Edge of the Future: A Techno-Thriller Science Fiction Novel

Very Solid Listen - Action & Suspense

I enjoyed this book very much overall. It's not one of those classics that I'd insist everyone I know just *has* to read, but I would definitely recommend to a Sci-Fi/ action/ military fan.

**This audiobook was given by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an -->unbiased<-- review**

I found the narration exceeded my initial expectations. I'm unfamiliar with Nicholas Barta, but he really did a pretty great job. The only thing I think he could have done better would be to inject a bit more emotion and depth into certain scenes. For me, the gold standard is Katherine Kellgren as Jacky Faber, FYI. She would speed up a bit in the action, changed pitch, sounded frantic, even, as appropriate. I was blown away. Nicholas really did well with the characters and personalities but didn't quite reach that level of blowing me away! Male and female both were solidly voiced and individualized.

The plot was great. It starts fast, adds in interesting elements like assassins and terrorists and more, and keeps twisting and changing. I always found the story fresh and never cliche or tired. I thought there was appropriate character development without overdoing anything, and good balance. I found that, by the end of the story, I was strongly rooting for the home team.

A strong 4 star, even maybe a bit more, but it was not that pristine 5 for me. I would definitely read more by Andria Stone, though. It was a pleasure to have this opportunity!

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

cyborgs, terrorists, military, medical...

“Edge of the Future” is an action-packed military science fiction story with plenty of plot twists and turns that is written by Andria Stone.  This is the first book in what is believed to become a trilogy of books. The audiobook edition was well narrated by Nicholas Barta with only a few slight blemishes discussed later in this review.  If you like stories containing cyborgs, terrorists, military, medical, and procedural aspects, I think you will be pleasantly surprised listening to this audiobook.

The story takes place in the near future where humans have already colonized the moon (Luna) and Mars after a large war decimated much of the earth.  A mission sent to colonize Europa failed and the deaths of over one-hundred and fifty people are a mystery that needs to be solved.  Some of the aspects involving cyborgs reminded me of Battlestar Galatica where it was difficult to distinguish humans from machines.  Not only was the threat from these non-humans, some of the characters were given neural implants which allowed our antagonist to take control of them to do her bidding.  The action and story felt like the movies “RoboCop” and “Total Recall”, with a few bits of the Matrix thrown in to keep us on our toes.  The story takes place mostly on the Moon at a special secret research base where classified information on creating a nanobot genesis system; or weapon.  I enjoyed the many different medical and nanotechnology used in the story, and much of it seemed believable in the future time the book takes place.

Not only was there plenty of action, the book has a fair amount of mystery and suspense.  You have murders, a hunt for terrorists, assassins being hired, and many of our main characters running scared until they can uncover and put a stop to the villain’s plot while at the same time protect the information she is attempting to steal.    There is plenty of drugging, cyborg switching, and chase scenes to hold your attention.  Even with all of this activity, the author does include a few scenes containing romance and deeper character interaction.  Nothing explicit or over the top.  Although the characters did not feel flat, I would have like to have had some more details around their backstories, etc.  I wanted to care more for them than I found myself doing, and this may be coming in the future books in the series.

The book’s narration by Nicholas Barta was better than I would have expected from a newer narrator with five performances currently on Audible; at the time of this review.  Overall it was a solid performance with only a few slight audio inconsistencies with the audiobook’s volume.  I do not recall any other issues.  For a newer narrator, I also found that he did a decent job narrating the many female characters found in the book, and I liked his ability to give unique accents and personalities to each character.

For parents and younger readers, be aware this book contains a fair amount of vulgar language.  Some of the humor is crude or contains sexual innuendos which one might expect in a book containing military personnel.  This is not saying that all military people speak using vulgar or crude language, but it is a way many are represented in books and movies.  There are also a few scenes of graphic violence which again would not be of surprise with a military-focused book.  Other than this, I do not recall anything that would exclude readers who are not easily offended by the above-mentioned items from reading this book.

To summarize, I think the book is a strong start to what appears to be a good series.  If you like action, mystery, and space, I think you will find that you will like this book.  Again, be aware this is only the first book in a trilogy, so some of the plot-lines are left open-ended for later books to answer.  However, the first book is still worth a listen even before the others are released on Audible.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog.

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3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Tom Clancy goes Scifi

This book was so fun. From start to finish, it's fast and full of everything I love--military cameraderie, James Bond-worthy villains, technological wonders and loads of action. Andria Stone delivers a story you can't put down. Nicholas Bart's narrative skill brings Mark, Alex and a cast of the future's finest to solve a car unlike any other. Do yourself a favor and get book 2. You'll want to start it as soon as you finish this compelling tale.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Edge of the Future

Actual rating 3.5 stars.

There were things I liked and things I didn't in this novel.

The things I liked include:
- Strong women characters in the supporting cast as ranking officers - I really wish there were more novels like this. This is especially true for those that take place in the future.
- The world set up
- The opening action sequence

I would have given this book 4 to 4.5 stars if not for that the writing shifts back and fourth between showing what's happening and telling. I'm with the story when it's showing me what's happening, my eyes glaze over when it's telling. Sometimes it's a combination of both... we see something happen, and then there's a recap.

There are some descriptions of people being unusual without saying how, and sometimes the men didn't seem to think or talk like men... for example one talks about being able to do a bunch of crazy combat stuff without messing up his hair. Most army guys don't have much hair to mess up, and for most guys, hair is the last thing on their mind when they are fighting for their lives.

Overall, it's an OK listen, but it would have been stronger if it was longer, and during the editing process someone circled all the instances of telling, and asked the author to flesh them out, paint a picture, or show us how the characters came to such and such conclusion rather than just announce that they had. The entire novel is not like this, but there's enough of it to bump it down a star rating.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

A good story that lost me at times

Would you consider the audio edition of Edge of the Future: A Techno Thriller Science Fiction Novel to be better than the print version?

I doubt it.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The ending was complete. No big cliff hanger. I had some quibbling about some plot points in wrapping it up, but all in all, very satisfying.

Which scene was your favorite?

Nothing really caught my attention.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No reaction

Any additional comments?

The story is good but it failed to draw me in, or maybe I failed to get drawn into the story. This is my first audiobook, so I don't have anything to compare it to. I haven't discovered what I like and dislike. I had a difficult time paying attention, but that is just as likely to be a problem with my attention span as it is a story that didn't excite me. I gave the narrator four stars even though he "didn't do it for me." The narrator delivery is clear, crisp and articulate, but I felt it lacked depth and no range in differing characters, which made it a challenge to follow. I have learned that there are two types of listener, one who just wants to be read to in clear, pleasing voice, and the kind that wants to hear different voices. I am the latter, and the narrator is the former. Because he did a very good job but just wan't the my particular flavor, I give him 4 stars. No one should be criticized for individual taste. I won't be surprised when others give him 5 stars.

Conclusion: A good story with a pleasing narrator that failed to draw me in.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Couldn't finish it.

too much telling, and characters are not well defined and flat.
no enthusiasm in the narration.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Not for Adult Listeners

I think maybe I missed a tipoff somewhere; this title is not for adult audiences -- a true lover of tech, science fiction, military fiction, or action and adventure stories might find this to be pretty lightweight. It seems very likely that I am not the target audience.

The action is good and the author clearly prioritized keeping the pace moving. The story is not horrible -- I listened through the whole thing; it was never so bad that I had to leave it. (It was close in a couple places, but never pushed me over the edge.) It was good enough to keep me going in hopes that some big finale was going to pull together and justify the various problems that made it difficult for me to suspend disbelief and just sink into the story. Unfortunately, that never happened.

Beyond keeping the action moving, the author pretty much failed to advance a coherent plot line. In at least three places the narrative makes implausible leaps with no explanation of causality. For example, a some point about 1/3 of the way through the story, what until then seemed to be a minor character suddenly gets named as the primary antagonist -- without any plausible explanation for how that conclusion is reached. The protagonists just suddenly start using that character's name and repeatedly reassure one another about how big a threat the antagonist poses; nowhere is there any explanation or reason to believe how or why the protagonists are motivated to believe that. Further, throughout the story that primary antagonist does not act consistently; rather, she seems to inexplicably do whatever the protagonists need to keep the action moving. Near the beginning of the story we encounter the "bad person" as an apparently minor character who is personally on site and involved in the action of an assault by their minions; later in the story the same person is much more plausibly staying out of the firing line and allowing the minions to do the dirty work. Near the end of the story the same person who at the beginning was so intimately involved changes her behavior; now she is cowering in the face of a lower level of violence. Elsewhere through the middle, the antagonist seems to make random decisions / take actions that are not in themselves consistent to any particular purpose -- but they are very convenient devices to keep the protagonists moving.

For that matter, none of the protagonists are particularly developed as characters, either. Near the end of the story, the action hero who always takes decisive action implausibly breaks stealth and surrenders rather than simply shooting the one remaining combatant facing him. (This is at the same time as the big antagonist who was personally involved at the beginning is now inexplicably cowering at the threat of violence between other people.) Now, in fairness, other action stories use that device as well -- my issue as a listener is that in this case there is no explanation and no stated circumstance that would cause the action hero to suddenly change his behavior. I'm not a particularly character-oriented guy -- deep character development bores me to the point of putting an action book down -- but even I find it hard to identify with unidimensional characters when I'm not given any insight into their motivations or interests.

On top of that major plot defect, the story is badly written. Dialog is stilted and inauthentic. In many places, supposedly hard-core action heroes who are supposedly racing to combat an existential threat to humanity spend a lot of time using academic terms and lengthy explanations -- when a better writer might have such characters in that situation using simple, direct, action-oriented, declaratory statements. In several of those declamations, the author actually uses a false cognate -- selecting a word that means something different than context suggests the author intended (and is spelled differently, though it may sound similar).

Finally, I have to admit I am unclear on whether the reader was simply thrown off by the poor writing, or was himself unable to provide better than a detached reader's delivery. The pacing is as one would expect from a teacher reading at the front of the class -- not bad, but also frequently leaden and out of step with the tone and pace of the story's action. In several places the reader also stumbles over or simply mispronounces the author's (often strained) choice of vocabulary. It is like the teacher is reading a familiar text -- reading ahead over simple passages and as a result tripping over the details. Whichever it is, I found it a competent reading but a far cry from what I would describe as a "performance."

In sum: I can see how this would be considered a simple, easy-to-follow, and even exciting action story. But it lacks detail, character development, and in places even basic grammar and vocabulary. It wasn't my cup of tea. Adult readers / listeners looking to enjoy science fiction or action and adventure might want to find something that is perhaps a little more fully fleshed out -- something better developed for a more mature audience.

WOW! FANTASTIC NEW SERIES.

I enjoyed this book tremendously. Very well written with a strong protagonist, good friends/allies and a cruel and fiendish opponent. Lots of military action and politics as well. Very fast moving, I like how the next book is going and will definitely continue the series. Andria Stone is a n excellent writer. Nicholas Barta narrated/performed all the different characters very well. Worth a credit. I hope there will more books on this series to be published soon.