Merkiaari Wars Series

Books 1-3

By: Mark E. Cooper

Narrated by: Mikael Naramore

Humanity has been ravaged by alien war. Will the next encounter spell the end of mankind?

Sixteen billion people died in the last alien invasion of the Alliance's colony worlds. When survey ship Captain Jeff Colgan discovers a new alien race, he's required to investigate. But what if the life form is as deadly as the Merkiaari?

As the aliens discover Colgan's ship and begin to hunt him down, the captain's mission changes from one of study to one of survival. Nanotechnology was all that kept humanity afloat in their brutal war against the Merkiaari, and it led directly to the creation of vipers, a regiment of cyborg super soldiers tasked with protecting the Alliance. When Gunnery Sergeant Gina Fuentez finds one of the fabled viper cyborgs in a terrorist camp during a mission, her squad comes under attack. Two members of her squad are dead, and she'll face the same fate if she can't escape the ensuing firefight.

General Burgton's self-imposed mission is to safeguard the alliance from future Merkiaari attacks. As the black missions Burgton authorizes begin to fail, he spends trillions of dollars on a forbidden solution: artificial intelligence. When the project collapses, Burgton compounds his crime. If he can't build an A.I., he'll just have to steal one!

©2007, 2013 Mark E. Cooper (P)2015 Mark E. Cooper

loved it.

it is a very engrossing story and delivery. Very nice character development.
I highly, highly recommend this book(s).

A long yet mostly enjoyable listen

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com.

200 years after the long spanning war with the Merkiaari (an evil alien race that seem to kill without reason or distinction), Captain Colgan discovers a new race of cat-like people called the Shan. The decision is made to initiate first contact and a team of specialists is sent over. But are the Shan friendly, or will a new war ensue?

This is a compilation of the first three books from the Merkiaari Wars series and without spoiling too much, the first book deals with first contact with the Shan, the second book with war and the last book is a bit of the aftermath and a salvage mission.
The focus of the story keeps shifting between several protagonists allowing us to experience their viewpoints (including several alien ones).

While each book is self contained none of them wrap up the story (not even the 3rd book), making you want to keep going to the next in the series.

The story told is very interesting and mostly enjoyable. My main gripe is about the pacing, at times the story felt riddled with details and the plot slowed to a crawl, on other times I felt the story derailed completely and wished it would get back on track. In my opinion shortening the books a bit could have helped here (since sometimes less is more).

The narration by Mikael Naramore is nothing short of excellent, his voice is clear and he adds some effects when narrating the computer dialogue which I thought was a nice touch. He acts out the book which is something I personally enjoy immensly.

To summarize - An enjoyable story despite some pacing issues, still very much recommended.

Sci-fi at it's best

I loved books 1-3. Book 1 started out pretty good and the story continued to get better and better. I found it hard to stop listening to at the end of my day. Looking forward to book 4 now and eventually book 5. I'd definitely listen to other stories by this author. The narrator did a fantastic job as well with all the different voices! Excellent series!

a lot of all-nighters

Second time I listened to this so diverse and awesome.
lost whay to much sleep 😁

decent

military sci Fi. I'm just not a huge fan of the genre. reader was excellent. computerized voice was a nice touch. author repeated himself near the end like it was rushed.