Imperial Mercenary

Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire, Book 3

By: Andrew Moriarty

Narrated by: Christopher Grove

Vive la Revolution! None shall pass! Or get paid.

Dirk Friedel used to be an Imperial Duke, now he's a washed up freighter captain. When a shady broker offers him easy money to steal some obsolete cargo and transport it off-planet, he and his crew of amateur thieves jump at the chance. Who'll miss a few crates of worthless supplies and some broken down trucks?

But when the supplies turn out to be something more than imagined, they end up dodging the Imperial navy and enlisting as unwilling mercenaries in civil war. With no idea who they can trust, or who is really on their side, can they beat the odds and collect a payoff before the empire gets involved, or will they become collateral damage?

If you like Galactic Empires, honorable enemies, and snappy dialog, this one's for you.

©2023 Andrew Moriarty (P)2024 Tantor

Fantastic, original & fun.

I just learned of this series and I cannot get enough. The story is fun, original and a true ride. You'll be doing chores to have an excuse to keep listening.

Fabulous story again!

Great story again, but a couple of errors set my teeth on edge. Make that 3 - because cliffhangers can really annoy me. Not usually, only once in a while.

The first on my pet peeves about the writing and EDITING of this book is the confusion of the personal pronouns “I” “me” “she” “her”, etc. For example: Him and me went to the store. (I won’t get into “me and him”.) If you take him out of the picture, you get: me go to the store. Me Tarzan. Of course, the same problem also exists when the pronouns are used as subjects: She gave he and I the apple. Would you say: She gave I the apple? Or, she gave he the apple when him went to the store?

The third pet peeve I have here (I’ve got a list of the things I consider a sign of poor editing.). Actually, this is a physiological reaction that most people believe and they’re wrong. When a person has been given an opioid, muscle relaxant or sleep medicine, their pupils don’t get large. They get very very small. This is what it looks like when the iris muscle is relaxed. If you give someone speed, cocaine, etc., the iris contracts and their pupils can get so large you might think that person has no iris at all.

Sorry to come down on such a talented writer - who brings so much delight to me and many others. These are co great reads and I hope the next installment is as gripping as the ones I’ve read so far.

DNR: Ana (probably): "Where's my money, man?"

There is no rest for the wicked. Living from pay-day to pay-day, supposedly, protagonists take on a risky delivery to a planet engulfed in civil unrest. Independent planet where political parties are backed by mayor powers in geographical proximity, protagonists find themselves employed by the only power somewhat lenient towards the Empire. The coincidences keep piling on.

Splitting the party is rarely advisable and Imperial Mercenary upholds the pattern. The protagonists spend more time separated and showing another side to their individual specialist roles. The betrayal by the political factions ties in larger series' plot of decline and fall of the galactic empire. A fringe world engulfed in civil unrest, different factions acting as proxies for the neighboring galactic powers and the empire gets sidelined.

Didn't the protagonists crew get a huge pay off after selling supposedly top secret warship specification documents in book #2 " Imperial Smuggler"? How come the ship is the same ship and as bare bones as before? Assuming mercenaries split, as in book #1, original crew members get 2 shares and Dina gets one share, plus, it was mentioned after first booty's division that some share would be reserved for ship needs, where has the huge pay off money gone? Even the 10% platinum cash upfront payment received when the pilot was exchanged for the documents should be enough for some mention in the text.

Conclusion: 2/5. Listened on Audible 1 credit. Narrated by: Christopher Grove. I hope I missed something, as there is an inconsistency between a major payoff in the ending of book #2 and pauper nature of the protagonist cast in the beginning of book #3. Else, this is a huge inconsistency. Will reread the book #2 and #3 later. At the current moment, looking to drop the series because of this. Terrible value for the length of the book - 1.76 $/hour ( 20.99 $ / 11 hrs 55 mins ).

Values:
Terrible: >1.66 $/hour
Bad: 1 - 1.66 $/hour
Good: <1 $/hour
Dream: 0.4 - 0.27 $/hour

Stars:
1 - Not worth the resources to reproduce/preserve this title.
2 -Bad
3 -Good
4 - Personally, love it
5 - Recommended to everyone