The Quest

Sanshlian Series, Volume 1

By: Dani Hoots

Narrated by: Claire Duncan

Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's Summary

There is only one way to bring back order to the galaxy, and that is finding the legendary planet Sanshli...

Eleven Years ago, my life was ripped away from me. My father, my brother, my humanity. Everything. I was thrown into the Kamps, created to become a mindless machine. But I fought against it, not letting them take away my memories of the past.

And I succeeded.

It has been seven years since I was taken out of the Kamps and made into the Emperor's Shadow. Now I only take orders from him, and him alone, without question. That is, until my brother, whom I thought was dead, shows up and kidnaps me in order to help him find some long lost planet that our father used to tell stories about. According to the legend, any who find the planet Sanshli can rewrite the past, and my brother wants to use it to destroy the Empire. My loyalty will always be to the Emperor, but what if this planet is real? And the longer I stay with my brother, the more I begin to find that the Emperor has been keeping secrets from me. But I can't turn my back on him...

Or can I?

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There is better YA science fiction out there

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This was a DNF for me. I picked this out of my Audible TBR while waiting for Aurora Burning to come through from my library. Honestly, The Aurora Cycle series is what this book strives to be and falls far short.

The premise of this book sounds great, but the actual story is somewhat ridiculous and unbelievable. Let's use The Aurora Cycle series as an example. In that series, authors Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff lay out why a bunch of teens would hold such important titles on a spaceship (it's because of how space travel wears on a body). Meanwhile, in The Quest every. single. high-ranking person is a teen or in their (very) early 20s with no explanation for why. On top of that, nearly no older adults made an appearance (at least as far as I listened). It's as if all the adults had been wiped out, again with no explanation for why.

Second, this is supposed to be a science fiction series, but there was little to no worldbuilding going on. Between the names, the ball, and the outfits, this could easily have taken place now rather than in the future or some far-off planet. Again, comparing it to The Aurora Cycle series, which featured a ball/party scene, there was a sense of being somewhere else among other peoples. In essence, worldbuilding.

Finally, and what made me decide not to continue listening to this audiobook, is how Arcadia reacted to SPOILER BELOW
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meeting her brother again and his torture.

END SPOILER

As for the audiobook itself, the narrator, Claire Duncan, wasn't bad. I had no real complaints with her narration or voices.

Overall, I had a lot of hope for this book, but I just couldn't handle the immaturity and the lack of worldbuilding, especially coming on the heels of great YA science fiction like The Aurora Cycle series and Skyward or Starsight by Brandon Sanderson.

Already on to the second audiobook!

I really enjoyed this book, great sci fi, a cool world and a badass main character and supporting characters! The narrator was great and brought the characters to life and kept you immersed in the story. Definitely recommend for any YA Sci-Fi readers!