This Shattered World

A Starbound Novel

By: Amie Kaufman, Meagan Spooner

Narrated by: Callard Harris, Donnabella Mortel, Lincoln Hoppe

Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

Rebellion is in Flynn's blood. His sister died in the original uprising against the powerful corporate conglomerate that rules Avon with an iron fist. These corporations make their fortune by terraforming uninhabitable planets across the universe and recruiting colonists to make the planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.

Desperate for any advantage against the military occupying his home, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: He returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape base together, caught between two sides in a senseless war.

©2014 Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (P)2014 Listening Library

Struggled to finish this book....

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Struggled to finish this book....but still liked. I thought the first book was hard to get into at first,but ended up loving it. This book started out good, but often lost interest. Overall I enjoyed, but will not be picking up the next book in the series.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

Narration was fine..it was story was the issue.

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

NO

quite the page turner!!

Flynn and Jubilee were awesome! Their characters were well drawn out and I felt like I got to know both of them through out the book.
They went through so much, a lot of action, a bit of a love story. So many things in this book will make you laugh at loud or cry and sniffle. I loved how we got to reconnect with the characters from the first book also. See where they are now and how they are doing. Although this is a sequel it could also be a stand alone novel. I can not wait to read the next book to see how it all comes together.
All in all a very interesting book!! loved the suspense!

I am a mother that wishes that books had a rating. so when I can I will give my opinion on what this would be rated if it were a movie. I think this book was really clean. no foul language and no intense love scene. the fighting did get a bit gory so perhaps a PG13 rating due to that. hope this is helpful.

As Good As The First

This Shattered World, the second in the Starbound Series, is a solidly written sequel using different characters but in the same spirit as the first book. Drawing heavily upon Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (references abound, from a planet called Avon, to a nickname of Romeo, to the main character being from Verona), our star-crossed lovers are separated by ideologies rather than class.

Story: Jubilee Chase is a captain on a backwater planet, Avon, trying to keep the peace against insurgents. But there are strange going-ons, the terraforming keeps stalling, and the people are starving. When Finn Cormac walks into her bar, "Stone Face Chase" Lee is going to get more than she bargained for as she is drawn into a battle that is far greater than just rebels and military.

Those wondering about the book having different characters from the first need not fret - Lilac and Tarver do show up later, though only in a support capacity. But the anomalies encountered in the first book are expanded upon in This Shattered World as Lee and Finn discover they each have a connection to the inter-dimensional beings.

The tone and storytelling, romance and action, characters and world building remain true from the first book to the second. Lee is tough but flawed and Finn is earnest and strong. The authors cleverly work in the Romeo and Juliet signatures into a sci fi setting - so much so that only the occasional references harken back to Shakespeare.

I really appreciated the diversity in the story - from same sex relationships to a main character part Chinese and whose family want her to maintain the culture. We didn't have a bunch of straight Caucasians running around pretending no other ethnicity or orientation existed.

The only downside for me was the prototypical boring villain and a reliance on the old "Big Misunderstanding" cliche. It's yet another situation where if the characters simply talked instead of answering in riddles, they'd not have had as much difficulty progressing in their relationship or story.

I listened to the Audible version and admittedly was very disappointed by the narration. The voice actors are good but I felt that a planet full of Irish settlers who had proudly held on to their culture would have at least had either accents or more Celtic flavor in the narration. Instead, Finn just sounded like an American guy. As well, the chapter segues were done in a male voice with a bunch of whispering in the background - both were so distracting that I had a hard time concentrating on the metaphors being presented.

In all, great book but only OK narration.

Wasn't sure what I was getting into!

What a great book! Hats off to all involved. Loved the narrators! Can't wait til the next one comes out!

I liked it more than the first book

I'm always wary about cast shifts in a book series. I didn't know it until after I finished the first book, but This Shattered World features whole new main characters in a new setting, but with connections to the first book. I liked this new story, though, and this time I found myself actually caring about the characters.

The things I'd nitpick about are firstly, the romance came out of nowhere. The characters don't deny that it came from nowhere, but still, it was just there suddenly, and that felt weird. Secondly, while I loved Flynn, how he's described and what he actually was felt like two different people. When the book tells, Flynn is this leader figure who can charm anyone, with rebellion in his blood as the blurb says. But when the book shows, he was just a scared confused kid most of the time. Related to this, while I enjoyed the voice acting on its own, it didn't seem to fit Flynn, as his voice sounded utterly bored throughout the whole thing. I also couldn't get over their voice for Tarver in this book. He suddenly sounded like a chain smoker.

I do love the enemies to lovers trope, though. And I liked the unique environment of the planet. I also enjoyed the writing, and the rest of the voice acting was excellent. Four stars for my overall enjoyment.

Just Okay.

It was slow. Not much action. I was a bit bored. I liked the first one better. I was expecting it's gonna better.

good story excellent performance.

good story nothing amazing but very entertaining. good writing. I enjoyed the performance. overall good read.

Keeps your interest, too formula, not science fict

Too many bad mistakes to be taken as science fiction. This book is the same formula as book 1 if the series. I could predict every turn, down to the final head shot. The actions of the hero and heroine, and the villain were not believable to me at all. I actually agreed with the villain until she made him inexplicably vile.

I Highly Recommend This Book

Much like the first book of this series, I was instantly drawn into the story. Again you are transported to a beautifully written Sci-Fi world (set in the same time as the first) with non-stop action and thrills. Although the worlds are similar, the characters, planet and story are very different. Unlike the slow burn of the first book, this one starts out with a bang and never lets up until the end. It was absolutely thrilling. Narration was great too. I can’t wait until the next book by this author.

Perfect!

The pacing is a little slow but the mystery underlying everything is just perfect. By the half way point I was trapped in the awesome. Love this series!