Renegade

The Pirate from the Stars, Book 1

By: Cheree Alsop

Narrated by: Erin C Gray

Space pirate meets Robin Hood in this edge-of-your-seat space adventure about an officer turned pirate.

When a tragedy makes his brother his enemy, Gage becomes a pirate captain who fills his time robbing from the rich Coalition and giving to the poor planets struggling to survive across the vast Macrocosm. But being a pirate comes with its risks, and Gage is hard-pressed to protect his crew and loved ones against the dangers of having enemies with bigger guns and faster ships. It doesn't help that he has a soft heart for damsels in distress and can never say no to a good adventure.

©2017 Cheree Alsop (P)2017 Cheree Alsop

Terrible narration

A terrible accident causes Gage to be threatened by his brother. The only way out is becoming a pirate and fight against the Coalition, stealing from them and giving it away to the poor people in need.

I really wanted to like this book. The premises were great, the characters were interesting, and it had an irresistible Firefly vibe. The story is good and the dialogs are fresh and vibrant.

My only issue here was the poor narration, and I confess that I did not want to put myself through six excruciating hours of pain, even though I tried. The characters sounded like drunk valley girls, and the narration in general was done in a tone like Erin C. Gray was smiling all the time. It would have been partly good for the main character, but not for the other ones, and the main narration. And it is like Gray did not even try to have a clear diction… I found it so distracting that I could not, for the life of me, focus on the story.

This is the first time I am not able to finish an audiobook, and it saddens me because this seemed to be such a great book. I think Cheree Alsop should consider having this re-recorded in order to avoid having readers slipping away.

I received a copy of this book in audio format from the narrator in exchange for an honest review.

Like a Good Fisherman

Slow pacing towards the beginning. Narrator has odd cadence that takes time to acclimate to. Could use practice in more expressive vocal performance. Action sequences were intriguing in idea but lacking a bit in detail. Simply put, I kept listening. That means I liked the story and narration wasn't off putting enough to drive me away from hearing the ending. I'd like to hear more about Pirate Metis. Hopefully a bit more adventure in the next story.

there be pirates in them stars...

I love love love this book. The main char is so much fun, he's just what you would want from a captain of a band of space pirates. The story is fun (though like most books it has its happy and sad moments), leaves off in a good place even though it is a cliffhanger.

The voice actor does amazing work. This story has a bunch of char and he's got a voice for them all. Most are aliens so very unique to do, its fun to just listen to them all.

I was given this book for free in exchange for an unbiased review, thank you so much!

Review Renegade: the pirate from the stars

“This audiobook was given by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.”
A young adult SF book that I believe will be enjoyed by our preteens. A fun story without the depth of an epic novel.

Poor narration killed it.

What did you like best about Renegade? What did you like least?

Apart from the narration, the other thing that I didn't like about this book is that it threw me in the middle of a vast universe without much introduction or explaining the world. I found myself lost at places. I later red in another review that this series is a continuation of another series by the same author. That's a bummer.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narration really really poor. The voice sounded slurred and mumbling. It didn't match the pace of the story. Specially, the female voices were very irritating / annoying. The narration distracted me so much that I quit after some time.

Was Renegade worth the listening time?

Not really, because of the poor narration. It would probably be worth it to read it on kindle.

Any additional comments?

I received this audiobook for free from the author / narrator / publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.

Rich space pirate who helps others saves the day.

I do not think I could ever call this story an in depth dive into the any of the characters but Cheree Alsop does a great job at providing bits and pieces of background to keep the listener informed. The story is fast paced enough that the lack of salient details is not too much of a burden, but Erin C Gray's performance leaves something to be desired and there are a few places where there is poor auditing. Overall the story is intriguing and worth a listen. This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Sorry, I don't get it.

I’ll start and end with; I wanted to like this book, I really did. There was something going on here, some attempt at a winning plot, but I just couldn’t find it amongst all the dialog. Some plot foundation akin to Firefly I suspect. Perhaps a leading man with charisma akin to Jack Sparrow. I didn’t get it or the author couldn’t pull it off; either way it was fairly interesting, but not my cup of tea. The narrator could not get and hold my attention. This audiobook was given by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.

Great listen

What did you like best about this story?

Loved the characters, Gage is a smartass.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was laughing throughout the book, so many funny moments.

Any additional comments?

Loved everything about this book and the narrator did a stellar job! This review is for a free review copy of this audiobook and I have voluntarily left this review.

Enjoyable but a little confusing for newcomers

Only after having picked this up did I realise that this book, and the "Pirate from the Stars" series, actually is a continuation of a universe created with Alsop's "Girl from the Stars" series. I had not heard of this other series and had not read it before reading this book. As such I feel I was really thrown into the deep end here, with not too much explanation of the universe and how all the planets fit together.

So you may want to read that other series first (I'm not sure, I'm just assuming it fills the gaps here).

Overall its a 3.5/5, rounded up.

Even with the gaps in knowledge and being thrown into the deep end, I found the book to be really enjoyable. It follows a space pirate named Gage as he robs from the rich and gives to the poor, all while escaping from his enemies and his family (which somewhat overlap). He has a motley crew of pirates on his ship, having joined based on a "no questions asked" type policy.

Gage himself is a fun character, a bit of a larrakin, but also a good captain. He story does well in setting him up and getting you to engage with him, and making his concerns yours. The rest of the crew more blur together. Although some have distinct characters none are really impactful in a way that helped me to keep them all straight,although that didn't affect my enjoyment of the story either.

The narration by Erin C Gray was fairly good. Also a 3.5/5 rounded up. Gray provides all of what I generally enjoy in narration - emotions and action provided to the narration and characters, and individual voices for each to help separate them. She is clear and well paced with no obvious audio issues. The only real problem I had with her (and it's not one I've really found myself having had before) is that Gray overacts in places. There is too much excitement and energy in the action, sometimes pushing it to ridiculous levels. Some of the character voices are also over the top and cartoonish, which also becomes a little grating.

But if it was a choice between over-the-top and flat/bland, I would take over-the-top any day.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Enjoyed it, except for narrator voice

Any additional comments?

The Pirate from the Stars (Renegade #1) by Cheree Alsop is an audio book I requested and the review is voluntary. I enjoyed this book and it was a lot different then I expected. I have expected it would be mostly romance, although I don't like romance I thought I would try since it was with sci-fi. But this did have romance but it didn't overpower the plot, characters, and sci-fi aspects. It was more action, adventure, touch of humor, suspense, and more. I really enjoyed it and it was a nice surprise. I have books by this author I have not started and I think I will drag those out now! This was a fun book! The only thing I didn't like was the narration, ugh, I hated the narration voice. It did not fit at all! I wish it had been a audio narration book so I could have just read the book myself after so long. I would have given it 5 stars if it wasn't for the narration. I did like the speed of the narration. Most of the narrators I have to bump the speed to 1.5 or 2 because they are sooooo slow but this narrator was fast enough I didn't have to. His voice just didn't go with the story I felt.