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Title: The Drowned World

Author: J. G. Ballard

Narrator: Julian Elfer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-12-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

When London is lost beneath the rising tides, unconscious desires rush to the surface in this apocalyptic tale from the author of Crash and Cocaine Nights.

Fluctuations in solar radiation have melted the ice caps, sending the planet into a new Triassic Age of unendurable heat. London is a swamp; lush tropical vegetation grows up the walls of the Ritz and primeval reptiles are sighted, swimming through the newly formed lagoons. Some flee the capital; others remain to pursue reckless schemes, in the name of science and profit.

While others drain the submerged streets in search of treasure, Dr Robert Kerans - part of a group of intrepid scientists - comes to accept this submarine city and finds himself strangely resistant to the idea of saving it.

First published in 1962, Ballards mesmerising and ferociously imaginative novel gained him widespread critical acclaim and established his reputation as one of Britains finest writers of science fiction.

J. G. Ballard was born in 1930 in Shanghai, where his father was a businessman. After internment in a civilian prison camp, he and his family returned to England in 1946. He published his first novel, The Drowned World, in 1961. His 1984 best seller Empire of the Sun won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was later filmed by Steven Spielberg. His memoir Miracles of Life was published in 2008. J.G. Ballard died in 2009.

Critic Reviews:

Extraordinarily prescient Ballard is a prophet (Philip Pullman, Guardian)

One of the brightest stars in post-war fiction. This tale of strange and terrible adventure in a world of steaming jungles has an oppressive power reminiscent of Conrad (Kingsley Amis)

Powerful and beautifully clear Ballards potent symbols of beauty and dismay inundate the readers mind (Brian Aldiss)

Members Reviews:

In dreams we meet again

'The Drowned World' was the first JG Ballard book I ever read, and I consider it the most fascinating, and engaging, of the initial quartet concerned with climatic catastrophes ('The Wind from Nowhere'; 'The Drowned World'; 'The Crystal World'; 'The Burning World/The Drought'). Ballard regarded it as his 'first' novel (rather cruelly condemning 'The Wind from Nowhere', which isn't really so bad).

Given that 'The Drowned World' is Ballard's 'first', or at least very early, work, it's supremely confident, yet economical, writing. The style seems more concise, and the plot more precise, than the other works in the quartet. At the same time, the subtext/s are packed in tightly: a lot of commentators will point to the Freudian and Jungian undertones, the apparent parallels with Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' (explicitly denied by Ballard), Ballard's incorporation of Surrealist techniques and themes (perhaps novel here, but not a surprise to anyone familiar with his later works - the resonances between this and 'The Atrocity Exhibition' are fascinating in retrospect), and allusions to Shakespeare and classical mythology. I have no doubt that 'The Drowned World' can be analysed on these (and probably other) levels if you wish. Much of of the delight of the book is in Ballard's lavish descriptions of the bizarre externalities and it is easy for a reader to 'lose themselves' in the evocative landscapes.

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Title: Mad Powers

Subtitle: Tapped In, Book 1

Author: Mark Wayne McGinnis

Narrator: Paul Heitsch

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-08-14

Publisher: Avenstar Productions

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 80 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Rob Chandler, regaining consciousness, realizes he's somehow been involved in a horrendous car accident. In pain and unable to move, he has no memory of his identity, or how the hell he'd gotten on that deserted desert road in the middle of nowhere. He has little time to contemplate his situation when he sees an 18-wheeler barreling down on him. The truck swerves, crashes, and plows into Chandler's already decimated car. Then, as if his luck couldn't get any worse, he watches a 30,000-volt high-power line drop from a telephone pole into his mangled car, hanging suspended mere inches from his head. Still alive, Chandler is changed by something at a molecular level.

Past enemies converge in a small desert town in Arizona, with one singular objective in mind...to kill Rob Chandler. What they didn't expect was coming up against Rob's new, strange, mad powers. From small-town America to high-society of Baden-Baden, Germany, join Rob Chandler in this high-tension, paranormal thriller that doesnt let up until the very last minute.

Mad Powers is a full-length novel. Originally a short novella called Tapped In, this newly integrated, three-part story kicks off what's sure to evolve into another best-selling series.

Members Reviews:

Very great thriller

Any additional comments?

Mad Powers - ANOTHER highly enjoyable book by McGinnis! I'm already looking forward to the next books in the series... The storyline has a great flow to it, the writing is quite humorous at times. The narrator have the right voice for this story.

Spies, Sociopaths, and Nazis

Action! Adventure! Urban Fantasy!

No, not with the fae folk, or overt magic, but a preternatural ability to listen in to another mind and even influence it. And all because of a horrific auto accident and a close encounter with high voltage. So now Rob must 'tap in' at least once a day to maintain all of his biological functions as well as this new ability. Oh, and he is a trained and experienced operative with a complicated past. Soon he is recruited and prepped for an assignment by a multinational covert organization even though the recruiters are unaware of his new abilities. End of potential spoilers. Unusually imaginative with a sound, fast-moving plot and intriguing characters. Caught me by the ears and forced me to finish it in one hot summer day.

Paul gives an excellent performance which is invested with the excitement, fear, urgency, or whatever is indicated. He also provides depth to characters who are already well drawn.

Purchased in Whispersync for cheap courtesy of Book Gorilla.

Mad Awesomeness

Mad Powers, Tapped In is an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G audiobook. I came close to listening to this entire story all in one sitting. It held my attention right from the beginning all the way through to the end. If I could reach up and add another star for this story I would. Mark Wayne McGinnis is extraordinarily clever to have written such an exciting, edge of your seat thriller. I may have to think that besides this being an all out great book Ill continue to remember his name by thinking of him as Mark Wayne McGenius. With all due respect.

Paul Heitsch is one of my favorite voice actors. He does an outstanding performance with this audiobook. The listener can feel every feeling or emotion the characters are feeling. I cant wait until the next installment of this series.

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Title: Fire with Fire

Subtitle: Caine Riordan, Book 1

Author: Charles E. Gannon

Narrator: Kevin Pariseau

Format: Unabridged

Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-19-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 463 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

2105, September: Intelligence Analyst Caine Riordan uncovers a conspiracy on Earth's Moon - a history-making clandestine project - and ends up involuntarily cryocelled for his troubles. Twelve years later, Riordan awakens to a changed world. Humanity has achieved faster-than-light travel and is pioneering nearby star systems. And now, Riordan is compelled to become an inadvertent agent of conspiracy himself. Riordan's mission: travel to a newly settled world and investigate whether a primitive local species was once sentient - enough so to have built a lost civilization.

However, arriving on site in the Delta Pavonis system, Caine discovers that the job he's been given is anything but secret or safe. With assassins and saboteurs dogging his every step, it's clear that someone doesn't want his mission to succeed. In the end, it takes the keen insights of an intelligence analyst and a matching instinct for intrigue to ferret out the truth: that humanity is neither alone in the cosmos nor safe. Earth is revealed to be the lynchpin planet in an impending struggle for interstellar dominance, a struggle into which it is being irresistibly dragged. Discovering new dangers at every turn, Riordan must now convince the powers-that-be that the only way for humanity to survive as a free species is to face the perils directly - and to fight fire with fire.

Members Reviews:

Would have been good as 1950s SF

Has Fire with Fire turned you off from other books in this genre?

I do not think the author adds anything to the genre. I feel he took the Star Trek premise of a federation but does not tell it as well.

Any additional comments?

I just couldn't care about any of the characters in this books. I find it amazing that the female character in the book was put in cryo in 2066 and she is amazed that you can give a car voice commands and they can drive themselves. It is like the author wrote this book in 1955 and didn't update any of the technology.

cant even think up a witty title.

i couldnt finish it. character so perfect can instantly figure out anything instantly. spoilers.

the main character is able to instantly identify a random person as an assassin, and figure out his convoluted plan to assassinate him by suicide using antimatter drive of a ship he rigged to explode, which would have killed some 8000 people. because a company tried to cover up alien life.

the guy is the gariest and sueiest of gary stus. he is a ploymath, which evidently means he is perfect at everything. think sherlock holmes meets house without the attitude/personallity problems as he is just so charming.

some attempt to make him seem more human with overblown ptsd issues and other tot.

the narrator doesnt help much, using a bad accent for all the foreign characters, and the 1940s radio/dudly doright voice for the main character.

this is one i REALLY wish i could return.

Misleading Cover

So the cover of this book is really misleading. It is not a military scifi with lots of action where Caine Riordan rains fire down upon his enemies from his combat drop ship. It is a thriller and a spy novel more than anything else. Think journalist Jack Ryan in space.

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Title: Yesterday's Gone: Episode 8

Author: Sean Platt, David Wright

Narrator: Ray Chase, R. C. Bray, Brian Holsopple, Chris Patton, Maxwell Glick, Tamara Marston

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 36 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-08-14

Publisher: Podium Publishing

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 83 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

On October 15, everyone in the world vanished. Well, almost everyone. Some were left behind, attempting to piece together what happened, find their loved ones, and survive. But they are not alone.

Season Two picks up where Season One left off. One man finds himself on a mysterious island that holds secrets, and perhaps even answers, to what happened on October 15. A group finds itself taking refuge at The Sanctuary, a religious compound with an enigmatic leader called The Prophet. A serial killer finds himself leading an unlikely group of survivors. A young man searches to prove himself to his group, and avoid being bullied ever again. A young child is called to perform another miracle at great personal cost. Every decision. Every action. Every dream. Every alliance. Every secret. Every betrayal.

It all comes down to this - the stunning season two finale that will have you on the edge of your seat - and then knock you to the floor with the most insane, most WTF?!-unforgettable season finale yet!

Members Reviews:

Mind blowing!

I am stuck on this series. OMG! Next Episode....here I come. So far so good!

worst episode so far.

I struggled to finish it. There was too much time spent talking about religion and the prophet. The cliffhanger ending was the only saving glory.

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Title: Koban Universe 1

Author: Stephen W. Bennett

Narrator: Eric Michael Summerer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-25-14

Publisher: Stephen W. Bennett

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 391 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Here are four stories derived from the same universe as the Koban series. Listening to the series is not required to understand and enjoy these stand-alone tales.

Australian Krall: A fully gene-enhanced Kobani woman finds herself trapped in total darkness and underground, pursued by hundreds of slavering, semi-sentient, maniacally aggressive, and hungry aliens. Walk with her on the dark side!

"Batsof a Leather Flock Together" (short story): The wolfbat Flock Leader establishes a nest in virgin territory. The wily leader uses his cooperative experience with humans to try to forge hunting alliances with unfamiliar and aggressive native creatures. Not everyone wants to play nice.

Kobani Kiddie Cappers (novella): Howdo Kobani parents cope with children that are born with a contact telepathy gene, and have eidetic memory. Adults, who think teenagers act as if they know everything, never had an overconfident four-year-old super child, with a ripper cub as his partner in crime. Living to reach his teens might take superhuman luck.

TheSmuggler and the Crime Lord (novelette): When you land a known smuggler's ship in a ruthless Crime Lord's city using false registry, it's hard to convince a platoon of armed thugs that you're only shopping, and you don't owe the boss a cut of your action. If you're a Kobani captain, and buying drinks for friends in a spaceport bar, spoiling your evening and making threats is a bad idea, and a fatal mistake.

Members Reviews:

Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom

Are you one of those people who can't stand stories with lots of character development?

Are you tired of books with plots?

Do you want to start right from the beginning with a fight scene and have it not end?

Then this is the book for you.

Each story starts with an explanation of Koban and the people or animals who live there. You get told how they are enhanced, what abilities they have and why. Then to prove they have all these abilities, you get a hour long fight scene and then its over. This is a perfect example of story number one.

Story number two, you get a biology lesson of Koban, a very long lesson and then just like watching Wild Kingdom, you get to hear about an enhanced bat going out to get dinner.

I thought story three was going to have some character development. I gave up on the chance of a plot. Then this enhanced genius four year old stars planning a hunting trip. We get a detail by detail explanation of his plan to escape his house and go hunting. I can't remember if he used a Philips screwdriver or a standard, but I am sure we were told.

I am not sure about the narrator's abilities, this did not lend itself to him being able to showcase his talents. I know some people say they like a certain narrator so much they could listen to him read a phone book, well this is as close as it gets.

Collection of stories mssing from the main books

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

This series fills in some- not all of the questions in the original series

Who was your favorite character and why?

baby Ryan in Koban Kitty Cappers --- I had children like that without the mods :) and some wild kitties (althought not several hundred pounds that thye got into trouble with.

What does Eric Michael Summerer bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

reading the names of the people and places vs.

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Title: Moon Wreck

Subtitle: The Slaver Wars, Book 1

Author: Raymond L. Weil

Narrator: Liam Owen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-18-14

Publisher: Raymond L. Weil

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 386 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

For the first time, all three short stories that introduce The Slaver Wars science fiction series are together. The Slaver Wars has currently sold over 100,000 copies. Listen to how it all began.

Disaster has struck the first Moon landing to be attempted in years. Commander Jason Strong and his fellow lunar explorer Greg Johnson have become stranded with no way home. In desperation, they set off in their lunar rover to check out an anomaly they discovered on their descent. What they find will shake their beliefs and what they know of human history. It is the beginning of an adventure that will take them far out into the Solar System and to a discovery that is beyond belief.

Members Reviews:

"Is this safe," says mission commander too often!

I loved the story, but the delivery was far too repetitive. I can't imagine a space commander being so intimidated by the safety concerns. I really hope the next books in the series improve. I don't need a dozen reminders of the events that transpired in the last chapter. I would like it to move along faster and tell me more about the aliens.

Novice sci-fi author

A moon landing goes bad after encountering interference that breaks down the landers on-board computerized systems. Two astronautsnow being stranded on the Moondiscovers a powerful artificial intelligence and an approaching threat to Earth while investigating the source of the interference.

The story is simple, the plot line is simple, the premise is shallow, and the characters act like robots reading a script of their expected emotional reactions. There is no connection between their emotions and their behavior. Having read more than my fair share of sci-fi books, it is easy to tell that Raymond L. Weil is a novice sci-fi author.

The aliens are, of course, fully fluent in English and no Earth customs surprises them.

The content may annoy people

The story was great, it has been a long time since I read a book by the author. However, being older and no wiser, certain points of the story annoyed me when the author indicated why a certain question was asked. Did not mind it while reading, but frustrating while listening. overall, a great story except for the quirks. I will certainly purchase the entire series.

Narrator was great and used good tone and noises to indicate different scenarios and actions.

too redundant with details.

author keeps repeating same details feels like filler which for a short book is insane. Good story but characters are weak and not developed. The whole nagging sister dynamic is just not plausible

Complete waste of time!

Would you try another book from Raymond L. Weil and/or Liam Owen?

NO! This author must loath the editing process or the "editor" should be shot. There are so many "WTF" and "Are you serious?" moments that the book was complete unenjoyable.

Has Moon Wreck turned you off from other books in this genre?

No. But if this was one of my first ventures into I would be very concerned about wasting more time.

How could the performance have been better?

Give the performer a better script and I am sure he could have been better. Seriously, there was not much to work with here.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Moon Wreck?

Well, I would have suggested a few things.

1) The premise is pretty good.

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Title: The Girl in the Road

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Monica Byrne

Narrator: Dioni Collins, Nazneen Contractor

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-20-14

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 51 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

A debut that Neil Gaiman calls "Glorious", The Girl in the Road describes a future that is culturally lush, technologically slick, and emotionally wrenching.

In a world where global power has shifted east and revolution is brewing, two women embark on vastly different journeys - each harrowing and urgent and wholly unexpected.

When Meena finds snakebites on her chest, her worst fears are realized: Someone is after her and she must flee India. As she plots her exit, she learns of The Trail, an energy-harvesting bridge spanning the Arabian Sea that has become a refuge for itinerant vagabonds and loners on the run. This is her salvation. Slipping out in the cover of night, with a knapsack full of supplies, including a pozit GPS system, a scroll reader, and a sealable waterproof pod, she sets off for Ethiopia, the place of her birth.

Meanwhile, Mariama, a young girl in Africa, is forced to flee her home. She joins up with a caravan of misfits heading across the Sahara. She is taken in by Yemaya, a beautiful and enigmatic woman who becomes her protector and confidante. They are trying to reach Addis Abba, Ethiopia, a metropolis swirling with radical politics and rich culture. But Mariama will find a city far different than she ever expected - romantic, turbulent, and dangerous.

As one heads east and the other west, Meena and Mariama's fates are linked in ways that are mysterious and shocking to the core.

Written with stunning clarity, deep emotion, and a futuristic flair, The Girl in the Road is an artistic feat of the first order: vividly imagined, artfully told, and profoundly moving.

Editorial Reviews:

Editors Select, May 2014 - The Girl in the Road is unlike anything I have read or listened to in recent memory. This is not an easy-breeze beach bookits a novel that takes work but the pay-off is well worth the effort. The beginning is disorienting but beautiful, so I pushed through soaking in the lush language and becoming acquainted with the foreign and futuristic world author Monica Byrne has created. There are two storylines Meenas takes place in an India of the future with her journey taking her to Ethiopia, and Mariamas quest brings her across Saharan Africa at a completely different historical time. A thoroughly unique blend literary fiction and science fiction with gadgets and scientific achievements not yet discovered but oddly imaginable. The Girl in the Road explores, illuminates, and challenges our understanding of culture, sexuality, spirituality, and the environment. It's not at all preachy, but its also completely unapologetic. While this book wont appeal to everyone, but is undoubtedly an impressive debut from an author I cant wait to hear more from.

Critic Reviews:

"Stunning.... More than a few surprises await Meena and Mariama and the reader as story lines converge in a surprising, gratifying climax." (Booklist)

"Spectacular and intriguing. . . . Enthralling on many levels.... The incorporation of evolving views of gender.... propel this novel into the stratosphere of artistic brilliance." (Library Journal)

"The most inventive tale to come along in years.... The writing is often brilliant, as Byrne paints wholly believable pictures of worlds and cultures most Westerners will never know....

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Title: Traveling in Space

Author: Steven Paul Leiva

Narrator: Jeff Cannata

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-15-14

Publisher: Bluroof Press / Space Craft International

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 141 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

A unique science fiction first-contact novel told from the aliens' point-of-view; a 21st-century Gulliver's Travels with Homo sapiens as the Lilliputians. The last thing the factfinders - who call themselves Life - expected to find while traveling in space in The Curious on a mission from their planet, The Living World, was other life. But one day they stumble upon the third planet out from a backwater sun and find it teeming with a vast diversity of life, including one sentient and cognizant, if primitive, species that they dub: Otherlife. Being not only from The Curious but inherently curious themselves, they begin to study the Otherlife and their alien culture, discovering such strange things as: marriage, intoxicating drinks, weapons of minor and mass destruction, the gleeful inhaling of toxic substances, two-parent families, layered language, genocide, non-nude bathing, and - the strangest thing of all - religion. This first contact between Life and Otherlife, disconcerting for both, has moments of humor and moments of horror - and neither escape the encounter unchanged.

Members Reviews:

not for every homo sapien

if you like a bit of fun while being criticised (ala "year zero" by reid), then perhaps "travelling in space" is the book for you, jeff did a bang up job with the narration however the magic was the view point presented from the visitors.

i did feel leiva backed off on some topics, and straight out whimped out on others, however hit the nail on the head on most (for me).

well worth a listen.

A different first contact story

There has been a pletora of first contact stories trough the years, this one is special because in this case we are the other life, the book describes the perplexity of a culture based in the search of knowledge and the absolute love for life and hate for death when confronted with the reality of our inner contradictions as a culture, and the awe and horror of the good and the bad that we are capable of.

An special mention to Mr Cannata who gives a moving perfomance he gives voice and personality to all the characters i sincerily hope this is not his last performance

Great story Incredible narration

The story was insightful. Jeff Canatta's narration was stellar. I wished this audio book would never end. I can't believe that was a single voice actor!

Great Commentary on Human Society (good & bad)

If you could sum up Traveling in Space in three words, what would they be?

Curiosity is good.

What other book might you compare Traveling in Space to and why?

Rendezvous with Rama, but with people.

Have you listened to any of Jeff Cannatas other performances before? How does this one compare?

Jeff does a super job of conveying the characters in the book - and there are a lot of them!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Laugh - the rational observance of everyday human institutions and attitudes from the perspective of the "other" is a refreshing take on the self commentary that so much SF is focused on. The good, the bad and the ugly.

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Title: Afterparty

Author: Daryl Gregory

Narrator: Tavia Gilbert

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-22-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 374 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

It begins in Toronto, in the years after the smart drug revolution. Any high school student with a chemjet and internet connection can download recipes and print drugs, or invent them. A seventeen-year-old street girl finds God through a new brain-altering drug called Numinous, used as a sacrament by a new Church that preys on the underclass. But she is arrested and put into detention, and without the drug, commits suicide.

Lyda Rose, another patient in that detention facility, has a dark secret: She was one of the original scientists who developed the drug. With the help of an ex-government agent and an imaginary, drug-induced doctor, Lyda sets out to find the other three survivors of the five who made the Numinous in a quest to set things right.

A mind-bending and violent chase across Canada and the US, Daryl Gregory's Afterparty is a marvelous mix of William Gibsons Neuromancer, Philip K. Dicks Ubik, and perhaps a bit of Peter Wattss Starfish: A last chance to save civilization, or die trying.

Members Reviews:

Smart, witty altered-consciousness thriller

Afterparty was a pleasant discovery for me, comparable to recent Neal Stephenson or William Gibson, but less geeked-out than the former and a little snarkier than the latter.

The initial setting is a near-future Toronto. A former neuroscientist named Lyda is in a mental hospital, in the wake of a series of breakdowns. Its about a decade after her biotech startup discovered, while trying to cure schizophrenia, a drug that enables users to experience God. Well, in a manner of speaking. More specifically, Lyda and her colleagues overdosed on the drug and each now experiences a very convincing hallucination of a heavenly spirit companion. In Lyda's case, it's a moralizing winged angel named Doctor Gloria. In more controlled doses, the drug, nicknamed Numinous, makes people feel that they're in the presence of the divine.

Its not the only mind-altering custom drug in this future. There's now a whole subculture of print-it-at-home drug manufacture, to say nothing of what more serious organizations do with the tech. Some products have amusingly harmless effects, but some alter consciousness in disturbing ways, such as one that removes one characters natural empathy and turns him into a temporary sociopath.

When a peculiarly troubled teenage patient shows up in the clinic, it dawns on Lyda that Numinous, which her and her colleagues swore to keep secret, is now on the street, being distributed by a strange new church. So, Lyda must check herself out of the hospital, evade monitoring systems, get across the border, and track down her former colleagues in the US. Her only allies are a sweetly unaware young man who thinks his consciousness resides in the aquarium toy hanging from his neck, and a crafty American ex-intelligence officer whose own mind has been scrambled by too much "focus" drug over her career. And a cat. And, of course, the amusingly huffy Doctor G, who remains invisible to everyone but Lyda.

This is definitely a smart book, asking meaningful philosophical questions about the nature of being and the implications of messing with our brains/minds. Or of messing with other people's. It's also a witty one, with cleverly written scenes, oddball characters, and a lot of snarky quips from Lyda.

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Title: The Boy Who Lit Up the Sky: The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 1, Volume 1

Author: J. Naomi Ay

Narrator: Rebecca A. Reynolds

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-10-14

Publisher: Jackie Ayzenberg

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

After a thousand years of war, the Mishnese and Karupta have made peace by wedding the Mishnese princess royal to the Karupta crown prince. Their son whose birth was foretold 10 centuries ago is destined to rule the entire planet and end the wars forever. But the princess and the baby have died during childbirth or so it was said. In the meantime, a strange half-breed infant boy is left at an orphanage with a purse full of gold coins.

The Boy who Lit up the Sky follows the early years of Senya from the streets of Old Mishnah, to the Palace of Mishnah and from there to Karuptani where he is taught to live off the land and fight for that which is his. Along the way, he finds the human girl who, unbeknownst to her, shares his important destiny.

Members Reviews:

Not a bad light, fun plot

Parts of this book I liked. Some of the tale was different, a unique plot. Some of the language was simplistic, and some entertaining. It was an interesting sci-fi and of course, it has sequels carrying the 'Boy' into his life and destiny.

Highly Recommended Space Opera Novel

Very enjoyable space-opera read. The author develops the story well. After I had read this novel, which was a good story in itself, I found that it was a series of SIXTEEN novels, and the story goes places I never would have imagined. Highly Recommended! Use the Kindle Unlimited subscription to read the entire series!

Surprised......pleasantly

Ok. first and foremost, I am cheap. I have only bought two books for my kindle. all of the rest I have downloaded free. some of these books are ok, and some are almost unreadable, so I really don't expect much when I start to a new one. this book, however, grabbed my attention and kept it through till the end. You can tell that J. Naomi Ay has a deep relationship with this book, as worldbuilding and attention to character development is top notch. Ay doesn't slog through a bland first person perspective that reads like grocery list of things to do and things accomplished. instead the author weaves a tapestry of the main character through a diverse range of other characters perception of him. Senya thrums with a life of his own, and I can see him clearly in my minds eye. I am thankful for that. A great read. That being said, it was too short. there are at least twelve or thirteen more of these books. the next is 3.99, so to read them all I will have to pay a pretty penny, which I will probably end up doing. hopefully the books will be offered as an omnibus at a lower rate. anyways, if you are looking for a good sci fi/ space opera type book then give this one a shot.

Great Tale

This book, although it does have a few slightly confusing places, due to the main character Sent a being known by different names in the different kingdoms, is a fantastic read. The characters, the plot, everything keeps you wanting to know more

captivating and heartbreaking

This was a captivating and heartbreaking tale of a savior and his journey to grow up. People always mistrust and treat differently those who are different and this book highlights that. We watch a child grow into a powerful young man. Everyone has expectations and fears for and of him. I definitely will continue this series.