Governor Audiobook By Richard Fox, David Weber cover art

Governor

Ascent to Empire, Book 1

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Governor

By: Richard Fox, David Weber
Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
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For more than fifty years, the Terran Republic and the Terran League have been killing one another.

The death toll has climbed ever higher, year after year, with no end in sight. But the members of the Five Hundred, the social elite of the Republic's Heart Worlds, don't care.

Rear Admiral Terrence Murphy is a Heart Worlder. His family is part of the Five Hundred. His wife is the daughter of one of the Five Hundred's wealthiest, most powerful industrialists. His sons and his daughter can easily avoid military service, and political power is his for the taking. There is no end to how high he can rise in the Republic's power structure.

All he has to do is successfully complete a risk-free military "governorship" in the backwater Fringe System of New Dublin without rocking the boat. But the people sending him to New Dublin have miscalculated because Terrence Murphy is a man who believes in honor. He believes in duty—in common decency and responsibility. He believes there are dark and dangerous secrets behind the façade of what "everyone knows."

Terrence Murphy intends to meet those responsibilities, to unearth those secrets, and he doesn't much care what the Five Hundred want. He intends to put a stop to the killing.

Terrence Murphy is coming for whoever has orchestrated fifty-six years of bloodshed and slaughter, and Hell itself is coming with him.

©2021 Words of Weber, Inc. and Richard Fox (P)2024 Podium Audio Adventure Military Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction Heartfelt
Complex Universe • Engaging Characters • Political Intrigue • Military Strategy • Compelling Plot • Multiple Voices
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Typical Weber series, grab you from the beginning and just keep ramping up the story line until you can’t put it down. I completed this first book in-less than two days. Absolutely love it.

Another great series

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A nice military sci-fi that starts a little slow (introducing so many characters a bit too fast) but then evens out and has a fun story. Looking forward to the next one!

Slow start but fun

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the characters & the plot were well developed. Great story line. Looking forward to the next book.

excellent story

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The author creates an inspiring story that makes you feel for the "fringe". The author also creates well rounded characters that you may expect in a series like this, not some wacko, crazy character but relatable and likeable characters. I also applaud the author in his avoidance of sexual content or a ridiculous amounts of foul language. I would say its PG-13 which is just fine. Too many authors are substituting good writing with curse words and bedroom action.

Excellent character development and descriptions.

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I have read just about every novel that David Weber has published and this is certainly a good one. In it, Weber and Fox create a complex universe in which a corrupt Terran Republic government centered on earth is engaged in a sixty-year war with the corrupt Terran League government. The war has killed many millions of people and doesn't appear to be anywhere close to ending. That’s not a problem for the ruling oligarchy of the Federation whose 500 elite families profit mightily off the war—but others in both governments would like to see the bloodletting come to an end. Some of those want the end to come through negotiation and others through a dramatic increase in the violence and a purposeful targeting of civilians on a massive scale.

To further complicate matters, there is an intelligent and dangerous alien race in the picture whom the reader will immediately realize is trying to use the human civil strife to weaken both polities so that the aliens can emerge as dominant.

This is a great novel with a carefully balanced mix of politics and action. The most unsettling aspects for me was how the Republic's leadership viciously turns on the hero of the novel turning him into a traitor, because if they admitted he had saved the day they would have had to admit how badly they have administered the war. (This isn’t a spoiler. The next novel is titled Rebel.)

After spending a couple of decades in the Honorverse, It’s nice to see Weber developing a new, equally exciting, sf military series.

A Great New Series

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This is one of the most intriguing novels about military space combat and politics that I have read or listened too. 

Could not get enough

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I really enjoyed this story and generation was extraordinary. A perfect fit of topic, tale, and delivery.

Exceptional world-building, and a compelling story

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Started slow; lots of details I found to follow. The space was time and relative velocities. Where confusing, while trying to do other things while listening.
Once the characters were introduced, the plot started developing and I got into the characters.

Started slow. Got interesting.onen the main characters when introduced

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I did not like this story at first but I couldn't leave it alone. Now I want to start the next book asap.

addictive story

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Like many David Weber books, an editor should have chopped out some of the unnecessary content. There’s a lot more talking than doing when it comes to plot development but the worst part is the pages and pages of technical details about space missiles. Do you want to know how fast a fictional space missile can accelerate and turn in space? Well you’re going to hear about it. A lot.

The narrator is also one of those that whispers some character’s dialog which really hurts the listening experience for people who listen in a car with road noise. I feel like that’s something that shouldn’t still be happening in audiobooks.

Wordy

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