Into the Stars

Rise of the Republic, Book 1

By: James Rosone

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

The stars are within mankind’s reach…but what awaits in the void may end humanity.

Mars and the Moon have been colonized, piracy runs rampant in the asteroid belts, and a thriving society grows in the depths of space. Humanity prepares to embark upon its greatest journey - the colonization of Alpha Centauri.

Then, everything changes. A deep space reconnaissance probe discovers a new Earth-like planet 12 light-years from Earth’s sun. The probe also finds something unusual, something...unnerving. A new mission is created, a space fleet is formed, and humanity embarks on unravelling the greatest mystery of all - the origins of life itself.

Can the factions of Earth remain united, or will old rivalries and animosities destroy the fragile peace in the face of this terrifying existential threat? Will exploration prove to be a fatal mistake?

If you love new technologies, fast-paced action, and gut-wrenching turns of fate, you’ll love this military sci-fi series.

©2020 James Rosone (P)2021 Podium Audio

Really enjoyed, looking forward to the next book

I love sci-fi, but it seems the last few books I've bought could all have been part of the same series since they were all so similar. This series has a unique concept and I enjoyed the characters.

Annoyingly unbelievable interactions with aliens

I found this book interesting enough to finish but not interesting enough to go on to the second book as I often do when I read a good series of this kind. The humans acted as though they could not discern when a vicious alien is dangerous and that all reasonable precautions should be taken. It was so annoying that I could not bring myself to go on with the series. There were a few other credibility-stretching omissions here and there but the story did have some interesting aspects such as changing alliances on Earth and, of course, the battles with the aliens. The narrator was excellent. So an adequate but not a great book.

Pros and Cons

I needed something after completing the Bobiverse Series. In some ways, it ticked some of the same boxes (minus the major nerd factor and the VR aspect). Some subpar work on physics/space travel, some issues that aren’t worth bringing up throughout…in the end, though, I don’t regret reading it and was honesty entertained. I’m sad to see the sequel has such poor reviews and the weird ancient aliens/biblical flood/ sphere of water/magic comet thing going…otherwise I would have kept going with the series.

It isn't bad just not great.

To be fair this is book is obviously mostly set up for an epic spanning war series. But this feels like a weak background to an RTS game than a major novel. The story isn't bad as I said it just lacks depth.

Did not keep my attention

The story was not bad and the narrator wasn’t bad, but for some reason this audiobook could not keep my attention. It was also hard for me to keep up with who all the characters were and there were some parts of the book that seemed to drag on too long. It’s ok if you can get it on sale.

Heavy on military, lower on character development

This book was pretty good. And it helped me realize that I prefer space opera over military sci-fi. I don’t mind the battles and descriptions of munitions and tactics. But I really missed deeper character development. I get that this is the first in a series and more character development would likely come if i read the next few books—there is certainly a lot of growth potential. But I ended the book feeling like I had spent a long time listening without getting to really care about any of the characters. I probably won’t read others in this series.

That said, if you love military history and/or military sci-fi, this may be a great read for you.

Not bad for a Junior Sci-fi

Not Jack Campbell but passable if you have time to kill. Not sure I’d read the sequel

Weapons porn with a few SF tropes for added color.

I seldom write reviews and I hate to write a negative one, but this book isn't quite marketed as the hardcore military SF it turns out to be. I'm disappointed. I'll finish it but I usually avoid this sort of thing. I don't care for the military, its purpose or its dehumanizing culture. If you like long loving descriptions of weapons then you may enjoy this. It's not for me.

Fun but really takes some liberty with science..

There are a few spoilers here but for the most part - it's a good, fun book to listen to.

---spoilers---
1 - They're in a deep space exploration starship and don't bring multitudes of surface mapping satellites or shielded drones...to ah...explore with. Seems the expedition was rather poorly planned.
2 - Although we figured out FTL travel, our imaging technology has gotten far far worse than it is....today. Resolution on spy sats are ridiculous, let alone drones. Sad to see that this technology actually degrades over time. A 'high altitude' drone could only pick up a grainy image of beings and was experiencing 'electronic interference'. Why not put a satellite in an orbit to pass over the site? In the story it 'took too long' but I'm fairly sure intelligence agencies can task satellites for observation in around 45 minutes....today.
3 - Travel to a planet with aliens for first contact, have issues with drones, dont wait for imaging, and we just put soliders on the ground anyway and go in blind with almost no information. Such a inexplicable reckless rush to the planet its kind of cheesy. Do they have weapons? How many are there? No idea? No worries, lets just walk right in and see what happens.
4 - We land troops but let a diplomat be surrounded and kidnapped. No one was able to understand all of the aggressive/telegraphed actions and just watch it happen. Seems unbelievable.
5 - They come into the system with all the electronic systems blasting away, make a b-line directly towards the alien planet and plop down in orbit. The aliens, (who have a galactic empire) don't know they're there and apparently are unable to figure out how many ships are in orbit. Today, we can pick up objects coming from all directions in the solar system and know if they're decelerating or emitting electronic signals. But these Aliens are unable to do that. hmm.
---spoilers---

There are quite a few other situations where you're going to need to suspend much of what you know about science but these were the ones that stood out.

Will stick around for book 2

The story was slow at times. And the narration seemed to slow pace for the final third of the book as well. It was a little hard keeping up with the timeline and characters on audio but eventually my brain caught up.

Overall, I did enjoy this book and will move on to book 2.