The Hands We're Given

Aces High, Jokers Wild, Book 1

By: O.E. Tearmann

Narrated by: Kirt Graves

Sex. Drones. Rock and roll.

Aidan Headly never wanted to be the man giving orders. That's fine with the Democratic State Force base he's been assigned to command: they don't like to take orders. Nicknamed the Wildcards, they used to be the most effective base against the seven Corporations owning the former United States in a war that has lasted over half a century. Now the Wildcards are known for creative insubordination, chaos, and commanders begging to be reassigned.

Aidan is their last chance. If he can pull off his assignment as Commander and yank his ragtag crew of dreamers and fighters together, maybe they can get back to doing what they came to do: fighting for a country worth living in.

Life's a bitch. She deals off the bottom of the deck. But you play the hands you're given.

©2018 O.E. Tearmann (P)2019 Amphibian Press

it's heart wrenching!

I didn’t know what to expect when I started The Hands We’re Given, a cyberpunk novel by O. E. Tearmann.

The story was more intriguing and riveting than I could have imagined.

Tearmann explores a futuristic world set in the 22nd century, where corporations control everything. Our heroes attempt to survive on the outskirts of civilization as “Dusters,” rebels against the corporate overlords.

Aiden and Kevin, our two unlikely friends.

I don’t want to spoil too much about this story (and so much is easily spoiled), but at its core, it’s a profoundly human tale, dealing with real issues and internal conflicts paralleling fights of the present.

People have identities and realities which other people despise and hate.

When hate directs itself at a person, it tears them apart on the inside. Their mind breaks.

And Tearmann explores the raw emotional reality of people experiencing bigotry, all while placing them in a devastated world seeking a way forward.

I must warn readers: the story does include a few chapters of graphic sexual content. I don’t seek out those types of stories when I read SciFi and Fantasy, but in the context of this narrative, the scenes make a lot of sense. I didn’t feel like they were included just for the sake of having sex in the narrative. They’re meaningful and portray a powerful relationship formed over many chapters.

Overall, if you’re looking for a story that will push your boundaries and make you think about people through new eyes, I highly recommend The Hands We’re Given.

4.5 stars (rounded up to 5).

The Hands were Given

This is a very intriguing read that captured me right from the start. The Characters are like a close knit family. I love how the Author has brought the characters to life and the story to fruition. Its keeps you enthralled throughout the whole Audiobook, there are twists and turns everywhere. I find the characters fascinating, I love how the main guy gets on the level of his team. This is definitely right up there with the 100 and Hunger Games. I definitely recommend. Boththe Author and the Narrator really done a fantastic job.
Shauna Joesten

Amazing series.

The story is so good. The characters are all interesting, deep and fantastic.
Action and romance, emotions and strength of character, charisma aplenty.
Delivered by the perfect narrator.

Wow!

This book really exceeded my expectations. I mostly stick to romance or romantacy, but I love dystopian stories as well. This one really nailed that intersection. And Kirt Graves, as always, performed superbly.

I do have one disappointment: the characters refer to "gammas" the way people use the R word irl. Not only was it disappointing, but it felt really out of place within an otherwise beautifully affirming story.

Good intro, looking forward to seeing what’s next for the Wildcards!

Hmm. Well. This book is slow-going. It’s definitely more romance-centric than what I was expecting since this wasn’t actually listed under the Romance category on Audible. I was expecting more rebellion and explosions? More suspense? Instead, this is a bit more light-hearted as far as the overall plot goes.

The book is fairly long, and I may not have finished it otherwise if it wasn’t for Kirt Graves’s narration. The narration is top-notch and can I just say that he does children’s voices VERY well?? He also does an English accent for one of the MCs - Kevin.

Although, I will note that the story is told in third-person but only Kevin’s speaking voice adopts an English accent and the narration of the story is still done in an American one. The story is a little choppy and since I listen to audiobooks at 2x speed, I got lost a lot between scene changes where days or weeks would pass with almost no warning.

This entire book is like a setup for the second book. It introduces you to the characters and the world. This is set in the not too distant future, where a select few corporations run the United States and we’ve fallen into a state where every citizen is monitored and you have the rebels living off grid, or in the “dust”, just trying to survive.

There are a few unanswered questions regarding how the rebel factions can be so organized and if they were once the military and somehow got edged out by the major corporations. I’m not entirely sure how that all came together.

At the heart of this story is a romance between the new commander, Aiden, and the logistics officer, Kevin. Aiden is a trans man and is anxious and new to being a commander. His first big assignment is a group of people who come from all walks of life called the Wildcards (okay, I totally still call them Wildcats because High School Musical is totally engrained into my psyche). They’re a failing group now ever since their commander Taylor died of cancer and now it’s up to a newbie like Aiden to get them back up to their previous numbers.

Aiden is precious and seems to do a good job as a commander? But the story seems to skip almost all the parts where he shows real leadership and shows him just trying to figure out how to get the Wildcards to work together. A lot of his anxiety stems from him not wanting the Wildcards from finding out he’s trans. In a world where it’s normalized to be genetically modified from birth, being homosexual is a crime, and being trans especially so. He makes it work off the grid, but he’s worried because he’s seen what can happen to those who aren’t deemed “normal”.

Something I love is that Aiden is never “outed” as trans because of something awful, but it’s only because he chose to tell people he’s trans. He does choose to tell Kevin his deadname, but I think that was the only time it came up.

I’m not sure I’ve seen an #ownvoices review for the book yet, so I’m not sure how this book rates for trans readers but the story doesn’t seem to fall into the usual horrid tropes in stories with trans characters for what it’s worth.

There are quite a few sex scenes in the back half of this book. It’s sweet how the characters ALWAYS ask for consent and I love how both Aiden and Kevin are equally awkward.

This one ends with a HFN seeing as there’s a hint at bigger things to come, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens to the Wildcards in book two. I know the text is already out, but I’ll definitely be waiting for the audiobook release!

Amazing

This dystopian type book is brilliant. Set in the feature, after America destroyed itself and seven corporations rose up to save the day...of course that means things take a turn for the worse, except for those on top.
This book is about one of the bases that are fighting against the corps, a base that is falling apart after the death of their commander.
Adian Headly is a new commander and assigned to the Wild Cards. There, he finds something he's been looking his entire life for--a place to belong.
He also meets Kevin. Kevin a man with secrets as dangerous as Aidan's.
I loved the world-building, the found family themes, and the unexpected love that sparks between the commander and the Logistics Officer.
It's a hard read at times because there are so many truths in it. It's a brilliant read, the authors are amazing at storytelling, combining romance, dystopian and steampunk themes, and good writing.

Surprising & engrossing

This wasn’t the book I was expecting but it was still pretty darn good. Set in 2155 in Colorado, the US is no more. Rather, the country has been divvied up among several large corporations. If you aren’t a corp, then you’re on the outside. Maybe you work in secret some place or perhaps you are with whatever military organization Aidan and his ragtag crew are part of. (It’s the Defense State Force but I have to look at the book description to figure that out as it’s not really mentioned or described well in the story).

So there’s these outposts and one particular outpost holds personnel that have issues with authority. The Wild Cards were once a cohesive unit that got stuff done but since loosing Taylor, their commanding officer, they have been a source of trouble to middle management. Now Aidan has been assigned there as his first command.

These outposts are in place to do several things – gather info, help move people quietly across Corporate borders, and steal all sorts of supplies from the corporations. There lots of drones and self-driving vehicles, wicked coding, and fun tech to keep our heroes under the radar. I see that this book has been labeled cyberpunk but there’s not really any of that going on. No VR at all.

This tale has a great mix of character growth, action, and near-future tech. I really liked Aidan and Kevin McIllian. Tho it was sometimes a little unbelievable that everyone but Kevin had small vocabularies. Sometimes Kevin would use words that have fallen out of common use in this 2155 corporation run USA (like sovereignty and lexicon). Other times, I found it unbelievable that his team mates wouldn’t know certain words (like retention). Still, Kevin is a fun character and I did love the way he talked and geeked out about old classic movies (liked Shrek).

Everyone at this outpost seems to have a secret, which made the team building even more interesting. Aidan is trans (which we know from the beginning). Kevin is hiding his heritage. Aidan has his hands full trying to win over these Wild Cards. I really enjoyed the give and take, the mistakes made on all sides and the efforts to recover from those mistakes. I’m not one for romance, but I couldn’t help but cheer for Aidan and Kevin as they bumbled through their courtship. The sex scenes were nicely done being tasteful and caring.

Later in the story, we do learn a bit more about the corporations and what happened to the USA. In walks Billy and Tweak who provide reasons for the plot to explore this aspect a bit. Tweak was both endearing and frustrating. I totally felt why Aidan wanted to strangle this brilliant, scarred brat. It was brilliant how Aidan and Kevin eventually win her over, bit by bit. And I thought Aidan had a hard time wining over Lazarus earlier in the book!

Some of the scifi aspects were well done – like the drones. But I had questions about other things – like why isn’t there a better way for Aidan to get his testosterone? We have 5 year slow release hormone birth control implants for women now. So why not something similar for testosterone in 2155? There were other areas where I thought the story would have benefited from some near-future scifi tech.

All together, it was a gripping story even with all the unanswered questions about the background (how did we get to this point & exactly what is this military group?). The character growth was the best part of the story. I would place this book in near-future scifi, military, LGBTQ+ genres. 4/5 stars.

The Narration: Kirt Graves gave a great performance on the narration for this story. In fact, I was listening when my husband came to bed and after a minute or two, he asked if the audiobook was multicast. He was surprised when I told him it was all just one guy. He was impressed with Graves’s female character voices, as was I. He had unique voices for all the characters and regional accents, including a Hispanic accent for one border crossing character. His stutter for Tweak was also well done. The pacing was perfect & there were technical issues with this recording. 5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Hands we're given

Thank you for the Audio, I voluntarily give this book an honest review.
Aiden is sent in as the new base commander, can base 1407 be turned around from the self destruction. One opposition is left the rag tag crew of wildcards. If he can get the four team members that is the most trying. Will the team listen to a transfluid? Can Aiden' s past help him in his new assignment? Kirt Graves did a amazing job of with this book just loved how he brings each character to life, if you are looking for a action/romance then this is one book that is worth the read/listen. Can wait to hear more from the wild card crew.

sensitive, diverse, and engaging LGBTQIA sci fi

I loved this story. It's a science fiction dystopian story, in which we meet a small ragtag base peopled by officers and enlisted members of a political entity engaged in rebellion against a larger government/corporation that has completely taken over and controls all aspects of its members. The Big Brother-type controlling corporation is based entirely on control and profit, and have genetically engineered its children to wipe out ethnicity, disease, infirmity, and homosexuality. The citizens are wealthy and attractive, with increased intelligence and high productivity. Conformity is demanded. Rebellion means death. Those that are not corporate-raised are ostracized to live in poverty and scavenge for broken technology and struggle to find clothing and food. Our heroes are fighting to break the corporate entity and preserve free will and diversity.

The story is well-written and well-plotted, with a diverse ensemble cast of characters that provided contrast to each other. The core characters (Aiden and Kevin) were very well-developed, with lots of growth and development. It was heartwarming to watch as the crew at the base deal with being assigned a new Commander, one that they initially don't respect or trust. The crew is very diverse: male and female, gay and straight, cis and transsexual, old and young, strong and weakened by trauma. Characters had a variety of personalities from nuturing to haughty to mischevious to hostile. There is high tension and a decent amount of humor. It felt like a plausible group of rebels - strong personalities and high emotions. They are a flawed but tight-knit "chosen family", living under constant attack and a goal they believe in. The book reminded me of Firefly (the TV show) and also of Becky Chambers' A Way To A Small Angry Planet.

The main relationship in the story is a gay love story, with one character being transsexual. That relationship is very deftly written - full of emotional intensity and insecurity. It's tender and raw, and felt real to true life with discussion of poor coping mechanisms and dysphoria. While I appreciated the deft writing, it meant that the last third of the book is almost all about that emotional and physical journey, with lots of talking and graphic sex scenes. Despite liking the characters and their relationship, I got tired of all the kissing and sensitive soul-baring, and missed the more exciting action of the rebellion itself. The book ends with a bang fortunately, resolving tension via a high stakes heist that pulls the team together. I'm eager for the next book in the series!

Tearmann has carefully crafted this book. It's not awkward in structure or plot, and the author's ability to mange tension and conflict is almost perfect. The dialogue flows naturally. The level of representation is a bit heavy-handed, but it's a welcome change to address topics of gender, sexuality, inclusion, and anxiety in a story that is also entertaining and engaging on its own merits. This dystopian tale espouses a utopian goal for what it means to be inclusively human, and gives us a fight to cheer for.

I got this Audible book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Intriguing Tale

I received this audiobook free at my request and am leaving this review voluntarily.

O.E. Tearmann has given listeners/readers a tale with the potential for some major world building with these characters and setting. I'm really looking forward to seeing what's next in the series, and feel like there is definitely potential to do a lot with this story. This first chapter, The Hands We're Given, does a very good job of setting everything up, and you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat waiting to see how it all plays out!

The narration by Kirt Graves is phenomenal. A very strong performance that just adds to what is already a strong story.

You won't want to miss this one!