Derelict

Book 1, Repel Boarders (A LitRPG, Dungeon Core Adventure)

By: Dean Henegar

Narrated by: Jack Voraces

One captain’s death might turn out to be humanity’s best chance at survival.

As humanity expands into the stars, it discovers the universe is a hostile place.

When Captain Slater of the USS Franklin is assigned to a deep-space reconnaissance mission, his ship is destroyed by an unknown alien race.

Much to his surprise, Slater isn’t killed - he’s transformed. He is now a “derelict” - a consciousness bound to his old vessel.

Slater must quickly adapt to his new existence before raiders, alien armies, and mysterious forces seek to destroy him for a second and final time.

©2020 Dean Henegar (P)2020 Dean Henegar

OK story Terable narator

This is an interesting take on the Dungeon litrpg style. There are great big holes in the story but you can ignore most of them with little effort. The biggest drawback is jack Voraces as narrator. His accent is impossible to ignore. he apparently has never had a voice coach that told him that "C"s and "S" sounds are not supposed to sound the same and should not whistle. for the most part he sounds like he is eating while talking most of the time. his alternate voices all sound the same making it difficult to tell the difference between characters. I have listened to other books he has narrated and this flaw is standard for all his work unfortunatly. So be prepaired to be disappointment in the narrator for anything he does.

A decent story,

But the narrator took it behind the barn and shot it right in the face. I'll get the rest on kindle cause I really do like the story.

a suprise

i didn't think I would like it. but by the end i was eager for the next installment

4-stars of Potential, 2.5-stars of deliverable

This was an okay story, but had some issues:
1) I wasn't thrilled with the narrator. He was okay, but the secondary and tertiary voices were a bit annoying and a British guy playing an American soldier??? RC Bray or such may have been a better choice.
2) The editing wasn't great. I could hear what sounded like an old spool-to-spool tape recorder or mini-cassette light squeal on a regular basis.
3) The story was a bit forced addressing things as if they happened within hours or minutes where space is a big slow space. Other authors have handled the "hurry up and wait" that space combat would be in a much better fashion.
4) This really didn't fall into the class of a LitRPG. It was more like a story with an occasional read of a dungeon stat sheet and the author didn't really contain the story to a LitRPG structure.

There were positives:
1) For me, this was a unique spin on a LitRPG story. There might be thousands of them, but this is the first non fantasy/DND/Swords and Sorcery type LitRPG story that I've read.
2) The story has so much potential and a possible spin-off to a character LitRPG instead of a dungeon-core LitRPG as well.
3) Despite the failings, I really want to listen to book 2 to see if the author matures and/or the narrator is changed, but that will only happen if I find book 2 on a $5 sale.

Anyway, my takeaway for you is that this isn't a great book, but it's an okay book. Book 2 will make or break this series for me. If the author improves the story and/or the narrator is replaced, I may read more of the series. I definitely would not spend a credit on this, but it's not a bad $5 listen.

I love the story

this is a fun story and as a former DM I have always wanted to do a space D&D campaign. I did enjoy having the voice different and computer like for updates better than the person doing it. The English accent did take some getting used to but by the end of the second chapter I was enjoying his work,great job.

Narrative Mistake.

Why on earth would you choose a British voice actor who doesn't use any American accents for US NAVY sailors??? I have no issue on most other books but... every word out of any character mouth sounds dumb in context. It makes it hard to listen to even though I am interested in the series. I may not continue due to this nails on chalk board.

Not bad, but not for me

the premise sounded great. I obviously do not like the genre of being a computer game with stats. level 3. et al. loved the history at the end of how ships and characters were named in the story. Parts were good, others were not.

Slow at first but the WOW

I didn’t think I was going to be able too get through this at first but after chapter 3, I was hooked and reeled in too 10hours of nonstop listening. It’s refreshing it’s set in space. I was surprised at how well the story unfolded . I had my doubts but now I can’t wait till book 2.

More of a young adult or youth sci-fi/ fantasy

The story has merit , but the author chose to repeat things way too often. The theme of a story pulled from some type of “quest” video game is all that I can think of to describe it. I hate to not give a higher rating on someone’s hard work! I just about quit the book several times ,but then the story part would kick in and I would hold on. I would recommend to the author to bring out the story line and strengthen the relationships of the characters. Loose the gaming aspect, i.e. the “computer “listing out what assets the main character has . If you are targeting younger people ( that love gaming) this is it . If you want to get more sci-fi and fantasy readers you need to move to a better and more in-depth story line .

Couldn't finish

I'll start by saying that I've read a lot of dungeon core books... So, the basics are boring AF at this point. Usually core books have a chapter or two of basic rule learning then hop in and start exploring their unique aspects, interesting setting, etc. I don't get that at all with this one. I won't give spoilers, but the "conflict" involved is incredibly obvious and just not all that interesting overall.

More important (to me at least) the fact that this is a scifi setting gave me some idea that there would be some super interesting and cool techie based components... Nope not really, other than some hand waving about nano bots and such, some "jumping" shennegains, but nothing truly unique was really done with the setting at all... I got about 60% of the way through before throwing in the towel, if i have to FORCE myself to continue a book i don't feel it's worth it.

Last point I'll make, the main character is dull. No real personality, nothing that makes him stand out. Replace him with any other Joe from the street and you won't change the story, literally at all.