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  • Machine World

  • Undying Mercenaries, Book 4
  • By: B. V. Larson
  • Narrated by: Mark Boyett
  • Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (729 ratings)
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Machine World cover art

Machine World

By: B. V. Larson
Narrated by: Mark Boyett
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Summary

The Galactics arrived with their battle fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell burners, Earth joined a vast empire that spanned the Milky Way. Our only worthwhile trade goods are our infamous mercenary legions, elite troops we sell to the highest alien bidder.

In the fourth book of the series, James McGill is up for promotion. Not everyone is happy about that, and McGill must prove he's worth his stripes. Deployed to a strange, alien planet outside the boundaries of the Galactic Empire, he's caught up in warfare and political intrigue. Earth expands, the Cephalopod Kingdom launches ships to stop us, and a grand conspiracy emerges among the upper ranks of the Hegemony military.

In Machine World McGill faces an entirely new kind of alien life, Galactic prosecution, and thousands of relentless squid troopers. He lives and dies in the falling ashes of the empire, a man of unique honor at the dawn of humanity's resurgence.

Machine World is a military science fiction novel by best-selling author B. V. Larson. (To find the first book in the series, search for Steel World by B. V. Larson.)

©2015 B. V. Larson (P)2015 Audible Inc.

What listeners say about Machine World

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4th Hit

Fantastic 4th book the undying story could almost be set in Ancient Rome with its scheming, wheeling and dealing.
The action was all there and the imagination was enthralling
Can't wait for the next book Keep it up I'm hooked. 👍😎🍺

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another good one

the concept is still working. you know the charictors and how everything works and I'm still enjoying the story's. keep them coming

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3 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Change in Narrators voice?

In chapter 22 the narrator changes voice. It's subtle but removes you from the story.

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Hot Conflict On A Cold World

Once more B V Larson delivers the goods in this fourth book in the Undying mercenaries series. I did wonder if he would be able to remain consistent in terms of quality of the story but was not disappointed. I can appreciate that after writing three previous books which were all excellent that it would be increasingly hard to come up with a continuing story that would satisfy the high standards already set thus far. Larson succeeds in this difficult task in the shape of Machine World and a new and hostile alien world is vividly wrought in the pages of this engrossing story.

Larson treats the reader further and brings back plot elements from the previous book, Tech World and unleashes them upon legion Varus. I like it when authors think ahead and weave characters, races and story elements together and uses them to great effect as the series of books progresses. As ever in this great series the combat and even the training is brutal and unforgiving. I do still have to wonder at the mentality of those who can engage in training or evaluation sessions with their close colleagues and kill them viciously and then go on as if nothing has happened the following day. it does seem to me that all the repeated experiences of death would destroy a persons mind but our battle hardened legionnaires seem to be able to shake this off time after time.

Another oddity in the series is the lack up to this point of any infantry support via some form of cavalry in the shape of mechanised armoured support. It would appear that the military brass has stumbled across a well known sound military tactic in having troops supported in such a way as if it's a new idea. it does also seem rather strange that no close air support ever seems to be used to assist in a ground war of the magnitudes evident in the surface combat seen in this story. The above observations would be my only real question mark over the nature of the stories seen in this series but despite these it still doesn't detract from the enjoyment of them.

Yet again Larson packs plenty of story into this book not wasting words on anything superfluous to the narrative and so keeps things moving and relevant and as such machine World is yet another page turner in the Undying Mercenaries series. Some other authors would probably have this book split into two related books in a series but not Larson. His writing style is never wasteful in any regard and we are moved through the narrative efficiently which has held my interest non-stop from first to last page.

I could go into more plot detail to give those who have not read any of this series a hint at the sort of story to expect but I think that anyone reading a review of the fourth book in the series is more than likely to pick up the first in the series, Steel World and so by now will have a good idea of what to expect and so I shall not ruin your enjoyment of this excellent story by possible spoiler information. Suffice to say that our hapless hero, James McGill manages to end up in all sorts of trouble both on and off the battlefield and so what I will say is that I rate this another top marks effort from Larson and worthy of the series and what you might have come to expect from this excellent and entertaining saga.

Mark Boyett once more does an excellent job of the narration and having listened to all the books in this series thus far have come to realize that his rendering of James McGill reminds me somewhat of Denzel Washington's voice and accent. I wonder if others will hear this or perhaps it's just me!

Rarely have I come across a series of stories I found so addictive and enthralling and full credit to Larson's writing abilities for maintaining such a high standard of work.

Right, now off to download the next book in the series, Death World.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Not as good

in contrast to the last book this is a big step down. Combat is less engaging, interpersonal stories aren't as compelling and the humour is not as funny. Also Carlos is insanely annoying.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant series

Great book and a brilliant series of adventures. Characters are strong believable and interesting, narration is for me what brings the story to life

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Enjoyable read

Lot's of twists, insane situations and action aplenty. Leaves me looking forward to the next ...

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Another Great Story with a Great Narrator.

in the series Undying Mercenaries Another great story from BV Larson. complimented by a incredibly flexible narrator Mark Boyett. this man makes audio stories come to life. I will have to find more audio books narrated by this person.

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Brilliant continuation of the series

This is one of the better books in the undying mercenaries series and BV Larson continues to do marvellous storylines. There is typically plenty of action and plenty of dying and coming back to life as usual in the series as well as James McGill getting into plenty of trouble, however towards the end of this book it does push credibility A bit far regarding how much trouble James McGill can actually get into. Other than that as I said before this book is brilliant and well worth a read. Mark boyyet reads this book fantastically with a large range of voices for the characters as well as being able to suit the emotion for that scene and specific character within the book. All in I can guarantee you won't be using audibles returns policy and that goes doubly for any already existing fans of the undying mercenaries series.

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great book 📖 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

a another great book so far I love them great story looking forward to listen to the next one 😃

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