Volk

Book One of The Overseer Series

By: Zach Fortier

Narrated by: Michelle Shure

Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

SETI has been searching the universe unsuccessfully for intelligent life since its inception. A group of 100,000-plus gamers called "Bellsters" test the theory of quantum entanglement in a worldwide experiment, and establish an irrevocable first contact with an alien species. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia grants an AI named Sophia, developed by Hansen Robotics, citizenship in their kingdom.

Spinners are mass marketed to the public as "must have" curiosities. What do these things have in common? Viktor Roper is about to find out, as he enters into a desperate one-man death match in an attempt to prevent the complete annihilation of the human race.

Winner of the 2020 Book Excellence book awards contest in Sci Fi Genre

Named to the Short list of Chanticleers 2020 Cygnus Book Awards contest for Science Fiction

©2019 Zach Fortier (P)2021 Zach Fortier

It's a good story line.

OK like I said it's a good story line if you discount all the holes in it. Basically a company made an AI that was so intelligent that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia gave her citizenship. Then later we tried something to see if we could find any kind of communications from an advance civilization, and screwed up some alien AIs by accident, and didn't know we did it. So they come here to wipe us out. The problem with that is that they aren't supposed wipe out any intelligence that treats AIs as an equal, but by the time the Overseer (the one AI that's supposed to look out for this kind of things) finds out about the AI given citizenship as an equal, and tells the governing AI leadership, and stops the slaughter. There are only one hundred thousand people left in the world (out of 7 to 8 Billion people), and they do it in less the a day. Plus the hero is a cop, and the only one left alive that has anything that had to deal with the justice system. No lawyers, judges, professors at law schools, or other cops. (They need him so they can have a court to see if humanity should be spared). Then he takes out some robots with a shot gun. I'm sorry There are plenty of people who have a lot more fire power then shot guns in their homes all around the world. Not to mention the military's of the world as well. Plus we didn't see them in space, or see them land. They started out the attack by having gas stations selling toys (spinners) to people, but they don't say how they made them, or how they distributed them. There are other holes in the story I have problems with. BUT if you just think of the story itself. It's not bad. I like the premise. Just wished it more real and not have humanity a total loss in such a short time. The narrator I give a 4 out of 5. She was really good.

An unusual story, but captivating

This is a strange story, but sci-fi, part legal drama, and maybe even part mystery, In some ways it works quite well. I love the main character, who is kind of a smart-assed cop, and I loved the way some actual events were woven in (and fidget spinners...I don't think I will ever look at them the same way). But parts seemed like they needed more development. I expect more to come from future books, but this one just felt like some things were missing. But it kept me interested, and it made me think, to overall I liked it. I might have scored it one star higher, but I hated the ending...I like books, especially the first in a series, to feel relatively complete. I think this one could have been wrapped up in a much more satisfying manner.

I was given a free copy of this audiobook at my request in exchange for an honest review.

"Draw the shadows without the lines."

After a gaming experiment disturbs the quantum world, almost all of humanity on earth is destroyed and it is left to a policeman to convincingly argue for the survival of the the few people remaining. The beginning felt somewhat disjointed to this reader, , slipping between incidents without going anywhere. But, in fact, it conveniently sets up the pursuit first meeting with the man who is central to the story, Victor, also Volk, an ordinary world weary policeman with a sarcastic wit and whose instincts and memories will determine humanity's fate. The whole is fascinating and good science fiction, travelling more into inner space than the stars.

Narration is by Michelle Shure and is adequate but a little monotonous. Hard to tell if this is a deliberate ploy to slightly distance readers from the story and place them more into an observer situation, or simply a failure on the part of the Ms.Shure herself. Personally, this reader would have preferred a little more animation.

I was very fortunate to have been freely gifted with a complimentary copy of Volk, at my request, from the rights holder via Audiobook Boom. Thank you. Initially, I had doubted that I would enjoy this book but as it progressed I was drawn into the puzzle of Victor's personality and what it is to be human. Volk is the first book in the Overseer series and I very much look forward to reading volume two and recommend it to anyone with a fondness for S.F.

Storyline lets concepts shine

Received audiobook via promo code.

This book made me think. Think for days. Why? That is below.
I am 50+ and grew up on sci-fi – first Russian, then English. On stories where every paragraph mentally expands into concepts. Much of contemporary sci-fi lacks that. Not this one. Upon listening to this audiobook, I bought the e-book to revisit the written word of some paragraphs to contemplate.

The storyline is direct – apocalyptic world with a chance to survive. Such directness allows to keep conceptual ideas in the spotlight. They shine through the eyes of the Cop, the Street Fighter, the AI Governing Body, The Overseer, the Art Curator, the Hacker, and the Horse Trainer.

Depending on their own views, each reader has a chance to focus and expand on their favorites.
The concept of communication depth kept me focused and entertained:
- The priceless humor of the subtle parallel of Victor’s introduction to Orlanda in Chapter 8 with the one of the Overseer to Victor in Chapter 10;
- The power of phrase to "Draw the shadows without the lines";
- The wide ocean between “live and learn” and “learn and live”;
- The narrow river between AI and humans.
I am eager to see the next book in the series. I would love to see the JT character to grow further – he felt like a charismatic persona. He and Volk together could be the two wings to make the human story fly. And of course, the Horse Trainer – he could become the ‘wizard’ of the land – someone to oversee The Overseer. And his pair wing? The ethical Hacker!

Excellent series!

The first book in this Sci-Fi alien invasion series is an excellent start. I'm looking forward to book 2!

A basic Alien Invasion Independence Day story ...

... without the action.

Narration: Monotonous with little separation of character voices

I wanted to like this story. The premise is solid and it apparently has collected a lot of good reviews and awards ... I'm just not clear on how that would happen.

The story opens with the POV of a beat cop just going about his day (so it was a slow start). We get a brief spike of interesting with first contact of alien artificial intelligence (AI) that for some reason has a default to wipe out biologics because they don't treat AIs fairly. But wait ... there must be some misunderstanding since Earth actually has an AI that was granted full citizenship by Saudi Arabia. With the extermination plans on hold at 99%, we now adjourn to put Humanity on Trial ... but this trial is less like Perry Mason and more like "Q" in Star Trek where it apparently never occurs to the Alien AI to just talk with Sophia ... the Earth AI. Instead, they take a confusing detour using the memories of the beat cop above to somehow understand humans ... but the Alien AI representative tasked with this just doesn't have the intellectual capacity to understand nonverbal communications (and yet it can look confused)? Throw in a few wise cracks with heavy handed sexual overtones (robots with batteries for the women ... really?) and I am not seeing the appeal to this story.

I was expecting a "death match" ... instead I got descriptive narration within a courtroom (or leading up to the courtroom) that just seems to drone on and on. And why would the Overseer/Alien AI that was specifically designed to prosecute the Collective's (aka The Governing Body) genocidal "planetary scrubbing" not have a more complete understanding of the court procedures than the human stooge who apparently had to explain significant parts of it? In addition, I found the decision to summarize some points and detail others puzzling and that made it difficult to connect with any of the characters, much less keep them separate in my head (and feels like sock puppetry). Of course ... the Alien AI's are completely independent of any hardware/wetware and completely open to earth hackers that can manipulate software and netware that for some reason is not so alien. Most of these, when taken by themselves are not that hard to simply suspend my disbelief and accept it; however, the rate at which they seem to accumulate eventually turns this into a theater of the absurd that is hard to ignore.

I was given this free review copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. This title is also available through Kindle Unlimited for free. #TheSecretAudiobookClub #Volk #MichelleShure #KindleUnlimited