Aurora: CV-01

Frontiers Saga, Book 1

De: Ryk Brown

Narrado por: Jeffrey Kafer

A world recovering from a devastating plague. A brutal enemy threatening invasion. A young man seeking to escape the shadow of his father. A ship manned by a crew of fresh academy graduates. A top-secret experimental propulsion system. A questionable alliance with a mysterious green-eyed woman.

What destiny has in store for the crew of the UES Aurora is far greater than any of them could ever imagine. And this is only the beginning....

©2012 Ryk Brown (P)2013 Tantor

Decent Modern Military Sci Fi

Aurora CV-01 is a decent modern sci fi with enough characterization and action to keep one eagerly listening. Although the main character might be a bit much of a cliché (the unique snowflake, glib male version), I still enjoyed the story.

Ethan is the son of a senator and wants as far away from his famous father as possible. He enlists in the fleet - yet despite lackluster scores, manages to be assigned to the fleet's flagship. But he must compete with a very by the book colleague who wants the top position. And a side cast of characters will also have to deal with their own challenges being raw recruits suddenly thrust into an unforgiving situation with an alien threat.

This felt very captain Kirk and the Kobayashi Maru - the man whose instincts and daring are far more important than by-the-book learning and so can compensate for any situation. Of course, this is a very male-driven book - all the women are 'hotties' and antagonize or sleep with the male characters providing titlation. It was very nun or whore - and as a female myself, it would have been nice to see the women as people and not objects to bag or be annoyed by.

In the end, I did enjoy this first book in the series and felt the Audible narrator did a decent job.

Nasal

I haven’t figured out If the narrator is holding his nose or reading through Stephen Hawking’s voice synthesizer. This may be a great book, but I’ll never know. 15 minutes in and I gave up because of the robotic rambling of Jeffrey Kafer. Absolutely terrible.

Military sci-fi light

The story is good! it's heavy on the interpersonal relationships and interactions but not that hard into the technology or military aspect. The ranks are essentially meaningless and much of the science is chalked up as unkown quantities. Jeffery Keefer did an excellent job as always

Better Military Sci-Fi out there.

When you get past the slightly confusing timeline established in the beginning chapters, Aurora: CV-01 operates on a fairly basic premise. Earth's first exploratory spaceship/testing vehicle for interstellar travel. There are hints of compelling characters dropped lightly throughout but nothing really develops into something that makes you care about the characters. They felt mostly like caricatures and props for the science and overall story. However, most books or series in this narrow genre get by just fine on the strength of the plot and science. For me though the story got a little carried away too fast without giving anything away, I felt things just advanced too quickly on a shaky foundation.

One is better served checking out the Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell, which has many of the same elements yet presented far better.

The narration was fine barring the atrocious Russian accent of one character. I always cringe when narrators are forced to attempt accents due to the characters they've been given. Nine times out of 10 those accents are terrible and detract from the story and listening experience. On the rare occasion when the narrator has the ability to pull off an accent well, it exponentially enhances the experience, this sadly is not one of those instances.

great story and narration

loved it, the narrator does pretty entertaining accents as well and adds just enough color to enhance but not distract

Reading was OK, store is excellent!

What did you love best about Aurora: CV-01?

Book held my attention from the start.

What did you like best about this story?

Story never seems to lag. Plots don't take long to develop, and then you're on the the next plot change.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Narration was OK.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I had trouble putting it down, but the number of characters was small enough that if you put it down for a few days, you'd not be confused on who's who when you start back up again.

Any additional comments?

I had heard the story was great from Steve Gibson (Security Now & grc.com), but when I listened to the sample of the audiobook, I thought the narration sounded flat, and was afraid I would be annoyed by the reader. As it turned out, in my opinion, narration by Jeffrey Kafer is not the greatest, but it is better than I originally thought, and the story is EXCELLENT.

A great start to an ongoing space saga

The plot line was good and narrated well. It should be a good series to follow with multiple books.

aint no jack cambell

Would you try another book from Ryk Brown and/or Jeffrey Kafer?

Yes, I am especially disappointed in these book companies or worse authors find it necessary to split one book into two and charge you as if it were four.
Narrator is good.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Move it along a little quicker.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Decent.

Could you see Aurora: CV-01 being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

This is a decent storyline and what. However wher is the prequel beginning of the story.
What caused the world collapse, when did the plague hit. Wheren and where did theJund come from?
How did the data disks get stored and found. Any book shorter than 6 hours is a $7 book.

This series gets SO GOOD!

I initially rated this book during one of those times when there were A LOT of other great books to listen to also... So I gave it "4 Stars Across The Board" Instead of 5. Trying to be consistent, I rated the next few books as "4 Stars Across The Board" also, even though each book Mr. Brown put out got a little BETTER! By Book 5, The "5 Stars" began creeping into my ratings of his books... Since Book 9, I've been Hammering "5 Stars Across The Board"!

I just finished book FOURTEEN! I've been giving the books 5 Stars across the board for a while now, and I'm at a point where I'm looking for that SIXTH STAR to tap!!!

I FULLY expected this series to get repetitive and cliche, as in: "Any time we're in trouble, just Jump Away!" NOPE!
Yes, Ryk Brown COULD HAVE easily gone that way, but he doesn't! He uses the "Jump Drive" in ways that INFURIATE the enemy, but he RARELY uses it to let the characters escape a head-on battle, even when "The Good Guys" are facing overwhelming odds! (Of course, where would the "Action" be if he just "Hit And Ran Away" all the time?)

I felt the NEED to point out that the Narration by Jeffrey Kafer is EXCELLENT! This WAS a Narrator I had never heard before, and so I wasn't sure he would be able to keep up with the Fast Paced Action Sequences, time after time, without "Overdoing it".. I also worried that as more and more, AND MORE, Characters were introduced, He wouldn't be able to make each Character's voice "Uniquely Recognizable As THAT Character". NO MORE FEAR ON THOSE POINTS! You know who is speaking even without the obligatory "..Said Nathan.." which is included for "Printed Versions" of the books. You KNOW who is speaking! Mr. Kafer's Narration has been EXCELLENT and VERY Professional right from the start, and if anything, his narration gets BETTER with every new book also! THAT is the Subtle Mark of a true Professional.. as the material gets better, the narration gets better! He brings out THE MOST in what he has to work with, and Ryk Brown is giving him A LOT to work with! ;)

Forget "Stars".. "Star Ratings" can be a subjective opinion based largely on "our mood at the time"... Instead, let's look at it this way: "There have been 14 Books so far... At 'Member Prices', that comes to $240.70!!! Even as an Audible Platinum Member since 2005, Using 'Credits' bought in Lump Sums of '3 to 12 Credits at a time' (PLUS my Normal 'Monthly Audible Platinum Membership Fee'.. which I KEEP even though I also buy Extra Credits in Bulk Amounts.. Hey, I listen to AT LEAST 9-10 books a month, and often many more), I've STILL spent More Than $160.00 (Lets give that the respect it deserves: 'ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY BUX'!) on THIS Series alone! IT'S BEEN WORTH EVERY SINGLE PENNY!!!!!

I Work *HARD* for my Money! I have a 'PERFECT' Wife, and SEVEN 'Academically Gifted' Children that are HEAVILY involved in everything from "Color Guard" after School, to Robotics, Engineering, and Acting Clubs IN School... Several of my older Children are busy taking care of THEIR families, which include (of course) my THREE Grandchildren (Who may be HERE, OR they may be anywhere else, when the Military stations my Sons-In-Law somewhere else on the globe). *I* USUALLY work AT LEAST 12 hours a day, 7 Days a Week, often 'all over the world'! I'm Retired from the US Army, However, between Running Engineering and Consulting Businesses, and Running our Ranch, I have VERY limited TIME, and I *EARN* EVERY DIME I make the hard way! Needless to say, I don't waste ANY of my TIME or Money!

So If *YOU* believe in "Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is", I think the Numbers above speak for themselves, MUCH louder than "Stars"! And I'll HAPPILY give Ryk Brown MORE of my money, AND TIME, whenever he puts out ANOTHER Great Book!

WELL DONE Gentlemen!

A New Spin on Star Trek Voyager

If you enjoyed Star Trek Voyager and her crew, you'll feel right at home with Aurora. After we get a short history of how humanity on Earth was set back at least 1000 years technologically due to a plague killing most of the population, we find those humans from Earth finally venturing into light speed travel. There is a known territory around the vicinity of Earth filled with humans that already possess FTL travel and belong to an aggressive empire that most fear will soon attack Earth. During Aurora's maiden voyage, there is an accident that causes them to be propelled 1000 light years from earth and become faced with an impossible journey to try and get back home. ( a la Voyager). The crew is forced to come to terms with a new galaxy, new friends and enemies, and it would seem new technology that may help Earth if they ever get back home.

Aurora is not a heavy sci-fi read and feels like watching several episodes of Star Trek at a time. I enjoyed the first book enough to buy the next four in the series to continue the fun, as each book is a bit on the shorter side and you would do well to have the next book in the series ready to go as you'll want to know where the story goes next.

Jeffrey Kafer does a great jpb narrating. After coincidentally listening to several books recently narrated by Mr. Kafer, I found myself browsing a list of his narrations on Audible and found many more sci-fi space operas that I will be picking up soon. It would appear he is a space opera fan himself and has picked many excellent series to narrate that makes our job easier when choosing our next book.

Add this one to your cart if you ready to download many more of the 15 books already available in this series.