The Rogue Prince

Sky Full of Stars, Book 1

De: Lindsay Buroker

Narrado por: Emily Woo Zeller

Starseer, pilot, and animal lover Jelena Marchenko wants to prove to her parents that she's ready to captain her own freighter and help run the family business.

When she finally talks them into getting a second ship and letting her fly it, it doesn't faze her that the craft is decades old and looks like a turtle. This is the chance she's craved for years.

But it's not long before the opportunity to rescue mistreated lab animals lures her from her parentally approved cargo run and embroils her in a battle between warring corporations. To further complicate matters, her childhood friend Thorian, prince of the now defunct Sarellian Empire, is in trouble with Alliance law and needs her help.

Torn between her duty to her family and doing what she believes is honorable, Jelena is about to learn that right and wrong are never as simple as they appear and that following your heart can get you killed.

©2017 Lindsay Buroker (P)2017 Podium Audio

Outstanding follow on to Fallen Empire Saga!

This picks up a few years after the events that occur in Cyborg Legacy, I would really recommend reading Cyborg Legacy (Fallen Empire 8.5) if you haven’t, before you start this series, it has some good backstory that is really helpful when reading this book.
There are a lot of storylines that are covered in this book, the title eludes to something to do with Prince Thorian, and whilst it is true, he does make an appearance in the story, I would not say that the main story is about him as such.
The main story is more about Jelena and Eric who have picked up their own freighter, The Snapper, to be able to do freight runs to help the business and support the Star Nomad, and what is now a freight/transport business for Alisa and Leonidas.
However, Jelena doesn’t quite see it that way, she sees it more as an opportunity to be able to do things that can impress the Star Seer community, something that neither Alisa or Leonidas saw coming, and poor Eric, as the Snapper’s Engineer, since Jelena kind of stumbled through and didn’t really explain to him, not until they were already on their first mission, to raid a company that has been mistreating animals, and break in and steal those animals.
Unfortunately, Jelena, in her impetuousness failed to properly check out the facility properly, or who owned the facility, and things quickly go from bad to worse.
This story has multiple facets. As well as the ‘liberation’ (Jelena will hurt me if I write down theft), of the animals, and the subsequent fallout from this, since it is actually a major company they take the animals from, not a minor one.
At the same time, Jelena learns the Leonidas has had a heart attack, potentially serious enough that he may need a transplant considering how bad it is.
This is when the main title comes into play, and Eric and Jelena learn the Thorian has surfaced after being away for some time. However, the Prince is not the person Jelena remembers, as he is being accused of multiple assassinations, systematically going after various people from within the Former Empire that he believes betrayed his family and himself during the final days of the war, resulting in not only the death of his family, but the fall of the Empire.
Jelena can’t help herself, she was once friends with Thor, and she has to try and stop him, or at least help him in some way so he won’t continue with his actions.
This is a fascinating story, whilst it still has the same strong characters and humour as Fallen Empire did, the characters, although they are younger, seem more grown up, they are powerful and gritty, there are a lot of emotions, not just tears, but raw, deep and compelling dialogue between the characters.
I don’t want to give away spoilers, but there are some exceptional discussions between the main characters relating to loss, the trauma of war and the impact of their upbringings. Buroker has done such an incredible job in conveying the deep emotional states of these characters to us. As someone who was a Police Officer, and suffers PTSD, I really felt I could understand and empathise with the characters, and this comes back to outstanding writing on the Authors part.
As with all of Buroker’s books, there is the usual wit and humour, making this a lot of fun to read as well, it isn’t all darkness and doom.
There is a new character introduced (No spoilers sorry), that adds an interesting aspect to the story, and it will be fascinating to see where the Author takes this story line.
Overall, this is a brilliant evolution to the Fallen Empire’s Series, taking the younger generation, and creating a new set of adventures, whilst still keeping the oldies in the background so that they can be involved if necessary. And they are, with cameos from Alisa, Leonidas, Tommy, The Twins, Tomich, Yumi even Mica.
Whilst it isn’t an absolute necessity to have read Fallen Empire to read this, you will get so much more out of it, and given how good Fallen Empires is, why wouldn’t you??
This is an outstanding start, and I am already into part 2 ‘Angle of Truth’, which is already looking just as good!!
I have to admit that I love Emily Woo Zeller, so I am kind of biased. She has such a beautiful voice that you could listen to it for hours. But it is not just her angelic voice, she has a wonderful narrating voice as well, she creates fantastic characters, each with their own voices, that are very clearly identifiable, she has a very clean and clear voice that is so easy to understand, and as I have said, she is just so easy to listen to. Whilst there are some things that Narrator R.C. Bray is just perfect for, there are a lot of other things that Emily Woo Zeller is just as perfect for, such as this style of book, where she brings the characters to life so easily, and so beautifully, making this such a joy to listen to. It is one of those Audiobooks that you find that you can easily sit down in a single sitting as you just get lost in not just the story, but the exquisite tones of the Narrator. Easily a book that is better listened to than read!

Great SciFi Adventure!

If you could sum up The Rogue Prince in three words, what would they be?

Action packed adventure!

What did you like best about this story?

The quirky characters and ongoing action.

Which scene was your favorite?

When Jelena invades the castle!

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

Not at first but it grew on me and by the end I could not put it down!

Any additional comments?

When I first started reading this book, I wasn't so sure about it. But before long I found myself hooked! Jelena is a feisty and hilarious main character. She's a pilot of her own freighter (well, temporary pilot) and she has a passion for helping less fortunate beings: especially animals. That's what starts the adventure: her decision to free lab animals who are being held captive and tortured by an independent research company.

One escapade follows another after she makes the fateful decision to rescue those creatures. What I loved the best about this book was the character development. Jelena is wonderful, of course, but the side characters are equally engaging. Erick is hilarious and I think he may be carrying a hidden torch for Jelena even though she is blind to it and the reader is focused on Thorian and Jelena's attraction to him. I think there's a spark between Erick and her that may be revealed in future books.

Thorian, on the other hand, is an Anakin Skywalker type. He has taken to using his powers to seek revenge for the deaths of his family living the life of an assassin and now there is bounty on the his head. Jelena believes she can save him but he seems past the point of saving to me (even though we would like to see that in the end).

I can't wait to see what the next adventure in this series brings with it! A fun, scifi read - check it out!

Love this author

I always think I’ll find a book I don’t like from this author- but she always proves me wrong- I fall in love with the characters and story by mid book , every time.

Not quite as good

As the previous series about Jelana’s parents. I much preferred the previous orator, and the story line. Still a good book though.

Great book

I really loved the first series and it seems like a great continuation. So it is a different reader and you get really used to the voices and then Emily does a good job though at the beginning of this book it was hard because I was so used to the other voices but once you get into it you totally don’t pay attention and all of Lyndsay books are awesome and I love them all so I’m definitely buying the rest of this year