Reality Check

The Empire's Corps, Book 7

By: Christopher G. Nuttall

Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer

Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

None of them wanted to leave Earth. It might have been nightmarish, but it was all they knew.

Gary wanted to concentrate on his exams in hopes of leaving the CityBlock and its bullies far behind. Kailee wanted to become an actress. Darrin merely wanted to live. But when the three teenagers win a competition, they find themselves taking the trip of a lifetime, a voyage to a colony world where they can see how the colonists live.

Meridian is very different from the dark and dismal CityBlock, a place where they can make a new beginning. But it also houses dangers, dangers that their education on Earth didn't even begin to prepare them to face, dangers governed by the cold equations of survival. And when disaster strikes, they find themselves forced to fight for their lives - or die, alone and unloved, thousands of light years from home.

©2014 Christopher G. Nuttall (P)2015 Podium Publishing

A political rant with a very thin story arc

This is the worst in an otherwise generally readable series. In terms of the story in the series, this has only the most very loose ties to the overall storyline, and the only mention of previous unresolved plot lines is in the prologue and then again in the epilogue -- as if to promise us that he'll eventually get back to the story when he's done ranting.

In this installment, Nuttall returns to the writing style of his much earlier books, in which a thin story arc is used as an excuse to write page after page describing all the worst aspects of living in the sort of nightmarish world of central management and socialist policies that libertarian extremists tend to warn us about. Not ten minutes goes by during the entire book where this political rant isn't refreshed. Eventually, a lucky few get dragged out of their socialist dystopia and and landed on an idealized colony run the way a 15 year old interpretation of Ayn Rand's "John Galt" might fantasize. The colony is a place where honor and personal responsibility are enough to keep a modern society going without a need for courts, problems are immediately solved with corporal punishment, and every sane person walks around armed all the time so they can enforce their own moral law. There are fully justified cases of parents spanking or thrashing their kids for misbehavior -- and I'm not talking about 5 year olds, we're talking about a late-teenage boy that is spanked by a parent hard enough to be sore for a couple of days -- and a case where a "bad kid" is turned into a "good kid" by means of a public lashing (being literally whipped in a public square). I'm increasingly convinced the author is not entirely sane.

If you're a 15 year old libertarian that's just finished reading "Atlas Shrugged" and spends his time arguing that the 2nd Amendment (in the U.S.) is the only part of the Constitution that matters, you'll love this book. Otherwise, the only reason to pick it up is to keep going with the series and frankly, you could skip this one and not miss a single step forward in the ongoing story arc.

Reality check for Mr. Nuttal... This story sucked

What did you like best about Reality Check? What did you like least?

The narration was up to its usual quality.
The story line didn't impress me. I am use to the characters making a huge difference on a cosmic level, but not this time.

What do you think your next listen will be?

The Empire's Corps, Book 8. Hopefully that one will be a better read than this one.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The performance was good, and there was not much not to like.

Do you think Reality Check needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Yes it needs a followup book to hopefully wash away the sour taste that it left in my mouth,

Not a nice story, not really

I have been enjoying the series, and really like the previous volume, The Outcast (The Trader Queen), and had high hopes for this one too. But, even though it is well written, I did not like how events unfolded. I was doubtful at first when 4 students from the same school are chosen by "contest" for this vacation on a colony world. I get that it's a find-your-true-self, coming-of-age story, but it is not a nice story. It is not one I would ever want to read again because of the several awful people, the total fraudulent set up, the many deaths, the deaths of random innocents just to force certain characters together, and the events that transpired. I didn't even like the wholesome good guys. The "justice" wasn't even satisfying, and a bit too late. Just sort of skipped over the lasting effects of those events, didn't you, Mr. Nuttall.

This is a morality play on today's youth, the American education system, the Welfare system, entitlement, wacko survivalists, total ignorance of how things work, politicians who keep the country careening into destruction. We already got that from the other books.

If you like the series, you can give this one a skip, and wait for another one about Stocker's Stalkers.

What happened!!??

Would you try another book from Christopher G. Nuttall and/or Jeffrey Kafer?

Yes

What could Christopher G. Nuttall have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Not made the first several chapters so boring

Any additional comments?

I do not understand what happened to this series. I could not continue listening to the soap opera style story line of this book. Maybe the book would have gotten better but the first several chapters put me to sleep.

Nothing like the other books

Do yourself a favor and skip this one it's nothing like the other books in the series. It goes on and on about the now defunct education system on earth that was destroyed. Made it through 6 chapters before giving up. Quite boring and unlike the other books.

Different

Definitely a different pace then other books in the series. What's really concerning though is the education system of the empire is similar to the direction the American education system is going....with the larger concern being over rights and not responsibility. Balance of both rights and responsibility is key.

Impressive

This book is a bit different than others in the series to date. The story focuses on three teenagers: Gary who wants to finish his examination and get away from some bullies, Kailee wants to be an actress and Darrin just wants to live. The three of them enter a competition and win a trip to Meridian, a colony world. The goal of the trip is to learn about the colonist.

Nuttall provides us with a view of the collapsing Empire’s school system or should I say dysfunctional school system. The three teenagers are ignorant in basic learning but also in common sense. Then disaster strikes, the plane taking them to see the farms crashes and they are forced to fight for their survival. The author provides us with lots of suspense and action along with an inside view of teenagers. Jeffrey Kafer narrates the story.

It's an okay book.

You have to be willing to look past the Fox News style narrative away the beginning of each chapter. The author seems to write from an ultra right conservative narrative. I'm not sure whether he is a conservative politically and writing from that point of view or if he means for his characters and the narrative of the book to seem to have c9nserb.c ative/libertarian pov.
The constant berating of people gets very old very quick though.

Deep

This has been one of the harder books for me to listen to in this series. Mostly because I cannot imagine being these teens. I had to keep reminding myself that if I had had the same upbringing this would be how I would think.

Looking at the overall theme for this it is rather sad to realize that Christopher Nuttall has taken the darker aspects Of our society today and expanded on where these are going to take us if left to fester. I was waiting to see how this book would tie in to the rest of the series. I look forward to continuing.

Overall good book but .........

I like the character developement. Great story line but seemed out of place for this series. Just not in keeping to the same vantage point.