The Power of a Queen

Annihilation, Book 2

By: Saxon Andrew

Narrated by: Liam Owen

Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Humans have destroyed 2,000 Alliance Warships and now they are taking the war to the worlds responsible for attempting to destroy Earth. The Alliance still has more than 48,000 Warships but the way things are going, they may not be enough. A new Queen has come to power and her impact on the struggle will be monumental.

The Annihilation Trilogy continues in the second book and the adventure intensifies as the forces arrayed against humanity are coming enmass. Hang on. The ride gets more intense.

©2011 Saxon Andrew Publishing llc (P)2014 Saxon Andrew Publishing LLC

silly sci fi-Light

I liked the first book, even though the story had giant holes in it and it was light on details to make the story work. It was entertaining and I liked the characters. The story was a little silly. A highschool kid, being chased by the law is grabbed and made the leadrer of the world against evil space aliens. Yeah, that could happen. His powers were fun though.

This book continues with the evil aliens killing humans that had surrendered just because they did not like us and planning to annihilate Earth. They like to wipe out planets and kill everybody. It is part of thier culture. So with our fearless leader leading we beat the aliens with fanciful technology we got from other aliens they had killed.
Rather than destroy these evil guys we sit down to talk. Our fearless young hero's wife convinces the evil leader of the aliens that he was wrong and hated humans for no reason. He sees the error of his ways, So the wife Says" the aliens are our friends now so lets give them our technology!"

At this point I would have thrown a physical book across the room, but I really did not want to break my new Iphone.

I like Sci Fi and I have read Bad sci Fi before, but this should be in the childrens fairytale
"If we just talk to the evil people who want to kill us for fun, they will like us and we can all be friends " section. I am sorry I wasted credits on this series. Buyer beware!

I just couldn't stomach it.

Any additional comments?

At the end of the first book, I thought "Where can the author go from here". The protagonist was given god like powers. In the second book, it seems to be a liberals version of a war book. All conflict ends with the enemy not really being bad, but rather they just perceived the world in the wrong way. So show them the light, forgive them, make them your ally, and given them all your tech and weaponry. What?!?

The author treats the enemies like wayward children. If we can just explain to them how they really should be, then we can all get along just fine. Even entire races that are described as inherently war-like.

I can suspend my disbelief over technology and matters of physics, but I just can't believe what the author is asking us to swallow.

Middle East Peace: Just Explain Violence is Bad.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Some characters in this book are indestructible like Superman, but WITHOUT any kryptonite weakness. Need I say how this lowers the stakes.

I liked the first book, but found this book be bizarrely naive. In one scene two warring factions put their differences aside and make peace, literally, after two minutes of a lecture on why aggression is counterproductive. Two more minutes and the foes that were on the brink of genocide become best allies.

Imagine Hitler, facing imminent defeat, talks to the U.S. about ceasing hostilities and saying "My God What Have I Done, I've Been So Wrong. How can I ever atone for what I have done? Killing innocent people is wrong, I see that now". And he means it! Then a few days later, the U.S. provides Adolf with nukes so that Germany can protect themselves against Russia. I am not exaggerating--even for a YA, this would be highly simplistic plotline. A C.J. Cherryh novel on the other hand, has very realistic and engaging diplomacy to achieve peace. Such a blow to realism.

I guess I know now why I felt the "Love Conquers All" subtitle of the first book was a little iffy. I found the tech and battle scenes fine although when you're Superman the odds are in your favor. Did I mention that the Superman-like characters are also psychic because being unkillable and a self-contained WMD is not enough advantage. I'm not so much put off with the book, just very surprised that a reasonably well written novel would have such glaring weaknesses.

The most fun story I've read in over 40 years!!

What did you love best about The Power of a Queen?

I simply loved that it was a classic Space Opera story in the old tradition of E.E. "Doc" Smith. I mentioned in a review of the first book that Saxon Andrew writes in the style of Doc Smith and he's impressed me even more with The Power Of A Queen. I'm sure there are many who will nit-pick the writing and find faults here and there but my only complaint is that it was too short and now I have to wait for book 3...hopefully coming SOON. If you just want to enjoy the ADVENTURE and don't want to have to "think" much about "the science" then you'll love this story like I did.

Have you listened to any of Liam Owen’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I've only previously listened to Liam in the original Annihilation book and I find the for the first 20 minutes or so I'm thinking that I might not like his narration but in both books I quickly got used to his style and even appreciate what he brings to the story.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No question about it. I couldn't stop until the end and then was very disappointed that it was over.

Any additional comments?

Just that I'm hoping Audible will jump on this series and get the rest of the books produced sooner rather than later. (Are you reading this Audible???)

Don't buy this book, book one was a good read stop

Don't buy this book! I really liked book 1 but this is like pulling teeth. All kumbayah and touchy feely social "if we only get to know each other we will all get along" BS. I live in a real world and I like my characters based in real life even though it may be 2 or 3 hundred years in the future. This is want-a-be nonsense and other than the action, most of the book was like a bad sermon.

Terrible. Stop after Book 1.

Any additional comments?

The first book in the series was silly but at least enjoyable. This book was laughably simplistic. I wouldn't even say it belongs in the children's section as I think a 3rd grader would find it it silly.

Good book but series turning into a morals lecture

This started off as a really good series but in the second book it seems to be taking a turn where the author is continuously lecturing us on how we should treat others the way we want to be treated and how popcorn is the greatest thing in the world so much so that it takes away from the book itself. Plenty of books have that hidden agenda where they try to tell you to treat others well, some are little bit more blatant and have the characters talk to other characters about how they should treat others. In this series the author actually steps outside of the entire book to give you the lecture directly and it is so repetitive throughout the entire book to the point of where it is extremely annoying. I have already bought the next book in the series but if it keeps on heading in that direction it will be the last book in the series that I bother with.

Great Scifi fun

If you like Saxon Andrew's clean fun and exciting style then you will enjoy this one. Great addition to the story line with new characters and enemies. As with the prior book awesome narration and effects!

Wow, Much Better than Book One!

This is still a fairly light, but now good Space Opera. It's still no Lois McMasters Bujold but compared to the first book this book is golden, helped in part by the narrator who made me laugh outright by using a few well known voices and applying them to characters. Not too obviously, but Nixon in Space? Lol! Well worth suffering Book One to get to this book!

Good story BUT many bad edits

The story has me following the series. But a MAJOR problem exists where the poor edits exist where the reader repeats sections of what he just read with slight changes. This is quite distracting and causes the listener to be pulled from being focused on the story. Very poor execution and not meeting the quality standards one expects from Audible

Great SciFi series

If you could sum up The Power of a Queen in three words, what would they be?

gripping, compassionate

Who was your favorite character and why?

TAG - he is the original "underdog" with special abilities, who has risen

What about Liam Owen’s performance did you like?

Excellent narrator - almost hypnotic reading tone keeps you captivated - good for relaxing !

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

This SciFi is not ALL about space-fights - although there are plenty.
The Queen is powerful through her empathy, compassion, care and forgiveness - as well as her technology and psychic powers.

Any additional comments?

Loved it.

A good Listen

The storey is ok, it is along the same lines of many similar books, war and then everyone making up with each other and coming together to fight an even more wicked foe,to quote I will carry on with the rest of the authors books when they availible.