Cascade Failure

A Novel

By: L. M. Sagas

Narrated by: Torian Brackett

Long-listed, BookPage Best Books of the Year, 2024

"Narrator Torian Brackett contrasts a tranquil delivery of narrative with Jal's wariness, Eoan's mix of coyness and kindness, Saint's façade of crankiness, and Nash's quirky practicality. They're a prickly and heartwarming found family amid the whizbang of outer space."—AudioFile

L. M. Sagas's debut, Cascade Failure, is a high-octane, sci-fi adventure blending J. S. Dewes's Divide series with Firefly. It features a fierce, messy, chaotic space family, vibrant worlds, and an exploration of the many ways to be—and not to be—human.

Most Anticipated Books of 2024—Goodreads, Polygon, The Nerd Daily

There are only three real powers in the Spiral: the corporate power of the Trust versus the Union's labor's leverage. Between them the Guild tries to keep everyone's hands above the table. It ain't easy.

Branded a Guild deserter, Jal "accidentally" lands a ride on a Guild ship. Helmed by an AI, with a ship's engineer/medic who doesn't see much of a difference between the two jobs, and a "don't make me shoot you" XO, the Guild crew of the Ambit is a little . . . different.

They're also in over their heads. Responding to a distress call from an abandoned planet, they find a mass grave, and a live programmer who knows how it happened. The Trust has plans. This isn't the first dead planet, and it's not going to be the last.

Unless the crew of the Ambit can stop it.

Ambit's Run series

Cascade Failure

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.

©2024 L. M. Sagas (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Rapid-fire adventures spiked with army jargon and balanced with touching resolutions of personal conflicts keep the pages turning. Add in a charming found family—and even a space-faring cat—and this spirited space opera is a resounding success.”—Publishers Weekly

“An epic quest . . .with sacrifice, revenge and the consequences thereof, what really constitutes ‘doing the right thing,’ and friendships forged, broken, and reforged—an entertaining beginning for a series.”—Booklist

“Cascade Failure is an emotional and fun ride that you won't want to end. I loved this book!”—Mur Lafferty, author and Hugo Award-winning podcaster of Escape Pod

Science fiction at its best

Wonderful narration with main characters voices perfect. One of the best sci-fi books I've listened to in a long time. So many are just conflict, Galactic wars, etc, with characters very poorly developed. Fighting, death and hero's who are indestructible. This author presents the full range of the true cost of conflict. A world isn't just lost and hero just moves on to the next battle. Here the physical and emotional costs to the main characters are slowly developed,and unfolded.I feel like I have gotten to know real people who are extraordinary . I hope there is a sequel as I am not ready to say goodbye.Also, I feel there a lot more to explore in this creatively imagined and crafted future of humanity.

Not gripping or intriguing

The story is meh, the big quest isn't that interesting, the characters are bland and tired.

A Perfect Mix of Adventure and Family

Once again corporations are the problem that either forces people to go against it or succumb to its corruption. Anyway, Cascade Failure was in both ways emotional as it was full of adventure. The crew is amazing and their bond is so wholesome and strong. You honestly couldn’t ask for a better group of people watching your back. The narrator also did an amazing job at conveying the characters and their individual voices.

Very Invested in Characters

The story did a great job of creating about half a dozen really thought out characters. All the characters had tics and twists to their personality which made them easy to care for. Plot was great and different with a couple of turns I didn't expect. I can't wait for the next!

Derivative and half thought out

So many issues with this novel, but the biggest and most glaring is that the entire book feels incomplete. All the characters are one dimensional. The settings are never described, giving almost zero detail or context to the world the novel takes place in. Everyone talks like a Gen Z kid, using typical slag, which completely ruins the atmosphere of a unique setting. Such a heavy focus on social awkwardness that half the book was cringe inducing to listen to. Generic awful big cooperation causing harm to planets as a thinly veiled allegory for climate change. Also, none of the characters are likeable. Just generic sci fi characters. Furthermore, calling this book sci fi is a stretch. Just a typical distopian story in a space setting. it's as though this book was written by AI, cause it has zero unique ideas, concepts, or characters. I do not recommend this book. Go read The Expanse, cause this just feels like a cheap ripoff. Narrator was fine, needs to work on his feminine voices and accents.

Like the Ketty Jay

Do you like Tales of the Ketty Jay? If so, you’ll enjoy this. Similar vibes, tone, and plot. Highly recommend.

Interesting, creative idea

Overwritten and sappy narration. Half the sentences could be half as long. The voices were OK, but the third person narration sounded so sappy it was nauseating to listen to.

Had potential

Strong start. So close to a Firefly rip off that it almost makes it work. Then the story gets bogged down in extremely dull and confusing exposition. Over labored descriptions. And something about guilds and unconvincing motives of this ruling elite? (Why would they “decommission” planets? What? I honestly don’t know.)

With a better narrator it might’ve worked. But weird southern accents etc really killed the vibe.

I wanted to like this. I really did.

Terrible character writing

The worldbuilding and overall story was interesting, but the overdone character writing made it hard to listen to. Half the book is just excessive adjectives and overly emotional characters. Also hated the voice the narrator did for the saint character, he would moan some of the lines for no reason.