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  • Duel in the Dark

  • Blood on the Stars, Book 1
  • By: Jay Allan
  • Narrated by: Luke Daniels
  • Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (237 ratings)
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Duel in the Dark cover art

Duel in the Dark

By: Jay Allan
Narrated by: Luke Daniels
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Summary

A new adventure by the author of the best-selling Crimson Worlds and Far Stars series.

The Confederation has fought three wars against the forces of the totalitarian Union. Three generations of its warriors have gone off to war, held the line against the larger, more powerful enemy. Now the fourth conflict is imminent, and the Confederation's navy is on alert, positioned behind the frontier, waiting for the attack it knows is coming.

The battleship Dauntless has spent the past 10 months patrolling the border, deployed far forward of the main fleet, a forlorn hope, an advance guard positioned to give the warning of invasion. But no attack has come. Her crew is exhausted, and the aging battleship needs maintenance. With the fleet mobilized and the forward bases overloaded beyond capacity, she is sent clear across the Confederation, to a planet along the quiet and peaceful far frontier. Her crew is looking forward to a rest, and Dauntless herself is scheduled for a long-overdue maintenance session.

But the quiet frontier isn't what it seems, and when a distress call is received from one of the mining colonies on the edge of Confederation space, it falls to Captain Tyler Barron to take Dauntless forward, to find out what is happening, and to put a stop to it.

Barron and his crew have their ship - and each other - but they can expect no other help. Suspicion is strong that Union deceit is at play, that the attack is some sort of diversion intended to draw Confederation forces from the disputed border. The orders are clear. No ships will be transferred from the prospective battle line. Stopping whatever is happening on the rim is Barron's responsibility and his alone.

Barron is the grandson of the Confederation's great hero, the father of the modern navy. His family name has always carried privilege with it - and crushing responsibility. And now he must prove that he has inherited more from his famous grandfather than name and privilege. He must face the enemy and win the victory before the Confederation is caught between two enemies and destroyed.

©2016 Jay Allan Books Inc. (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Duel in the Dark

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Abandon Ship

I stopped listening after a few hours, which is super rare for me. The narrator managed to take mediocre prose and make it unbearable to listen to.

Every character had a seriously stupid, and unnecessary, and woefully inaccurate, accent.

Every character spoke so slowly it was like they were trying to cope with a stroke.

And there are only so many times I can hear the word 'warrior' pronounced 'woy yir'.

If you like to bite holes in beer cans and yell 'Semper Fi' at the top of your lungs, this book might be for you.

If you like plausible military sci-fi, look to Joshua Dalzelle instead.

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13 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Better SiFi difficult to find.

This was a refreshing SiFi story, a great start to the series, I did find this a little over descriptive of personnel in the story, later it soon got going. Perhaps a little more technical would be nice. But that could be me. Totally looking forward to later books in this series. The narrator is brilliant, well done thank you.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Second chance

At first listen I admit that I did not rate this book but now having re listened from the start i can honestly recommend that you give this book a chance. Initially it seems a bit disjointed but once you gather all the pieces together it becomes an extremley good listen. Will now look forward to continuing to listen to the rest of the saga.

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
  • Aj
  • 21-12-19

a bit predictable

don't get me wrong the whole book was ok but it was a bit predictable

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Narrator terrible.

The narrator is monotone, almost robotic. Couldn't get even one chapter in. Ruined what might have been a decent book.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

enjoyed

good book could go bit more in-depth in parts but I liked it in all tho some parts bit predictable and stolen off star trek lol good read tho

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good story

Overall liked it. beginning was a bit slow and dragging but going deeper into it, was getting better and better

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1 person found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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  • Me
  • 15-11-22

Extremely boring with zero redeeming qualities

So let's see... the "story" is non-existent. You get introduced to a ton of characters all of which are soooo boring that I couldn't even force myself to dislike - they were that bad... Honestly I can't think of anything else to add - since nothing meaningful happened in the book.

The only good thing about the book is that it sounds much better at 1.3 speed, instead of 1.0. I have the feeling that they deliberately slowed down the audio for some reason.

My recommendation - avoid this book, there's nothing in there worth listening

P.S. If you are looking for a good military space scifi give the Honor Harington series a try

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great listen for scfi fans

I read a lot of people complaining about the horrendous accents, I for one didn't find it bad at all then again I'm used to over the top voice acting as a fan of warhammer 40k.

all in all if you are in to scfi and military it's a great book.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

first in series

After reading the first 6 books in the series I was not expecting a lot from the audio book. The Audio book was a bit slow to start and the readers characterisation of the different voices for each characters was strange at first but I soon got used this and was soon engrossed in the story and thoroughly enjoyed the audio book.

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1 person found this helpful