The Origin of F.O.R.C.E.

By: Sam B. Miller II

Narrated by: John Pirhalla

The Chrysallaman Empire made contact in 1947. Their mission was simple: find a suitable planet for colonization. Rich with land, minerals and water, Earth - HG-281- could boast only of a primitive race of defenders known as Humans, bugs who could be easily squashed by the might of a single Chrysallaman's mind. When a Chrysallaman ship is unexpectedly brought down in Roswell, New Mexico, the aliens return to their home planet to regroup, leaving behind a broken ship and a young alien boy who would grow to become one of Earth's greatest assets - and her greatest ally.

Mankind has 60 years to prepare a strategy to defend against not only superior technology, but superior psychic ability and strength. F.O.R.C.E., an elite group of military personnel, brilliant scientists, and a sombrero-wearing alien, is formed to develop a worldwide defense, the likes of which the Chrysallamans have never known.

Spanning six decades, the defining technological achievements, people and events of human history, from the Roswell incident to the Dali Lama to the Hubble telescope to the Pioneer missions, are masterfully re-envisioned and woven into The Origin of F.O.R.C.E. As they learn to work with each other, the humorous, tumultuous and sometimes romantic interactions of the F.O.R.C.E. team bring the book to life.

©2015 Sam B Miller II (P)2016 Sam B Miller II

Alien invasion? No worries.

The first third of the book is good - really good. The Roswell spacecraft is explained and a plot of an alien race invading Earth is uncovered. A team of crack scientists and soldiers have 60 years to plan and repel the invasions. Sounds good! I really enjoyed this part of the book.

But I started to realize as I reached the half-way point that the book had slowed WAY down. Preparations for the invasion took MOST of the book and the invasion actually only took the last two chapters.

[spoiler]
The actual alien invasion was a bumbling mess. NOTHING went right for aliens. Humans did everything right. Which is the problem. There was no conflict, no tension, no caring for the characters because they were never in danger! The defense of earth was TOO perfect. Yes, there were casualties in the millions, but they were presented to the listener as non-faced statistics.

In the end, instead of the WOO HOO! WE WON! it was more like woo hoo... were we ever really in danger?
[/spoiler]

Another reviewer commented that this was a pulp piece, and I didn't realize this until I read that review. Origin of FORCE *is* pulp, and maybe this is how pulp is supposed to play out and my review is unfair. I guess I like my stories with a bit more conflict and "oh my god did that just happen?" in them.

Don't get me wrong, I *DID* enjoy this book. At no point did I feel myself forced to listen, and WhatsIt was a joy to be witness to his development.

The narrator John Pirhalla did a spectacular job. He did an admirable with the myriad of characters and I was able to tell them apart easily. He voice inflections were spot-on, and I would definitely not hesitate to listen to another title from him.

This audio book was gifted to me by the author at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.

Worth your time and credit!

Any additional comments?

Definitely worth your time and credit. Very entertaining, engaging, interesting and enjoyable. Really like all the thought that went into the story. The story is told over a period time, with the majority of it story setting up/getting ready for the return of the aliens. You might think it would be boring but it's not. The story is well written and constantly moving forward preparing for what is to come. I really liked the fact that the story did take years. Giving the world time to prepare.

People have wondered for years if the government is hiding something at Area 51.

Great cast of characters. Enjoyed the humor.

Like how the author incorporated actual dates and events into the story. Example, the fluoride. Since fluoride is added to water it's a scary thought. How many things could be added/given to the general population without us knowing. Which if you think about their delivery system is a really scary thought that it could be done. (So glad I have my own well water).

Looking forward to the next installment of the series. As soon as I was done with this book I checked to see if the next book was on Audible. Unfortunately not yet.

John Pirhalla did a fantastic job with the narration. Pleasant voice. Easy to listen to for long periods of time. Great character voices. Clearly spoken with a smooth even pace. Overall very enjoyable. Hopefully he will narrate the next book in the series.

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

Can't wait for the next part

If you could sum up The Origin of F.O.R.C.E. in three words, what would they be?

Fun, Exciting and Engaging

Have you listened to any of John Pirhalla’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but I really enjoyed his narration

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I liked How they went around the work to find unique humans to help save the human race.

Thrilling Sci Fi!

Would you listen to The Origin of F.O.R.C.E. again? Why?

Yes, this book was suspenseful and was fast paced, and I loved the team that they assembled.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Origin of F.O.R.C.E.?

I enjoyed the science behind reverse engineering...

What does John Pirhalla bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

This was my first book narrated by him, and he did a great job. Great voices and good pacing. I would definitely listen to another book by him.

Any additional comments?

I received a copy of this audiobook for free in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Great Sci-Fi Doomsday/Alien Invasion Story

What did you love best about The Origin of F.O.R.C.E.?

I really loved this book. I loved the characters, I loved the story progression, I loved the ideas and author invented technology. I think the whole book was really good and I'm excited to see what happens next

Who was your favorite character and why?

The red-headed Scottsman who won't take any of the crap the head scientist tried to dish out

Have you listened to any of John Pirhalla’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, He used many different voices and accents to full effect. Voices were always discernible, and the dialogue was excellent

Any additional comments?

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

Good storyline that kept me interested

Very interesting story of aliens visiting earth. The first book of many, I am sure.

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

A fun well crafted story

If you could sum up The Origin of F.O.R.C.E. in three words, what would they be?

Fun readable scifi

What did you like best about this story?

I loved the characters, I enjoyed the bits of science thrown in learned from it without getting lost in it, sometimes sci-fi writers need to find that perfect balance. An interesting new take on the Roswell crash.

What does John Pirhalla bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narrator read on the slow side. If I had been listening on my kindle or the app it would have been a great book to speed up just a bit, but I was listening on my Echo, the story eventually draws you in and you forget you are going so slow.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Though the book was fast paced it is not a listen to in one sitting book, just too long. I did enjoy it over two days and look forward to the next book.

Any additional comments?

I was gifted this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Origin of FORCE review

“This audiobook was given by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review "
If you are wondering about the validity of "unbiased reviews " when we get the book for free to review; it's all about preselection bias. We choose the books we want to review, so of course we have good things to say, we don't read and review the unwanted ones.
That being said, how do I share with you , just how good this was. The performance by John Pirhalla was excellent. Each character was distinct and the emotion of each passage was vividly experienced by the listener. The author Sam Miller spun a story so intricate and enticing that you can't help but want to know what's going to happen next. This was an enjoyable read, try it😊.

Great book

Can't wait for the next book in this series. The way the author incorporated actual date and events from history made the story feel so real.

Aliens, action, tech, teams, and conspiracies

What happens when an alien scouting team of lizard people arrive on Earth in the late 1940s and their ship is shot down with only one survivor being a young alien? Making things more exciting is that the world knows this alien race is coming back in 70 years with a force to destroy all life on earth and take all its natural resources. This and much more can be found in “The Origin of F.O.R.C.E.” written by Sam B. Miller II and narrated by John Pirhalla. The book is a contemporary science fiction story encompassing six decades in just under 500pages; or 12hrs of audio. If you want to read a lighter space story, I would recommend this book. Be aware, this book appears to be the first in what looks to be a series of three (or more) books.

Mr. Miller creates a book that is more than simply a standard Sci-Fi series, but instead appears to be building a community and culture around the book and its contents. If one visits the book’s Facebook page, you will see the level of effort taken by the author to share photos; from the author himself along with community submitted material. Having the author share some pictures with me prior to reading the book and looking over the images on Facebook brought the book to life for me, and I can see how involved the author is in this book and future books. I look forward reading additional books in the series; book two is currently available and the third is under developed.

The story takes place mostly on earth covering a large span of time, however there are scenes occurring both on the alien home world and ships allowing the reader a view into the alien race’s society, desires, and wants. There are multiple story-lines involving some deep seeded conspiracies, involving religious groups, NASA and the Government to help the population of earth to succeed in this future battle. A few have commented they did not like the author’s inclusion of the standard science fiction character tropes like the brainy scientists, the brawny military guy, and the female specialist. I did not have an issue with this, and I took it more that the author was using them to bring some humor to the genre. Not only do the characters each struggle to come up with a solution to the alien invasion, they also had to address their own relationships along the way with one another. Similar to the Fellowship of the Ring party, each character brings a unique skillset and emotion to the book.

Even with the overall sense of doom and destruction from the impending alien invasion, the author includes some aspects of humor to assist in releasing the book’s built up tension. The use of humor was done sparingly and often feels natural. The characters were mostly well described and defined. It is clear the author has a vision of how each person fits into the complete story. One quickly sees that the author did a good job of researching the various timeframes and some of the important technology being developed during that time. All of this, in one way or another, was used as part of the hidden work of our government to come up with a technical solution to the problem.

I want to give credit to John Pirhalla for his exceptional narration of this story. Mr. Prihalla makes voicing the multiple characters seem like a simple thing to accomplish. He appears to be a newer narrator with seven books published on Audible at the time of this review. Being the first book I have listened to from this narrator, I would easily listen to more of his work as I enjoyed this reading style, character inflection, and pacing. He was able to bring me into the story with his reading with excitement and action.

Mr. Puehalla did a respectable job of voicing both male and female characters along with the various accents he had to keep track of; including alien accents. All of this was done without issue. The audio itself was crisp and clear. The volume was consistent and I did not recall any audio artifacts while listening; apart from a small audio patch near the end of the book. The audiobook quality was top-notch, and I would listen to other materials performed by this narrator in the future.

The book contains some light use of vulgar language; however, this was not frequently leveraged in telling the story. The book also includes some graphic and descriptive violence, but nothing that would not be found in a PG-13 rated movie. For most, I would recommend this book as one that would be enjoyed by mature teenagers and adults alike.

What would I have changed or liked to have seen in this book? Although we get a good view of the alien technology, I would have liked to have had some more detail on the technology and struggles of the people and equipment during the time period; such as 1940s, 1970s, etc. This was covered more in future time, but I would have liked more. Often when time changed from decade to decade, I really did not get a solid picture of what this new time enveloped. Maybe some better description of the technology itself, the clothes of the time, and even some of the social struggles occurring. I would have like to have had a more descriptive transition between times.

Disclaimer: The reviewer received this book at no charge by the author, narrator, and/or publisher in exchange for posting a non-bias review.