Dawn of Destiny

Epic, Book 1

By: Lee Stephen

Narrated by: Patrick Quance

The year is 0011NE, and mankind is under attack. Hostile forces from other worlds have come to Earth, their motivations a mystery, their objectives unknown. In the face of the alien threat, a global military called the Earth Defense Network - EDEN - was created.

Dawn of Destiny begins the story of Scott Remington, a new graduate of EDEN Academy. It is the first chapter in an epic that will carry him to the ends of the Earth, challenging the very faith he clings to as he confronts a purpose he can barely understand. For Scott, war is more than an occupation. It is the place God has led him. It is his destiny. Only one thing remains to be seen.

Is it a place he's willing to go?

©2006 Lee Stephen (P)2014 Lee Stephen

Science Fiction. Christian Warrior.

Science Fiction. Alien Invaders. War. This is a fun tale where men and women unite in armies and Navy as well as every other armed forces to fight back inside the Alien Invaders. The main character is unique, and not seen often in Science Fiction. He's a man with morals, who left his fiance beyond to help fight the aliens, and a Christian. It shows of his leadership, and their missions from USA to being transferred to Russia, where things are a lot harder, and they're a lot less respected. The narration is a full cast, and very neat. But with all the sound effects, it does negate the audio a little bit. However, I'd be very interested to listening to book two, first cast or not.

I wish I could give this book 6 Stars!

If a great audio book is a scoop of ice cream this one is a chocolate sunday. Different characters have different voices, there are sound effects and music to go along with certain scenes. And also you get a great story, battles, things blowing up; everything a young reader will like. But under this a story about doing the right thing, about the hero of the story wondering, 'Am I doing the right thing, what IS the right thing?'

You don't have to be a young person to ask yourself these questions. It is a book that makes you think, when was last time you read one like that!

This is one of the best audio books ever!

This is one of the most amazing audio books I have ever heard. The only reason I am not giving the performance 5 stars is sometimes the music and effects are so loud, they occasionally overpower the narration and characters' lines. Otherwise, I was blown away!

The story is gripping, and the characters are engaging. You really feel for the characters in the story. You feel elated when they are elated, you feel crushed when they do...

I look forward to the audio book versions of the next books in the series!

Check this out, Payoff good!

Great book, lots of potential. I appreciate the “Christian Sci-fi” approach which basically means the book is a normal representation of life, I mean come on - to be a Christian is the normal standard of life, people want to push weirdo agendas and make it seem like everyone is steeped in alcohol, drugs and all kinds of sexual things and that this is somehow what normal is or should be. They are weak counterfeits to living real life. Btw there were not many overt Christian references in the book, I think the author didn’t want to be preachy, and that the Christian element may speak more to what is not in the book, which readers like me appreciate and that everyone can appreciate if they get off their agendas.

Anyway, aside from some clunky writing which seems typical for first time authors (and, ahem, self-publishers), I really enjoyed the full voice cast, sound effects, and music and the good effect they have had on the story, and that this is an unabridged recording - I find this combination of full voice on unabridged to be rare.

I read a couple of reviews complaining about the music being too loud relative to the voice acting but I did not experience this at all. Is it possible the voice audio was better adjusted since those reviews? Not sure, but it worked for me and felt like a movie at some key junctures - those alone make the book worth it imo.

The buildup of all the characters throughout the story begins to pay off toward the end. I was surprised by the direction and look forward to the future. Especially the Arbiter-like muscle alien? Not much was said about that one but who knows? Looking forward to reading book 2 hardcover, I hope the author finishes the series soon (currently wrapping up book 6 with three more to go is what I’ve heard) and that he will provide the same audiobook treatment to each book.

Thanks Lee! Exciting things to come I’m sure.

good story overcomes very annoying music and FX

Would you consider the audio edition of Dawn of Destiny to be better than the print version?

Actually, no. It's well read, has a great story and the narrators do a pretty decent job, but the sound effects and music almost made me stop listening

Would you be willing to try another one of Patrick Quance’s performances?

yes...he does a good job.

Any additional comments?

some kind of warning on the book, like, contains inappropriate and annoying background music as well as overly loud FX sounds that make listening difficult....can this be republished without the FX and music?

Awesome and fast paced!

I loved this book I can’t wait for the other ones! So good just awesome

Full of highly technical battles scenes

This review was originally published way before the Audible release

First thing that drew my attention about Dawn of Destiny was the fact that it was not available on Audible. According to Lee Stephen, Audible does something to the audio quality and he did not want to chance it being degraded in any way. Knowing that Audible is one of, if not the largest audiobook marketplace, I hope he doesn’t loose any of his potential audience.

Full of highly technical battles scenes that, literally, had me frozen on the edge of my seat. Leaving me with nothing else to do but breath a huge sigh of relief, with my heart pounding, when the action has subsided.

There were extended lengths of time between action sequences, for, I assume, character and story building. There are strong religious undertones and periods that will smack you in the face. I didn’t see this coming at all. Earth Defense Network (EDEN), the main character Scott prayed to God several times. While this was all done tastefully, I didn’t think that it added anything to the story at all.

Looking for a fast paced alien invasion military science fiction adventure? Dawn of Destiny will not disappoint.

The audio production was up there with the best “movie” style audiobooks I have listened to. Boasting 30 voice actors all on the top of their game. It is difficult to single any single one out as they all were very enjoyable.

The only fault I could find was the music. Often times being much louder than the performer, leading to me having no idea what was just said. Because of this interference I could not give this category a 5 star rating.

Audiobook provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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Not What I Expected

I have a library full of Audio books where the narrator does the voice acting. Don't get me wrong, I can listen to Tim Jarad Renyolds all day, but the level of production and hiring of different voice actors for all the characters trust you deep into the scenes of this book. I normally am not a fan of modern military battles in books; however the production and message made this a book I could not stop listening to. Mr. Stephen does a great job of developing his characters, even the minor ones that don't stick around for long. I would highly recommend this audio book and pray that enough people enjoy it as well to motivate the publisher to push to make the rest of the series into an audio format.

God's destiny? and for one man it is war? Yikes!

I was very reluctant to pick up this book based on that little intro. Anyone who knows will tell you that the best Sci-fi is usually written by people without a social, religious or ideological bias. And if they do have them, they make a conscious effort to separate them from their books.
After all the "Sci" in Sci-fi denotes "Science", which historically has always been at odds with religion. So it goes that a religious undertone in science fiction tends to be more of a detractor than an enhancer. You will also find that most authors with a religious message usually also have a conservative message intertwined with their stories, and while a good story can be good whether its conservative or not, it is important to understand what you are getting into when you get a book from an author with those biases. Anyone who doubts this should read any of the Honor Harrington books. As a liberal I found that whole series beyond unrealistic, and quite appalling.
With this book, it wasn’t as bad, but that is not an endorsement. Far from it, this book suffers from some of the more creative fatal flaws as the HH series, but not to the extent as those books.
Don't get me wrong, it’s well written, but suffers all the typical propaganda histrionics you find with such authors. This includes
- One dimensional Enemies: the aliens in this story (Backma...put an L and N in this and you could end up with BlackMan) are so one dimensional its difficult to enjoy the story because of that absence.

- The reluctant hero: In this case our hero is not reluctant but actually very full of confidence in his own abilities. This is the same hero who espouses his belief that God wants him to be a warrior, and so he just happens to also be better than others in the book at being heroic, and saving his team in some poorly imagined and often half baked scenarios so unoriginal in the imagination that devised them, that you would have to wander if the person who wrote this had researched any experience with actual military combat before crafting the scenarios.

- Symbolic names that telegraph the author’s intent: here it’s not so subtle. The main characters name is Remington. Yes, that’s right, Remington like the gun maker. With a name like “Remington” would anyone be surprised at latent message underlying the character rigidity and steadfast belief in his cause. Like many gun nuts who feel a sense of purpose in their right to gun ownership, the goal being the self righteous belief in their right to end another’s life and willingness to do so.


- Other equally telling forms of symbolism: There are other not so subtle uses of symbolism to telegraph the intended message of the book. For example the hero is awarded something called “the golden lion” medal…I mean seriously?, straight of the pages of Narnia. The lion meant to symbolic of religious undertones in this well meaning story.

- Unrealistic turns of events: Plasma bolts pepper a van full of 5 personnel, and none of them were hit – the reader is supposed to accept that God was watching over him during this incident. He is asked during an interview how he prepared for the mission, and he says “with prayer” – not combat training, not studying the terrain and knowledge of his enemies tactics, not a confidence in the skillset of his companions…just prayer.

- One dimensional and stereotypical characters: The one black guy in the beginning uses a lot of “Ebonics” (in the future no less), the medical members of the team are both women, oh and one of them promptly jumps into bed with the Irish member of the team (all done very tastefully through implications…don’t want to mess up your ears with more direct descriptive after all), the major sounds like a drill instructor, and the girlfriend at home is a blubbering mess with emotional problems, and the aliens are also just as one dimensional…and the list goes on.

Guys, I am not hating on this book, though there is a lot not to like. I am sure it is meant clearly for an audience of Religious believers who also want to enjoy sci-fi. The irony of it is that religion and science don’t mix and it shows when well meaning writers try to force the two into some sort of compromise. This one is no different as the exception after exception the writer makes in the interest of maintaining a moral experience in reading this only serves to make you even more aware of how unrealistic it is.

Some may wander what gives me the right to question these so-called absurdities. Well I served 8 years in the US marines, 4 as an enlisted NCO and another 4 as an officer, and I can assure you, people in the military curse…yes. They curse, and use very colorful language during moments of high stress such as training and combat. I can also assure you that very many of them, DO NOT BELIEVE IN A GOD as many would have you believe. Rather they are trained to believe in their country, their leadership, their common cause, and above all else, themselves. So for me reading books like this is usually more than a little bit of a let down.

Hard core sci-fi fans will see this for nothing more than it is. Another Honor Harrington, religious conservative message disguised as science fiction that falls far from what it could have been.

If you are Atheist – stay away from this one as the story will have you rolling your eyes at cliché after cliché the author invokes in trying to move this along.

If you are a religious person, especially a Christian, and looking for good sci-fi, gets something more realistic. It does you no good only listening to stories that reinforce the shaky grounds of any faith based beliefs that constantly needs to remind you of a need to rely on it.

Read something that doesn’t try to preach to you without actually preaching to you. To me that is what this book does in more ways than one. Its nothing more than an endorsement of the Christian right belief that some god is active in the military, which for anyone who has any common sense, is a very frightening if not altogether disturbing position by itself as it is a dangerous equivalent to what the terrorist subscribe to themselves.

Music very distracting and takes away from the sto

What disappointed you about Dawn of Destiny?

the music was too loud! I could concentrate on the story.

Would you ever listen to anything by Lee Stephen again?

yes, hell I would listen to this book without the music track.

What didn’t you like about Patrick Quance’s performance?

His work is great!

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Dawn of Destiny?

none

Any additional comments?

if this book comes out without music I would like to read it!