
A Talent for War
An Alex Benedict Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $20.72
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Gregory Abbey
-
Jack McDevitt
-
By:
-
Jack McDevitt
About this listen
For his own sake, for the sake of history, Alex Benedict must follow the dark track of a legend, into the very heart of the alien galaxy - where he will confront a truth far stranger than any fiction imaginable.
BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction by author Jack McDevitt.
©2004 Jack McDevitt (P)2008 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Hercules Text
- By: Jack McDevitt
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a remote corner of the galaxy, a message is being sent. The continuous beats of a pulsar have become odd, irregular, and artificial. It can only be a code. Frantically, a research team struggles to decipher the alien communication. And what the scientists discover is destined to shake the foundations of empires around this world - from Wall Street to the Vatican.
-
-
Lots to recommend here!
- By Matthew on 10-19-18
By: Jack McDevitt
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
Revelation Space
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself. With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. But as he closes in on the secret, a killer closes in on him because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason.
-
-
Defeated
- By Eoin on 07-15-12
-
Eversion
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: Harry Myers
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1800s, a sailing ship crashes off the coast of Norway. In the 1900s, a Zepellin explores an icy canyon in Antarctica. In the far future, a spaceship sets out for an alien artifact. Each excursion goes horribly wrong. And on every journey, Dr. Silas Coade is the physician, but only Silas seems to realize that these events keep repeating themselves. And it's up to him to figure out why and how. And how to stop it all from happening again.
-
-
An entirely new level of science fiction
- By Possum Bean on 01-08-23
-
Translation State
- By: Ann Leckie
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Enae's grandmaman passes away, Enae inherits something unexpected: a diplomatic assignment to track down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. No one actually expects Enae to succeed; it's an empty assignment meant to keep hir occupied. But Enae has never had a true purpose—no one ever expected hir to do more than care for grandmaman—so sie is determined to accomplish this task to the best of her ability.
-
-
Single themed and not on par with the series
- By Andrew Pollack on 07-01-23
By: Ann Leckie
-
Gateway
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When prospector Bob Broadhead went out to Gateway on the Heechee spacecraft, he decided he would know which was the right mission to make him his fortune. Three missions later, now famous and permanently rich, Robinette Broadhead has to face what happened to him and what he is...in a journey into himself as perilous and even more horrifying than the nightmare trip through the interstellar void that he drove himself to take!
-
-
A human-focused SF classic
- By Ryan on 12-05-13
By: Frederik Pohl
-
The Hercules Text
- By: Jack McDevitt
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a remote corner of the galaxy, a message is being sent. The continuous beats of a pulsar have become odd, irregular, and artificial. It can only be a code. Frantically, a research team struggles to decipher the alien communication. And what the scientists discover is destined to shake the foundations of empires around this world - from Wall Street to the Vatican.
-
-
Lots to recommend here!
- By Matthew on 10-19-18
By: Jack McDevitt
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
Revelation Space
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself. With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. But as he closes in on the secret, a killer closes in on him because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason.
-
-
Defeated
- By Eoin on 07-15-12
-
Eversion
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: Harry Myers
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1800s, a sailing ship crashes off the coast of Norway. In the 1900s, a Zepellin explores an icy canyon in Antarctica. In the far future, a spaceship sets out for an alien artifact. Each excursion goes horribly wrong. And on every journey, Dr. Silas Coade is the physician, but only Silas seems to realize that these events keep repeating themselves. And it's up to him to figure out why and how. And how to stop it all from happening again.
-
-
An entirely new level of science fiction
- By Possum Bean on 01-08-23
-
Translation State
- By: Ann Leckie
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Enae's grandmaman passes away, Enae inherits something unexpected: a diplomatic assignment to track down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. No one actually expects Enae to succeed; it's an empty assignment meant to keep hir occupied. But Enae has never had a true purpose—no one ever expected hir to do more than care for grandmaman—so sie is determined to accomplish this task to the best of her ability.
-
-
Single themed and not on par with the series
- By Andrew Pollack on 07-01-23
By: Ann Leckie
-
Gateway
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When prospector Bob Broadhead went out to Gateway on the Heechee spacecraft, he decided he would know which was the right mission to make him his fortune. Three missions later, now famous and permanently rich, Robinette Broadhead has to face what happened to him and what he is...in a journey into himself as perilous and even more horrifying than the nightmare trip through the interstellar void that he drove himself to take!
-
-
A human-focused SF classic
- By Ryan on 12-05-13
By: Frederik Pohl
-
A Fire Upon the Deep
- By: Vernor Vinge
- Narrated by: Peter Larkin
- Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function.
-
-
What a wild, wacky, awesome book!
- By Noah Smith on 06-20-10
By: Vernor Vinge
-
The Mote in God's Eye
- By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
- Narrated by: L J Ganser
- Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mote In God's Eye is their acknowledged masterpiece, an epic novel of mankind's first encounter with alien life that transcends the genre. No lesser an authority than Robert A. Heinlein called it "possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read".
-
-
A great read!
- By J. Rhoderick on 02-12-10
By: Larry Niven, and others
-
Between Planets
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Andrew Eiden
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Don Harvey is a citizen of the Interplanetary Federation - yet no single planet can claim him as its own. His mother was born on Venus and his father on Earth, and Don himself was born on a spaceship in trajectory between planets. When his parents abruptly summon him away from school on Earth to join them on Mars, he has no idea he's about to be plunged into deadly interplanetary intrigue. But the ship Don is traveling on is unexpectedly diverted to Venus, where the colony has launched a revolution against Earth's control.
-
-
Like a breath of fresh air
- By MikeFarr on 03-28-17
-
Slip Runner
- By: J.N. Chaney, M.F. Lerma
- Narrated by: Neill Thorne
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cole Riker is a Slip Runner. A contractor tasked with finding alien salvage in exchange for credits. For an ex-smuggler like Cole, there’s a catch: Don’t break the terms of parole. That means doing things by the book. Find salvage, turn it in, get paid. But everything changes when a retrieval mission lands him in a previously unknown sector. There, he finds the material he’s been sent to recover, along with something more. A brand-new form of ancient alien life.
-
-
Great Start on a new Renegade Universe Series
- By Robert Meridy Jr on 11-04-22
By: J.N. Chaney, and others
-
Downbelow Station (1 of 2) (Dramatized)
- Alliance-Union Universe: The Company Wars, Book 1
- By: C.J. Cherryh
- Narrated by: Holly Adams, James Konicek, James Lewis, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pell was just the first living planet. Then came Cyteen, and later others, and a new and frighteningly different society grew in the farther reaches of space. The importance of Earth faded and the Company reaped ever smaller profits as the economic focus of space turned outward. But the powerful Earth Fleet was still a presence in the Beyond, and Pell Station was to become the last stronghold in a titanic struggle between the vast, dynamic forces of the rebel Union and those who defended Earth's last, desperate grasp for the stars.
-
-
Stunningly Magnificent Performance/Production
- By Gentle Reader Jill on 09-03-21
By: C.J. Cherryh
-
Hyperion
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
-
-
The Shrike Awaits. Enter The Time Tombs...
- By Michael on 10-13-12
By: Dan Simmons
-
Dauntless
- Lost Fleet, Book 1
- By: Jack Campbell
- Narrated by: Jack Campbell, Christian Rummel
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Alliance has been fighting the Syndics for a century—and losing badly. Now its fleet is crippled and stranded in enemy territory. Their only hope is a man who’s emerged from a century-long hibernation to find he has been heroically idealized beyond belief… Captain John “Black Jack” Geary’s legendary exploits are known to every schoolchild. Revered for his heroic “last stand” in the early days of the war, he was presumed dead. But a century later, Geary miraculously returns from survival hibernation.
-
-
Straightforward Action Based Science Fiction
- By David A on 07-07-22
By: Jack Campbell
-
Angels and Demons
- By: Dan Brown
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization, the Illuminati. Desperate to save the Vatican from a powerful time bomb, Langdon joins forces in Rome with the beautiful and mysterious scientist Vittoria Vetra.
-
-
A must for fans of The Da Vinci Code
- By Geoffrey on 04-14-04
By: Dan Brown
-
Dreadnaught
- The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier
- By: Jack Campbell
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel, Jack Campbell - introduction
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first book of best-selling sci-fi author Jack Campbell’s new series Beyond the Frontier returns to find Captain John “Black Jack" Geary, the hero of the Lost Fleet series, awoken from cryogenic sleep to take command of the fleet. Geary’s legendary exploits have earned him the adoration of the people—and the enmity of politicians convinced that a living hero can be a very inconvenient thing.
-
-
A welcome new series
- By Jean on 04-18-12
By: Jack Campbell
-
Hard Magic
- Book I of the Grimnoir Chronicles
- By: Larry Correia
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jake Sullivan is a licensed private eye with a seriously hardboiled attitude. He also possesses raw magical talent and the ability to make objects in his vicinity light as a feather or as heavy as depleted uranium, all with a magical thought. It's no wonder the G-men turn to Jake when they need someoneto go after a suspected killer who has been knocking off banks in a magic-enhanced crime spree.
-
-
Not what I thought it was going to be.
- By Anonymous User on 08-06-11
By: Larry Correia
-
The Templar Legacy
- A Novel
- By: Steve Berry
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cotton Malone, one-time top operative for the U.S. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts—and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he’d left behind.
-
-
Dan Brown... eat your heart out
- By Bonnie-Ann on 07-22-12
By: Steve Berry
-
Coming Home
- By: Rosamunde Pilcher
- Narrated by: Helen Johns
- Length: 40 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set against the backdrop of an elegant Cornwall mansion before World War II and a vast continent-spanning canvas during the turbulent war years, this captivating story tells of an extraordinary young woman's coming of age, coming to grips with love and sadness, and in every sense of the term, coming home.... In 1935, Judith Dunbar is left behind at a British boarding school when her mother and baby sister go off to join her father in Singapore.
-
-
Marvelous story line, Excellent narration
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-18
Critic reviews
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Engines of God
- By: Jack McDevitt
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Humans call them Monument-Makers. An unknown race, they left stunning alien statues scattered on distant planets throughout the galaxy, encoded with strange inscriptions that defy translation. Searching for clues about the Monument-Makers, teams of 23rd century linguists, historians, engineers and archaeologists have been excavating the enigmatic alien ruins on a number of planets, uncovering strange, massive false cities made of solid rock. But their time is running out.
-
-
Conceptually intriguing, but uneven writing style
- By Michael G Kurilla on 05-12-11
By: Jack McDevitt
-
The Hercules Text
- By: Jack McDevitt
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a remote corner of the galaxy, a message is being sent. The continuous beats of a pulsar have become odd, irregular, and artificial. It can only be a code. Frantically, a research team struggles to decipher the alien communication. And what the scientists discover is destined to shake the foundations of empires around this world - from Wall Street to the Vatican.
-
-
Lots to recommend here!
- By Matthew on 10-19-18
By: Jack McDevitt
-
Eternity Road
- By: Jack McDevitt
- Narrated by: Justin Price
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chaka's brother was one of those who sought to find Haven and never returned. But now Chaka has inherited a rare Roadmaker artifact—a book called A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court—which has inspired her to follow in his footsteps. Gathering an unlikely band of companions around her, Chaka embarks upon a journey where she will encounter bloodthirsty river pirates, electronic ghosts who mourn their lost civilization, and machines that skim over the ground and air. Ultimately, the group will learn the truth about their own mysterious past.
-
-
Highly recommended and thought provoking
- By Laurence A. Pace on 02-01-24
By: Jack McDevitt
-
Thunderbird
- By: Jack McDevitt
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A working stargate dating back more than 10,000 years has been discovered in North Dakota, on a Sioux reservation near Devils Lake. Travel through the gate currently leads to three equally mysterious destinations: (1) an apparently empty garden world, quickly dubbed Eden; (2) a strange maze of underground passageways; and (3) a space station with a view of a galaxy that appears to be the Milky Way.
-
-
Frustrating Story, Ill-suited Narrator
- By Buzz Park on 12-20-15
By: Jack McDevitt
-
Gateway
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When prospector Bob Broadhead went out to Gateway on the Heechee spacecraft, he decided he would know which was the right mission to make him his fortune. Three missions later, now famous and permanently rich, Robinette Broadhead has to face what happened to him and what he is...in a journey into himself as perilous and even more horrifying than the nightmare trip through the interstellar void that he drove himself to take!
-
-
A human-focused SF classic
- By Ryan on 12-05-13
By: Frederik Pohl
-
The Collapsing Empire
- The Interdependency, Book 1
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our universe is ruled by physics, and faster-than-light travel is not possible - until the discovery of The Flow, an extradimensional field we can access at certain points in space-time that transports us to other worlds, around other stars. Humanity flows away from Earth, into space, and in time forgets our home world and creates a new empire, the Interdependency, whose ethos requires that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It's a hedge against interstellar war - and a system of control for the rulers of the empire.
-
-
THE STUPIDITIES OF COURT
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-01-17
By: John Scalzi
-
The Engines of God
- By: Jack McDevitt
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Humans call them Monument-Makers. An unknown race, they left stunning alien statues scattered on distant planets throughout the galaxy, encoded with strange inscriptions that defy translation. Searching for clues about the Monument-Makers, teams of 23rd century linguists, historians, engineers and archaeologists have been excavating the enigmatic alien ruins on a number of planets, uncovering strange, massive false cities made of solid rock. But their time is running out.
-
-
Conceptually intriguing, but uneven writing style
- By Michael G Kurilla on 05-12-11
By: Jack McDevitt
-
The Hercules Text
- By: Jack McDevitt
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a remote corner of the galaxy, a message is being sent. The continuous beats of a pulsar have become odd, irregular, and artificial. It can only be a code. Frantically, a research team struggles to decipher the alien communication. And what the scientists discover is destined to shake the foundations of empires around this world - from Wall Street to the Vatican.
-
-
Lots to recommend here!
- By Matthew on 10-19-18
By: Jack McDevitt
-
Eternity Road
- By: Jack McDevitt
- Narrated by: Justin Price
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chaka's brother was one of those who sought to find Haven and never returned. But now Chaka has inherited a rare Roadmaker artifact—a book called A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court—which has inspired her to follow in his footsteps. Gathering an unlikely band of companions around her, Chaka embarks upon a journey where she will encounter bloodthirsty river pirates, electronic ghosts who mourn their lost civilization, and machines that skim over the ground and air. Ultimately, the group will learn the truth about their own mysterious past.
-
-
Highly recommended and thought provoking
- By Laurence A. Pace on 02-01-24
By: Jack McDevitt
-
Thunderbird
- By: Jack McDevitt
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A working stargate dating back more than 10,000 years has been discovered in North Dakota, on a Sioux reservation near Devils Lake. Travel through the gate currently leads to three equally mysterious destinations: (1) an apparently empty garden world, quickly dubbed Eden; (2) a strange maze of underground passageways; and (3) a space station with a view of a galaxy that appears to be the Milky Way.
-
-
Frustrating Story, Ill-suited Narrator
- By Buzz Park on 12-20-15
By: Jack McDevitt
-
Gateway
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When prospector Bob Broadhead went out to Gateway on the Heechee spacecraft, he decided he would know which was the right mission to make him his fortune. Three missions later, now famous and permanently rich, Robinette Broadhead has to face what happened to him and what he is...in a journey into himself as perilous and even more horrifying than the nightmare trip through the interstellar void that he drove himself to take!
-
-
A human-focused SF classic
- By Ryan on 12-05-13
By: Frederik Pohl
-
The Collapsing Empire
- The Interdependency, Book 1
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our universe is ruled by physics, and faster-than-light travel is not possible - until the discovery of The Flow, an extradimensional field we can access at certain points in space-time that transports us to other worlds, around other stars. Humanity flows away from Earth, into space, and in time forgets our home world and creates a new empire, the Interdependency, whose ethos requires that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It's a hedge against interstellar war - and a system of control for the rulers of the empire.
-
-
THE STUPIDITIES OF COURT
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-01-17
By: John Scalzi
What listeners say about A Talent for War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Isaac Montano
- 11-22-18
Still One of My Favorites
The only negative I have for this was the performance. But that's it! Jack has an awesome mind for world building. It's the first mystery novel in space that I've ever read and I thoroughly enjoyed it, again.
I've read it before and I needed to kill time between books and I'm happy I revisited A Talent for War. The AI always sound too robotic in the performer's voice but other than that he did a good job... if it wasn't for the AI's accent haha.
The blend of History and mystery is what I love, but the fact this is all in our universe just 10,000 years in the future is such a beautiful idea and believably written it caught my imagination and held it.
The story can be slow at times, but you go through the mind and process of an investigator so don't get too frustrated haha.
I've read every book in this series thus far (last one that came out was Coming Home) and have only been disappointed only twice but even those have not deterred me from reading the rest and won't when another comes out.
Remember, it's history-mystery, in space! 😁
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- RLW
- 06-02-21
Ponderous
I have a number of Jack mcdevitt's books and have generally enjoyed them. This one is a departure. The plot meandered, and unless I totally spaced out for the length of the book, most of the reveals at the end of the book seemed almost disembodied. I may keep it, and maybe do a reread. I doubt it though.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sean H.
- 06-02-23
The narrator was bad, and the story read like a history lesson.
I probably would have enjoyed the book a lot more if not for the narrator. He had a really….odd cadence where he would….pause at random times between….words. It was like listening to William Shatner read. He also mispronounced a lot of words.
The story itself was not that bad, but there was a lot of following the main character around while he researched the events and characters of a war that too place 200 years ago. It was a rather dry story at times.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Kaleb
- 12-05-10
Speed Demon
The story is good. But the narrator is on speed. I think if this was rerecorded at a medium pace I would give it another star.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- george
- 02-20-12
Not his best, but still good
Would you consider the audio edition of A Talent for War to be better than the print version?
I'd have to read it, and then listen to it to answer the question.
What did you like best about this story?
The story was okay. I had read Firebird before this. That was much better.
What about Gregory Abbey and Jack McDevitt ’s performance did you like?
Nothing sticks out.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- D&S Pete
- 01-12-18
The Start of a Great Series
Where does A Talent for War rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
I have always enjoyed this author's ability to write a great mystery and keep you guessing until the very end of the book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sandy
- 12-24-14
The Book is Good, But...
I enjoyed the story, but the narrator detracted from it due to many mispronunciations. I don't know how many times I yelled NUCLEAR NOT NUCULAR and DE-MOS-THE-NES NOT DE-MOS-THENES! It became very annoying.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- William L.
- 05-17-19
Awesome Audiobook. great narration.
super story! great purchase. already ordered the second book. looking forward to it. just great
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Christopher J. Ward
- 07-09-10
A masterpiece by a grandmaster
This is probably my most favored science fiction novel and the first in the series starring an intergalactic antiquarian. For students of history, this book will evoke parallels with ancient Greece and its empire, and the threat from an alien race. The story concerns the legendary Christopher Sim, the hero of the Confederacy; the man who defeated the alien race by fighting them to a standstill. But there is much more to this tale than battles in space, politics and history, the characters are finely drawn and first-class. Jack McDevitt did not win a Hugo for this work (The Hercules Text which preceded it did) but all the books he has written, this one has a compelling majesty and richness to savor.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Stephen C. Ehrmann
- 07-27-21
Narrator needs work
He didn’t sweat the details. 10-15 words mispronounced, two repeatedly (Rigel; Demosthenes). Occasionally he hadn’t read ahead, e.g. speaking softly what a character says, then concluding, …, she screamed.”
The story is quite good, however.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!