A Measure of Resolve

By: Ralph Kern

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The Imperial Navy's relentless expansion has crushed the Federation at Azure Anchorage and Rise Starbase, leaving only Centerpoint—their last strategic stronghold—standing against annihilation.

Admiral Ikson Koto commands the Empire's most devastating strike force, four massive carriers bristling with elite pilots.

Against him stands Admiral Gabriel Lester's battered fleet, outnumbered and outgunned but refusing to yield.

Lieutenant Shannon Reeve carries a burning need for vengeance. The brutal execution of her lover has forged her into something deadly—a Thunderhawk pilot willing to fly straight into hell itself to make the Empire pay.

The future of humanity hangs in the balance, written in blood and twisted metal. In the void, there are no second chances—only the measure of one's resolve when everything depends on a desperate charge into the enemy's guns.

From the ravaged decks of dying carriers to the cramped cockpits of fighters weaving through walls of fire, ordinary people must find extraordinary courage. A Measure of Resolve is an epic science fiction retelling of the Battle of Midway.

WARNING! This is Book 6 of The Great War series!

This review is probably colored by the fact that I just spent 14 hours listening to book 6 in the series without having listened to books 1–5. Nowhere on the book’s info page does it say this is part of a series, and the narrator doesn’t inform the listener that this is book 6 either. Well—except for the very last sentence: “The end of book 6 of The Great War, this title was narrated by virtual voice.”

Like, WTF? So I did a search, and sure enough, this is a series called The Great War, and it has six books. Amazon even lists it as a 6‑book series for Kindle. I looked at book 5, and it’s the same situation as book 6—apparently standalone. Searching for book 1, A Rain of Fire, shows that it’s part of The Great War series, but opening that page only lists the first four books. The first four were narrated by Jeffrey Kafer, and it seems like the two books narrated by Virtual Voice have been kept out of the series listing.

Since I’m already writing, I might as well review the audiobook itself, starting with the narrator, Mr. Virtual Voice. I was a little skeptical, and I still am. It’s not bad—not at all. In fact, the clarity of the voice is actually superior to most human narrators, and most of the time I wouldn’t be able to tell it’s a Virtual Voice. But it has drawbacks. It’s flat, and it doesn’t interpret what it reads the way a human would—no subtle shifts depending on who’s speaking, no emotional cues. It also often misses the pitching. You can say the exact same sentence, but the pitch and where you put emphasis changes the meaning. For example, “I got the føkking job” could mean someone literally got a job where they’re supposed to føkk someone, or it could just be an expression. Well, in this book, people apparently work as prostitutes and in general do a lot of føkking. But overall, while I still prefer good human narrators—who are in short supply—I’m not as put off by Virtual Voice anymore, and it’ll probably replace humans in the near future as AI improves. Bad for those making a living recording audiobooks, but availability will probably be less of an issue going forward.

As for the story, it was obviously an abrupt start, with several references to what I assume are events from the first five books. But not enough to make it unusual—it’s not the first book where you’re dropped into a storyline already in progress, and references to past incidents often work as character motivation even when vague, so I didn’t think much of it.

The story describes war in space in an okay way. It establishes a set of laws (of nature and technology) defining the boundaries of space warfare and sticks to them, which I appreciate. However, the story wasn’t very engaging. It describes the action, but it doesn’t build much on character development. We get a few descriptions of the main characters’ pasts, giving a little sense of who they are, but not much. And beyond guessing the arc from their past to the present, there isn’t much development. This meant I didn’t really care all that much about them either.

While the book lasted 14 hours, I didn’t feel like much of a story developed. Besides a few mentions of a deep‑strike and infiltration mission, and some politics, most of the time is spent on a ship or in a cockpit. And even after 14 hours of space warfare, there wasn’t much progress either way. In fact, even though things happen on the micro scale, I don’t think anything significant happened or changed at all on the macro scale during this book.