One man's chance at redemption

Received as an audio review copy from Story Origin (2021), this is an honest review. Narrated wonderfully by Larry Gorman, begins the explosive Infinity's End series with Caspian's Fortune.

Caspian Robeaux was once an officer in the Coalition, after his career was destroyed; he now runs illicit goods out of the reach their empire. He thought that life was dead, unfortunately he was wrong. When his contract is bought by an Coalition officer, he is pulled back into their world of betrayal and secrets. What unfolds is a wild tale of intense adventure, an inventive cast of characters that will make you laugh (Caspian's assistant Box is totally hilarious) or just piss you off. A lost ship provides answers that probably should remain buried. An impressive series beginning, that will most likely get stronger as the journey continues. Highly recommended.

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Pretty good.

Most of the story didn't have any of those why is the main character being so stupid moments just to extend conflicts and waste readers time. I will likely purchase the next book in the series.

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wheres the next book???

Please give us series guys more than book one of a 5 book set!? excellent book and narration! the Epilogue just made me search for book 2 only to be stymied.

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Well done, Mr. Warren!

Not my normal genre but pleasantly surprised by the story line. It kept me engaged & rooting for the main characters. Kudos to the author for an impressive debut novel. He cleverly left the door open for a follow up book.

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1 person found this helpful

One of the best Sci-fi stories I have ever read!

This is one of those brilliant stories that you just can’t put down, and you find yourself looking for excuses to go and pick the book up at any opportunity that you can. It is a combination Military Sci-fi/Space Opera, with former Lt. Commander in the Sovereign Coalition, Caspian Robeaux flying courier missions with his friend, and pilot, a rather quirky robot with an addiction for bad holodramas, called Box.
Cas once had a promising career with the Coalition Navy, but something happened and he made a decision that would not only impact his life, but those of others.
As a result, he ended up on the run and in the Sargan Commonwealth with Box, running courier missions for a Crime Lord called Veena.
The story is pretty good at this point already, with Cas’ sharp wit, and Box adding quick fire dialogue that makes you laugh so hard, you have to stop at times.
However, the Coalition is not done with Cas yet, and they send a rather fascinating woman after him, Evelyn Diazal, or Evie. Cas and Evie quickly fall into a rather interesting dynamic as neither can get a read on the other.
Without giving too much away, Cas reluctantly agrees to return to the Coalition with Evie to help them locate the last ship that Cas was working on, the ship that destroyed his life, his career, and sent him on the run, the Achlys.
I have to say that there are real elements to the Star Trek Next Gen episode here in which Wil Riker has a mysterious past and won’t reveal details about the accident that killed several crew, and the subsequent disappearance of the Pegasus, and a Star Fleet Mystery that remained unsolved until that episode. It was a brilliant episode, one of the best in the series, and that brilliance has can be seen here in Caspian’s Fortune.
There are so many angles at play in this book, you really don’t know if Cas is a traitor, or is he actually a true hero? Is his former Captain a Patriot, or a delusional Rogue, the same as in the Next Gen episode, willing to do whatever it takes to get a step up in technology, regardless of the cost to lives, and even if it breaks treaties with other alien races.
Evie is a bit of wild card, you are not sure if she will side with Cas, the Coalition, or do something else entirely.
Then there is the Captain of the Coalition ship that is in command of the operation, he is very much like Pickard, a true legend amongst the Coalition, known for being ethical, following the rules, but also being able to bend them when necessary.
The characters in this story are exceptional, they have such incredible depth, and the dialogue is so gritty and realistic.
I commented to a fellow reader how much I despised one of the characters, and the feelings I had towards this ‘imaginary’ person, and realised that the Author had created these feelings, and this just shows the quality of the character writing in this series (P.S. Everyone feels the same about this person)
Warren has created an amazing set of alien races to use within his books, it is fascinating reading about the different aliens and their cultures, their differences to humans, the creativity and depth in this writing is outstanding.
Just as outstanding is the technology. Warren, has covered all the bases for writing an extraordinary Sci-fi story, with fascinating aliens, clever and creative technology, and a stunning and exceptional world in which his characters can tell their story. Best of all, this is a powerful Character driven story, that will leave you totally engaged and wanting more.
This is a brilliant story of intrigue, politics and underlying it all, an arms race. The Sovereign Coalition realise that they do not have the firepower to stop those around them, the Sargan’s, the Sil, and other races, and thus, have devised means to try and level the playing field. And this is what this story is all about (without giving spoilers away!)
Warren is clever and intellectual writer, who creates intelligent and well thought out Characters with gritty, powerful dialogue that really captivate you as a reader. Box, the Artificial Intelligent Robot, is one of the most impressive A.I. characters that I have come across in any book in years, and he provides some moving, thought provoking and incredibly powerful scenes that will leave you thinking about artificial life forms for days to come.
Infinity’s End is a culmination of a multitude of different Sci-fi series, such as Firefly, Next Gen, a slew of different games and other books come to mind. It is obvious that Warren is well versed in Sci-Fi, and has done a lot of reading and research so that he can create this series, and it comes out in a masterful opening book to what is going to be a wonderful series and one not to be missed – get into it now, it is brilliant at every level!!
Larry Gorman is not bad as a Narrator, he reads well, is clear and concise, and you can understand everything he is saying. He does do a good set of Male and Female voices, you can clearly distinguish between the male and female voices without any issue. However, you can’t tell different characters, or it is a bit difficult to tell characters apart, especially female characters, they tend to sound the same, so without being told who is speaking, sometimes it is a bit hard to determine which character has spoken. This can be problematic with an audiobook, in a book, you can flick back up and determine who was talking, but with an audiobook, you can’t. However, this is a minor issue, and being very picky. He provided good feeling and emotion to the characters, which was great.
Overall, Gorman was quite good, and I would happily listen to him read other books.

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Story premise showed promise but ...

characters failed to live up to their backstory build-up. For one, Caspian, former Lt. Commander in the Sovereign Coalition, was shown to be an immature protagonist what with his constant yelling and temper tantrums and Evie lacked much backstory at all with her primary allure being her personality being as stoic as a Buddha statue and the robot AI with a Bennie Hill-like obsession was as interesting as a robot pet. It, too, had no real backstory other than that Caspian built it.

Larry Gorman narration was okay but too often came off like a book recital than a performance.

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1 person found this helpful

okay at best

Clunky writing and illogical actions make an otherwise interesting story a bit tedious. Reads a bit like a bad crime noir book but set in space. Characters are mostly shallow but I did enjoy the robot character - by far the best part of this book.

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