Silent Songs

StarBridge, Book 5

By: A. C. Crispin, Kathleen O'Malley

Narrated by: Romy Nordlinger

Return to Trinity where Earth had first discovered intelligent life that allowed them admittance into the Cooperative League of Systems. Through friendship and understanding the men and women of StarBridge are forming bonds with the natives. In the skies of Trinity, the birdlike Grus welcome the deaf human ambassador, Tesa. In the seas of Trinity, the aquatic Singers communicate with the young StarBridge student, Jib. But on the surface of Trinity, an alien life form has landed, and these amphibious beings from a distant world are definitely not friendly.

©1994, 2012 A. C. Crispin, Kathleen O'Malley (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

raykaral

good but not as good as first book. will listen to the complete series 7 books.

Story is great- storyteller... not so much

If you can’t do an accent- then don’t... the Aussie/Kiwi accent is atrocious. I cringed every time she attempted it. Unfortunately the character features prominently.

Excellent

Again, this series is fabulous. This book was hard to listen to because of the violence, but it was well worth the listen. Great story, great narration, and a worthy plot.

Series Review: I see a pattern here and it’s really overused....

Crispin sets up a great series in the first book, with an opportunity to explore & discover alien worlds and cultures. If you notice Crispin partners with other authors in this series. I’m probably wrong in this but by book 5, I get the sense Crispin asked, “here’s my pitch, who wants to write a book with me?!!?” 4 or 5 people volunteer to partner and jump on the project. “Pick an aboriginal or ancient society. Now pick an animal and mash them together! Voila! An alien race!” Aren’t there board games that do that?

Problem is they put too much of said culture into the alien race, so it’s not so alien anymore... just X culture that looks like birds, or whatever. I’m on book 6... and it’s Egypt in space: stone monuments and sarcophagi, which would be fine if the book didn’t make 3 references to Egypt by mid-second chapter. I get it... we’re doing ancient Egypt from 5000 years ago... Oh... the alien tombs are also 5000 years old...? can’t the alien society be like 100,000 years older or so? If you’re going to rip off a culture, don’t take so much of it, and please don’t tell me where you’re ripping it off from. At least combine characteristics from 3-4 earth cultures, add 2 splashes of something original... of course the protagonists are going to be earthlings from said ripped off culture... all this is going thru my mind from the first 5 books, and I’m starting to hate that my OCD is gonna want me to complete the series. I hate more that I’m dreading going thru book 6 and I’m only on the chapter 2...

Here’s to crossing my fingers the rest of the series isn’t as formulaic as I’m expecting it to be...