Intrepid

By: Nate Johnson

Narrated by: Doug Tisdale Jr.

What was supposed to be a six month cruise of discovery had turned into a glorified babysitting adventure for a bunch of civilians. Leave it to the Imperial Navy to ruin a good thing.

Petty Officer Tanner just wanted to finish the patrol and get back to normal. That, and as far away from the enticing Miss Nora Johnson as possible.

All that changed when the ISS Intrepid was threatened with destruction and he quickly became the only thing between these civilians and instant death.

After crash landing on the strange new world, Petty Officer Eric Tanner had to keep these civilians alive until they were rescued. Heaven knows they weren't going to do it on their own.

©2016 Nate Johnson (P)2016 Nate Johnson

An unusual mix of sci-fi and primitive survival

Though short, I liked Intrepid and thought the author spun out a pretty good tale for the book's length. It was a quick, light read with a plot that was an unusual mix of sci-fi and primitive survival (about as much as I can say without spoiling it). I found the main characters interesting and thought they were developed reasonably well in a short amount of time; however, the sheer number of supporting characters may have been a bit much for the format. I often found myself confused in the last half of the book as I attempted to remember who each minor character was and why I should care about what happened to them. Overall, the story isn't horribly complicated, mostly predictable, and wraps up a bit too conveniently at the end. However, I found I still found the book pretty enjoyable.

Doug Tisdale Jr. is a dependably decent narrator, and his performance for Intrepid was good. I've heard his narration from listening to a few different books, and I think he consistently checks the boxes for a quality narrator. He isn't at the very top of my favorites, but he isn't far below them either.

This audiobook was given to me free, and I voluntarily gave this review.

Heinlein Juvenile with a Splash of Larry Niven

A SHUTTLE WITHOUT FUEL WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A SQUARE SHAPED ROCK.
Starts out pretty good, with a cool space adventure and than moves on to an unexplored planet. What got me most was that I kept listening not to find out if these people survived or to hear about the strange animals, but because of the sexual tension between the two main characters. Our main character is TOUGHER THAN LAST WEEK'S DONUTS and he is in charge of a bunch of college kids who DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THEY DIDN'T KNOW, when it comes to survival.

A BITCHING SPACER IS A HAPPY SPACER
This is a YA book, the main character is a 23 year old virgin. HE WONDERED IF THIS WAS WHAT SEX WAS LIKE. As I said before it started out pretty good, but as it went on it got sappy and went overboard in the main character worship. There is a lot of talk about his large square shoulders and how much he sacrifices for the others. Towards the end their is the constant, "Oh, he is going to chew me out or They are going to court marshal me, etc, etc. while all who are listening know the opposite. There is no sex and no foul language.

Reminds Me of Heinlein's Stories for Boys

Intrepid reminded me a lot of some of the early Heinlein novels that were marketed to “boys”. It has a hero who has to learn fast to keep his charges alive and has to deal with the frustrations of chaperoning undisciplined civilians on a dangerous uncolonized world. There’s nothing too deep here—just fun adventure with a tad bit of “growing up” fueling the storyline.

An enchanted story of survival and love

The narration is passable but the story is a good adventure. this is a happy ending story, but there is lots of adventure from the first page to the the last happy chapter.
Also suitable for young folks.