Into the Dark

Alexis Carew, Book 1

By: J.A. Sutherland

Narrated by: Elizabeth Klett

At 15, Alexis Carew has to face an age old problem - she's a girl, and only a boy can inherit the family's vast holdings. Her options are few. She must marry and watch a stranger run the lands, or become a penniless tenant and see the lands she so dearly loves sold off. Yet there may be another option, one that involves becoming a midshipman on a shorthanded spaceship with no other females.

©2014 J.A. Sutherland (P)2015 J.A. Sutherland

Space Opera that invokes Aubrey-Maturin series.

I received an Audible copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

The quaint English setting of this space adventure immediately invoked the setting of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series for me, which was a good start. The science side of the book is perhaps too much in the background and some of the characters feel like stereotypes. Having said that, I enjoyed listening to the book (narrator did a good job of voicing the protagonist) and I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

400+ Audio books. Sci fi and fantasy.

This is a five star book. Starting on the second in the series now ☺

Great main character wonderful voice actor!

I liked this book very much! I will be reading the next book in the series.

Sailing Spaceships - super cool!

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed this book. Its fast moving, interesting and not what I was expecting. But it’s definitely a fantasy so don't expect everything to make sense. You have to use your imagination and let the writer take you to those very unlikely places that as a kid you truly believed existed and could not wait to go there. Its fun and easy listening. I'm looking forward to the next book. The narrator, Elizabeth Klett, is one of my favorites and never disappoints with her outstanding performance.

Original take on a Royal navy adventure.

I wasn't sure what to make of this book when I got the credit from the author in return for an honest review. Well, what I got was a great adventure story set in space, but set like a wind and sail Royal Navy adventure. Alexis Carew is a 15 year old girl on a colony planet that has inheritance rules based on Male Primogeniture, meaning she can't inherit her grandfathers land or property, but has to be married so her husband can. After an especially bad meeting with a spoiled potential suitor, she decides to try and join the Royal Navy, which happens to have a recruiting party on the planet at the time. She is refused as an able spacer, since she is too young, but the ship's Captain decides to use his discretion and takes her on as a Midshipman. So starts her adventures and education on board an otherwise all male ship, with the many different challenges this entails, such as lack of privacy, not having uniforms made in her size, some resentful crew members and no background for naval training. She overcomes these challenges, and grows into her role as an officer in training as the ship deals with patrolling, combating pirates, and at the end of the book, preparing for a war. The book is well written, and while set in space, it reads as a sort of homage to books like Horatio Hornblower and Master and Commander. It has interesting technology, without getting too bogged down in the details. It is well paced, and I really enjoyed it. Elizabeth Klett did an exceptional job as narrator, keeping the action moving with a variety of different voices, tones and accents that kept me wanting to hear more. I would recommend this book for any fans of Master and Commander, as well as fans of Jack Campbell and H. Paul Honsinger.