Earth Interstellar

Proxy War

By: Scott Olen Reid

Narrated by: Joshua Saxon

When the XSS Cousteau makes first contact with the Rheas, a pre-space flight alien race, it creates an opportunity for an economic windfall for Earth.

After 300 years of paying tribute to their benefactor, the Vrene, humanity can use the relief. Only the Chzek already have a claim on the Rheas, who they want to enslave to serve their empire.

Unknown to the humans, the Chzek are long-time enemies of the Vrene. With little choice, humanity and a Chzek vassal race are made proxies of their more advanced benefactors and are compelled to fight Earth’s first interstellar war. Questions arise as Commander Kree, captain of the Cousteau, and others realize the Vrene have been preparing Earth to fight this war with their enemy for hundreds of years.

Did their “benefactor” set them up to fight a war they do not want and cannot afford?

Or, did the Vrene do them a favor preparing them for a war they were already destined to fight as the Chzek expand their empire? Earth Interstellar is an engaging and fast paced story of future interstellar conflict and war in space.

©2018 Scott Olen Reid (P)2019 Scott Olen Reid

War and politics, loved the story

An interesting story with solid, somewhat predictable events. I've enjoyed the interaction and the evolution of characters. Event transition could use a cleaner cut but it did not damage the overall impact.
It is a fun listen and I really enjoyed the story. I am looking forward to episode two.
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Well thought out SciFi Novel

This is well thought out book. The author spent a lot of time fleshing out the universe and giving us the back story. But you can really tell how much thought went into it when it comes to space combat. Space is huge, and the author points out how missiles might take hours to reach their destination. Also, you wouldn’t know what your opponent is doing immediately, due to the speed of light. The story still moves along at a decent pace. I’m looking forward to seeing where he takes the story. The narration was ok, but the narrator didn’t really give the female characters women’s voices. Also, I like it when narrators give aliens strange or unique accents, but almost everyone in the book has an American accent. Overall, it was an enjoyable listen and I’m looking forward to seeing where the story goes in book two.

This audiobook was provided by the narrator at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review.

Must Read.

This book made my “Recommend” list which I reserve for books that I think someone who does not red that specific genre constantly would enjoy. It is definitely a war book based in space, but it also has lots of character development, politics (on an interstellar scale) and a decent amount of science/exploration.

The science portion of the book reminds me a lot of the Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor. (To be clear the humor seen in that series is not present in this book). Scott Olein Reid does a good job of taken into account how the speed of light can impact warfare as well as the advantages certain alien advantages can have a significant impact on a battle and a war. This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

The narration from January Saxon did a lot to add to the story, The inflection he was able to produce helped put you right in the middle of the story and there was never a point where the audio took you out of your willful suspension of belief.

TLDR: If you like Space/war or political stories you will enjoy this book. I cannot wait for the second in the series to come out. There is a lot we still do not know.

Best Space Book on 2020

5 Stars for
Earth Interstellar
By: Scott Olen Reid
Narrated by: Joshua Saxon
This was the best space story of 2020 for me. This book has ailen politics that the humans have to live and die under. A lot of thought and planing went into the space battles as they were totally realistic. I can not wait for the second book, just to start with this book again. This book was given to me at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

It was worth the listen

The story overall was good, however it could have used more depth to the story, it felt as if it was just a general outline. There are a lot of jumps in the time span which I understand are somewhat needed because of how long it takes them to travel. I found the narrator was hard to follow, in the beginning he was reading to fast for my liking and it was difficult to know where the transitions scene to the next were, or were one character stopped and the other started. If I could have read it instead of listening to it I probably would have liked it more.

Would I recommend it to someone? Yes

Would I read another book by the author? Yes

Would I listen to another by the the same narrator? Yes (updated)

**EDIT** After a short email exchange with the narrator I decided to listen to another book by him. I am only 2 hours into it but It has changed my mind about him.

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

Outstanding world building

Earth Interstellar Proxy War is an extremely entertaining story of competing galactic civilizations that use less advanced vassal civilizations to fight their wars. In this intriguing galactic scenario, civilizations are ranked and Earth is ranked near the bottom!
Well written and well narrated, Earth Interstellar is hopefully just the introduction for an excellent series.

Military Science Fiction Adventure

Scott Olen Reid has written a unique story with humanity fighting as proxy warriors in an interstellar war in order to survive in a much larger galactic neighborhood. The characters in this military science fiction story are well developed and likeable. The world building is innovative and interesting. There are lots of action sequences with combat and space battles. The technology and weaponry are plausible. This entertaining story moves along at a rapid pace. The narrator (Joshua Saxon) has a pleasant, easily understood voice. I was provided a free review copy of this audio book and am voluntarily leaving this review.

Well done

This is a very enjoyable book and I hope for a sequel. My only 'negative' was there wasn't much for individual character development, it was more like a history book. That's fine as it suits this story well, and even fits with the way the book is 'voiced' but it did throw me for a bit.

The narration was also excellent and I enjoyed it so much I'll be searching for more of Saxon's narration to consume.

I received this book in exchange for a review.

Don't expect voice acting.

I was given a free review copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.

This is a fairly interesting story, that borrows heavily from other similar books, but gets a little too bogged down in details rather than trying to have us make an emotional connection or excitement through action.

The characters are fairly forgettable, but not totally unlikeable. They are well enough while they are in the story, however, once they exit the story (even if it's briefly) I found myself forgetting they existed, and when they came back into the story having to try and remember who they were.

This is definitely a hard military sci fi, and is full of well thought out scientific principles and space combat battles. This does leave the story fairly dry and emotionless, as none of the characters are given the same level of detail as, for example, the method of traveling through space.

My other problem with this type of story is the space flight and combat are done with current level of scientific knowledge. Humans in several hundred years, and even the more advanced species are throwing objects at each other over the space of a solar system, and waiting hours and hours to see results. Now I know things like star trek are not scientifically sound, but there should be some intermediate between 20th century science and technology and FTL travel and combat situations.

This is also a heavily Americanized book, with flimsy excuses why America is controlling the world, and when its not its put back in charge. The space military is also using feet and miles. I found my eyes rolling so many times I had to stop listening to give my eyes a break.

All this, however, is unfortunately not new to me. I'm used to American stories where America rules the world, the metric system is ignored and 20th century military ideas and ranks are used hundreds of years in the future. What ruined the story for me was the voice acting. Well, in fact, it wasn't acting and that was the problem.

The narration by Joshua Saxton was very poor. There was little inflection on his voice, no difference between characters, narration, species, or genders. He took a dry book and dropped it in a desert. I found it, at times, hard to follow along, as he rolled one sentence into the next with no pause, voice change or tonal accent.

All in all, the story was OK, a little too much like some other books I've read, at times. However, interesting enough to keep going. The voice acting was terrible, though, and for that reason, I will not continue with this series.