The Orbs Series Box Set: Books 1-4

By: Nicholas Sansbury Smith, Anthony J. Melchiorri

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

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!

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

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.....

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

So so good

First, Bronson narrated the hell out of this book. Such a great narration, every character so specific and unforgettable. You made me feel this book. I cried when it ended. I’m so grateful for this planet it would be so hard to leave to start over. A group of aliens called the architects forcibly takes the water out of every location, lakes, oceans, ground water, and human bodies. The humans cant stand against them. They are too advanced for our tech, weapons, and can’t be stopped from destroying the planet and killing most of the humans on the planet. Sort of like a previous Tom Cruise movie.

A bad solar storm wreaks havoc on the earth years before the invasion thanks to the aliens who reside on Mars having a way to augment the damage made by the solar storm. Widespread destruction happens and the humans are trying to make a comeback from this. A group of scientists want to idiotically get to Mars to have a way start a colony. Multiple biospheres are secretly made in order to train humans to go to Mars as a colony. Each group is a separate group. Meanwhile several submarines are to stay underwater monitoring the various biospheres with a hands off protocol. The military mans the subs.

The aliens invade right as the biospheres get going. The biospheres are cut off from the and have to figure out an invasion is taking place. All over the world the military is defeated. All the water is collected and the foliage, land, crops, are left to die. The hierarchy over the biospheres betrays the humans of the planet and leaves for Mars as the aliens come. Lots of secrets, betrayals later, only a small group surviving the biosphere get to go to Mars, the home of the aliens. They think they are going to start over but they have to fight their way off Mars. They eventually get to a new planet which is similar to earth.

So much action, great science, and yes you have to suspend belief since this takes place in the future and lots of things that don’t exist yet are used. So much fun. Once you start book 1 you just have to finish books, 2, 3, and 4. Such a great writer. If you like Helldivers you will love this.

inventive and unique, little drawn out

enjoyed the story and the characters a lot, the voice actor did a great job. I'll be fine if I don't hear the words scratch and scrape for a while though...I always forgot how it was described that sound got made by spiders when I always pictured them at scuttling. my only other issue was the portrayal of A.I. they could be incredibly smart but then shrug off things like "oh that ominous noise must have been nothing" but then it knows the psychology of a person having a half second more pause in their reply.

Books built upon one another well.

I struggled a little in book 3 to stay 'IN' the book, but I was also multiple tasking at the same time- so maybe my used brain energy was taking from it. the rest of the series, however even with me listening while working- it kept my attention really well. I loved the building stories of each character. This author did an incredible job at laying the scene, describing the characters... even down to what the weather must have looked like that I felt like I could see it. I've struggled with finding audio books that I really enjoy, especially longer sets like these. But between the writing of this book and the person they choose to do the reading- I stayed put for this one til the end! I didn't even watch TV while I was working thru this book- I HAD to 'see' what happened next in the ORB series. Great job to the author, and I am excitedly looking thru the extensive list of other books he has available.