Ardulum: First Don (Volume 1)

By: J. S. Fields

Narrated by: Lynn Norris

Ardulum. The planet that vanishes. The planet that sleeps.

Neek makes a living piloting the dilapidated tramp transport Mercy’s Pledge and smuggling questionable goods across systems blessed with peace and prosperity. She gets by - but only just. In her dreams, she is still haunted by thoughts of Ardulum, the traveling planet that long ago visited her homeworld. The Ardulans brought with them agriculture, art, interstellar technology...and then disappeared without a trace, leaving Neek’s people to worship them as gods.

Neek does not believe - and has paid dearly for it with an exile from her home for her heretical views. Yet when the crew stumbles into an armed confrontation between the sheriffs of the Charted Systems and an unknown species, fate deals Neek an unexpected hand in the form of a slave girl - a child whose ability to telepathically manipulate cellulose is reminiscent of that of an Ardulan god. Forced to reconcile her beliefs, Neek chooses to protect her, but is the child the key to her salvation, or will she lead them all to their deaths?

©2017 J.S. Fields (P)2018 J.S. Fields

Great Scifi fantasy

While the story was a bit slow to unfold it was a goid story with interesting characters. I hoped to keep listening. Sequel?

Great Beginning To Epic Space Opera

This creative, unique and fun space opera is well worth your time. And if you love a series that goes on for a couple of books then this one is a great addition to your colleciton

A whole new sci-go experience!

I tend to stay firmly planted in the romance genres, but sci-fi was my first love, even as a child. Lots of novels in this genre have a tendency to stick to humans or humanoid aliens that really have no differences from us other than their homeworld, but Fields had no such notions here! Sure, Neek May have been humanoid herself, but the accompany stook (I’m sorry I don’t know the spelling of that) and telepathy set her and her people aside from normal. Every other alien species mentioned was unlike any I’d read of before too! Right away I knew I was in for a creative novel.

I was very impressed with the real science used in Ardulum. I was caught somewhere between “man where did they come up with this” and “I think I’m actually learning something”, but I say that in the best way. As another reviewer said, it was accessible science, which added that much more to the story. They even went so far as to describe the inner workings of certain injuries, which told me the research that went into making the book believable.

Details like those aside, I appreciated the clear plot. It never dragged or left me skipping sections, and any sudden twists were just unexpected enough to have me wanting to hear another chapter. I loved Neek’s come-at-me attitude, though I’ll admit I’m still a little lost about her past and what /exactly/ happened that led to her getting the boot from Neek.

Now, I’m trying not to give away any spoilers not in the “dust jacket” of the book, so I’ll move onto narration. Lynn Norris. That woman made my ears fall in love with her from the first word, and I’ll likely look into listening any book she narrates until there aren’t any more. She offers such a variety of tones, accents, inflections, emotions, and just pure talent when it comes to narrating, I’ve contemplated writing myself just to have her narrate.

I was given a copy of this book for review, but all views are my own!

Complex and thoughtful

If the story hadn't kept me listening the narration would have. It was a fun, suspenseful, and thought provoking journey wrapped up in a wildly creative package. I absolutely loved it.

Wow just Wow!

This book is awesome! I felt as if I was in the book living through the experiences of the characters. The author has a great imagination and a way of telling a story that I found wonderful.
The narrator does an excellent job of distinguishing between the characters.
I can’t wait for the next book in the series to come out to find out what happens. I highly recommend this book!