A Tangled Road to Justice

Paladins of Distant Suns, Book 1

By: Olan Thorensen

Narrated by: Scott Aiello

Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Sometimes, it's best to read the fine print.

When former soldier Everett Cole signed on to help colony planets prepare for joining the Federation, his employers were disconcertingly vague about their identity and his duties. Yet, the pay was good, and it got him off Earth and on the way to a fresh start. More reservations arose when, 11 light-years from Earth, he met his partner, Edgar Millen, an enigmatic man with a penchant for violent solutions and a fetish for the mythology and language of the American Wild West.

It wasn't until they reached the colony world of Astrild that the mission became somewhat clearer. They were players in multi-faceted efforts to steer colony worlds in preparation for joining the Federation. Unfortunately, not all obstacles were amenable to diplomatic, political, or economic solutions. Cole and Millen were agents, troubleshooters, hired guns—or whatever you wanted to call them—tasked with removing impediments to civilized law and order, the methodology left open-ended.

Millen and Cole's first mission to test their partnership? The backwater town of Justice was under the control of a strongman and his henchmen. All they had to do was convince the cowed citizens to rise against their tormentor. Formal authority and backup? None.

©2023 Olan Thorensen (P)2024 Podium Audio

The Magnificent Two on Exoplanet Astrild

This is a 2024 rewrite/new production of Olan Thorensen’s Sci-Fi western initially written/produced in 2019. It is a worthwhile improvement. The characters and situation descriptions are fleshed out more fully, and there is more witty/sarcastic ongoing commentary by Everett Cole and Edgar Millen. If you are well-versed in your movie/TV westerns from 1950’s onward (e.g., The Magnificent Seven, Sergio Leone’s Westerns, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Tombstone, Have Gun Will Travel, and Appaloosa) the scenes (and sound track) will be familiar. Just add faster than light travel, lasers, surveillance drones, hovercraft with 30mm chain guns, body armor, 3-D printer manufactories, and weird Permian-like megaflora. Regretfully, you also have to subtract Dana Delany, Renée Zellweger, and Katherine Ross. Our dynamic duo are professionals, and they don’t fraternize with the fair damsels except when on R and R or in the hospital.
This was a fun story, and the narrator does a great job with the various characters. It will be interesting to see if the follow-on stories maintain the quality and retain the outstanding narrator.

A good story is now with the rewrite fantastic.

I enjoyed the first release and was skeptical of the need for a rewrite but I was wrong. The new story has so much better character development and the story has a quirky flavor to it now that I am a fan of the decision to rewrite. The previous narrator was better but the new narrator isn’t bad by any means. He grows on you.

Big Improvement.

This New release makes you ready for the second book in the series that I’ve already ordered. I can now understand why Olan wanted to revise the 1st book.