The Broken Cage

Solstice 31 Saga, Book 2

By: Martin Wilsey

Narrated by: Andrew Tell

Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

The deep space survey ship Ventura entered orbit and was immediately destroyed. Commander James Worthington and his crew were flying escort when the savage attack hit. With his ship heavily damaged and half of his crew dead, Worthington finds refuge on the dark side of this planet's moon. Plagued with threats from all around, he finds his old friend, Barcus, and tries to bring the remaining survivors together as a team before time runs out.

This is the second installment of the Solstice 31 Saga.

©2015 Martin Wilsey (P)2016 Martin Wilsey

An amazing second installment

Wow! There is so much going on in this book it's difficult to give the review justice without going into verbose mode so I'll not do it full justice and keep my review somewhere between laconic and imprecise.

This installment finds additional members of the attacked starship Ventura and its sister ship Memphis. Most of this book creates new detailed and interesting story arcs for these new characters. Barcus, Po and the others in book 1 don't return to the scene until later in the book when all surviving crew members from both ships meet up to work on ways to escape the planet and and, hopefully, find their way back to earth.

To avoid any spoilers I will just say that this book is choc full of SciFi goodness, enough plot twists to create taffy and intrigue to keep one guessing (and enjoying) the story to the very end.

Book three is not yet available on Audible ... le sigh

Truly amazing

I loved the hanging fear you put above our heads up until the climax. Thank you.

More backstory and overlap with Book 1

The Broken Cage by Martin Wilsey is book 2 of the Solstice 31 Saga. In Book 1, a survey ship is destroyed as soon as it enters orbit around an inhabited planet and then followed the exploits of a sole survivor as he tries to stay alive and make sense of a human settled world with advanced technology, while the bulk of the population believes in magic and are subservient to their technocrat rulers known as "keepers." Rather than merely picking up where book 1 concluded, book 2 begins concurrent with book 1, but tracks other survivors of the initial attack, another sole survivor on planet and a small band in a smaller vessel trapped on the planet's moon. Eventually, the dispersed groups managed to hook up. Along the way, some of the mystery of the planet's origin is revealed as well as a larger, more complex plot against various specific elements within the military hierarchy. As with book 1, each chapter begins with a short excerpt from a future investigation into the incident and some, still vague and ill-defined catastrophe back on Earth subsequent to current events.

The AI and robotic themes are continued and dominate the sci-fi elements with rogue actions hinted at for some potentially malicious intent.The space flight and weaponry are standard fare. The larger ensemble cast this time out makes for a more complex and engaging tale, but the concurrent time period overlapping with book 1 can be a bit confusing at times.

The narration is well done, especially given the larger cast. Tone and mood are good, but the rendition is a bit on the slower side in line with the pacing of the story itself. Hopefully book 3 will shed sufficient light to explain the relationship between Solstice 31 and Earth.

You, really should not have done that.

Where does The Broken Cage rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Right at the top

What did you like best about this story?

Still falling and the broken cage would probably be better as one book. It would be a big book but the stories enter twine so much that you have to jump back and forth between them to keep up

What about Andrew Tell’s performance did you like?

His voice acting ability

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Someone is murdering ships, sending them to the waiting jaws of a fully automated planetary defense system that is shooting first and asking questions never. Someone sent the Deep Space Survey Ship Venture to die, and die she did. While the venture may have perished in nuclear fire and particle blasts, those blasts missed a few. Those few survivors are highly trained, extremely motivated, and supremely pissed off. Someone is going to answer for the venture, and they are going to answer for it very soon.

Any additional comments?

Keep writing man, Foreshadowing says that shits about to get real. Waiting on the next can of whoop ass to be cracked.

Awesome sequel

Great sequel to a great first book. Narration was wonderful can't wait for a third book!!!

Excellent book

This book continued where the previous book in the series, Still Falling, left off, after presenting the situation from another perspective. The story was engrossing, and although there was foreshadowing, there were still some twists that I didn't expect.

I listened to this book while commuting for a week or so, and every time I got to my destination, I ended up waiting until the chapter ended before getting out of the car.

The narrator, Andrew Tell, was pleasant to listen to. His voice reminded me of comedian Nick Offerman, at least at first. I would definitely listen to other books narrated by him.

I'm anxiously awaiting book 3 so I can find out what happens next, and see if my suspicions are correct!

The Broken Cage was awesome, a wow

Would you consider the audio edition of The Broken Cage to be better than the print version?

I love the audio edition

What other book might you compare The Broken Cage to and why?

Still Falling was good and this one is even better

What about Andrew Tell’s performance did you like?

Love Andrew and the way he reads books

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I listened to over a period of time, if I had time I would of done it in one sitting

Any additional comments?

I recommend this book to everyone who is following this series and can't wait for book three to find out what happens.

premise is that Liberals are going to kill everyone.

The book was adequate until I got to premise and wondered why I was listening to such a hate filled, angry and moronic book. My mistake.