Down Below Beyond

By: T. A. Bruno

Narrated by: Kyle Snyder

Levort Aatra is a prospector on the planet Tayoxe. While scavenging the wastes of the abandoned world, he discovers a mysterious starship and stakes his claim on it. Little does he know, he just put a big target on his back.

Down Below Beyond is a sprawling sci-fi fantasy adventure filled with aliens, planets, and portals set in a universe crafted by T. A. Bruno, author of the award-winning Song of Kamaria trilogy.

©2023 Thomas Bruno (P)2023 Thomas Bruno

Lovely Story

To be honest when I first started listening to this book I was a little uncertain, mostly because I am snob about narration. Once I heard the narrator doing voices though I was comforted by his skill and embodiment of the individual characters. That being said I still feel like he could work on varying his pacing and tonal inflection while narrating.

Now as far as the story goes I was pleased with simple but elegant style of writing as well as the characters and overall storyline. Initially I felt like The MC was a bit naive but I just realized he was an extremely kind and considerate individual. Yes still naive but likeable and enjoyable to see how compassionate he was and I appreciate his ideals.

As far as story telling goes I felt very satisfied with the story Arc and was content with the ending. I didn't feel like anything was left unanswered or dissatisfied with the group's final choice.

All in all this is a fun, enjoyable, happy story, (for the most part) and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a comfortable adventure.

Thank you T.A. Bruno!

This book is the Drit!

I was given this book by the narrator and I had no idea what to expect! I was pleasantly surprised and fell in love with the characters and the story. It has a good mix of action and humor to make this an enjoyable listen and Kyle does an excellent job telling you the story! Going to look for my by both author and narrator!

Friends don't keep you small....

Down Below Beyond is a cozy standalone Sci-Fi novel that you will breeze through as T.A. Bruno nailed the pacing. I’m impressed at how expansive this world is for a book that is just over 300 pages long.

The story centers around two characters Levort and Bayfo who throughout the story are accompanied by an eclectic cast that is sure to have you laughing. If you are a fan of the found family trope then you will surely enjoy this story.

Bruno’s ability to show to write characters that you can easily connect and relate to shines once again in this book. While Levort and Bayfo are both working towards the same end goal of building a better life for themselves, the path each takes and the lengths they are willing to go to accomplish it are completely different.

This book tackles many issues we face today, such as discerning truth from false information, what true friendship looks like and does blood make you family or is a family something more than just some shared DNA. Bruno does a stellar job at showing how one's perception of these types of topics can send them down totally different paths. One creates hope for those it comes in contact with and the other leaves those in its path experiencing destruction and despair.

Beyond the two main characters Bruno's writing really does a fantastic job of bringing your own imagination to life as I could clearly see the story playing out in my mind as I made my way through which is not always the case for me. The different alien races/species he created are fantastic and reminds me of the movie “Guardians of the Galaxy” which is a personal favorite of mine.

I know this book was a standalone and I’m not sure if Bruno has any plans to expand on this but I sure hope he does. While the ending of the book left me 100% satisfied with warm fuzzies on the inside. I feel like he wrote this in a way where he can write plenty more spin offs allowing us to experience more of the Beyond with all new characters and then one day bring it all full circle and have us reconnect with some of the main cast to close out the series as a whole if he chooses to expand. Personally I hope he does and I might have to team up with some other friends and heckle him into doing so :)

A completely unique world.

Great narration with a variety of voices. I like a book that can take me to an entirely new universe. This was had me engaged from the beginning.

A fantastic scifi fantasy adventure

I won an audible code prelaunch of the book via a giveaway done by the author. The narration by Kyle Snyder is fantastic and brings the characters to life.

This is my first read from this author, but it certainly won’t be the last. This is a scifi fantasy novel that heavily features found family and friends. It really is at its core about choosing your people and making the best of things. Everyone knows loss and hardship, certainly so does Levort Aatra. Perhaps even more than others. As a prospector, he has to forage and search for every little bit he can call his own, which makes sense, as that is his actual arc throughout the novel itself too.

My favorite thing about the mixture of scifi/fantasy is that it doesn’t feature hard science. The author is creating languages, races, planets. I don’t need to have heavily believable science backing it, I can allow being told what is, is just what it is. And the novel itself progresses at such a pace that you won’t even have time to dive too deep.

I really loved the villain role being kind of ambiguously filled by Levort’s best friend Bayfo. It exists as this really incredible way of showing two sides of the same coin as each of them just want to make a better life for themselves. I love the utilization of the ‘villain’ thinking his friend is so misled that he has to save him no matter what, therefore becoming blinded himself.

Personally a 5/5* for me. I need a physical copy and so do you.

Another Excellent Story!

This author is amazing in his writing of tales!!
The Main 2 characters grew up together, but not!
one is an Orphan (Levort) who works in shelving unit until old enough to be a Prospector. While (Bayfo) is the son of and Enforcer and perty much has all he needs and grows up to be an Enforcer. The world's that T.A. Burno writes in this Story are well built. The various alien characters are so varied and the description so vivid. Narrator does a Excellent job with the various characters voices and the entire storyline.

In search of The Beyond...

DISCLAIMER: I'd won a free Audible code for this book as part of a giveaway, but that has not impacted my opinion of the book.

This science fiction action romp is filled with fascinating planets and strange alien species. I wasn't really able to feel emotionally invested in anyone or anything in particular, but I still had a really good time just being taken along for this crazy ride.

CHARACTERS
Levort Aatra serves as our main protagonist. He's not the most unique hero, but he has an interesting enough backstory and his pure-hearted motivations make him easy to root for. Because I'm not really sure how to spell the names for anyone else (his was the only one listed in the book's description), I won't me mentioning them by name. I will say that it took me longer than it probably should have to memorize what everyone was called and even as I neared the story's end, there were still some characters that had me going, "wait, who was that again?" This wasn't necessarily because any of these characters are bad. I think instead, it had more to do with a combination of me just not feeling much of an emotional connection to any of them and there being a very large cast for such a quick adventure. Some of the ones that came through clearest for me were Levort's best friend turned enemy, one of the "Beyonders," a plant lady, a three eyed creature, and a big brutish fellow who I wasn't really sure I was able to clearly picture accurately. Even though I'm not sure this was the intent, I found myself picturing them all as animated characters like something from TREASURE PLANET or TITAN A.E. I don't think this is an inherently negative thing, but it did throw me off somewhat because the cover didn't really give me that type of expectation. They're all also quite quirky and charming in the way that a cartoon character might be. I'd argue that none of them are especially complex, though I wouldn't necessarily say they were one-dimensional either.

PLOT/TONE
There's a sort of lighthearted air to this novel that might feel reminiscent of adventure stories from one's childhood. On one hand, that can be a rather fun and perhaps even nostalgic trip to take. On the other, I think it really through me off as that is not at all what I thought this was going to be. Personally, I would have liked to have felt more invested in either the characters or the story being told. I loved the parts where the book took me to a new world and/or introduced a new alien species, but didn't feel especially hooked in the events playing out around all that. The conflict between Levort and his best friend was handled well enough, but I think there were some emotional moments between them that were supposed to hit me a lot harder than they did. I think this is partly due to how the story really prioritizes the adventure. I loved the forward momentum that drives the narrative forward, I just thought that we could have paused a little longer to more deeply explore a character's inner feelings, a more complex idea, or even the background for a specific world or people. There were some truly compelling topics that the novel touches upon like the distinction between a cult and a community or what it means to be party to a toxic friendship where someone always has to have the upper hand in order for the relationship to work. Instead, these concepts are mostly skimmed over at surface level and characters seem to bounce back quickly from the more traumatic moments. I felt like that was a little bit of a shame, but I think the main point of this story is really to be fun rather than to serve as something that hits readers with intense emotions. I definitely feel like this story succeeds in delivering ample amounts of fun. It's a sort of joyride and a relatively clean one at that, which is always nice. I could see this being perfect for someone who's looking for something quick and light after finishing something denser and/or more emotionally taxing. Yes, I was expecting something a little bit deeper and a little more gripping, but I think what I got out of this was perfectly worthwhile in it's own way too.

SETTING/WORLD
If I've been a little harsh on the book so far, this is one area that I want to make it clear that I was quite impressed with. Bruno has a real talent for imagining vibrant alien worlds and the exotic peoples that live within them. For such a relatively short book, I was amazed at how many of each we got to see. There's just a ton of creativity on display here and it's impossible not to appreciate the love and care that Bruno has put into developing this universe. The technologies used were also quite fun. From starships to little handheld portal devices, there's a ton of mobility that this sci-fi setting has to offer and that really opened things up when it came to the possibilities for exploration. I liked that there were still some limits around how characters could move around though and how those restrictions gave the tech almost the same feel as a magic system. Equally enjoyable is the subtle bits of lore that are sprinkled throughout the story. There are elements of a dystopia present which I usually enjoy and while they weren't particularly deep, I felt as though the politics of this universe were perfectly compelling and believable. I enjoyed the backstory of the Beyonders and I found myself wanting to know more about them. I also thought it was pretty interesting that humans aren't as common here as they typically are in other science fiction universes and I appreciated the book's commitment to delivering such a diverse array of alien species. I think Bruno has a real gift for crafting interesting settings, so I hope he continues to dream up more fantastical worlds and universes for readers to explore.

AUDIOBOOK
In terms of overall production quality, this is a perfectly solid eBook. The narrator does a fantastic job of giving funny, but fitting voices to all the different characters and is largely able to keep everyone consistent. There are one or two moments where I felt like Lavort and his best friend sounded too much alike, but they were typically distinct from one another and mostly only blended together during an argument. As colorful as the voicework was though, the recitation of the book's prose felt jarringly flat. It's not necessarily bad, just a little lacking in intonation changes, especially between action scenes and quiet moments which made the action a little tough to stay engaged with and sometimes hard to follow. I do think that this may have detracted from my overall enjoyment of the story somewhat and I have to wonder if my experience with the story itself would have been different had I read it visually. I also wonder if some of the scene changes would have felt less abrupt if I was seeing them split up by paragraph on a page. They all just kind of bled together in the audio version, which made me feel a little disoriented at times with what was going on.

My last gripe has to do with the book's cover. While I am a massive fan of both the cover art and the book title, I think the artwork actually set me off on the wrong foot with the story because it seemed to indicate a much more serious and intense story than what I felt we ultimately got. To me, something more whimsical and cartoonish would have been more fitting, but I understand that probably would not have been as eye catching to as many people.

CONCLUSION
If you're coming hot off the heels from a really dense or heavy read, then this might serve as the perfect pallet cleanser. It's not the most compelling book I've read all year, but I did ultimately have a good time just going along for this wild ride. I'm also curious to try more books by the author, especially because he has a whole trilogy that is set in this same universe, but is not specifically connected to this book.

(+) A cast of colorful characters who were each quite distinct from one another
(+) A lighthearted and generally clean romp across a science-fiction universe
(+) A fast paced, relatively quick read
(+) TONS of creativity that went into crafting these bizarre worlds and the equally alien creatures that live within them
(+/-) The narrator did a largely spectacular job with the voices, but the way he recited the prose came off as a bit flat to me
(+/-) The cover and title, though fantastic, sort of gave me a false impression of what this story would be like
(-) In spite of how much fun I had, I wasn't all that emotionally invested in the story or characters
(-) The more interesting concepts aren't really explored in all that much depth
(-) Some of the characters and alien species were hard to picture and/or keep track of
(-) Scene shifts that felt rather fast/abrupt (on audio at least)

Mind was melted!!!

This book hit me out of left field! I’ve never read a portal book and am relatively new to the Sci-fi genre. This book showed up on my radar when Andrew’s wizardly read’s recommended it on his channel. It was on my reading list but when I got the chance to listen to it, I jumped and I’m glad that I did. The character development was great! The way that characters of different species came together and formed a family of their own was amazing. The battle sequences weee very well written and the use of the portal hoppers was far beyond my expectations. T.A. Bruno does a marvelous job drawing you in and grabbing a hold of you with the characters and their paths through the book. I was thrown in some parts expecting one thing and getting another and it was refreshing to not know what’s going to happen. This definitely won’t be my last T.A. Bruno read! Also, the audiobook was flawlessly done! The narrator was phenomenal and his array of voices really gave the characters life and brought the book “off the pages” of you will. If you’re a fan of portal books, Sci-fi, or fantasy in general I definitely recommend this one!

Main character is an idiot!

Bruno makes it very hard to finish this book. He made Levort a complete moron.

I love this book

I love fiction, especially when the author can create an escape to a new world for the characters and creatures that are brought to life with so much detail. The narrator did a spectacular job giving that extra push to each character portrayed. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves fiction and wants a little time away from Earth. 😉