Anniversary Day

Anniversary Day Saga, Book 1 (Retrieval Artist Universe)

By: Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Narrated by: Jay Snyder

Four years ago, a bomb destroyed part of the dome protecting Armstrong, the largest city on the Moon. Now, as the city celebrates its survival with an event it calls Anniversary Day, a larger threat looms - one that begins with the murder of the mayor, and spreads across the moon itself.

Even with every new technological device at her disposal, Moon Security Chief Noelle DiRicci can't stay ahead of the unfolding disaster. As the situation gets worse, Retrieval Artist Miles Flint hurries to his daughter's school to protect her. And Detective Bartholomew Nyquist finds himself in the middle of everything, from that first bombing to the Anniversary Day crisis itself.

Fan-favorite series narrator Jay Snyder is back to lend his voice to this thriller with several mysteries at its core. Anniversary Day is Kristine Kathryn Rusch's most exciting Retrieval Artist novel yet and available exclusively through Audible for the first two months of its release.

Listen to more in the Retrieval Artist series.©2011 Kristine Kathryn Rusch (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Some of the best science fiction ever written.” (Orson Scott Card)

“[One of] the top ten greatest science fiction detectives of all time.” (io9.com)

"Rusch mounts hard-boiled noir on an expansive sf background with great panache." (Booklist)

Timely warning

If you could sum up Anniversary Day in three words, what would they be?

Remember. Beware complacency.

What other book might you compare Anniversary Day to and why?

Most other books on terrorism because of the similarities to recent events in this country. One part of the book, near the end, has Miles saying that if he were to plan another attack, he would wait until we let our guard down and our new security rules become routine--then he would attack somewhere completely unexpected. Unfortunately, this is not a needed warning only in sci-fi.

Have you listened to any of Jay Snyder’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes. I like Jay Snyder very much. I am picky about narrators, but I would put him in the same highly-regarded class as Dick Hill and James Marsters.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Ha. I did.

Any additional comments?

This whole series is pretty well done. It was a little difficult for me to see how people raised on the moon could function on Earth immediately, though, but I decided it was due to enhancements.

Great Science Fiction

Truth be told, I'd forgotten this series was out there. I went on a binge a couple of years ago and listened to every audiobook there was in the series and then just forgot about it. As I listened to this book, it kept coming back to me just how much I loved listening to them before. The characters are terrific and there's not just one that I love. Yeah, sure, Miles Flint is wonderful but Noelle DiRicci and Nyquist and Talia are wonderful characers. Rusch does a terrific job of switching back and forth between viewpoints and it never feels wrong. Jay Snyder is a terrific narrator. I didn't feel like any of the voices were off and ingenuine. I just wish there was another Retrieval Artist book out there.

Thou shalt not try to sound like a woman!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No, because listening to the same guy trying to do at least 4 different female voices had to be one of the least enjoyable way to experience what I would otherwise have considered to be a great story. I can't understand how people who have the option of reading the book for themselves could consider that an enjoyable experience. It just sounds silly, and I think I honestly enjoyed the book less as a result. I loved all the 7 previous books in this series, and then I listened to this, and while I think I can objectively say that the story was just as good as the previous books, my overall experience of listening to the book was less enjoyable than reading it myself. If I had not been relying on the book to keep me awake during an 8 hour drive from Montana to Washington, I would have stopped listening less than half way through, purchased a regular copy of the book, and read it myself.

What other book might you compare Anniversary Day to and why?

I would compare it to any of the previous Retreival artist novels by Rusch, since it's the 8th entry in the series (ignoring short stories).

Would you be willing to try another one of Jay Snyder’s performances?

Not unless the story contained only male characters.

Did Anniversary Day inspire you to do anything?

It inspired me to restrict all futher audiobook experiences to things that were full cast productions, and to just read everything else myself.

Any additional comments?

I don't mean to be insulting to Mr Snyder. He did a fine job with the male characters. I just don't see how listening to him try to voice a female character can be considered a better way to experience a story than reading it myself. It's a simple matter of biology, and the structural differences between the larynx of men vs women. It just sounds silly to have a man voice a female character.

4 stars are misleading 3.5 should be the rating

These are detective stories in space. No great strain on the brain matter and some gaping holes in the plot. I felt that I made a mistake buying the entire set after the first one thinking that the author was going to build on that story. She didn't really, The characters continue on with a series of detective stories that are not especially thrilling. I listened to them all and cannot say that I was inspired, but I enjoyed them for what they were, fairly bland. I wish we had 1/2 stars, these books only deserve three and half, the four is misleading but three would have been too low.

No Real Ending

I like Rusch's books as sci fi detective novels. She creates a consistent world in which we get to know characters across books. She then kills some of those characters and you get personally involved because you want these mysteries solved. Flint or Nyquist or/and DeRicci, with Flint's help, solves the major mystery while other subplots get moved along also. At the end, your "mystery solved" fix and are ready for the next novel.

If you read them out of sequence there is enough embedded history that you get through with no sense of vital missing information, but then if you get in sequence, then all the better. BUT she always ends the mystery. There is a solution. You get your "ahhh". You may not really like it, but it is solved and it is consistent and you know there will be more later. The world of Armstrong, Flint, and everyone else awaits your next adventure.

Some of the people claim that this story is unusual because it centers on Nyquist, but DeRicci was the center in "Extreme", so this is not a major departure. In fact it intrigued me because Rusch was willing to say Armstrong was bigger than Flint early in the series. You know the Retrieval Artist series is going to be a rich environment. But I would also say that there is no central character here. This is a Moon wide, maybe wider, crisis. There are at least 6 main characters in it and Nyquist gets more room to setup a former partner who is germane to the central mystery. So, I don't agree that there is a central character in this novel. BUT Rusch has done a great job developing them and they flow together naturally.

Now for all the praise, she violates a major rule SHE set up, there is no mystery solved. This is just a freakin' two-parter. She has mentioned the lack of a solution in an earlier subplot where Armstrong Dome almost got blowed up real good, but the other major plot was solved in that book. Interesting look into an future book, so Anniversary Day was not a surprise to me.

So we go through the crises in the Domes, centered on DeRicci. We go through an investigation with Nyquist WHO shares the spot light with another detective, Marona(?), and we find out that Nyquist and Marona(?) like working together. We find Flint thinking he is second best to Talia, his clone daughter and this duo pulls out info that saves the Moon's Domes from Millions of death. We find out a big bad boogie man may be attacking not just the Domes of the Moon, but the Whole Earth Alliance, END OF STORY... WHAT???? What did we solve? Who got caught really. A former partner of Nyquist's is a brainwashed lackey, but come on!! No, the boogie man/woman bomber and/or the Twenty WHO are the real instigators and movers are not understood. They were the case to be solved, and we got a TV type end of the season cliff hanger.

I am thinking Rusch might have been hanging out with R.R. Martin. God help us all if she has.

In the end the situation with Nyquist and DeRicci seems like it will either explode or come together, NO. Just like the major mystery of the book, it just drags on to the next novel.

This is completely counter to Rusch's normal fix to the reader of a decisive interesting end with characters that have a lot more mileage on them. Come on Rusch, solve the Major mystery of the novel and then go on.

However, if you like the series so far, unlike in her other earlier novels, you will HAVE to read this if you want to continue on, but it will be an interesting read and decent continuation of the all the major characters.

Great start, exiting, reading got gaps

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

It's exiting, made me listen to it for longer sessions than I initially wanted - could not put it away..

Who was your favorite character and why?

This book got a rare quality: The story changes from character to character, makes me want to keep listening to get another persone view of whats happening. The initial main caracter get in the background after a while - and a different / new caracter becomes the front lead for a while. Fascinating

Have you listened to any of Jay Snyder’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

It's my first book from this author - but it will not be the last

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The seconds from the initial start until a different voice told me the book was over

Any additional comments?

A combined whodoneit and thriller - exiting and refreshing. The reading got small one- or two second gaps where the voice got cut. Irritating, but the reader was so good (and the story so exiting) that I kept listening

Love this series

Another great entry in Rusch's Retrieval Artist Series. I just wish that the story went further.

The story continues

The Retrieval Artist Novels were a surprise find for me. I got the first one as a freebie when I signed up for the Audible service a few years ago. Jay Snyder's narration hooked me from the beginning. I love his voice and his performance of the characters is spot on for me.

This recent addition, moves the story in to another area by reaching back to a previous event, and building on it. Just when things had seemed to be settling down for the people living on the moon, they are slapped with a new problem and a continuing mystery. I am looking forward to the next installment.

I you like science fiction, mystery, or books in series, start with the Retrieval Artist and work your way through the lives of Miles Flint and his friends. I have enjoyed the journey so far.

Interesting characters and intriguing story.

I really got into the story... The plot was intriguing and the characters very interesting. My only disappointment was that the book wasn't longer.

Great narrator, great book

What a pleasure to read more about other characters in the Retrievbal Artist series. If you follow the series, this is a natural progression. If you are new to these books, the reader is fabulous on all of them, and some of the other stories are even better than this one. Really great series.