This tale has a lot to offer: space battles, heroes on both sides of the conflict, multiple cultures represented, gender equality in the military, and a deep misunderstanding that could decimate humanity. However, I was often lost. There are so many characters and the two sides of the conflict are comparable in many ways, making it hard to keep them straight. I had a real hard time keeping track of who was on which side.

The Spartans are a long lost exiled colony of humans that hold a grudge like no one else. They believe the Terrans are in the wrong & must be beaten at all costs. The Terrans don’t call themselves that, having long since left the cradle of Earth to populate other planets. They consider themselves the Confederation. So that added to the confusion. Towards the end, I started making a list of characters and here’s my best guess as to which side they are on:

Spartans with their PainBringers
Cpt. Aginor Akiros (spelling?)
Abigail Schweizter
Morovia (tortured)
Admiral Brown
President Nathan
War Minister Arnaud Dew
Vice president Geramund Dew (brothers)
Cpt. Win
Lt Cl. Peterman
Admiral Lee
Cpt. Donahue
Ian & Eubony
Corvetan Song
Chaplan Graves

Terrans/Confederation with their WarHammers
Jacqueline aka Katnip
Commander Avery
Commander Johanson (Torturer)
Yamashita (Torturer)
Ensign Michael Rogers (Surviving CO)
McPhereson (red head, captured, sent back to Confederation with messages)
Lt. Applewhite (woman)
MacKenzie Bolan (man)
Debra the empath
Admiral Enjemy (spelling?)
Jacob Holowack
Oderkirk (Katnip’s boyfriend)
June (Katnip’s friend)
Admiral Rauscher
Admiral Horace
Marcy Cochran, sister is April
Tyr

There’s a lot more characters not captured on this list but perhaps it will help audiobook listeners down the road. I searched the author’s website for a character list to help keep everyone straight, but, alas, I didn’t find anything.

OK, so besides the characters there’s plenty of other proper names floating around. Planet names, ship names, military unit names, nicknames, etc. That added to the confusion. One of the ships is named Taken Umbrage and it took me a while to figure this out because it’s such an odd phrase.

So let’s chat about all the good stuff. I love that there’s ladies everywhere in this space opera and that they get stuff done. Some are smart, some are not. Some are good guys, some are bad guys. It’s a great mix and the guys hold their end up too. I did keep thinking of Katniss from Hunger Games every time Katnip came on the scene (Katniss’s nickname was also Katnip). They have very different attitudes, but by the end of the book I had settled into this new Katnip.

Several different cultures are represented too. I love that it’s not an issue; the general mixing of ethnicities and cultures is totally normal for both the Spartans and the Terrans. Both sides have comparable tech, though the language tech on the Spartan side is a little better. The Terrans have to find a Yiddish speaker to break that first language barrier. I’m not sure why the Terran computers had such a hard time with Yiddish, given that it has some strong similarities to German, but I appreciated that the Spartans have kept the ancient Earth languages alive.

All together, the series holds promise. This book ended on a high note with plenty of room for the main conflict to continue in Book 2. 4/5 stars.

The Narration: Jennifer Jill Araya gave a pretty good performance. The story opens with everyone in a good mood on both sides (before they bump into each other) and it did sound like laughing gas was being piped into the bridge with everyone being on the brink of a chuckle. For the most part, the characters had distinct voices though the male Spartans sometimes blended together. For instance, Akiros, Ian, and President Nathan all sounded the same to me. The male voices did sound like men. Katnip sounded like a cheeky 12 year old, which was sometimes funny but sometimes didn’t work at all. I loved Araya’s voice for Morovia – all steel and venom. Perfect! Araya’s pacing was good and there were no technical issues with recording. I especially liked how Araya included the Spartan war chant and the Terran Oscar Otter mascot song. 4/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by James Young. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it. ( )