplicity and I am sure they will appeal to many. For me, I always look for a science fiction that feels like the future - and not like a 2010s version of the future as written by someone who grew up in the 1960s.

Very good !!!

Very good followup of the previous books of the lost fleet. Highly recommended read or listening to.

Another Great Series!

Another Great Series by Raymond Weill
Building on a great universe from the first series, this story has great space battles and an engaging storyline. Narration was also fantastic!

Interesting basic plot

The plot is interesting, but there are way way too many words about how much the separated lovers miss each other. Would the commander of a military rescue mission take officers she thought might mutiny because of being separated from their lovers? If this book doesn't bring them together I don't think I can stomach another book with all those words about the separated lovers.

Excellent!

I just finished the entire series and I loved it. The narrator is fantastic and really develop the characters and provides consistent back story that helps readers navigate between the books. .. But not too much.

Fantastic!

Great performance by Mr. Owen to go along with a nice story by Mr. Weil. Exciting battles, nice pacing, both fed the space sci-fi need in me. I was also glad to see nice 'epilogues' of former main characters, often a series kills them off, but here it was satisfying to read how Amanda and Hedon were settling down and enjoying life. It was a brief mention, but it was good to see that out of the limelight doesn't mean forgotten.

My only frustration was the usual, the let's wait until the last moment and then pull out our best weapon. It's like Voltron and form blazing sword, always at the end, instead of the opening move. Why always wait until you're losing and then turn the ship over to Carissa or Ariel, when you know they can kick tail better and faster. Rant over.

All in all the new series is exciting and picks up on wonderful character moments if you've kept up with the series, great battles, new tech, continued galactic political development with the other former proxy races , helping former slave races, committing to freeing the rest, its very grand, heroic and epic. I look forward to the rest of the series.

Warning! PG-13. I enjoyed it, though.

Feel good space opera, but note that the Milky Way = 120,000 light years across & has 500,000,000,000 stars. (Young people, don't fear that it would be easy to conquer.) The style of narrator was distracting. The emotions of separated couples are portrayed as sickly sweet, but those of us who have been physically distant know the painfulness of it. A nice action oriented story which held my interest when otherwise I would have been bored. (Review by Rick)