The Crucible cover art

The Crucible

Reclaimer, Book 1

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The Crucible

By: Waldo Rodriguez
Narrated by: BJ Harrison
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About this listen

From the ashes of a dying world, a god will rise.

As an out of shape nerd, Gabriel Rivera had more pressing issues than outlandish things like godhood: Evacuating the city, joining the military, and protecting his family. Simple right?

Everything changed when the PAC invaded.

When the grim fate of his world is revealed, Gabriel joins the Reclaimer Project to save his family. A lowly F ranker, he's weaker than even the worst recruits. Good thing he's too stubborn for his own good.

Through blood and sweat Gabriel aims to grow stronger and rise above the rest.

Deadly traps lurk around every corner, mysterious factions move in the shadows, and dormant powers within him manifest in wild and dangerous ways.

Battered, bruised, and beaten, Gabriel refuses to stay down. For only in the fires of The Crucible are legends forged.

©2022 Waldo Rodriguez-Santiago (P)2023 Tantor
Cyberpunk Fiction Military Science Fiction

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All stars
Most relevant
tl;dr: I see a lot of the Iron prince in this story and I get what they are going for here, but the story has a few too many logical inconsistencies.
The protagonist spends a lot of time fretting about the safety of his family, but if he succeeds in the crucible he going to be put in cryo for 1000 years making the worrying kind of pointless, but even then, we're also told that the war is going poorly and even if they protagonists side wins, an ecological disaster is going to make the planet unlivable for the next 1000 years!
Even that is a little odd, 1000 people put into cryo for 1000 years on a space station to restart the human race is an awfully small group with no margin for error and no idea whats going to be on the other side and seemingly no male to female ratio mentioned unless i missed it.
there are a lot more narrative inconsistencies like the tonal whiplash of impending disaster and the trials that kill people running straight up against the anime military academy setting where people have free time to do their own thing around the base... as the world slowly spirals towards disaster...

There are good things here and you can enjoy the story, but you have to turn off your brain, ignore those inconsistencies and let the admittedly pretty good narrator go through the motions. For me personally I cant finish the book.

A bit of a mess logically.

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don't usually like any stories with mechs and military setting but this really got me hooked from book one. waiting on book 5 now and will continue listening as long as the story continues. worth the credits and time. Great premise for the story with hidden factions and organisations. won't say more, as wouldn't want to spoil for other listeners who get consumed by what they listen to.

Sci-fi progression fantasy with mechs

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Justifies fascist military hegemony without ever challenging it and attempts to justify it.
Don't know if í hate it yet but at the moment I'm giving the author the benefit of the doubt until after the second book.

Fascist apologism. good narration,

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Started the series after a recommendation, it's a zero to hero story.
The characters are detailed and the relationships are decent, Gabriel's far too forgiving at times but I can see struggles ahead because of it.
Military watchs complete with "charactor sheets" with a sort of system are the growth indicators complete woth a list of all recruits are available for all and its a race to see who's the best to be a reclaimer.

A good start to very detailed series ❤️

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