Orion Audiobook By Ben Bova cover art

Orion

Orion Series, Book 1

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Orion

By: Ben Bova
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
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John O'Ryan is not a god...not exactly. He is an eternal warrior destined to combat the Dark Lord through all time for dominion of the Earth. Follow him, servant of a great race, as he battles his enemy down the halls of time, from the caves of our ancestors to the final confrontation under the hammer of nuclear annihilation.

Listen to more titles in the Orion series.©1984 Ben Bova (P)2010 Audible, Inc Adventure Anthologies & Short Stories Fiction Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction

Critic reviews

"Non-stop action and mind-bending concepts combine to make Orion absolutely unforgettable…. Ben Bova brings it to life on a canvas spread over time and space." (Isaac Asimov)
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The listen was decent, but not a great story. I do not agree with some of the other reviews about this being a masterpiece. It is an OK listen, but very predictable. The book is broken into several different stories about the main guy reverse time traveling. No big surprise along the way. Each story is about the same but there are slightly different details since they are in different time periods.

Don't want to give away much of the story, but it is pretty simple. The narrator did an OK job.

I do not understand the great reviews

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This is a good light read, that's easy to listen to while you work. I wouldn't call this hard sci fi, I'd call it borderline fantasy. The story has some nice plot twists and an interesting plot. There's nothing earth shattering here, just a good light read.

Good light read

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My second time through this book. It held up as well as the first time. To the readers who think most fantasy and sci-fi book are just to much into all the geek speak, and tech, this is a fine choice. It is a love story with a twist. And yes, it does fall into it's assigned genre. Great performance, and a fine listen.

A classic, and may well win non sci fi fans.

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This was a fun way to travel through history .. but I'm not sure if I would want more.

interesting and educational

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While I do not wish to spoil the story for others who may wish to read it I must say that if I had known that this was Dances With Wolves and Avatar dressed up in new clothes I would not have purchased it, even at the reduced $4.95 price.

The end, which was supposed to be a big surprise, seemed obvious to me long before the "revelation" and readers who are religious in nature should be warned that this story might not be for them. Overall I was disappointed. I need to stop buying books just because they are on sale ...

Disappointing

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For the most part kept my interest. Some good thought provoking ideas in here. Although I feel the ending was a bit of a cop out.

Had me till the end

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I found this story to be one of Bovas best.
Looking forward to following through more of the Orion series.

Orion

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Orion is man made more than a man, as he is given superhuman abilities to act as a warrior avatar in the conflict between one god, and another supposedly dark god Ahriman.

His life is lived as he is sent to various periods throughout time, and he quickly has to learn to live and adapt here, as well as overcome Ahriman's influence.

PS
Basically the first book has a finished a story, so it was a long time before I read the second book, but as i found out the second book is even better.

TRUE WARRIOR

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Maybe this book just hit me at the right time, but I had a lot of fun with this one. I think the testament of a good book is one that makes you crave for more. And I certainly will get the sequel to Orien.

This novel is about the creation of civilizations, Gods, and men in a journey through space and time. The protagonist, Orion, has been created in the form of a man and is warrior/hero for the human race. He also is not quite human. He has been given intelligence with the ability to process events faster (quicker reactions) and is able to control all his bodily functions. He can still die like normal men, but with the help of a God like being he rises time and time again with the purpose to save human kind from total destruction. Ahriman is Orien's nemesis whom he pursues across time to kill. Orien starts from the future and goes backwards in his encounters. Unlike Orien, Ahriman travels the normal direction of time plotting all the while the destruction of space time and the universe. The effect is that Orien does not know who he is and what he can do at the very beginning and becomes more knowledgable about his purpose every jump back in time.

The settings and landscapes will change as Orien goes back in time and we get to see a lot of different era's and technological capabilities of man. If you study history and like science fiction this series might be a fun fit. Time travel is always tricky to deal with and explain off. I felt Ben Bova did a great job keeping the reader engaged in the story and less with the mechanics. However, we do get some explanation that time is very fluid and events can change either direction in time you follow. The answers to questions like who is Ariman, why he wants to destroy the human race, and who/what Orien is are slowly answered throughout the tale with each era they travel. You may even find yourself thinking differently about Orien and his mission by the end of the novel.

Time Traveling Hero Battles Across Time

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It took me a chapter or two to get into Rudnicki's style, but once I got the hang of it I really started to like it.

The book, as a beginning of a series, has good points and bad points. Some of the action is great, some of the philosophical meanderings of the "gods" not so much. I'd probably have a go at the second book in the series, but I have almost a dozen other audio books lined up before it.

Better than a 3, not quite a 4

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