The Others

Blood on the Stars, Book 13

By: Jay Allan

Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer

Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

From the deepest darks of unknown space, evil comes....

Admiral Tyler Barron and the Confederation navy face a new threat, darker and deadlier than any that have come before.

The Confederation has just concluded its war with the Hegemony, but now that power, so long the hated enemy, is calling for help, for the Confederation to join it to face a deadly invasion, one likely to subjugate all humanity.

Barron must overcome his own resentments, and the resistance of the Senate, and find a way to lead his forces into battle once more. The odds are long, but the stakes couldn’t be higher, no less than a choice between survival and freedom...and slavery and death.

Barron and his people will find the strength, somehow, to face the invincible enemy, to find some way to fight, to overcome the darkness.

Or at least to survive to fight another day.

©2019 Jay Allan Books Inc. (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

Downhill Slide & Worst Narrator EVER!

I started off liking this series, enough to even get past the lousy, dog-awful narrator. Please Mr. Allan, get a NEW Narrator. The monotone droning on with no change in emotion or range for different characters makes it confusing and easy to 1) drift off & 2) miss changes when switching to another POV. After about Book 8 (The White Fleet), this series went from an OK, not bad for 1.99 listen, to a WHY are you writing so much redundant filler? I got it the 10th time you told me about how the Alliance were slaves once so their whole culture is built up around this ridiculous 'code of honor' & a glorious but pointless battle to the death is preferable over a strategic retreat. You don't need to tell me this every single time as part of a character's inner dialogue. Repeating the same things over and over and over and over.....is annoying!
I must be a glutton for punishment because I kept hoping the next book would get better or at least go back to be a little interesting like in the beginning. Or I'm just cheap. [SIDE RANT: It ticks me off Audible has almost no books now for $1.99 through Kindle Unlimited (never mind the free listens that were supposed to be included!), Almost everything has jumped up to 7.49 now that might be worth listening to - talk about price hikes! That's only a couple bucks less than a credit, so why am I paying the Unlimited Monthly Membership Fee? It's the principle of the thing, I hate that Audible/Amazon is always outrageously jacking up the prices & like the cable company (at least where I live, on an island), there aren't many providers so they get away with it. OK, 'nuff said.] Back to this series.
I don't ask for much, I'm pretty easy to please. All I want is some interesting characters - they don't even have to be that well developed if they're really funny or outrageous, some forward movement in the plot, fast paced action/adventure (marines are always nice), a spaceship & some cool tech or weapons (I don't know quantum physics, so wormhole, jump gate. FTL, doesn't matter, I can suspend disbelief as long as it sounds good), the usual enemy that wants to kill every last human, the corrupt politicians, the cowardly backstabbing coworker that attained rank without merit & thinks you stole their glory or the worthy rival, etc. & at least 8 or 10 hours (so many are splitting books in to 5-7 hrs to drag series out & charge more - another pet peeve - but at least Mr. Allan hasn't done that too much, thank goodness! Though the first 9 run 11-14 hours, then drops to 10+ for 3, then only 9+ for the next 2, hope #14 doesn't drop to 8 something!), And oh yes, don't forget the Triple A's: AI's &/or Androids & Aliens!
I'm not asking for profound insights into the meaning of life or liberty, don't care if it's a sorta veiled parody/commentary on current politics, coming of age, good versus evil, etc. etc. Just give me a fast paced space adventure with interesting characters. Some entertainment to beam me up Scotty & out of the real world for a while.
I don't want to be annoyed by bad narration. I don't want to be annoyed by excessive filler. I don't want to be annoyed by excessive repetition. I used to like Mr. Allan's books. I've read almost all of them. I liked the Crimson World series (CW, CW Refugees, CW Successors), Portal Wars & Far Stars. Blood on the Stars, however, starts off OK (still has that annoying repetitive inner dialogue but more adventure to balance it or something), but after Andie's story arc is over & it turns to all Tyler Baron/Navy it just slides downhill fast. Even with my admittedly shallow standards, it just gets ridiculous. Finally beat the old enemy (the Union) so a new one pops up out of the blue & attacks for no other reason than to bring you into their fold & 'take care of you'? Then you finally stomp them (Hegemony) & they just happen to get attacked by their haven't seen in 100 years old enemy (Others/Highborn) & you just join with the Hegemony to fight them? Of course, he only hinted about a 100 times that they hadn't attacked in a 100 years so who didn't see that coming? Geez, I said shallow, not Super Stupid. Add that to the most atrocious narrator ever (sorry, Mr. Kafer, but this just ISN'T your forte.) & it's gotten so painful I had take a night off and write a review. It has to REALLY bother me to write a review because I just don't have spare time right now.
Most of the stuff out here now is the same thing, over & over, but you have to at least bring something entertaining or interesting to it AND leave the inner dialogue whining out of it. I don't know if the whole series was bad & it just took a lot of repetition to sink in how bad it was or it slid down. I'd like to think it slid down. Or maybe it was I just got sick of the whining because I didn't have any cheese to go with it. That's a bad line, right? Sorta like the way this series has gone, too many bad lines, told over and over and over, oops not again! I think the horse is dead. Yup. Just checked again. Definitely dead..

Who am I & what do I read? I find it helps to get an idea of the reviewer & to see how/if that fits into what you're looking for. I have about 900 books in my Audible library, which spans @6.5 yrs.& it's @99% fiction. And that doesn't count what I borrow for free from the library (ezone) or on cd/playaway at the physical library. I don't have any time to sit & read anymore so I listen a LOT. While driving, doing chores, walking the dog, at the beach, working, while going to sleep & when waking up. I started listening to stay calm on a long & frustrating commute to work in FL in the 90's - yup, I'm over 50 (but I might not have ever grown up). I've gone through a range of genres, Adult & YA that in the past included mysteries, spies, westerns & biographies (back in the days when audio books came on cassettes, they didn't have online reserving from other branches & my local library was pretty small & catered to seniors, so I went through almost EVERY one they had!)
I've went through Historical Romance (think Outlander Series), then Supernatural (Dresden Files, True Blood, Anita Blake, Monster Hunter Int'l, Hellequin Chronicles, Neil Gaiman...), Alternate Realities (Destroyer Men/Taylor Anderson, Ring of Fire, Safehold/Flint/Gannon/Weber...), Zombies (Indian Hill,...) to current genre, SCI-FI - Authors/Series no real order (Heinlein, Dune/F. Herbert, Brian Herbert, Kevin J Anderson, Jack Campbell, Orson Scott Card, John Scalzi, James Corey, Honor Harrington/Weber, Kris Longknife/M Shepherd, Undying Mercenaries/B.V. Larson, Koban/SW Bennett, Honsinger, Jasper Scott, Dietmar Wehr, Evan Currie, Mark Cooper, Vaughn Heppner, Richard Phillips, David Drake.... you get the idea by now, right?

For the good of all man kind

Once again good to the last battle, last ship, and last man or woman. Great to hold your attention.

Sometimes the same isn't a bad thing.

Great book series, keep it up Jay Allen! but the only critical thing I dislike where the presentation of the "Others" little is revealed about them but it's very Star trek Borg feeling without the good part of the Borg being a hivemind.

narrator got to me

good story. The narrator grated on me after awhile. his cadence is great for combat. during the build up I kept thinking he sounded like the guy from unsolved mysteries.

Great book!!!

I liked the book, the Peformance was realy good,
The any problem is the wait time between books, a year between books is too long. I would like to see more book alot fast.

phenemonal as usual

Glad to be back in this world. the battles get more and more perilous and I do love the high hero style stories.

Keep them rolling.

The story seems to repeat itself with different enemies and the same solutions however always enjoyed the listen.

I would have made an interesting 9 chapters

He just mailed it in, It does take the story predictably forward. Spoiler alert; the others are a problem; they agree to fight against them; there are political problems. But I really don't know much more than I did at the end of the last book.

Most of the book is repetitious the angst of the characters.

The Enemy of My Enemy

The enemy of my enemy isn’t ALWAYS my friend! Sometimes they’re a lot worse than the people you hated and wanted nothing more than to destroy. But what if you and your government and fellow citizens are still recovering from a devastating war? Well, who ever said that life is fair?!

But what are you going to do? What are the odds that the new enemy will leave you alone after they defeat the enemy you so recently fought?

And how do you forgive the enemy that killed so many of your own people?

Once again, Jay Allan has written a hugely enjoyable military sci-fi novel, and Jeffrey Kafer does his usual fantastic job as narrator! Heck, the whole series is a winner! Thanks, Jay!

Awesome! One of my favorite series.

I always enjoy this series and I can’t wait for the next. Hopefully there will be a few more at least l!

Great series

I love these books amazing series. Can be a litte repetative from book to book but mostly just with phrases and sentences. The action is amazing and like the fact theres a good number of books and not sat there waiting for the next book to come out. listen to if you like expidtionary force

You have to listen to it

A great book loved the story great narration 5 stars I highly recommend listening to this book 👍👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Enemy of My Enemy

It has only been a year since the war between the Confederation and the Hegemony ended before, once again, Tyler Baron and his fleet are called to arms. This time in an alliance with the Hegemony against an even bigger threat to humanity, the Others. A lot of grudges will have to be put aside by his spacers if the Alliance is to succeed. The Senate also add to Tyler Baron's woes, but friends in high places are always of benefit.

Tyler finally managed to marry Andi LaFarge before he left for Calpharon after a plea from the No.1 of the Hegemony, Akella,

I think the continuing war between the Union, the First Citizen, Villeneuve, and the Confederation has really run its course. It has become a little stale, hence the 4 stars.

There is, as always, no shortage of action. However, a little less of the thoughts of the leading characters would not be missed I feel.