Warship

Black Fleet Trilogy, Book 1

By: Joshua Dalzelle

Narrated by: Mark Boyett

Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

From Joshua Dalzelle, author of the best-selling Omega Force series, comes an all new vision of humanity's future.

In the 25th century, humans have conquered space. The advent of faster-than-light travel has opened up hundreds of habitable planets for colonization, and humans have exploited the virtually limitless space and resources for hundreds of years with impunity. So complacent have they become with the overabundance that armed conflict is a thing of the past, and their machines of war are obsolete and decrepit. What would happen if they were suddenly threatened by a terrifying new enemy? Would humanity fold and surrender, or would they return to their evolutionary roots and meet force with force?

One ship - and one captain - will soon be faced with this very choice.

©2015 Joshua Dalzelle (P)2015 Podium Publishing

Good delivery of a very mediocre story

Maybe it's because I'm a long-serving military veteran, but this story and its account of a group of so-called military personal leaves me cold. The relationships, responses and reactions of the crew are at times just plain silly, like when the hero/captain tears his rank off then shreds his shirt in response to losing his first casualty, a technician whose name he didn't know. Really? Like the captain, the characters are one-dimensional and over-wrought: the scheming mutineer, the evil admiral, or the sweet and ever helpful female XO. It takes a lot for me to give up on a book but after two-thirds I just can't be bothered to finish this one. The narrator does a good job, but the material he's working with is mostly simplistic pulp. Very disappointing.

A compelling and satisfying underdog space opera

I was initially drawn to this book because I was looking for other Mark Boyett performances. After listening to every Star Force, Undying Mercenaries, and Troy Rising audiobook with other standalone novels he performed, I feel like I've heard the full spectrum of Boyett's voices a dozen times over. Yet, somehow he still can make me believe that I'm in a completely different universe with a whole different set of characters, all of them with unique nuances. Boyett has definitely become my favorite military scifi/space opera narrator, and with Warship, he once again gives a performance that is nothing less than stellar.

All of the other reviews have pretty much said all there was to be said, and I echo their words. I honestly was a bit hesitant to believe all of the reviews, as I had never seen so much glowing for the first book in a series. I haven't read anything from the Omega Rising series, and this was my first exposure to Joshua Dalzelle. Needless to say, I was very impressed.

At least in Warship, Dalzelle's style was remarkably lucid. I had absolutely no problem following the action, even though I listened to the entirety of the story while working. Though he relied on archetypes for some of the minor characters (e.g. the underachieving and entitled non-com who turns out to be mutinous, and the stubborn-to-a-fault racist admiral), I appreciated the complexity of the main characters who all brought with them various surprises throughout the story.

Captain Wolfe remains relatable while also demonstrating near-superhuman levels of courage in the face of almost certain defeat. And his XO's loyalty and resourcefulness are truly admirable. I could easily imagine myself willfully following the orders of either of these individuals if I were to serve under their command.

The future science and politics are not too far-fetched, though I wonder if the implied time-frame would actually be sufficient for the degree of alleged colonization of other star systems that is presented. As a scientist, I appreciate the realistic interpretations of physics and biology. Though the skittish, unhinged, scatterbrained scientist archetype presented at the end of the book was a little irritating, especially in the face of the cool, collected, and confident engineer character that was introduced right after. However, given all of the other positive aspects in this production, I'll let it slide... this time!

But, seriously, this book is definitely worth it. I really hope they stay with Boyett for the rest of the series.

Rooting for the underdog

Joshua Dalzelle's Warship is the 1st installment in the Black Fleet trilogy. Set in the far future, local space has been conquered and settled. All alone and with plenty of room, humanity has become complacent towards its military / defense posture. At the same time, Earth and its natives get little respect. One old relic with its washed-up "earther" captain are sent on a final routine mission before its decomissioning. Unfortunately, routine is hardly applicable in this case as hostile aliens are encountered. Believing the ship of losers has finally lost it, they receive no assistance and struggle to protect frontier worlds and battle a clearly superior force.

The sci-fi elements include a full array of interstellar FTL capability with some high powered weaponry. The aliens are never actually seen, but hint at biological or organic engineering for their craft along with worm-like tendencies down a gravity well. The appeal of the tale is a captain, crew, and ship that most have given up on, but continue to go above and beyond with unique and creative solutions to novel and never before encountered scenarios.

The narration is well executed; Mark Boyett appears specifically designed for sci-fi military stories. Pace, tone, and mood are well coordinated with the story flow. Although the theme is well worn, this offering is a cut above in terms of quality and satisfaction.

pretty good sci-fi here with a fantastic narrator

Earth is no longer the center of the human universe. With an abundance of resources and a plethora of planets to colonize, the wars of past centuries are exactly where they need to be: in the past. With no violent warring in over a hundred years, the interstellar navies of the loosely aligned human states waste away.

The Blue Jacket was built after the last war and it was built with war in mind. It is lined with large plates and shields, rail guns for close combat and all of the bells and whistles to be a formidable opponent. Jackson Wolfe, the Blue Jacket’s commander and, much like his ship, is a misfit in the new Navy. He is an old Earther rather than a new colonist. And for some strange reason, he is very much disliked by everyone. Must be why he is given a dinosaur of a ship to command.

Wolfe and his crew are rushed out on a seemingly pointless mission: they are to shuttle a politician’s aide to an unspecified location. The Admiral also lets Wolfe know that this will be Blue Jacket’s last mission. When they return, the ship will be salvaged for scrap.

The Blue Jacket comes upon a devastated colony planet. All inhabitants have been wiped out, as are all of the cities and towns. Upon arriving in a new system, they find more devastation, only this time it is accompanied by a large alien ship. The Blue Jacket engages the ship, though the commander realizes it is a futile effort. But the ship doesn’t fight back like he expects. Why? Only time will tell in this cat and mouse/chess match of the space variety.

There are a couple of issues I found with the story. One, the lack of backstory. We have no idea why Wolfe is hated nor how he became Captain. Why would he rise up the ranks if no one liked him? Is it just because he is from Earth? What’s so bad about that? Two, there is too much dialogue. This isn’t generally an issue, but the amount of times I heard “Jackson said” or “Sing said” really got on my nerves. There are ways to go about scenes with a lot dialogue without continually letting the reader/listener know who was speaking. You can also utilize other words than just ‘said’.

Mark Boyet’s narration was great and I’ll definitely be looking for other audiobooks with his name on them. He does a really fine job with gender distinction and voice inflection. Definitely look him up!

Overall, pretty good sci-fi here with a fantastic narrator. Not sure if I will continue on to books 2 (currently out) or 3, but it may just be your cup of tea.

Audiobook purchased for review by ABR.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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Fun Military Sci-Fi Novel

This was the kind of Science Fiction I really like. Military in nature, and interpersonal. It does have one of my least favorite things. The first book of a trilogy without the rest of the trilogy available and thus have to read other books until the trilogy is finished.

A solid space ship combat story

First off, if you're like me and can't stand even the best of stories if the narration isn't good, this is a safe bet. Mark Boyett is very good, giving each character a distinguished and fitting voice that makes it easy to tell who is talking, without being distracting.

The book is your standard space combat archetype, but in the best possible ways. Dalzell crafts a believable world a bit more grounded and approachable than something like Star Trek. FTL comes with rules, costs and tradeoffs. Combat between ships takes place at speed, with logical weapons one could imagine being real some day. Additionally, the writer does well to describe the visuals of these ships instead of leaving you with nothing to go on.

As with most books of this type, its weakness is in the fleshy human stuff. Nothing cringe worthy or distracting, just less BSG style intrigue, complexity and depth than I'd have liked.

Overall, fully worth the read if you enjoyed Old Man's War, The Lost Fleet and the like.

Best space war book I have ever heard.

Great space ship and excellent performance by far. Can't wait to get to the two remaining books

Mediocre wierd story.

Oddly laid out and written. Tries to be like old school military and fails by trying too hard. Captain is a jerk, seriously.

Slow start, unimaginative.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

So far I'm over an hour into a 7 hour listen, and all that has happened is a ship undocks, a new first officer is introduced, and not much more. Characters are flat, unmemorable, and the story has had no interesting science fiction ideas at all. I expect this will end up being one of those combat books now called science fiction by virtue of taking place in space.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Will let you. if I ever hear one.

Narration is Fantastic

I have had the pleasure of listening to many excellent audiobooks, but it was Mark Boyett's performance that woke me up to the art of narration. No missteps in transition from character to character and each of his characters voices rang true. I don't believe that up to this point I have listed to a book where I have not been distracted from time to time by an out of character voice. Loved the book and the performance! Where oh where is book 3?

Finally a good space adventure book!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes I would recommend this audiobook to friends and family. The storyline was well written from start to finish. The characters were well defined in both the author writing of them and the narrators portrayal, that it really brought this story to life.

What other book might you compare Warship to, and why?

Man of war series.

Which character – as performed by Mark Boyett – was your favourite?

There was no favourite character that was performed by Mark Boyett because I like them all. It shows how great the narrator is when each character is defined by their different pitch and accents to a degree that you forget that all those voices are spoken by one person!

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

This is a Warship!

Any additional comments?

I hope Audiobooks decides to make the other books into audio. It be a shame to just leave it at Warship! The fact I liked this book so much I bought the next book but in kindle format.

How to Have Fun in Space!

This was just what the doctor ordered! A good, old fashioned sci-fi romp which was refreshingly clear of trying to be super-original, dystopian, cyberpunk or too deep and meaningful. Just a captain and his destroyer trying to keep his crew alive and beat the nasties. This is simply a roller-coaster ride of a story which happens to be within the sci-fi genre. It’s like Jack Reacher in charge of several thousand tons of military hardware out in space with slightly less predictable opposition! I loved the idea of a human race drifting into almost total complacency after hundreds of years without any wars being given an incredible alarm call.

If you’re after the kind of book where you just want a good sci-fi military action thriller and even when at the end it does pull off a quite ridiculous twist you want to stand up and salute the Star Fleet flag anyway then this is the book for you. Mark Boyett’s excellent narration will take you on quite a journey. If you’re searching for a latter day Heinlein or someone to rival William Gibson for provoking the grey matter then your cyber-enhanced prosthetic nostrils have not served you well in leading you here.

Excellent start to a good fun series with plenty of clever action, excitement and decent characters. I’ll be back for the rest of this one at some stage, make no mistake!

More please!

An Excellent story with good characters, plot and a new take on old issues. Mark Boyett's performance is great and perfectly blends into the story. I can't wait for book 2.

Superbly Crafted

For a long time now I had seen the Black Fleet trilogy books being included
in the recommendations list you see on the Audible page for books you've
read or are interested in and not opted to try one. Not for any particular
reason did I ignore this series of books other than the fact I had yet to
exhaust books from authors I knew I liked. However, the time finally came
when I pondered what to read next and after some review reading It looked as
though this trilogy of books would be just the sort of thing I was looking
for.

I think I tend to feel that choosing a book from a new author can be a bit
of a gamble but on the other hand, if the reviews look good, the story is of
interest and as importantly, the narrator is good then you've little to lose
and a lot to gain. The very fact that Mark Boyett was narrating this series
was a massive bonus to me as I've read many books narrated by him and find
him to be a superb exponent of the written word with competent delivery and
a range of voices and accents to bring any story to life. So, the only thing
remaining to wonder about was the author and his work. I'd read nothing up
to this point by Joshua Dalzelle but the brief audio sample alone had me
hooked so I purchased this title and was so glad I did!

In only a short few minutes of listening I could tell this was an excellent
author and one naturally skilled in the art of story telling. Right from the
start, Warship, had my interest and continued to hold it throughout the
entire book. The story is well crafted and the plot pacing is perfect. What
struck me about how this story and the future it is set in was just how
plausible most of the technology used was. Dalzelle carefully struck the
right balance of giving us background on the vessels, politics and
technology of the time without going into so much detail as to venture into
the territory of bombarding the reader with the unnecessary clutter of
techno-babble. Just the right degree of detail was given to explain what we
needed to understand and provide a consistent backbone to the plot.

What also impressed me with Dalzelle's story was the understanding he
appears to have of how things work in a parallel to what I can only conclude
is either a deeper than usual understanding of naval technology and
procedures or a direct experience of this himself. He cites examples of how
a modern naval sonar operator might track a target, classify it and even
identify the specific vessel within a class and this only added to the
plausibility of the story as it seems to me that it is only logical to
extend current technologies and procedures forward into effectively what
would become a space going navy so I think Dalzelle has this aspect
incorporated perfectly into his vision of the future.

Dalzelle has penned a lead character, Captain Jackson Wolf, in a realistic
manner complete with his own issues including a drink problem and who is
running
a ship that is old and obsolete. This is refreshing and reassuring at the
same time as it is often too easy to write almost perfect lead characters.
Jackson faces the sorts of internal politics, prejudice and day to day
running issues you might expect of any naval officer and perhaps even a bit
worse than most in fact. it's the very adversity he has faced his entire
career that has given him the strength of character to show courage in the
face of the unknown enemy despite the best efforts of some of the top brass
that want to shoot his career down in flames at the first opportunity. It's
the dirty realism of his predicament that makes his character both appealing
and interesting. His ship is falling apart, some of his crew hate him and
now he faces Earth's most dangerous alien threat and this sets the stage for
what is a great story. I noted some interesting nods to Star Trek I think in
the form of the adoption of the term "Warp drive" in the vernacular of the
time despite the official term of "T-drive" and the fact that Wolf's vessel
registry is TCS-701 .. make it 1701 and we all know where that famous
registry comes from. This though is more or less where any connection to
Trek ends so there's no need to fret that Warship is going to be some sort
of Trek copy.


The other thing I noted with Dalzelle's character portrayal was that unlike
some authors who contrive an end point or set piece by having their key
characters do or not do something of obvious importance, in Warship we find
that Jackson Wolf does exactly the things that I might do in his situation.
I found myself thinking "what I would do next only to read on and find that
this was indeed the path the characters went.

The story itself is interesting and although follows the fairly well trodden
path of new alien threat scenario, Dalzelle deals with his version of this
in a way that is not boring, predictable or overly derivative. Most ideas
are not original these days but it's how an author puts their mark on such
stories that sets them apart from others.

I found Warship thoroughly enjoyable and read it in three days as I was
unable to put it down. I will be getting the other two books in the series
and will now consider Joshua Dalzelle one of my list of favourite science
fiction writers. Who might I compare Dalzelle with? Well, I'd say a cross of
the military science fiction expert that is B.V Larson and the great
character and epic story teller James S.A Corey and his fantastic Expanse
series of books.

Good story and well written. I've read quite a bit of science fiction and
this is an excellent book. Not too heavy and very accessible.

ANOTHER sci-fi book written just for men, great!

I feel somewhat torn about reviewing a book I abandoned in the middle of chapter two but here we are.

With the main character named Jackson Wolf I pretty quickly felt that this book was probably no more than some white American dude’s fantasy, but I thought I’d give it the benefit of the doubt and kept listening.

When introduced to his new 2nd in command our intrepid hero can’t help but notice his new female colleague’s “impressive rack….. of medals pinned above her breast.”

Ok, cool, so just another sci-fi book written by a man for men. I’m going to hazard a guess that old Jackson Wolf is handsome (but doesn’t know it) and witty and smart and has impressive tactical and military capabilities, and against all the odds and despite the racist(/planet-ist?) discrimination he faces he’ll overcome the difficulties he’s faced with and save the day and get in Lt Impressive Rack’s pants. Thanks for the free sample Audible, I’ll skip the creepy descriptions of women and wait for the next instalment of The Expanse!

Loved it :)

Catching up on a few owed reviews... Well after the fact I've finished all three books. (sorry)

But, it's a good thing. I was caught up in the enjoyment of the world that Joshua created, and I can't tell you how that felt after listening to a few books that didn't quite hit the mark.

I really enjoyed Mark as a narrator, he's defo in my league of go to narrators now. (especially if Sci Fi is his genre) he had great tone and impressions for both male and female characters. Each was unique enough that I didn't need the tags to know who was talking and that says it all to me. Wolf was a great Captain to follow into the belly of the beast, just when you think he's done the worst thing ever, it proved to be the right thing and he pulled most of the men on his crew out the crap. I was thoroughly hooked, and no sooner had this one finished, I was onto the next.

Kudos to both narrator and writer, it was a very flawless book and series. Thank you so much for the entertainment, and thanks to my friends who sent me your way.

hmmmm

not bad, something just stopped me from liking this book. characters were a little wooden maybe

Did not expect to like it. Loved it!

i did not think a story about space battles 400 years from now would be relatable, but i thoroughly enjoyed this book and it's setting!

Pretty good

I'm not totally won over, because some of the boob jokes were way unnecessary, and the villains too plastic, but overall still a fun read

Tasty SF mind candy

The characters kept me interested when the narrative occasionally got bogged. It took two or three chapters to hook, but a long car journey or hike will see it jump started, and book two is now on my wish list. Excellent narrator.