The Orbs Series Box Set: Books 1-4

By: Nicholas Sansbury Smith, Anthony J. Melchiorri

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 36 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

A thrilling collection of the entire best-selling Orbs series from New York Times best-selling author Nicholas Sansbury Smith.

While training for a manned mission to Mars, Dr. Sophie Winston and her team of scientists find themselves cut off from the rest of the world. Trapped inside a biosphere deep within the confines of Cheyenne Mountain, Sophie and crew discover they are the survivors of a brutal alien invasion. But as they struggle to stay alive, they realize their safe haven is far from safe and that they must team up with other survivors around the world to defeat the aliens before it’s too late for humanity and the Earth.

©2013, 2014, 2015, 2018 Orbs I © 2013 by Nicholas Sansbury Smith. Orbs II © 2014 by Nicholas Sansbury Smith. Orbs III © 2015 by Nicholas Sansbury Smith. Orbs IV © 2018 by Nicholas Sansbury Smith and Anthony J. Melchiorri (P)2021 by Blackstone Publishing

Worth the credit, BUT...

This is the first time I've reviewed an audiobook with a rating other than 5 stars. Why? Because I only (until now) rate books I absolutely love. So why did I write a review for Orbs? Because overall the story and performance were very good (like the title states, "worth the credit"); however, there were a two glaringly painful aspects of this series which I felt compelled to address. Orbs is a conundrum to be sure.
First, and by far most egregious, is Bronson Pinchot's narration of the AI's. The A.I.'s in Orbs are supposed to be decades more advanced than anything we have today. Yet, even compared to Siri (Apple) and Alexa (Google), Pinchot's A.I. readings are needlessly exagerated and robotic, then minutes later, subdued, clunky and still robotic. His inflection and jerky cadence while reading the parts of Alexia, Eileen, and Sonia are downright offensive to the ears. It was as if Pinchot continually experimented with different ways to make the A.I.s as annoying as possible throughout all 4 books. Pinchot's tendency to drag out sporadic words and phrases as if they were cut and pasted from a phonetic word bank (like that meme of Obama singing "Call me maybe") will have you thinking he's got a mild case of Terets. I mean no offense to those who suffer from that particular syndrome. The comparison is apt nonetheless. Even worse is his Russian accent! I can't even explain how bad it is. In fact, you might want to drop the credit to hear just how atrocious it is! His rendition of the A.I.s and that God-awful accent is especially baffling when compared to his overall exemplary performance of the series (thankfully the vast majority of Pinchot's narration).
Second, while Smith and Melchiorri have created a compelling, mostly-original story with well developed characters, their characters' responses to extreme end-of-the-world stresses and situations are inconsistant AF. I don't mean each character reacts differently when experiencing the story's particular doomsday scenario, that's a given. I mean there are multiple occasions where a given character is cool as a cucumber one chapter, and the next, dramatic and histrionic as a bi-polar prom queen. The best, or worst, example of this is Imanual. One minute he's the logical level-headed scientist, the next he's Luke Skywalker when Darth Vader drops the "I'm your Father" bomb, "NOOOO! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" Completely incredulous! Dude, pick a personality already.
So yes, the story and the performance need some work. BUT, many, if not most, aspects of this series make it well worth your time and money. The one character dynamic that makes all the cons I listed acceptable, or at least tolerable, is Jeff and David. I'll say this, if everyone had a big brother like Jeff, this world would be a much better place. Spend the credit. It's not everyday you listen to a series which leaves you thinking, "That was pretty bad, but I'll probably listen to it again in a year or two."🤣

Pretty damn good

This was Smith's first series and you can tell in some ways, but the ideas are what makes this series so good. There really isn't anything else out there like Orbs when it comes to alien invasions or first contact stories. If you like horror, action, and suspense, this is a great box set. All for one credit!

Another great series!

I love listening to box sets and this one did not disappoint! Nicholas sansbury smith knocked out another great series!

I kept hoping narration would get better

I suffered through the first book in the hopes that the performance would get better in the 2nd book. it improved only slightly, and the subsequent next 2 books were the same in regards to narration. High pitch screaming only to be followed by whispering.

Storyline was interesting though.....

scratch scrap

I could have done without 50% of scratch scrap. definitely a good value and I love Nicholas Sansbury Smith.

not the best from Smith

Good narration, however the story seems to drag and the characters are not very interesting. as far as a NSS book goes I would rate it below avg. which is still pretty high amongst the sci-fi genre.

Great story, great narration

Some people have left reviews dissing the story or the narrator. I think both were great. People have complained about how the narrator did some voices, but this is not their book. If you want this to be your book and narrated your way, then you will be disappointed with everything in every book. But if you accept that this is a fantasy sci-fi book with aliens and science, then you can accept the voices and story twists and turns. It's sci-fi, it is not going to perfectly realistic given today's world, for some things you need to hit the "I believe button" and just enjoy the story. I did, and I loved it

Interesting End of World Alien Invasion

So I liked much about this story. I'm all for end of the world alien invasion. it really pit humans as the far far underdog here, but in the end, we are tenacious little ants. Overall good. Bit slow at the end but good characters and narration.

First book where I wanted the lead to die.

This is the first book over the hundreds I have listened to, where I was hoping the lead character (Sophie) would finally succumb to the alien attack. Talk about a whiney leader of the group. She is always drifting off into dreamland and doesn't realize it. And if I never hear "scratch scrape" again my life will be a whole lot better.

However, the concept of the story is quite interesting, and overall, if you can put up with Sophie and the scratching and scraping, its worth finishing.

Life will always survive

I liked everything I was enveloped so a good read. I don’t think it could be better