Landfall

Ship Series, Book 1

By: Jerry Aubin

Narrated by: Eric Martin

The Ship fled a dying Earth to save the human race. Launched as the last gasp of humanity, the Ship set out to preserve the species by seeding the universe with one billion colonists. Generations of crew, trained to be either flight or marines, have spent 5,000 years protecting the Ship and its civilian cargo from the constant threat of alien violence.

Fifteen-year-old Zax has always had trouble fitting in with the other cadets, but he's finally on the cusp of attaining his dream and gaining entrance to the Pilot Academy. Catching the eye of the flight boss and winning him as a mentor should guarantee Zax a top spot, unless the shocking discovery he makes along the way destroys not only his career, but also the Ship itself.

©2015 Jerry Aubin (P)2017 Tantor

Interesting not terribly engaging

A bit formulaic. Coming of age in a millennial ship. Fighting aliens. First romance. Military. Okay but not gripping.

Audible Plus GEM

This book, if purchased probably would lead to poor reviews, but as an audible plus title, with the full series. Literally worth every second. but only on plus or free it’s well written, and the narrator has me for anything else I can find he is in

Dumped!

Well written entertaining story but it was only a part of the story and did not in any way stand on its own.
It should have been made clear that it could not stand on its own.
I will buy the next part but I feel that I was hoodwinked into it.

Entertaining.

Odd cut off ending to this book. I understand there are others in the series but still.. Great narration. I also found it odd, the future-speak of abbreviating minutes and seconds to "mins" and "secs", but got used to it. Those are used a lot. Just seemed out of place since all other speech was normal, and I wasnt sure what the hell was going on the first time I heard "secs (sex)".

An entertaining and easy listen

An enormous colony ship has fled a dying Earth, housing a billion suspended humans and a vast crew in search of habitable worlds.  Now five thousand years in the future, a culture of competition and perfection pervades the crew.  Points and credits are given for excellent performance, taken away for mistakes and failure.  Go too low and you are added to the suspended colonists dropped on hospitable worlds.

Zax is an exceptional crewman, agile, brilliant and effective, only he can’t seem to control his stomach during faster than light travel.  He is constantly bullied and ostracized for this ailment.  He is driven to command a pilot’s seat or even the commander’s chair, so he’ll do anything to succeed.  And in this dog-eat-dog environment, he’ll let others fail if it means his own success.  His problem is a quirky girl who doesn’t care about the merit system but is just as brilliant and skillful as he is.  When they discover the ulterior motives of the command structure, they have to decide to speak up and lose all hope of achieving their ambitions, or sit by and allow the evil to perpetuate a corrupt system.

Landfall is a futuristic coming of age story.  Zax’s character feels a little contradictory a lot of the time.  Constantly bullied and threatened, he sounds more like a victim, yet is being groomed for command.  The action and comradery are a welcome addition to the simple plot, though the constant attention to his nausea affliction is distracting to the story.  Five thousand years of technology and they can’t fix this?  Seems unrealistic.

Landfall is performed by Eric Martin, who does an excellent job.  His voice is pleasant and his characters are easily discerned.  He lends the appropriate mood to the novel and holds a quick pace.

Because the protagonists are teens, the novel is a good fit for young adults, but anyone interested in futuristic space colonization stories should enjoy it too.  An entertaining and easy listen that doesn’t break too much new ground.  The strange and destructive culture of advancement is the exception and gives the listener something to think about.  This is book one and two in the series.  It ends well enough but is clear that the story is far from complete.  If you enjoy it, you’ll be looking forward to the sequel(s).

Audiobook was purchased for review by ABR.

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

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Great read

Easy to follow story line plenty of action I fully intend to read the next book in the series

Try not to think of Ender's Game...

Oh wait, there are ant-like aliens on a planet which they eradicate from space. The comparisons are inevitable. That said, it was otherwise entertaining.

Puke

Secs turned into hours of baseless nonsense filled with vomiting. Seven hours of my life wasted. Thank you for that

Good scfi concepts, poor storytelling

What would have made Landfall better?

While I enjoyed some of the scifi concepts, the one-dimensional storytelling falls way short of expectations. The Ship series should be one book, rather than 4. I feel left wanting.

What could Jerry Aubin have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

There isn't a lot of modulation in his voice. The reading feels monotone and one can feel his lack of excitement about the story.

What about Eric Martin’s performance did you like?

Some of the snides were believable.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Some of the scifi concepts could lend themselves to a great story, if it were written by a writer that knows how to engage a reader.

Any additional comments?

I feel left wanting. I also feel ripped off, having to pay for 4 books that should have been one. Is high-tea not paying their people anymore so they have to gauge their readers?

narration was rough

sounded like an ai autogenerated narration which made it hard to listen to and boring