The Legacy of Shadow

By: Craig Gallant

Narrated by: Ray Greenley

Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Penumbra, a haphazard city of outcasts, rebels, and malcontents, has floated around a dead planet in a backwater system for longer than living memory can recall. Its towers abandoned starships melded to an ancient, mysterious core, Penumbra is the last remnant of chaotic individualism in a galaxy where conformity to the will of the all-powerful Galactic Council is paramount. Dropped into this dangerous mix are Marcus Wells - a Human of Earth who has squandered his potential to live a life of least resistance - and his adventurous friend Justin. Immediately entangled in local politics and targeted by a vengeful representative of the Council who is determined to drag the city back into the fold, Marcus has a choice to make: continue following the path of least resistance and allow Penumbra to fall, or show these aliens what a truly determined Human can accomplish.

©2016 Vincent Rospond (P)2017 vincent rospond

Review The Legacy of Shadow

This book by Craig Gallant was a page turner! I loved it. Ray Greenley does a fantastic job with the performance. It seemed natural to flow into and become absorbed into the life and worlds of this book. I will be listening to more by these two.

Promising and disappointing

What did you like best about The Legacy of Shadow? What did you like least?

The idea and setting were interesting, and I wanted to learn more about the setting. There is much potential.

Unfortunately, so many of the characters and different races seemed to be shallow sketches. One of the lead characters is cowardly and moody. Another is cowardly and hates humans. Another makes friends easily and is good at building networks. One of the races is thugish, not very smart, and a bit dog like. There isn't much depth beyond those brief sketches.

Finally, the central conceit that everyone hates humans but no one is willing to say why nor is there any written record is simply unbelievable. If *everyone* hates humans, surely there would be someone willing to expound upon the history or there would be many, many histories, novels, mythologies about why humans are so reviled.

Would you be willing to try another book from Craig Gallant? Why or why not?

I don't know. I really wanted to like the book more because I like Craig's podcast, but this book was a bit of a struggle to finish even though it was pretty predictable.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The narrator could work on expanding his range and making the characters' voices more distinct, especially the female ones.

A refreshing and truly original concept

Where does The Legacy of Shadow rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I hope that the author continues in the same direction with his follow up books, if so this series will rank in the top 5 of my most favorite

What did you like best about this story?

I really liked how original the plot to this story was. I don't believe I've ever came across a story like it. The alternative history was fascinating. I do hope the second installment delves deeper into the historical aspects.

What about Ray Greenley’s performance did you like?

I thought the narrator seemed very knowledgeable of the book. So many times in other books narrators sound as if it was their first time reading the story. His characters were distinctive and recognizable, and was well understood.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

UGH! HUMANS!!

Any additional comments?

I received this book from the narrator free thru AudioBoom for a completely unbiased review. Thank You it was an unexpected pleasure, I will be watching for the next in the series.

Excellent listen

This was a very interesting and exciting listen. The narration was excellent. The prologue was a bit confusing until the very last of the book and then it made perfect sense.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

A fantastic first original story

I loved this novel. Having read Craig Gallant’s other work in other people’s world I really wanted to see what he could do without the shackles of someone else world. The universe created by Craig is fantastic. From the politics to the unique races to the technology. This was the stuff I dreamed of when I was a kid. I wholeheartedly recommend this book. The narration was definitely above average. The only negative I can think of is I definitely want a sequel but with this publication coming from a smaller publisher I don’t know if it was able to generate enough attention and sales to guarantee a much wanted second book. Excellent work Mr. Gallant, give us more.

3.5* - held my interest throughout

Any additional comments?

Interesting archeological sci fi story, worth reading. The narrator did a great job; I could easily associate his tone and style with the main character. The book wound up with pretty clear indication that a sequel is forthcoming because some loose ends remained untied.

There were some predictable and convenient plot elements that helped move the story forward along with some things that regularly niggled in the back of my mind as I listened to the book. For example, there were a few instances when the story switched into the present tense for a sentence, then switched back to past tense - I didn't understand why the author did that, so it distracted me somewhat. Also, at a very basic level, I didn't really understand the main character's commitment to his new role and his 'lack of guile' (as the main bad guy would say), considering that pretty much everyone around him was hostile and viscerally anti-human. The main characters reminded me in many ways of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Yoda, and Han Solo - particularly during the final third of the story. Finally, I wasn't quite sure why the necklace responded only to the main character and not his best friend as well (although perhaps the author let us know and I missed it in the story). These aren't major complaints, but they're why I didn't give full stars to an otherwise great story. I was particularly intrigued by the story about the history of Earth, which was explained later in the story. The author was quite effective in whetting my appetite for the sequel to this story.

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

Very good!

Great narration by Ray Greenley, his voice does great to not take away from the story being told and isn't a distraction allowing the authors words and thoughts to be easily enjoyed.

The writer has a good grasp on the language and paints a vivid fantastical world for the listener to submerge them self within.

More, more, I want more!

This was a fun story for me! Two ordinary guys thrust into an extraordinary sci-fi adventure! It integrates many unique characters from species across their galaxy that all coalesce into a community, the only community, that allows them to live the way they choose to live without the intrusive governing influence felt everywhere else. The story throws the two men into a situation in which they are immediately despised and hated by pretty much everyone and have to figure out a way to survive an ever growing lethal conflict that they have unwittingly become the center of.

If you like stories that thrust themselves upon your imagination with strange alien beings and technologies, starships, wormholes, ancient AI's, alien cultures and prejudices, powerful artifacts, harrowing chases, and purple skinned beauties, you'll like this story! And like me, you may even like it a lot!

I was given this book for free in exchange for my unbiased review.

The Legacy of Shadow

Any additional comments?

3.5 stars
Overall an entertaining, engaging and enjoyable listen. On the one hand the story overall is really good and very entertaining on the other hand it dragged at times throughout the story for me especially in the beginning. It's interesting and enjoyable yet there where times when it wasn't holding my attention. I struggled with it for the first couple of hours. It's not a non-stop action kind of story. The story unfolds slowly, building as it goes along, but it's a slow steady build. It took me until about halfway through to really be pulled into the story. Once the story really gets moving it pulled me in and held my complete attention until the end.

It is creative and full of detail with a large cast of original creatures/characters at the same time after a while they kind of all blended together in the beginning. It took a while to remember who was who.

Thrust into an unbelievable situation with the fate of the galaxy on your shoulders, this has become Marcus's reality. When everyone around you hates humans and wants you dead, who can you trust?

Ray Greenly did a great job with the narration. Nice voice that is easy to listen to for long periods of time. Clearly spoken with a nice even pace. Really good character voices. Even his female voices are good. He was able to bring the characters and story to life. Very enjoyable.

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

Excellent First Entry to Hopefully a New Series

Craig wrote an excellent story that had me hooked from the beginning car chase. He shows clear Jim Butcher influences in his writing. There are a few problems with pacing, and the main protagonist is way too reluctant at several points. Much of his reluctance is justified, but there are a few times it goes over the top of doesn't make sense based on the character's everyone directly leading up to it.

Ray's voice narration is top notch. Every character has a unique and fitting voice. Every voice is still clear and articulate. The epilogue connects the prologue to the main story in an unexpected way that has me excited for another book.