The Victor's Heritage

The Jonah Trilogy, Book 2

By: Anthony Caplan

Narrated by: Diane Neigebauer

Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

The Victor's Heritage is book two of The Jonah Trilogy and rests upon the spunky personality of teen Corrag, who is on track to receive the Augment brain implant that will connect her to the Cloud and thus to the knowledge base of the world.

But this goal about to be derailed, thanks to her association with a boy who is a veteran of war - and who offers quite a different perspective of their world than the one she's been raised with.

In 2045, the U.S. is divided into two very different countries. Within these nations lie the seeds of two competing political and social ideologies (much as is happening today). And when one special person "crosses the border" between worlds and faces isolation, abandonment, and trials, this makes for a powerful listen, indeed.

The Victor's Heritage, being part of a trilogy, enhances the setting provided in book one, Savior; but while listeners ideally should listen tothe first, such is not a requirement to arrive late on the scene with its sequel. Through the vision and perceptions of Corrag, this world springs immediately to life with all its potentials for love, change, and devastation.

The Victor's Heritage is especially recommended for mature teens to young adults - particularly for those inclined to enjoy dystopian stories of the future, who will appreciate a vivid turn of events as Corrag's initial acceptance of her future turns into questions with terrible answers. The connections between family and friends are especially well drawn and lend an immediacy and excitement to the plot, which is powered by and packed with emotional revelations and swift action.

©2015 Anthony Caplan (P)2019 Anthony Caplan

I will not be reading others in this series

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

Disclaimer, I did not read book 1 in this series and that may have affected my reading of this book. However, while listening, I did not feel I was missing information or that the book was building on this it hadn't explained.

That being said, I found this to be a boring and lackluster book, telling a long winded tale.

In the spirit of seemingly all teen dystopian books, it begins with a teen who doesn't k ow what she wants from life. She doesn't like her society and strives to join a different one.

In this case she bounces from society to society and is at odds with them all. Which is my first problem with the book, it lacks theme.

Each society is presented as good but mostly bad. Whether it's augments, strict regimes, or just a nice group of people who don't like single mothers. Not only does the main character not have a goal to reach but she doesn't even know her feelings on the places she is, until it all goes bad.

A main character not knowing themselves or their, or others, motivations are fine. However, the reader should be able so decide, but as everything is constantly changing (characters, locations, situations) we are never left to get to a point to establish a point of view on a setting.

If this was in a fast paced action story, it might be OK. But as this is a very slow paced methodical book, drowning in details at times, it provides too much time to think "why is this place bad?" "what's wrong with her this time?" "if she'd stop breaking the law, maybe she'd have an easier life..."

The settings, for the most part are not defined well enough in terms of location. We are given place names, and general locations (near great lakes, out west, etc) but it would be much more helpful if it was 'in the former state of'.

Canada has mostly seemed to stay intact, however for some reason is full of the same bad guys as the US, and that seems unlikely. Also, the people of Labrador and Quebec have very distinct dialects, and I can say with absolute certainly, that will not go away in the next 25 years. As well, snowmobiles do not have transmissions, and converting them to hydrogen is not likely to change that. Also, driving 500 miles on snowmobile with no protection, at - 20 would cause more than just discomfort. It would also take a lot more than 1 night.

The biggest problem is just the fact that the book is incredibly dull. It has some sort action scenes, but they are very short and not well imagined and are very disappointing. The conversation leaves much to be desired, as it's not intelligent, funny or otherwise note worthy.

The lead weight of the whole thing is the voice acting, or lack of it. Diane Neigebauer delivers a flat, emotionless performance, with no real change between voices or any attempt at punching up an already dull book. It is a bit like listening to an uninspired teacher reading out of a text book. There were also unnatural pauses that I had to check my device to see if the recording was stuttering or not. It wasn't, time was ticking in the audible player, but 2-3 seconds would elapse before the next second would start. I don't know if this was the narrator of if it was in editing, but sounded unnatural, none the less.

All in all, the overall story has some merit. The thread of the idea is OK, which earned it another star. However, the story itself is uninteresting and slow. It doesn't know how it wants the characters or the reader to feel and it fails to make a connection. The right voice acting could have punched this story up, and given it life, but they went the other way and dragged it deeper instead.

I will not be reading others in this series.