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We Lead  By  cover art

We Lead

By: Christopher G. Nuttall
Narrated by: Ralph Lister
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Publisher's summary

The conclusion to the third Ark Royal trilogy!

The Second Interstellar War - pitting humans and their Tadpole allies against an enigmatic alien empire - appears to have stalemated. Neither side can push through to the other's core systems without risking substantial losses, neither side can gain a decisive advantage. But when a brilliant human scientist invents a way to jump across the stars without a gravity tramline, an opportunity arises to strike the enemy in their undefended rear. It is an opportunity that cannot be allowed to pass.

Now, HMS Vanguard and her crew - and the largest fleet ever assembled by the nations of Earth - heads out on a do-or-die mission to challenge their enemies to one final battle...and if they lose, they will never see home again.

©2017 Christopher G. Nuttall (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about We Lead

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Vanguard: veni, vidi,vici

We Lead is the 3rd installment in the Vanguard trilogy which is the 9th offering in the overall Ark royal series by Christopher G Nuttall. Vanguard is just coming off refurbishment and ready to deliver the knockout blow to the their newest alien nemesis. With a "hail mary" jump behind enemy lines, the taskforce hopes to surprise their enemy by moving on their homeworld and forcing either total defeat or surrender.

The sci-fi elements are in line with past installments except for the one addition of some new physics that permit a one shot tramline creation of their choosing allowing them to catapult to a region of space unexpected by the aliens. Overall, Vanguard and this series have grown stale and this volume is the weakest of the group. George washed out the marines and occupies an ill-defined liaison role where she seems to be a naval officer, but at the beck and call of the marines whenever. The Vanguard captain continues to lament her humble upbringing and lack of political connections. At the same time, Prince Henry is hanging out, terrified a reporter will speak to him and ruin his children's lives. It's a pity that in spite of the survival of the monarchy, the entire geopolitical structure of Earth, the English aristocracy, and even British tea, that other than the tabloid press, reputable news reporting has gone extinct. What happened to the BBC? Also, the constant ruminations about clueless politicians and the "bean counters" is getting tiresome. The Ark Royal universe needs a serious reboot.

The narration is respectable with an adequate range of voices and decent pacing.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

His other series are crap but this one is good.

The Ark Royal series is pretty decent military sci-fi. This author should just stick with this series. His other stuff is not good. Very confusing how that can be. Hope he does more Ark Royal books and less of the others.

Also, he uses "grimly" a bit too much....

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

High risk conclusion to the 3rd Ark Royal trilogy.

The latest interstellar war has been a back and forth affair so far, but an advancement in technology on the human side of the equation offers up a unique opportunity. So far the enemy has had the tech advantage due to their faster-than-light (FTL) communications, which allows them to react much faster than the humans or tadpoles, but now FTL travel without a tramline is becoming a reality. This means that ships will no longer need to take a predictable path from one star system to another and humanity can strike directly at the home world of the enemy. There is a catch though: it is a one way trip, which means it is a win or die mission for every ship involved.

Of course Vanguard is one of those ships and this one-way scenario allows for a build up to a high stakes conclusion. Susan and Georgina both find their lives on the line in very different ways as humanity goes for the knockout punch. Avoiding a long drawn out war that we probably can't win has a lot of appeal and the nature of the foxes to completely surrender when they are beaten makes this tactic a viable one. Of course this new technology is not without its kinks and Nuttall never hesitates to use that as an excuse to create some of his bigger plot points. In past books I have had issues with how contrived some of those scenarios would feel but in this case it worked for me. This book is a solid conclusion to the 3rd trilogy and a definite step up from the second trilogy.

Overall I have enjoyed my time with Ark Royal books, and there are plenty more of them, but I am not sure I am going to proceed further than this. The next two books go back in time to revisit the first interstellar war to tell more stories in that setting and then book 12 starts up a new trilogy to move the story arc forward once again. I may pick up with book 12 at some point, but for now I am happy with where things are at the end of this book. Ralph Lister narrates again with his usual caliber of performance and frankly it wouldn't be an Ark Royal book without him, even if he isn't my favorite narrator.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

So So

After enjoying the first 8 books in this series, I was disappointed in the writing, story, and performance. As someone who has done a little acting in my past, I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to voice all the different characters in these books. One annoying thing - John Naiser's voice changed dramatically from books 7 & 8. In book 9, Mr. Lister uses a blustery older man's voice much like the voice he used for the older naval admiral in the other books. It is almost like when you get to a higher position, you must bellow out everything. Annoying. His Scottish accents were great as were most of the other voices. I just did not like the voice he used for Naiser in book 9..One miss out of so many is not bad though.

The story drags a bit, uses what I have come to call cliches in Mr Nutall's universe - a ship that performs like a "wallowing pig" - it seems Mr. Nutall has to work that phrase into each of his books several times.

Hopefully book 10 will find that Mr. Nutall was reinvigorated and will get back to crisp story telling.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great addition to the series- now I want more.

Definitely what I was expecting from Nuttall for this series- loved it. Hoping that the end was setting up a new trilogy...

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

great book

loved it. wouldn't mind listening to is again. every thing was just perfectly pleasant. time

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Best since book 3

The first three in the series were still the best but still a great series

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Please Tell Me It's Over!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I loved the early Ark Royal series - not really sure why now, since I'm finding these later books in the series both pointless and annoying. No new ideas, and nothing new to learn. The stories aren't BAD, and the narration is the same, but it's nothing but noise at this point. As you read more of the series you begin to realize how inflated the books are by the writing style used, where each idea tends to be re-stated several times in totally superfluous ways. A more typical writing style would result in a book about 1/3 the length is my guess.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great as always

Very good series of books with nice characters coming in maturing and moving on. Sometime the stories can feel a little same stuff different place, race, ship

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

The slow death of the Ark Royal series

I think I would rate book nine in this series one and a half stars.

I was impressed with the first Ark Royal book and hopeful that it wasn't going to be a one book hit that drags down as the series continues like happens too many times with far too many series. Book two was more of the good thing and I was happy that Nuttall continued with what worked. Some of the quicks of his writing and universe were a bit off putting but tolerable. By the time we finish book three some of those quicks are but annoying but overall, the characters and the universe are interesting enough to see past it.

Although these books are not young adult the writing style is rather juvenile, but I had hoped as he wrote more, he would grow and mature more. Unfortunately, I have not observed that, instead sticking with what worked originally to the point of way overdoing it. The same tire jokes and complaints over and over. The same tired tropes again and again; the bean counters, the distrust of the reporters, not wanting to be royalty, classism, racism, sexism, etc. It's really beyond overdone at this point.

I understand recapping and referencing back story and what not from the previous books in case the current book is the readers first exposure to the series but Nuttall goes way to far by the time we get to book four and continues ad nauseum throughout all the books in fact repeating the same things over and over again even in the same book. It' really getting tedious, we don't need to be constantly beaten over the head with the concepts and back stories, they have been covered quite enough already again and again. It's really becoming lazy filler to make the books longer or does Nuttall really think his readers are that stupid? Another reviewer mentioned that of the thirteen hours of this book there was really only about five actual hours of original story in this book and I completely agree. About two-thirds of this book should have been edited out as it was mind numbingly pointless waste of time.

Nuttal is also one of those authors who is too proud of his own jokes and over tells them to the point way past where they have any value. I was completely sick of the juvenile "Stella Star" references by book three. Enough! It's not funny or amusing anymore, just stop.

Overall this book was a waste of time, money and an Audible credit. This last three part series could and should have been edited down to one book about this newest war. I'm done with the Ark Royal series and done with Nuttall.

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