The Socket Greeny Saga

Socket Greeny, Book 1-3

By: Tony Bertauski

Narrated by: Tony Bertauski

One of IndieReader's BEST BOOKS of 2014!

The entire Socket Greeny trilogy (Discovery, Training, and Legend) follows a white-haired teenager that discovers he's part of an evolved human race, how he trains to understand his true self, and the legendary conclusion of his true nature.

DISCOVERY

Work has always come first for Socket Greeny's mother, ever since his father died. But when she shows him the inner workings of the Paladin Nation, he discovers why.

Paladins traverse the planet through wormholes to keep the world safe, but from what, they won't say. Although his parents were not actually one of them, Socket is different. He soon finds himself in the center of controversy and betrayal when he's anointed the Paladin Nation's prodigy. He didn't ask for the "blessing" of psychic powers and the ability to timeslice, and he doesn't want to be responsible for the world. He just wants to go home and back to school and be normal again.

But, sometimes, life doesn't give us that privilege, his mother tells him.

And when the world is soon threatened and the Paladins are forced into the public eye, Socket discovers what his mother means. If he doesn't embrace his true nature, life as we know it will change forever.

TRAINING

A year has passed since the Paladin Nation was exposed to the public. Their mission is still to protect humanity from whatever may threaten them. Previously, it was the human duplications, but now that they've been extinguished their biggest challenge is dealing with the complications of public image. Socket Greeny, now 17 years old, has been a Paladin cadet for the past year and is nearing the final test. But that's the least of his problems. He's trying to live two lives: one as a superhero while hanging onto his normal life.

While fearlessly dealing with his masochistic trainer, he's trying to salvage his deteriorating relationship with his girlfriend back home.

©2013 Tony Bertauski (P)2015 Tony Bertauski

An interesting concept, not the best execution

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

The premise was interesting, and I like stories with psychic abilities. That being said, this was a rather dry story with monotone narration by the author. He didn't do much by way of unique voices and the sound quality wasn't the greatest.

Great series

This is a great trilogy at a great price. I really enjoyed the story. I very much recommend this trilogy. The only complaint I have is with the narration. Tony Bertauski has a good voice for narration, but there were a few little annoyances there. The sound level faded every now and then. Also, and this is very minor, but it did bug me that he pronounced the word "escape" as "Ex-scape". I guess that comes from having school teachers who scolded me for those types of things. The best narrators use different voices, accents, etc. and the listener forgets that it is just a single person narrating the story. While he does this on occasion with certain characters, he is not consistent. Still, as I said, he's got a good voice for narration so it wasn't a bad experience. The story was interesting enough to overcome these minor shortfalls in narration.

All in all, I thought the story was very good. I'll definitely be looking for other works by Tony Bertauski.

-JC

Another masterpiece by Tony Bertauski

Socket discovers that he is different to the other kids. When in Virtual Mode he sees and can do things that his friends cannot. His mother explains him that he is special, and that his place is in the Paladin Nation, where other people with special abilities train to defend the world from a very dangerous enemy.

Last year I had the honor to review the 'Halfskin Boxed set' and I absolutely loved it. It reminds me of classic dystopian books but completely modernized. What is not to love? So when I got the chance to review 'The Socket Greeny' saga I did not think it twice.

Bertauski writes science-fiction, but the good kind that makes you think and keeps you awake at night. His characters are fully fleshed and they evolve significantly in the three books, which really helps the reader to connect to them, even though the problems they have are so different from ours that this is a difficult task, but Bertauski does it!

The main conflict reminds me of the one present in 'Halfskin' but with a twist. It was interesting to explore this once again from a different point of view.

When listening to the first and second book there was something that failed to make the books complete to me. The issue with the duplicates was an interesting one, but since their origin was kind of obscure, it was difficult to relate to the Paladins. At that moment the duplicates were a kind of faceless enemy but without a lot of substance. There was something missing. But Bertauski's books cannot be read as standalone. Each one of them is part of a meticulously written plan, and everything falls in place in the end. The questions I had, the things that did not convince me, were answered in the third book. So my advice is this: if you have the chance, get the complete saga and read it from beginning to end. Everything will make sense in the end.

The total length is more than 22 hours, but I was so immersed in the story that it took me four days to listen to the three books, and when I had finished them it left me with a lonely feeling, already missing Socket and his friends. As I have said, this is one of those books that makes you think and will have you busy mulling over it after some time. I spent over one hour awake in be around 5 am just unable to take my mind off this story.

The books are narrated this time by Tony Bertauski himself. I am not sure about this move though. I remember greatly enjoying the narration of 'Halfskin', but I had more issues with this one. While Bertauski's narration is mostly correct and his characters' interpretation is quite good, I missed some more voice range. He made the effort of giving a different voice to Spindle, but all the other characters sounded the same, even female characters. This rendered things a bit confusing at times. I also noticed a couple of sentence repetitions and numerous volume variations. This can sometimes be fixed by normalizing the track but I am not sure if it was somehow more evident on the original. At times I could hear Bertauski swallowing and even wheezing, probably caused but being to close to the microphone. All in all, the narration was okay, but I think it is a pity to have a just okay narration for a master piece like this. I believe in hiring professionals to have professional results, and a good narration always makes an audiobook shine.

I am happy that I took the time to listen to this audiobook, and I plan to read more by Tony Bertauski. He is one of my favorite authors nowadays!

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

There Is No Excape

I can’t believe how many times the word escape was written into this story, and that the reader was able to pronounce every instance as excape. Very distracting.

Strange but interesting

I really enjoyed the story. I very much recommend this trilogy

It is a really different look at a possible future. An exploration into what humanity is. It was fascinating from start to finish

This story is read by the author. That is not always a good thing but from the start of this book I felt at home with the reading. His voice fit the story and he knew how to tell it. Can’t imagine anyone else doing it better. Great job

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

Absolutely one of my favorite book series.

Quite simply, I loved this story. At first I didn't care for the narrator's lack of distinguishable character voices but it did seem to improve as it went along or maybe I was finally able to distinguish the subtle voice differences. Other than that, the storyline and characters along with the many twists, kept me fully engaged and enthralled. There are some times when you may get confused but keep listening and it will begin to make sense. I wouldn't change anything. I only wish there was another spin-off story.

An exceptional sci-fi/tech trilogy

This was one of the best sci-fi/tech audiobooks I've heard lately, and frankly I can't believe it's still relatively undiscovered. The Socket Greeny trilogy is no slow starter. It hits the ground running from page one and never lets up. Socket Greeny is a disaffected, tech-savvy 16-year-old outsider, who, along with his friends Streeter and Shoot, frequently ventures into an internet virtual mode. Accessible via a small wearable transmitting device, anyone with the right gear and skill can enter a moldable world of virtual reality, which Socket and his friends often do while in school (because their high school has the most powerful gateway in the area). But on one particular day when the trio enters virtual mode, something strange happens, and their lives become forever changed.

I was genuinely impressed by author Tony Bertauski's writing skill (spectacular balancing of story elements), his imagination (Spindle, the preserve, the grimmits), and foremost his ability to describe with astounding, well-proportioned detail the environments, events, and emotions experienced by the characters. This trilogy could easily become a movie or TV show, and I fervently hope that soon it will become one!

In some cases, I've found that when an author narrates their own material, it can sometimes be at a disservice to the story or performance, but this is certainly NOT the case here. Bertauski masterfully narrates each installment, and he accomplishes the feat with marvelous results. I caught only a few mispronounced words (eg. ethereal; YIN and yang), but in no way did they detract from my understanding of the context or decrease my overall enjoyment.

Despite its teen/young adult genre categorization, I believe adults will, like me, find a lot to love about the Socket Greeny saga. Going beyond mere entertainment, it was a full-on head rush of mental escapism. It was simply a pleasure to listen to! I'm looking forward to more from this author because he has so much to offer his readers and listeners.

I was provided a free copy of this audiobook by the author in exchange for my unbiased review. Many thanks for the opportunity!

Bertauski Rules!

Long and delicious! The story of Socket is magnificent and Mr. Bertauski brings it to life.

Well done

A total delight in every way. Characters, humor, love story, plot development and the personal reading by author.

Strange but interesting

What made the experience of listening to The Socket Greeny Saga the most enjoyable?

This is one of the more unique stories I've listened to. It took a bit to get into as you were strung along some, but the characters were likable enough that it was worth it.

What other book might you compare The Socket Greeny Saga to and why?

I'm not sure I could put a comparison up. This is one of the few books I've read where I didn't feel like it was like others. I do think if you enjoy science fiction, it's worth a read.

Which character – as performed by Tony Bertauski – was your favorite?

If it wasn't for the last book, I'd have said Socket, but I think Shoot was my favorite. She was an anchor throughout the trilogy and had depth and flexibility that made her seem as if she was based off of someone real.

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

I love Socket's moments at the tree and with Rudder (sp?) were quite magical.

Any additional comments?

I highly recommend this to teens and adults alike, though if you have a teen boy who's looking for something to read, this is a good bet. Both the characters and story are compelling.