My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Sci-fi, Space Opera
Content: Clean
The Beyond started with
the Stations orbiting the stars nearest Earth. The Great Circle the
interstellar freighters traveled was long, but not unmanageable, and the
early Stations were emotionally and politically dependent on Mother
Earth. The Earth Company which ran this immense operation reaped
incalculable profits and influenced the affairs of nations.
Then
came Pell, the first station centered around a newly discovered living
planet. The discovery of Pell's World forever altered the power balance
of the Beyond. Earth was no longer the anchor which kept this vast
empire from coming adrift, the one living mote in a sterile universe.
But
Pell was just the first living planet. Then came Cyteen, and later
others, and a new and frighteningly different society grew in the
farther reaches of space. The importance of Earth faded and the Company
reaped ever smaller profits as the economic focus of space turned
outward. But the powerful Earth Fleet was still a presence in the
Beyond, and Pell Station was to become the last stronghold in a titanic
struggle between the vast, dynamic forces of the rebel Union and those
who defended Earth's last, desperate grasp for the stars.
This was our book club pick for April and I honestly wasn't expecting to like it nearly as much as I did. The different factions and their political machinations reminded me, at times, of The Expanse. There were definitely comparisons that could be drawn between Earth Company, Union, and Merchants in this book; and the Belters, Martians, and Earth's United Nations in The Expanse series. Of course, this series came far before that one. I liked that the author was able to show the different sides of the conflict in this book, and how there were good and bad people on all sides. The characters felt very well drawn and real to me. I especially enjoyed reading about Damon and Elene, Josh, and the Hisa.
I do want to point out that this review is specially for the Graphic Audio version of this book. I tried listening to the other audio version and quite frankly, did not care for the narrator. I'm not sure how much I would have enjoyed this book if I had continued to listen to that version, or even read the print version. I would like to think the print version would have eventually drawn me in. The Graphic Audio version was loaded with a full cast of voice actors and lots of sound effects that made this book something I looked forward to listening to. I don't know how much of the book is changed or left out of this version, but this version was about 13 hours long, and the other audio version was 19 hours long. So I'm assuming some things got cut, but I don't believe anything of real significance was cut.
In the end, I enjoyed this so much that I plan on reading the second book in the series.
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