Warstrider: Rebellion

Warstrider, Book 2

De: Ian Douglas

Narrado por: David Drummond

The universal order is unraveling. The enslaved cry out for freedom. The apocalypse is now. Devis Cameron, hero of the Xenophobe War and the Empire's reluctant champion, has been posted to the 4th Terran Rangers - a gaijin Warstrider unit on New America - to eliminate a newly discovered underground colony of Xenos and to deal harshly with civil unrest spawned by Imperial repression. The situation is rapidly degenerating into total anarchy. And the nuclear option may be the only alternative.

But Dev is uncomfortable with the role that has been assigned to him. And now he must choose between betraying his masters or his principles - to crush a righteous revolution or to help forge an alliance between the Empire's enemies and an inscrutable race of alien monsters.

©1993 William H. Keith (P)2015 Tantor

The books deserved better

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

I'll be blunt: the performance was horrible. I'm not familiar with the narrator's other work but I suspect the problem here is the direction anyway. Bill Paxton's character in aliens is famous for his panicked scream "Game over, man! Game over!" It was effective because it stood out in stark contrast to the other soldiers who (mostly) remained calm under pressure. In this performance, *every* character sounds that panicked, *every* time. There are plenty of ways to portray excitement in a dangerous situation other than terror. I only hope that the remaining books in the series are yet to be performed and that the director and narrator give the material the treatment it deserves.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I'm cheating here because I have the series in paperback and know the arc of the story. Ask someone for whom the material is fresh and maybe they will name a character other than Dev Cameron. Among the other things I like about Dev is that his rise to prominence is believably reluctant. He's not the resentful rogue-cop, bad boy kind of hero who breaks all the rules and gets away with it because he's so effective. Dev gets thrown into undesirable situations and reconciles by making the best of them, learning and growing from the experience.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yeah, sure. The pacing was fine. At least I think so. If it was off, I was too busy cringing every time something happened and all the trained, professional, hardened, badass soldiers started shrieking.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

This is one of my favorite book series and the author ties together elements of military sci-fi, cyberpunk, space opera, exobiology, emergent phenomena, galactic origins, AI, nanotechnology, philosophy, and more. I was so anxious to experience it in audio that I was getting close to recording it myself. When I found it on Audible I freaked and snapped it up. I would have bought the entire series if it had been available. Now I'm waiting to see how the next one sounds and actually considering abandoning the series.

"What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?"

Exactly. How did you know?

Any additional comments?

To be clear, I remain loyal to the series and will probably listen to the entire set, even if cringing all the way through. But then I'm a sucker for emergent phenomena (which occurs later in the series) and that isn't widely covered in the genre. If you start the series and don't finish it you will probably wonder why I'm such a fanboy. If you make it all the way through I predict you'll at least like the series and understand, even if you don't love it as I do.

Great story. Narration ehh.

The story was great well written a typical servings book in the series she the it's a lot of foundation being built for future books. The only real issue I had was with the narration. I now understand some of the issues other reviewers had mentioned. The military personal always seemed on the verge of crying and panic whenever they ran into a hint of any stressor. Having spent my time as a crunchy in the US army I will say. I didn't know anyone in my unit that cracked like this at just the slightest hint of danger or trouble. Made those parts a little annoying to listen to.

loved it

Not good at reviews, but I loves this one and the previous. buying 3 now, lol.

First book was better

I felt the first book had a better story overall, however I would still recommend this book if you enjoyed the first.

Didn’t age as well

As the others, but it is well written and entertaining. A good read, just not excellent.

sci fi drama

so i been enjoying listening to warstrider while driving.
absolutely love listening to it. highly recommended to be ypur next read.

Keith Jr. or Douglas?

I am a little confused at who the author actually is… Audible credits Ian Douglas, yet I distinctly remember reading a book of the exact title and concept, penned by William H. Keith Jr. some years ago. Am I wrong?

I did listen to the first installment of the series, and found it a rather enjoyable listen: a mix of military sci-fi and politics that struck the right balance. The second book, however… I actually did not finish the book. The libertarian dogma made it all but unpalatable.

libertarians

What would have made Warstrider: Rebellion better?

I have to say as soon as the libertarians became the "good guys" it started to become painful to continue listening in fact at a few points I found myself pulling out my ear buds. I think it is because I am not from the U.S. and have not received the indoctrination that socialism is the evil that the U.S. made it out to be during the cold war and that still lives on today in conservative U.S. I like my free health care.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

This book has some amazing ideas. I really like the Xenos and other aliens and had the book been about them and there interaction with humanity that would have been fine.