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Title: Trident's Forge

Subtitle: Children of a Dead Earth, Book 2

Author: Patrick S. Tomlinson

Narrator: Mirron Willis

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-05-16

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 168 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

They've made it this far. If only that increased humanity's chances on this new planet....

Against all odds, the Ark and her 30,000 survivors have reached Tau Ceti G to begin the long, arduous task of rebuilding human civilization. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Tau Ceti G's natives, the g'tel, are coming to grips with the sudden appearance of what many believe are their long-lost gods.

But first contact between humans and g'tel goes catastrophically wrong, visiting death on both sides. Rumors swirl that the massacre was no accident. The Ark's greatest hero, Bryan Benson, takes on the mystery.

Partnered with native "truth-digger" Kexx against both of their better judgment, Benson is thrust into the heart of an alien culture with no idea how to tell who wants to worship him from who wants him dead.

Together, Benson and Kexx will have to find enough common ground and trust to uncover a plot that threatens to plunge both of their peoples into an apocalyptic war that neither side can afford to fight.

Members Reviews:

Exciting complicated ending!

First of all, how can I rate the book 5 stars yet rate both the performance and story 4? Because there are problems with both, but the story as a whole holds up and concludes satisfyingly. The narrator is great at the end when all the excitement builds, but getting there he makes quite a few pronunciation errors, such as "taunt" for "taut" and "tapped" for "taped." He also has some "accent on the wrong syllable" episodes that made me wonder where he was from. I liked his main voice, and a couple of the accents, but his Japanese girl voice is the same as his squid-alien voice. It was annoying at times, but by the end, the book proved enjoyable, so 5 stars.

The books starts off slowly if you are expecting something like The Ark. And, as in The Ark, there are grammar errors (incorrect past perfect) that I care about but others don't. It took 5 hours to stop being merely an interspecies / intercultural exploration and start being a detective story. This is always interesting. (Although Asimov's Caves of Steel and its sequels will always be standards of this.) The story cannot hold up this interesting development however, and bogs down again for a few hours. Then when things are finally falling into place, the story is very exciting and interesting for the last couple of hours. Here the character development shines and you are rooting for the good guys. There is a great scene with an antagonistic ally, and a nail-biting climax where you don't know who will die heroically, and you just don't want any of them killed. Great scenes here.

So, for me, the book started out boring, but then ended well and enjoyably. There are some discussions of the nature of humans and the right and wrong of different assumptions. Good listening.

Zero Hero Strikes Again

I loved this book and the series. It's even better than the last one. Science fiction coupled with comedy. Children of a Dead Earth land on new planet and begin making a royal mess of things. And while different from the first book in the series, the events stand alone so you can start with this one if you'd like but I would advise you to begin with the first book.