Elijah D. Ely

Better than the first book!

Reviewed: 06-22-23

This was a much more entertaining listen than the previous book.

I have two complaints however, 1 with the writing and 1 with the performance. **Spoilers Warning**
1. At one point in the story, the main character makes reference to a wedding... that hadn't happened yet in the story. I'm sure this was an simple mistake where something was added.. but it was confusing during the listen.
2. I love RC Bray--he's done some of my favorite books and kills it time and time again. but he had 2 pronunciation faux pas right at the end that killed me. Pronouncing "Apophis" correctly according to the Internet as Ap'oe'phis is fine, cause that's how it's pronounced... but to follow that up with staying that the character knew that name from the show "SG-eye" killed me. It's SG-1 as in One. And in that show, they always pronounced it "Ap'ah'phis" which invalidates the character pronouncing it with the 'oe' sound in the first place. it's a silly complaint, I know... but that's one of my favorite all time shows! *End Spoilers*

anyways, it's a good book, and it's starting to set up some interesting things for the overall story. looking forward to more!

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a decent book written by Skippy

Reviewed: 05-17-23

So the biggest thing I see missing from all the reviews is a key detail (in my mind) about this book: it was written by Skippy the Magnificent.

I forget which Expeditionary Force audio book it was, but at the end, Skippy came on and introduced this book he wrote, and then it went into the first chapter.

So does this book kind of repeat jokes and style from ExForce? yup. Buuut... if you consider that technically, it's written by Skippy-an AI who's personality is loosely molded from Joe Bishop... then it all makes sense!

as a written piece... it circles itself a lot. lot of repeats of the same info and the plot stagnates a bit... but it's fun. I am curious to see where the story goes from here and I hope it gets better. I'm sure Skippy will learn a thing or two and bring us an exciting second venture.

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This is Start Wars

Reviewed: 05-25-18

after watching and reading all the new Star Wars stuff, I decided to go back to this and am glad I did. THIS is how you do a non movie Star Wars story.

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This is NOT the Han/Lando you are looking for

Reviewed: 05-22-18

Where to start.
First, let me say I am a huge Star Wars fan. I have been reading SW books since the mid 90's and for better or worse, I have accepted them all as SW.

This book is the worst SW thing i have ever read.
The author apparently has no idea about what the characters of Han and Lando act like. I feel like he never watched the original trilogy or read any book in the old EU. He has Han/Lando speaking with phrases they have NEVER used and acting in ways they never would.
Would you EVER in your wildest imagination imagine Han uttering the word "pshaw" to talk about something? Did you ever once hear Han or Lando call someone "man" in the OT? (arguably MAYBE Lando would...but he never did) And that's just a couple instances in dialogue. The actions they take in the story are so out of character its not even funny. Every now and again something feels right...but most is just wrong.

The ONLY reason i continued listening to this book is because of Mark Thompson. That man is literally the perfect SW reader ever. I feel TERRIBLE giving a book he read such a bad review, and honestly if he had read the whole thing i would have rated higher.
For some reason, someone decided that THREE people should read this book. January Lavoy read the young Lando parts, and for her part, she did pretty good. I usually don't like female readers for male parts, but i was impressed with her Lando.

Then there was Daniel Jose Older. holy crap. Not only should he never be allowed to look at anything SW again, he should NEVER. EVER. read a book again.

He unfortunately read the young Han parts (and another random scene that should have been Mark Thompson). Everytime he spoke, he 1. had NO voices to speak of: His Han was exactly the same as his narrator voice..and the female. and pretty much everyone. The only "voices" he did were with the assistance of special effects. and 2, I swear he sounded high all the time. Like he had a glazed smile on his face and he was surprised to be reading this story for the first time...even though HE WROTE IT. His inflections were terrible, he literally read and had pauses at the end of sentences that continued on the line below. It was the worst reading of a SW book I have ever heard, and I am including the original reading of Heir to the Empire in that group.

The Story: Spoilers
The story itself almost had some interesting ideas and parts, but at the same time made no sense. The whole idea that droids can apparently be overwritten to kill everything with a some magic device is absolutely absurd and totally spits in the face of the OTHER idea the book tries to touch on of droids being more than just programming and wiring. Its idiotic. At least include some droid overcoming the imposed will or something to show that SOME droids have willpower or something...but no.
Also, the whole Utapowan guy who becomes the super droid builder guy? He apparently just...snapped and became an evil genius cult leader cause he...got kidnapped? and his friend was shot? it made no sense. And the fact that he apparently had a fully stocked lab in a cave somewhere and was able to ATTACH AN ORGANIC ARM TO A DROID...with what...field medkit supplied? it made no sense.
Oh and the jetpack crap in space? I get that SW is not exactly "scientifically accurate" but holy crap. a guy in a jetpack IS NO MATCH FOR A STARFIGHTER. The sheer speeds a starfighter can move would make them untrackable. The G-forces created in high speeds are only mitigated by the damn inertial dampeners IN A STAR SHIP. Some guy with a jetpack can NOT go that fast and not become mush in teh process. the whole end scene was stupid.

ugh. ok i am done. time to get my money back for this tripe.

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Sheds a little more light on things, but...

Reviewed: 04-16-18

its still The Last Jedi.

Marc Thompson was amazing as always in this, but I imagine even he was confused with reading a characterization of Luke that is so drastically different from anything prior that it felt like a different character.

I won't go into a rant on how bad The Last Jedi was, but I will say that this book at least sheds a bit more detail into some of the more questionable events in the movie. The characters making uncharacteristic choices however isn't the fault of the Jason Fry it's the fault of Rian Johnson. Jason Fry did the best he could to justify certain actions...but the stupid rings through.

regardless, Marc Thompson does a great job at making this entertaining. read this if you are a die hard star wars fan...then file it away for future trivia and hope the next movie fixes things.

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Read this one--not the best in audio format

Reviewed: 11-03-17

Let me start by saying that I really liked the stories in this. Some were a bit more...far fetched than others (*cough*mole flea*cough*) but overall it was a fun jaunt through some of the outlandish stories that people spread about Luke Skywalker.

BUT...January LaVoy was not the right choice to read this book. She is AMAZING in other Star Wars books (Phasma for instance) but a book about Luke--and one incorporating a wide gamut of voices and characters needed Marc Thompson for sure. Had he read this book, it would have gotten 5 stars for sure.
Ms. LaVoy is great for those young female characters...and she does a great Imperial accent...but she always makes males sound offish and dumb. ...and Luke never sounded offish and dumb in the movies--especially post RotJ Luke.

I definitely wish i had read this one myself rather than listened, and i highly recommend that you do the same. Again, GREAT book....but not the greatest reading.

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3 people found this helpful

THIS is Star Wars. Best new book so far...

Reviewed: 10-31-17

I've been reading Star Wars books since the mid 90's and two of my absolute favorite books were Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, and Tales from Jabba's Palace. They created the true expanded universe in Star Wars and made you think outside the scenes shown in the movies.

This book continues that tradition but with an amazing twist: All the stories are chronologically in tandem with the plot of Episode IV. It's the same movie, BUT FROM A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW!?? crazy i know. THey should probably name the book--oh wait they did.

This had great insight to known characters, some good laughs (The Muftak's thoughts on Luke are hilarious) and some good teary emotion.

All in all, THIS is what Star Wars is to me. I hope they do this again for Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi...

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Fun jaunt for any modern geek

Reviewed: 08-08-17

Slight Spoilers i suppose...

I'll admit--at first i did not like this book. The beginning had me cringing and WTF'ing non stop as Martin bumbled around with his new File access. Once he met Philip however, the book got REALLY good in my opinion.

End slight spoilers

Overall i like the story and ideas presented in this book. It was a fun mix of sci-fi and pop culture with pretty good humor thrown in. Luke Daniels is AMAZING at voices and really brings a lot to the reading. I honestly thought there were multiple readers at first because his "narrator" voice and most character voices are so very different its almost mind boggling.

My one critique is something that I am told is "sort of" cleared up in future books--and its the whole technical side of things

spoilers

how on EARTH did Philip access a 5 terabyte file on a 1984 computer? it would crash the computer....

end spoilers

As a computer networks guy, I had to suspend some disbelief with a couple aspects of the more technical side of things. BUT-overall it was a great book! i look forward to the next ones!

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Bobnet expanded

Reviewed: 07-11-17

I started this IMMEDIATELY after I finished the first book, and it seemed to fly by.

I love these books so far and a both excited and a bit sad for the upcoming 3rd book.

I'm excited because the story is amazing and touches all the things I love in Sci-Fi: the nearish future of the earth, space exploration, and advancing technology. Throw in great geek references and I am set.

I'm sad though cause as far as I know...the the third book will be the last. I hope the author continues the series or expands on the Bobiverse somehow.

That's how good these books are...I just want it to keep going!

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In Bob we trust

Reviewed: 07-11-17

This book blew away any preconceived notions I might have had when buying it. I had been debating it on and off for a while and finally took the plunge. It immediately appealed to the geek in me and continued to keep me enthralled to the last word.

While everyone has their likes and dislikes in the sci-fi realm, the character of Bob seemed to be almost spot on with how my interests go, so everything just worked for me.

As soon as it ended I IMMEDIATELY purchased and started the second book.

The narrator was great, but at first, I felt that the pacing or inflection felt a bit off at times--though as you continue through the story it just feels more and more like that is just how Bob talks...lol so it worked in the end.

It's an amazing story that will keep you wanting more.

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