Shattered Diaspora

Hull Scrappers, Volume 1

By: Andrew Seiple

Narrated by: Ryan Burke

Some Scrappers just can't catch a break.

When a salvage job on an old battlefield goes awry, Kril's left with no crew, no food, a suspiciously absent client, and far too many enemies. Fortunately, it's a big universe, and he's got a fast ship and the best pilot in twenty light-years to watch his back.

His journey to keep 'er flying and get a crew back together will take him from rescue operations in collapsing freighters to fighting dinosaurs in the sewage canals of pirate paradises and to points beyond. The odds are stacked against him, but Kril keeps it simple. Get a good crew, do a good job, and look after your own because the Hungry Dark is always waiting.

©2023 Andrew Seiple (P)2024 Podium Audio

Great fun fast paced

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. it is fast paced and the characters enduring and fund. there is enough action to keep the junkies like me in the loop, and enough twists and turns to engage you intellectually. I'm looking forward to the next one in the series. recommended.

If you liked Firefly

Excellent story, good character variety, decent world-building, and tasty references to the Dire series. :)

A fun space cowboy romp through a myriad of human systems and cultures that manages to keep the thrills 'spun-up.'

When I entered into the galaxy of Hull Scrappers, I was unsure of what to expect. Andrew Seiple, an unknown author to me, and the concept of tagging along with people whose job could be condensed down to a chop shop made me feel a little anxious. But boy was I pleasantly surprised. “Shattered Diaspora” the first installment in the Hull Scrappers series is phenomenal! A fun space cowboy romp through a myriad of human systems and cultures that manages to keep the thrills ‘spun-up.’

I say ‘spun-up’ because it was just one of the fun little phrases that Andrew Seiple integrated into this novel to give the breadth of the galaxy and the characters that inhabit it life. Our main protagonist, Kril Grainger, is your fairly standard knight in shining armor protagonist, but that doesn’t mean he is boring. No, far from it! A marriage between a rough-and-tumble cowboy and a bleeding-heart mercenary Kril became a pretty steady rock from which I could observe the story, and frankly I would love for him—if humanity ever reaches the stars—to be the captain of whatever vessel I may, if ever, happen to be on.

His sister Trin, the pilot, and my personal favorite, Lysanda, are just two of the crew members you will meet along the way, and Seiple manages to make them into individuals I craved to know more about. Lysanda, a sexually androgenous doctor who may or may not use rodents to do the heavy medical work, is an absolute delight. Of course, the crew of a hyperlight vessel requires more than just a doctor and a pilot and Seiple manages to scrap together a varied but pleasant mixture of characters to round out the story and the crew of No Man’s Land. Together these individuals will have to employ their skills—and flaws—to overcome everything from frantic space combat to sewer bound raptors. Yes, that’s right raptors, as in the dinosaurs with the big nasty claws.

Since I listened to the audio book, I wanted to touch base on Ryan Burke’s performance as well. It was phenomenal as well! The narrator did a good job giving each individual their own unique voice, although some of them did lean towards the stereotypical. Burke also managed to encapsulate the feeling of our main protagonist, Kril Grainger quite well and frankly probably made him even more robust than the writer did. I wish that Burke would risk more than the strange whisper yell that most voice actors do whenever a character yells, but I might be complaining about an industry standard. Otherwise, phenomenal voice acting performance that compliments the book very well.

So, if you enjoy science fiction, fantasy, or just a fun adventure that manages to gently introduce some pretty heavy world-building then look no further than “Shattered Diaspora”. My only gripe, which is very minor, is the heavy use of a particular word that you will probably understand once you get into it and also some very heavy giveaways of future events that were already foreshadowed quite well. With that and the fact that I prefer for a few more breaks in the action than was given, I am going to give it a 4.5/5.0 stars. A must read and thank you Andrew Seiple for the fun adventure!

Really good

It was a good book, good narration and enjoyable overall experience. Nice pacing, keeps you interested throughout, no lulls or boring bits. I will be putting this in my favorites.

good

it is a good book and the reader was good as well. worth a listen if ur into the genre

Nice world building

A fun story with interesting characters. They get in to trouble then get out of it just to get in deeper trouble