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The Daedalus Incident cover art

The Daedalus Incident

By: Michael J. Martinez
Narrated by: Kristin Kalbli,Bernard Clark
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Editor reviews

An interstellar swashbuckling fantasy adventure, The Daedalus Incident captures two very different frontiers: a cave system on Mars undergoing geological exploration, and the open ocean of the 18th century. With the discoveries of two intrepid explorers, Lt. Jain (voiced by Kristin Kalbli) and Lt. Thomas Weatherby (voiced by Bernard Clark), and the incredible overlap between their worlds, this mind-bending genre mashup truly takes off. Energetic performances from Kalbli and Clark make this already engrossing adventure a must-listen for fans of fantasy and historical adventure alike.

Summary

Mars is supposed to be dead. Bizarre quakes are rumbling over the long-dormant tectonic plates of the planet, disrupting its trillion-dollar mining operations and driving scientists past the edges of theory and reason. However, when rocks shake off their ancient dust and begin to roll seemingly of their own volition carving canals as they converge to form a towering structure amid the ruddy terrain, Lt. Jain and her JSC team realize that their routine geological survey of a Martian cave system is anything but. The only clues they have stem from the emissions of a mysterious blue radiation, and a 300-year-old journal that is writing itself.

Lt. Thomas Weatherby of His Majesty’s Royal Navy is an honest 18th-century man of modest beginnings, doing his part for King and Country aboard the HMS Daedalus, a frigate sailing the high seas between continents and the immense Void between the Known Worlds. With the aid of his fierce captain, a drug-addled alchemist, and a servant girl with a remarkable past, Weatherby must track a great and powerful mystic, who has embarked upon a sinister quest to upset the balance of the planets the consequences of which may reach far beyond the Solar System, threatening the very fabric of space itself.

©2013 Michael J. Martinez (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Daedalus Incident

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Hornblower/Alien Steam-Punk Adventures!

This review really relates to all 3 volumes of this series.
A wonderful mash-up of lots of sci-fi and fantasy tropes, fleshed out with the occasional appearance from real-life historical characters. Initially a bit confusing but after a while one can just relax and wallow in the pure fun of the story. Very well-written, the author easily masters juggling several story-lines at once. As I'm British I'm particularly pleased that life on board a circa 1800 Navy battleship is so well evoked and there's plenty of hard sci-fi mixed up too.
Fabulous performances from both readers, Kristin in particular manages a really good cut-glass British accent, somewhat reminiscent of Downton Abbey's Lady Mary.
Top class entertainment!

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3 people found this helpful

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

Rivetting sci-fi fantasy

If you could sum up The Daedalus Incident in three words, what would they be?

Marvelous, exciting, imaginative.

What other book might you compare The Daedalus Incident to, and why?

Not sure it does compare to any other book I've read. This is like a mash up of Master and Commander In Space meets The Martian Chronicles.

Two universes: Ours but a 100 years or so in the future and another parallel universe where time has run slower so it is only 1780 or so and they have working alchemy which allows them to fly sailing ships in space to the other planets in our solar system which actually support life. The story runs in parallel but the characters in the two universes eventually meet to combat a common enemy.

Which character – as performed by Kristin Kalbli and Bernard Clark – was your favourite?

They're all excellently portrayed. Some slightly dodgy English accents and pronunciations from the American readers but not bad enough to be off-putting. They both give excellent performances.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Its all exciting stuff. Couldn't wait to get back to listening to it.

Any additional comments?

I initially found it rather odd having sailing ships in space and this put me off a little. However, give it a chance and you'll see it totally works in the context of this novel and the two universes. It builds up into an exciting story with characters you'll get to really root for. The sequel is also excellent and I'm really looking forward to book 3 which is surely coming.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story, only disrupted by the accents

I was sceptical about this story at first. I struggled a bit with the blending of alchemy and harder sci-fi. But came to really like the characters and enjoy the plot. The performance is also *mostly* good. My criticism as a Brit and Francophile is of the accents, which are... horrendous! They really jarred me out of the story in places. Why does a character, announced as having a thick Liverpudlian accent in the text, instead have a thick Scottish brogue? Why does a Navy pilot from Birmingham sound like the Queen? And why do the French characters sound like something from a Monty Python sketch? Surely it makes sense to have British actors voice a story with primarily British heroes, rather than Americans who sound like they learned English accents by watching Downton Abbey?

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Quite enjoyable

I quite enjoyed listening to this. I thought it was a unique story and I enjoyed the switching narratives and they way they came together in the end. I thought the characterisation could have had some more depth and some of the dialogue and storylines were predictable. On the whole though I enjoyed listening to it and it was narrated well.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Rattling good yarn

The story is great, the performances were mostly excellent, except the poor chap who was meant to produce a believable British accent had not got hold of the difference in pronunciation of lieutenant in British English. It should be leftenant, not lootenant. There are other howlers, but given this is the rank of one of the main protagonists, this is a bit of an oversight. Other than that, the readers do a really very good job in separating the different characters.

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

A fun and quite unique adventure

A fun and quite unique adventure that is worth your time, even if it's just to hear the narrators flex their craft.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

interesting story with some irritating things

1. Author has no idea how pre decimal currency works. half a crown is 2shillings and sixpence so it would not clear an 8 Shilling debt. 20 shillings to the pound, not 16 as assumed and a crown is not a pound it's 5 shillings . This really annoyed bad research.
2. narrator has absolutely no idea what regional British accents are from where. Birmingham/brummie doesn't not sound like bad Indian subcontinent even if the character is Asian. Liverpool/scouse not hard. they'd sound like the bloody Beatles not (and this was random) a pseudo Glaswegian accent(not a bad attempt though) . this 2nd got me in trouble as i actually exclaimed "what the actual f***" when I heard it and oke the mrs up who was asleep

If you could not give two sods about historical or linguistic continuity you should enjoy this it's a fun yarn.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Good mix of sci fi and fantasy. A sort of space age clock work alchemy meets space colony sci fi. Engaging story, good developed characters. Would recommend.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable, but a bit long winded.

Pretty good story and narration, but probably could have done with a bit of further editing as it seemed to take a lot of time to get to the point. Also it would have been good to have an English narrator for the man's part given that he was pretending to be a British naval officer!

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

Good story, terrible accents

I nearly gave up on this early on because the British accents, especially the 18th century ones were so appallingly done, but I'm glad I stuck with it because the story was gripping and engaging as well as intelligently plotted. Overall very enjoyable despite the poor attempts at sounding English..

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