Retaliation

The Slaver Wars, Book 5

By: Raymond L. Weil

Narrated by: Liam Owen

More than 100,000 copies of the Slaver Wars series were sold in 2013.

Operation First Strike is coming to an end. It has succeeded in buying the Human Federation of Worlds valuable time to prepare for the coming invasion. Now Fleet Admiral Streth needs to get his remaining warships back home to aid in the defense of the human worlds. The AIs and the Hocklyns are determined to follow the admiral and annihilate every single human in the federation. The humans are massively outnumbered, but they have a daring plan that just might save their worlds. However, the AIs have a plan of their own--one that will ensure the end of the human race if it succeeds.

©2014 Raymond L. Weil (P)2015 Raymond L. Weil

Action packed, but weak character writing

The story is still interesting, though the further you go in the series, the more obvious the weak areas in the author's writing become. The characters, especially their off-duty interactions, fall flat, and you don't really come to care that deeply about any of the protagonists, because they seem so cardboard and a bit corny. The personal characteristics that the author tries to interject into the conversation to flesh out the protagonists and distinguish them from one another are few, and too focused on some particular one characteristic which then surfaces many times, with that one character.

I think the voice actor doesn't help here either - he uses the same enthusiastic cadence whether reading an intense battle description, or banal banter about, say, a particular character's liking for hamburgers. This just works to highlight the weak points in the writing.

The battle descriptions and the story line is much better, and manages to make the book, and the series, interesting enough that you want to know what happens next. But a masterpiece it is not. Be aware of that, and don't go into it expecting any literary merit, and you might enjoy it.

Another thing I have to mention is that about half way into the book, the audio quality degrades and varies noticeably. Not a serious complaint, but a complaint nonetheless.

Great story poorly executed

Would you try another book from Raymond L. Weil and/or Liam Owen?

This series is one that I hate to love. The writing is amateurish. The dialog between characters is unnatural. And the reliance on adjectives is over the top. Finally, while placing females in positions of power and authority, the author failed to give them strong voices. In almost every situation, females are portrayed as demure and event passive...not strong presence one expects from Captains and Admirals. All of this is distracting to what is a great story. I find myself suffering through the poor execution in order to find out what comes next. I salute the author for creating a wonderfully compelling story. My advice to you is to fire your editor. He/she did not do their job ensuring your writing lived up to your vision.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Unfortunately, the narrator let the story down as well. He places emphasis often in the wrong parts of a sentence or passage. His vocal range is too limited to do strong female voices effectively. In this story, there are many strong female leaders. Yet the narrator makes the sound mousey and weak. This was a very weak performance by a narrator with limited skills.

Any additional comments?

I can't wait to buy and suffer through the next one.

Free the Care Bears!

Operation First Strike continues. The Human Federation, solely with AI Arial’s help, has destroyed two alien AI ships with the Devastator 3 missiles shocking the Hocklyn Empire. Never in the alien AI’s history has an AI ship been damaged much less destroyed. With the realization that the AI ships can be destroyed Operation First Strike will go forward. An enslaved alien race known as Carethians in system Careith resembling “bears” (Care Bears?) has been freed and will ally itself with the Human Federation of Worlds. Their planet will become a Forward Operating Base (FOB) and a huge benefit for the Federation. The alien AI is determined to destroy the humans once and for all. They have the Hocklyns assembling a very large fleet with updated weapons and shields to attack the Federation. Along with the Hocklyn fleet at least five AI ships will be included. The next contact may spell doom for the Human Federation.

Well done, other authors could learn

What does Liam Owen bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The voices seemed to dramatic and at times it sounded like they were recorded in a bathroom.

Any additional comments?

Well done, other authors could learn a lot from this author. The story was without the unnessary profanity of other authors!

Decent but possibly written for teens?

I like the concept and story but not very creative in the technical aspects. The same points are reiterated over and over, as if written for children.

Could not stop listening

Addicted to this series. The narrator Liam Owen takes this series to a higher level

The space battles were nice.

Too much repetition for me. I am still enjoying the series and will continue. I felt the series went from young adult to teenager in the story writing. Hopefully this does not continue in the next books.

Great book, horrible audio

The story is great! The audio quality ruined it for me. Horrible editing sounds like words are cropped which reminds me of when a cd skips. Audio volume fluctuates constantly. Sometimes it sounds like the microphone is muffled and sometimes like he's too close or too far, and worst of all is when it sounds like he is recording in a bathroom or a garage. Lots of subtle feedback when he speaks. Why didn't he invest in better quality microphone?? Ugh such a bummer cuz he does a great job on the characters but all the horrible audio issues distracted me. I listen with headphones so every little audio glitch is audible.

it's a very good story concept.

I have listened to the other books in this series. the writing is definitely not for the adults. the performance is on a three stars level. if you have a low tolerance for repetitive writing, above-average performance then I would suggest not listening to this book, or this series. the story concept is good so it's become a love-hate relationship for me.