Clearly written for the Jr. High School age group

There is a good story line here, but it's clearly written for the junior high school listener. The science in this scfi story is very basic, and often clearly wrong, but that didn't bother me as much as the juvenile attitude of the astronauts. When astronauts in the book are snickering at the name of the planet Uranus, you get a clear sign of the intended age group of these books.

The books never stray far from the junior high romances and flirting and jealousies between the astronauts. They meet alien life for the first time, yet the biggest thing on their minds is who likes who, and "why didn't I tell him I liked him when I had the chance". And when they meet a new alien race, purportedly far more advanced than humans, this advanced alien race insists on a physical challenge - a foot race across the valley, in which the loser dies - because the alien has been offended by the human.

So, although there's a good premise here - a good overall storyline - it's clearly written for the 14-15 year old age level.

I also need to comment on the narrator. When he is speaking as a character, he's very good. But when he is the third person narrator telling us what's going on, he is very passive and boring. The descriptive word "soothing" comes to mind, but why would the narrator be using a "soothing" voice in a high action, tense situation? It just didn't work.

Unless you're a young teen, I'd stay away from this series. (I made it thru 10 hours of the 21 hour 'Publisher's Pack books 1-3" and couldn't go on.)

6 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

love it

i like thé starting Point in our near Future with not too many fancy or crazy stuff. and then the story moves forward from there on.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

The romance ruined this for me

See review title. The romance just felt so forced and annoying. I thought it was going the mature route of the two realising they'd grown and changed from their past selves, but then i basically feel Lozito's hands reach into the story and force these characters together for 'reasons.'

It shouldn't matter given the setting, but it's made such a big deal that you can't ignore it.

Really frustrating.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

A Sci Fi Ooera

Great storyline. Very descriptive in details that helped create colorful images. A journey I totally enjoyed. It was over too soon. Looking forward to the next in this series.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Good Story Concept, great characters

Ken always creates interesting and compelling characters. This is great lightweight sci-fi, like the trashy romance novels my wife likes, but the aliens are all creatively designed, the challenges compelling, and as an audio book that you can listen to while multi-tasking, it's an engaging "read" and a great performance. I probably wouldn't bother spending the time to actually read this on paper, but i drive a lot, so it keeps me occupied (at a price).

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

boring and slow

very slow struggled to finish book 1 ..... .... ..... ..... ...... ...... ....... ..............................

Basic Editing?

Does the writer know any words other than ‘said’? It is repetitive and pervasive and once heard can’t be unheard.
Dear Ken, what follows is list of words you might try just to make the dialogue blocks less painfully repetitive.
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I’m about halfway through the second book and I keep hoping the dialogue writing mechanics will improve.

Good, but could be better

A bit more enthusiastic narration would have been great. I think the story and characters could were good, but the narration was lacking.

Very,very Good

Book 1 = 5,5,5 Book 2 = weak opening with stilted alien conversation, Earth characters are 5, Evil Aliens are WW2 Nazis, Book 3 = Better Alien characters but stilted language Earth characters = 5

Good start to a new series

Good start to a new series, but not really what I expected from the descriptions. When it says "Earth's most advanced spaceship", it does not really clue you in that it is pretty much Earth's only spaceship and we are barely dipping our toe into the big black ocean. Once I got over that, I found an enjoyable story about our first encounters with alien life. The aliens themselves while imaginatively designed where not really brought to life that well. They sometimes reminded of aliens from an old episode of the original Star Trek, just kind of cheesy with bad makeup and made up words for things. There was also an unlikely love triangle that just felt forced and unnecessary.