Homeworld Lost

By: J.N. Chaney, Scott Moon

Narrated by: Neill Thorne

Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

During a test flight for the world’s first warp engine, Major Noah Gantz is set to go down in the history books.

Despite years of training, the mission goes sideways, and instead of a quick trip to the moon and back, Noah's ship is transported across the universe to stars unknown.

Stranded in space and on the brink of death, Noah is rescued by a sentient starship and its captain. To save his life, the ship’s own biomatter must replace his failing cells.

Now, Noah is different. Stronger, faster...and there’s a voice in his head.

The voice of the ship itself, and its name is Kayan.

With no way to return home, Noah must adapt and rebuild his life in this unfamiliar corner of the universe. And as he does, he discovers a looming threat in the far reaches of space, growing in power, and set on capturing Noah and his ship.

Worse still, this new enemy knows about Earth...and it has big plans.

©2023 Variant Publications (P)2023 Variant Publications

the cowardly pilot

the plot and storyline are indeed interesting. this is much like the TV show Farscape, with quasi-similar characters, though the "titan lord" character is very interesting. the only annoying thing, that distracted from the experience, is the human pilot who demonstrates a cowardly approach toward enemies that are intent on killing him and the crew of the living spaceship. this is not characteristic of typical military leadership in the real world. I'll continue on to the next book because the remaining characters are interesting and I'm interested in how they "flesh-out," so-to-speak. hopefully the main character becomes a little less squeamish.

reminds me if farscape

so far loving it.. I plan on listening to more. Description of the personalities of everyone is interesting. I like a hero who's lucky as well as clever.

Great story but starts slow.

From many of the negative reviews i am seeing it seems that many people couldn’t finish the book. Yes the start is pretty slow but it starts to really get going about half way through the book. The entire plot for the story isn’t revealed until almost the end so for those of you teetering just keep with it, it will all make sense in the end.

Very good story!

Enjoyed the writing and narration. Few spots throughout I found to be somewhat “A-Teamish” if that’s a word of description. Can’t wait for the next part.

Unlikeable MC Ruined it for me

Fair warning: Some examples may be used from story, so spoiler warning.

I’ve tried everything in my power to finish this story.

If you’re a FarScape fan, or know enough about that show to know the basics, then imagine if you will a superficial retelling of FarScape where the Crichton character somehow manages to become quasi-Pilot when he first arrives on Moya. In so many ways, that’s what this is, at least, the bulk of the beginning and the opening premise is obviously heavily inspired by FarScape. It’s not a bad thing, and to be fair, I initially planned to defend the authors against fellow FarScape fans or simply those in the know accusing them of ripping off the show. I’ll still do some defense on the authors’ behalf. Let’s face it people, there’s nothing new in story telling and FarScape, although it took a unique spin on the tropes, didn’t create anything out of nothing. All the tropes FarScape used have been done before so even those imaginative creators were inspired by stuff like Lost in Space, which in and of itself has become a trope. So much so, there are plenty of space opera stories that start with an astronaut from Earth or a group of astronauts from Earth or random people getting lost in space somehow, often by way of a malfunctioning space craft. Look, I get it, the obvious things are there, I won’t deny that, which is why I say it’s heavily inspired by FarScape….and that’s not a bad thing….until it is.

Leading me to my criticism.

Sometimes what works in visual media doesn’t work in written media. Sometimes that’s worse so when the story is locked in first person POV and the MC is severely unlikable. That’s the main problem with Homeworld Lost. The MC is unlikable. Sure, there are some who will not be turned off by this MC as evidenced by the positive reviews, but this MC is a product of authors writing a military character more from pop culture influence rather than an understanding of how real military, to include combat veterans, fighter pilots, and let’s add, an astronaut, would act. Instead, we get more of a rebellious teenage minded impulsive character.

Let’s pause. Before I get too deep into this review, or more accurate, my thoughts on this story, let me caveat all this with the revelation that I served in the U.S. Air Force, like MC. I was not a fighter pilot, nor pilot of any kind. I worked with them due to some of the responsibilities of my job, that I won’t get into for…reasons. I’ve also worked with officers and, yes, I’m aware that leadership, enlisted and commissioned, can have a sense of humor and a personality outside of being super serious and “boring” as some authors and readers would consider it. Also, I want to point out that MC is a Major. This means MC would be somewhere between 33 if he joined as an officer or close to 40 if not 40ish if MC enlisted and transitioned to being an officer after becoming an NCO, which is roughly when you’re allowed to transition into an officer if you enlisted. Generally, because to apply to OTS you have to have a bachelor’s degree and/or a senior degree.

So, factor in the fact that an airman has to go to work and go to school, get, at least a bachelors, and then apply to OTS, go through that training, and then be an officer for about 6ish years before promotion to Major. So, MC, again, would not be some snot-nosed young buck. He'd be a 33ish – 40ish grown, mature minded, man. Also, factor in MC’s time in training to be a test pilot astronaut and MC’s time as a test pilot astronaut. Factor all this in when considering the maturity level and adaptive skills of someone like MC. So, let me spoil you here. MC is not written the way you’re likely thinking a character with this background should be written. As I said, MC is written more like a rebellious teenage, minded scatter brained type of person who lacks focus in serious situations. To include, laying on their death bad. Of which you could likely give MC a pass because pain, etc. could induce disorganized thoughts.

Let’s get back to the First person POV. I’m a relative fan of Chaney, I’ll admit I’m not die hard, nor do I tune in and read every story he releases. But I point out that I’m somewhat a fan to indicate I’m ware Chaney writes in First person. I can’t say a lot about Moon, but visiting his library of books, I can see that he’s also a First person POV veteran as well. Yet, both of these authors make rookie mistakes. They make the MC unlikable as I said and stay in his head too often and I’ll add also make the MC scatter brained.

I imagine with the influence from FarScape that MC was supposed to be a wise cracking MC type who uses comedy, sometimes even dark and at inappropriate times, as some way to deal with stress. It’s an often mistake made by writers when it comes to military. Yes, as someone who served in the military as I’ve said before on some of my other reviews, I’m aware military has sort of a college-frat boy and college-sorority girl behavior, yet what these authors forget, even the ones who are former military, is that there’s a balance. Leadership usually reels this in when seriousness is needed and even then, the understanding of the gravity of one’s job and sometimes the dangerous circumstances force the juvenile behavior to be disciplined. I find that authors who want to write about a military character constantly cracking jokes to “ease the tension” never properly create that balance and show said character have enough serious moments to be taken…well…seriously. Even Crichton knew when to stop pushing buttons and when to shut up and who to try to push buttons with. Noah, the MC of this story, will be thinking about ways to get under someone’s skin in a dangerous situation of which he has no leverage simply because he is not in control of the situation.

Example. Noah is in an interrogation room with an alien authority figure who for all intents and purposes is pretty much the equivalent of border control for any country at a planetary level. So, recall my point about about MC’s age and time in service and other experience. In other words, through observation of the situation (they just asked permission to land on this planet and were told they’d be interviewed, and their ship inspected by planetary security and escort fighters), you’d think MC would pick up on the obvious notion that his interrogator is just doing his job and making sure MC is not a terrorist. Let me add, MC was told by one of the other cast members that terrorists had used a ship like theirs to commit an act of terrorism on the planet before. So, with this other piece of information and MC being a military man, you’d expect MC to act accordingly and with understanding of the security measures being taken to ensure him and his crew members aren’t a threat to the planet.
No, no, instead he goes into the interview being a jerk. In the midst of the interview when he can’t get control over the situation and a leg up on the interviewer, MC thinks to himself about how he can push the alien’s buttons to get a reaction, just to do it. What?! That’s something you’d expect from a rebellious teen.

Another example. To explain this, I need to point this other issue out with MC. Remember, he’s a human lost in space on a sentient alien ship where alien cultures and behaviors are strange to him. He spends a hefty amount of time treating them as humans, despite the obvious for some odd reason. Even after he admits to himself that he’s doing it and needs to stop. Even when he learns from experience, sometimes under threat of his life, that certain human behaviors, such as knocking at someone’s door to be pilot, can be misconstrued by an alien as a life-threatening non-verbal communication signal. Yet, again, he keeps doing these dumb things. Ok, now to the point. MC shares the ship with a silent warrior type who doesn’t think getting involved with all of the administrative and non-combat decisions is important enough for him to always be present with the group. There’s a point in the story where another alien character tells MC to his face not to push the warrior alien’s buttons and to not provoke him. Almost immediately right after that when silent warrior acts, well silent warriorish, MC thinks in his head that he wants to yell an alien bad word at the silent warrior that he learned from the silent warrior and the sentient ship that it’s a very, very, very grave insult. Yet, MC thinks in his head, impulsively that he wants to yell this word at him just to get a reaction from the silent warrior just because the guy is being…well silent. Again, super childish.

The other problem with MC is that, as I alluded, in the midst of serious moments, he’s thinking up random things. Often, flash backs to his time on Earth. One quick example. They’re face to face with the big bad, their whole plan is failing. MC in the midst of the conversation is thinking about a bar he and a few other pilots frequented back on Earth. At first, it’s relevant given the circumstances I won’t get into because of spoilers, but once the authors remove the relevancy of the flashback, MC should’ve stopped reminiscing about the bar given the situation. Yet, for some strange reasons, the author still has him reminiscing about the bar for several more moments while he’s having a back and forth with the big bad. This happens often in the story at various times when MC is interacting with someone, but almost always when the ship is traveling and MC is locked in his pod and the readers are, once again, stuck in his head. The authors vacillate between MC having a random flashback about his grandfather and the ship flying about in space. Yes, even if the ship is in a combat situation.

One last thing. The authors also make the mistake of making everyone stupid outside of the big bad. All of the military people in the story don’t act like military other than the big bads. All of the other military people act reactionary, their plans are janky, and even when the authors have MC recognize this, it doesn’t work, because MC’s plans are wonky and impulsive and not always because he’s reacting to an event out of his control. There were several times in the story where an obvious solution was available, and MC impulsively and childishly “forced” by constantly whining about it. Let me explain this a bit better, MC has a unique link to the ship I won’t get into. Suffice to say, because of this link, the ship will lean more toward MC’s desires and so, his fellow crew members are forced to take the obviously dangerous option which led to surprise, surprise, them being in a dangerous situation that now MC has to come up with wacky plans to get them out of it. Even when a senior alien on the ship tells him this, that his reckless and impulsive behavior has endangered the crew several times, the authors play this conversation down and take out the seriousness of the impact to give the MC any degree of character growth.

This is getting long, so going to end this with this. I gave this 3 stars to be nice despite being unable to finish. I also want to add that this might have also been an issue with Neil Thorne didn’t perform a wise cracking supposed to be funny MC in the way Ben Browder performed Crichton in FarScape. I could say more in contrast and comparison between the show and Crichton and this MC, but won’t. I could nitpick on more, but won’t as this has already gotten long.

Your mileage may vary. These are some of the reasons I rated this as I have and wasn’t able to get through the final chapters of the story.

Commentor Roy pretty much sums it up.

I like the premise of the main character, failed mission, fiery death, presumed dead. But wait, a living starship rescues him from death, now they have a link.
Main character though somehow has been trained to kill, but has no inkling for it, even when the bad guys desperately need it.
I normally crank the speed of crap stories up, that and do a cliff notes run through of the story, but for some unknown reason I slogged through this story that the author must have written to put in a swimming pool.

Villains know all

Didn’t like that the bad guys always knew everything, and the good guys always got away by a quick lucky break. How could the evil general have known that they rescued the female scientist??? And the good guys didn’t want to hurt their enemies, even in the midst of a battle.

I think the story is great BUT

The story is great but the way the narrator tells it is very slow and almost confusing to understand. There is always the same tone. Not excited not calm just the same. I have almost every audiobook by JN Chaney and would recommend them all and I hate to say it except this one.

Epic Sci Fi Adventure!

Chaney and Moon have really settled into a comfortable groove of writing fun and exciting stories that capture you from the start…action, comedy, heartfelt emotion, the authors both bring to life a tale that sucks you in! The characters all have personality and you can feel a real connection to them…I really enjoyed Neill Thorns narration…very entertaining!

an easy listening but not yet a favorite

The story is interesting, However, it is difficult to develop sympathy for a main character who seems not to spot the obvious, leading to harm for his ship and crew. While this likely helps add some tension into the story it seems to come at the expense of the protagonists competence.