Waypoint

A Game of Drones

By: C. F. WALLER

Narrated by: J. Scott Bennett

Winner of the 2017 Mcgrath House Indie Book Awards

Stacy’s life is in free fall, her daughter killed by a drunk driver and her husband taking his own life only months later. She finds herself clutching a handgun, searching for a sign that tomorrow will be any better than today. At this auspicious moment her cell phone rings, bringing an offer that may postpone her soul searching.

The discovery of an airplane graveyard containing a dozen commercial airliners is shocking. When the deep-sea salvage camera reveals them to be virtually undamaged under 6,000 feet of water in the Indian Ocean, theories abound. Who put them there? How are they still in one piece? What reason could there be?

Stacy is about to learn the answers to those questions, as well things she’d prefer to forget. Along the way, she’ll have to solve this puzzle and many more to prevent an even larger disaster from happening.

This audiobook contains the following: tiny robots, falsified government identification, autonomous drones, ATM malfunctions, mid-air collisions, fear of sharks, Australian bar pranks, pointing guns out the window of a moving plane, video games, Area-51, milk shake do’s and don'ts, and everyone’s possible need of at least one good friend.

Listen at your own risk.

C. F. Waller is best known for his award-winning science-fiction novel Tourists of the Apocalypse. His work has been recognized by Shelf Media Magazine, Indie Excellence, Readers Favorite, McGrath House and recently in the 2017 BGS Pitch Contest. His other Award Winning novels include South Face (Paranormal), Waypoint (Mystery/Thriller) and Free Dive (Tecno-thriller).

©2017 C. F. Waller (P)2018 C. F. Waller

A book of action, adventure, mystery, and Tech...

“Waypoint: Game of Drones” is a captivating, entertaining, and gripping techno-thriller authored by C. F. Waller; who is known for a few of his other books such as “The Calling Tree” and “Tourists of the Apocalypse”. The audiobook edition is well narrated by J. Scott Bennett who is no stranger to Audible with over 130 books voiced at the time of this review. It is a rather long book consisting of nearly six-hundred pages, or twelve hours of audio, but the book did not feel or seem long when reading and listening to it. If you are a person who likes to be taken around the globe on adventures, enjoys technology and computers, along with a game of Hunt the Wampus, I recommend you pick up this book and give it a try. It contains action, adventure, mystery, and did I mention technology?

The story opens in a rather suspenseful and mysterious way. It quickly engulfs the reader in the rather broken and dark world of one of our main characters. We are given some insight into a few other mysteries which become relevant as the book progresses. In many ways, it is a hard book to review without giving away quite a few of the book’s surprises. Needless to say, this dissimilar set of characters must join forces to defeat their one true enemy. Who does not like a story that takes you from the bottom of the ocean to the tops of the clouds and everywhere in between? We are presented with strong AI (Artificial Intelligence), autonomous drones, conspiratorial countries, and characters who are often broken and in need of one another.

The story overall is believable and shows how vulnerable our wired and dependent on technology our society can be. The book was a bit over-the-top at times, but we are shown how friendships are forged, lost, and let go throughout the story. There are times of deep emotional aspects along with mindless points of action. The characters felt like they had depth and body to them; something that is often lost in many modern books of the genre. Characters were presented as being fragile and did not seem invincible like super heroes making me wonder if they would survive various incidents. The book’s technology was well researched and implemented. Some of the technology was more futuristic then what we have today, which is not a bad thing. It is a piece of fiction and not required to fit within our technological understanding of our present day.

A few things that I would call out, which are not major stumbling blocks to the book overall, would be some of the grammar and spelling issues I came across mostly in my reading of the book, I felt the audiobook edition made most of these disappear. Again, nothing that would prevent me from enjoying the book, but something that could easily have been addressed by an editor or others prior to going to print, once again the audiobook edition did contain a few updates from the pre-release copy I was earlier provided. Even though the book followed a specific path, I felt a few of the more open plotlines were not fully addressed once the book completed. I would have liked to have had a longer epilogue closing out some of the remaining mysteries. But once again, this is only a suggestion as I enjoyed the book’s ending and that it was provided as a stand-along novel not requiring a sequel, even though the story could continue into a future book; maybe if we ask the author nicely.

Let me turn briefly to the book’s narration by J. Scott Bennett. Mr. Bennett is a veteran in the audiobook narration space and I have enjoyed and reviewed a few other books, one of my favorites was “Titanic: Voyage of Death: The Final 48 Hours”. His narration is smooth, clear and well-paced. He provides inflection and emotion to the many different characters. Even the female characters are well voiced and much more enjoyable as they are not voiced in a falsetto tone. The audio is professionally produced with no noticeable audio artifacts. I feel like when he reads a book it is much the same way I myself read books, so I will need to pick up a few other books by him in the future when my queue of books is reduced a bit.

In summary, this book held my attention and drew me in enough that I wanted to read and listen to its end. There were simply too many unknows or mysteries that I wanted to resolve that a few of the book’s bruises pointed out earlier were moot. For me, that is a sign of a good solid story and skilled author. There were a few bumps along the way with grammar and spelling, but I can usually overcome or forgive them when the story takes me on a journey like this one did. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys book in the technology thrillers genre.

Disclaimer: I was voluntarily provided this review copy book at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator.

Not bad

This story is really far-fetched. It's not well-explained science fiction. But the characters are well-drawn and just quirky enough to be interesting. And there's enough suspense to keep one listening.

There are two endings. An epilogue follows the first ending, but it's not necessary to the story or its conclusion and would have been best omitted.

J. Scott Bennett's performance is very good, although there were places where I found it difficult to follow who was speaking during dialog. More distinction between character voices would have been helpful.

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

An unbelievably exciting adventure

Waypoint: A Game of Drones
By: C. F. WALLER Narrated by: J. Scott Bennett

A Game of Drones is the perfect title for this book; however it is so much more. This is a story of AI, video games, and world security. Stacey, the main character, has an unbelievably exciting adventure to help save America from a war with China.
Stacey also has her own story that will come together throughout the story. I loved how the author shares only what needs to be shared when it's needed, and just enough to keep the reader guessing.

The ending led me to think this is the beginning of a series. If so, it will be a fun series to read or listen to. It was a smooth story and works excellently as a read alone as well.

I listed to the audible edition of Waypoint: A Game of Drones because it was narrated by one of my favorite voices, Scott Bennett, and he did an awesome job! I would have enjoyed hearing this with a female narrator joining him, but I still loved it!
Waypoint: A Game of Drones is easily a 4 star book and I can’t wait to hear the next one!

Different kind of story

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."
Although I enjoyed the book, it wasn't a story I would normally choose to listen to. The story is more of man vs machine and it was not what I expected.

A Good Listen

This was a little off my normal listening taste, I thought to make a change. Glad I did. while not a gamer, I enjoyed the book. it keep my interest throughout. The narrator did an excellent job. I would gladly listen to another of his works.
I would also listen to another book by this author. Probably not another book with a gamer in mind. His work was entertaining and I will keep an eye on future releases.
This book was given to me free of charge for my unbiased review. Thank you for the opportunity.

Well-written suspense!

Loved the sarcastic wit and razor-edged humor in the mystery story.

J. Scott Bennett did a great job narrating. Brought the characters to life.

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

Good

BOOK REVIEW.....
The story was good. It kept my interest from start to finish

NARRATOR REVIEW.....
The narrator did a good job

Waypoint: A Game of Drones

This could be the best book you read all year;
if you do read it then it will be the best book you’ve read all year. I loved the intriguing storyline along with the characters. The action and suspense makes it a page turner. CF Waller is definitely one of my favorite authors 😊

enjoyable mix of tech and mystery

As a technologist and an avid Sci-fi reader most of the technology in the book is a possible extrapolation to things we could see in the near future, but not something that could happen just yet.

The book has a pretty good cold open style which creates some suspense right at the start, but then could be quicker bringing in the main characters and drop a scene which is sort of repeated later. There is some depth to the main character who does arch throughout the book taking her from a physiological low point to a better place mental. Some more time developing the rest of the cast of characters would be nice.

I would note that It took me a bit to figure-out that the narrators voice is one of the few that Audibles 2x speed mode doesn't mix well with. At first, I thought it was a recording problem till I slowed back down to normal speed. Now that I know that I'll be looking for other books by both the Narrator and Author.

"This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review."

pretty good

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

The protagonist wasn't my favorite lead character, but I did really enjoy this book. I thought the premise of the story was interesting and I was intrigued by the technology/gaming concepts talked about in the book. This book made me a lot more interested in other books from this author (C.F. Waller). As another reviewer stated, this was very much a modern take on the 1980's War Games film and I loved it. The narration was pretty good, too. I just wished the main character was as likable as the surrounding characters.