Danger's Halo

Holly Danger, Book 1

By: Amanda Carlson

Narrated by: Emma Wilder

One hundred and fifty-three years in the future, Earth doesn't look much like it used to.

Holly Danger's current assignment, gleaned from a set of foggy instructions and a handful of coin stuffed into a slot, is to pick up a street kid who's about to terminate himself off a cliff. And, as a rule, she doesn't turn down currency. Her job as a salvager keeps her fed and clothed above the norm, which isn't saying much.

The norm in this city is a scrape-by existence in a post-apocalyptic world, where the rain never stops, food is always scarce, and the elite have deserted the ranks in search of something better. Picking up this urchin won't take much time, even if he's located outside city limits. Her craft is fast, her weapons deadly, and her tech has been optimized as well as it can be for a climate clogged with iron dust.

But things take a big turn when she decides to become the boy's guardian instead of hand him over. Outskirts have descended on the city, and their plans don't include playing nice. When her crew is backed against a graphene wall, it's a good thing her Gem is primed and ready to go. It's almost as deadly as she is....

©2017 Amanda Carlson, Inc. (P)2017 Amanda Carlson, Inc.

Amanda's post-apocalyptic sci-fi series debut!

Danger’s Halo heralds the exciting debut of author Amanda Carlson’s new post-apocalyptic science fiction series set one hundred fifty years into the future. I’m a huge fan of Amanda’s and have inhaled everything I’ve ever read by her. As far as I know, this is the first time she’s ever ventured into sci-fi – but, no worries, she clearly has it aced. This series revolves around a smart, strong and capable kickass heroine, Holly Danger, a talented salvager with trust issues in the futuristic world Amanda has created. Holly prefers to work alone, but she has a close-knit team populated by a colorful assortment of characters that provide backup when needed.

The bare bones scenario of the world is that life on planet earth has become a daily hazardous struggle after humanity was nearly destroyed by a meteor strike. Meager remaining resources are dwindling with every passing day. The future looks even bleaker. Power plays are the name of the game and the government that is left has no care for the survivors trying to eke out an existence.

As the story opens, Holly has been hired to track down and return a street kid to a mysterious client. The client has promised to pay with hard-to-come-by coin so this isn’t a job she wants to ignore. She easily finds him, but what should be a quick and easy job, swiftly becomes complicated when she sees herself at that age in him, and, in a spur of the moment decision uncharacteristic of Holly, offers to protect and sustain him for a year instead of turning him over to her client. Of course, this agreement is predicated on the kid’s decision not to end it all by jumping off the cliff he’s currently perched on. Thankfully, an agreement is reached and brave and vulnerable Daze becomes Holly’s responsibility for a year, setting off multiple repercussions - most notably placing Holly and her team squarely in the cross hairs of the powerful and influential client Holly stiffed by not returning Daze to him.

Please find a few of my favorite quotes from Danger’s Halo:

“Does everything you own stink?”
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“Daze was within a daze.”
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“Darby, stop fondling my batteries.”

This is not a romance. If you are looking for a romance, look elsewhere… though that may change further into the series as a character is introduced herein who may evolve into that. I hope so, but it’s way too early to tell.

Emma Wilder provides the excellent narration for Danger’s Halo. I’ve never listened to her previously, but I thoroughly enjoyed this audio edition. Her voice is crystal clear and easy to understand from the get-go. Her pacing is spot-on and she exudes the expected emotions. Her character voices seem appropriate for each persona and they are consistent throughout. The result is a polished performance and pure listening pleasure. I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up another audio by her based on this experience.

This opening salvo was an intriguing, fast-paced. non-stop adventure teeming with suspense and danger. The story line hooked my attention from the get-go and didn’t let up until the very end, keeping me on the edge of my seat for much of the ride. I really enjoyed this first installment and can’t wait to see where Amanda is going to take these characters and this series next. If you enjoy futuristic adventures with amazing characters, strap yourself into Holly’s craft which she named “Luce” and hang on!

I am all about strong female lead characters

Danger's Halo: Holly Danger, Book 1 4 Stars
By: Amanda Carlson Narrated by: Emma Wilder
I love Holly! I am all about strong female lead characters and Holly is the epitome of just that. She’s a futuristic intelligent, technological, independent, confident, bad ass woman, with a heart. The futuristic world is dangerous, and most spend their days just trying to survive, but Holly spends her days scavenging for anything useful to her team, and finds herself accidentally helping others in the process. I love how this trilogy begins. It can also serve as a read alone with no issue, but I really want to read book 2 now. Overall, Danger’s Halo is a huge 4 star book.

Excellent, Exciting Story

I received this audiobook free for an honest review. So glad I asked for this book. I love a strong female like Holly. She has a tender heart, a quick mind, and a strong body. I'm not a big post apocalyptic person, but this is a great story. The author did an excellent job of keeping you on the edge and keeping your attention. The narrator was excellent as well. She did a great job with distinguishing each of the characters and bringing out their personalities with her voice. Amanda developed the plot and the characters with such depth that you really couldn't guess where the story was going. Looking forward to future books in this series and by this author.

Brilliant!!!

Really enjoyed this book, the first in a new series! It was interesting and kept me engaged, a dystopian future where a meteor hit earth making all the animals extinct and leaving the world quite literally a dark place because of the iron rain and the fact the sun cannot break through the cloud cover, making it hard to sustain life.

I loved the main characters and how they managed to survive, there is a very interesting plot which has begun in this book that I cannot wait for the next books to see how it progresses

Exciting

slow to start with the descriptive aircraft stuff. after that it picks up. great first book and narrator did a good job. look forward to the next one in the series. I was given a free preview copy of this audiobook and I am leaving a voluntary review.

A dangerous time and place

I kind of fell into this book backwards. I actually got book 4 first, and now I am backtracking. I enjoyed 4 immensely, but I didn't really have much of an idea of who the characters were supposed to be , after all they were already established and had some character growth by the time I got into the story.

So, now I've finished the first novel, and I am sorry I missed out on the other 2 books. I have always enjoyed apocolyptic movies, games, books, and tv shows; done right and the setting can sell a story. Done poorly, and it doesn't matter how great your characters are the tale will suffer.

Carlson finds her niche in the Danger books. The world is dark and dangerous, the characters are fun to hangout with, and the action is exciting as holding back a rampaging bull with a red towel. As first books in a series goes this clearly set the table for a larger story, and it does so magnificently.

Wilder makes a dark world all the brighter with her vocalizations. She conveys every emotion, and drives home the danger when it looms. I respect her story telling style a great deal, and I always say that a good narrator will elevate a tale. She certainly does so here, their pair is a symbiotic relationship, each help0s the other. One with amazing writing, and the other bringing that writing to life.

This is a fine series for action fans, apocolypse fans, or books with powerful female leads. Just a warning, reading this book will cause you to crave more!

A Left at the Door Review by Liadan of Danger's Ha

An impressive entrance into Sci-fi and Dystopia. Danger's Halo was a book I didn't want to put down. It sucked me into the world and held you firm. The characters were well developed and the twists and turns were around every corner. Holly Danger was a fantastic lead character and a female who didn't need a romantic interest to stand on her own two feet. I can't wait to find out more about the team, and what happens after the events. Book 2 can't come fast enough. The narrator was fantastic and the quality of the audiobook was amazing. A must read for any Sci-fi or Dystopia fan.

Interesting world building

In the near future a meteorite has stricken and caused grave destruction. The few people left try to survive scavenging what they can. Holly Danger is one of these scavengers, one of the best. She also runs errands for some people, and the last assignment is picking up a boy. Instead of giving him up she decides to take care of him, but the outskirts have worse intentions than what she thought at first.

This is a good post-apocalyptic book. We are presented with an almost destroyed city and people trying to survive in it. The world building was interesting, showing us things little by little. My guess is that there will be a lot more to be discovered in future books. The story starts quite slowly, and it only starts to pick up towards the end. There is a lot of explaining about how things are and how the world works. The book is written in first person, from the Holly’s point of view, so we just know what she knows and sees. Something I really enjoy from post-apocalyptic stories is discovering this “new” world and trying to guess what happened to end up like this.

I enjoyed the characters and their respective personalities. Holly is a kick ass scavenger with a great knowledge about technology and resourceful skills. The descriptions were vivid, and I loved how they used the “old” technology, which was futuristic according to nowadays standards.

Emma Wilder’s narration was just perfect. She gave distinctive voices to all the characters in the story, and her compelling tone kept things interesting. Wilder is one of those narrators that provide a seamless experience to the audiobook listening, enhancing at the same time the end product. The audio production was also top notch.

It is clear that this is the first book in the series, there is a lot of explaining and character introduction. I am looking forward to the next books in the series.

I received a copy of this book in audio format from the narrator in exchange for an honest review.

Solid first in series

This was a very solid first book in a series. I really liked that there was none of the usual “info dump” that can come with science fiction and post-apocalyptic novels. Instead, background information was given at appropriate times during the story. No, we didn’t get a full story on what happened to Earth, but I was OK with that and getting details piecemeal felt more natural. The author threw a couple of curve balls into the plot that I was definitely not expecting, so kudos to her for that. It definitely kept me on my toes and added some extra dimension to the story.

Holly is a strong character with a hidden soft spot. While we didn’t learn much about her “family”, the characters have a lot of potential. I hope we get to know them better in upcoming books in the series. The book does NOT end with a cliffhanger, so no need to worry about that, though there is a nice lead-in to what might be happening in future books.

The audiobook was ably narrated by Emma Wilder. She does a good job with various voices. The book is definitely worth the Audible credit, in my opinion.

Love this author and narrator!

I don't think there's been a single Amanda Carlson book that I haven't loved! This is another one to add to that group of great unique stories. Having Emma Wilder as the narrator (one of my female narrators) was also a plus. She does an amazing job with the character voices and similar to Ms. Carlson, I've never had an issue with Ms. Wilder's narrating skills.

This was such a different kind of story that had my attention from the get-go. I can't wait for book 2!