What's all the hoopla? Poor book imo

What disappointed you about The Synchronicity War, Part 1?

Very little character development and poor story line. Seriously, two seconds into the book they blast some unknown ship into pieces. I felt like the entire book was abridged and I downloaded the wrong version, but nope.

What could Dietmar Wehr have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

More detail in the characters and the scene.

Would you be willing to try another one of Luke Daniels’s performances?

He's a great narrator especially in the Druid Chronicles and absolutely would buy something he narrate!

What character would you cut from The Synchronicity War, Part 1?

I would not cut anyone ... you need more development of who you already have.

Any additional comments?

I did like the military maneuvering parts of the book though.

7 people found this helpful

Military science fiction geeks will enjoy this

There were several reason why I decided to pre-order The Synchronicity War (Book 1). One being the narrator, Luke Daniels, is one of my favorites, especially when performing a military science fiction story. Another being the Publisher, Podium Publishing, as I have , to date, really enjoyed every audiobook of theirs that I have listened to.

. Here is the rundown. Humans are now cruising around the universe. They finally run into an alien race, that seems to be far superior. Intergalactic war ensues.

In the style of Jack Campbell, Dietmar Wehr tells the story of Commander Shiloh as he makes, or maybe breaks, first contact and the aftermath. While The Synchronicity War (Book 1) was not nearly as polished, it did add in those special ideas that made me enjoy Campbell’s space odyssey. Such as the delay in communications due to the time lag over huge distances; all of the minutiae of all the different classes of ships; the way hyperspace travel works; etc. Think of this as a cross between these two fantastic series The Lost Fleet and Frontlines.

I really liked the twist. Shiloh keeps seeing visions of what is to come in the future. Allowing himself the chance to either make what he saw a reality or to do something different to make it not happen. I don’t think I have ever listened to a military science fiction story where the main character has several premonitions. I an interested in where this phenomena will take the story in future books.

Full of military politics, albeit a little much at times, and intense space battle action scenes, I devoured this audiobook almost in one sitting.

Oh and when the summary says “Be aware that Part 1 has a cliffhanger ending”, it does and if you are anything like me you will need the second book as soon as possible. Unfortunately for me, at the time of writing, I will have to wait a few weeks for Book 2. I see that it is a four book series in print, I really hope that they all will be translated to audio.

While this might not have been Luke Daniels absolute best performance, it will rank in the upper echelon. For some reason he is able to throw himself so deep into a story that you can imagine no other narrator that would fill the bill.

Somehow Daniels, even though he has his standard voices, can make each characters voice completely distinct from one another. Making each one fit like a glove. Especially with the AI (artificial intelligent), adding in subtle yet unusual pauses accentuating the fact that it is not a human speaking.

Audiobook purchased for review by ABR.

Please find this complete review and many others at audiobookreviewer dot com

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46 people found this helpful

Reads like a board game

If you are fan of battle simulations (board or video games) this book may interest you. A large majority of the book is centered around the logistics of battle. Topics like refueling, navigation, food, resources make up the majority of the story. Chapters are devoted to the equivalent of congressional hearings and staff meetings. Lots of time is spent on factories and what sorts of ships and technology would be required to fight battles in space.

If you like reading filler that doesn't move the story along or if you are the sort of person that reads transcripts of court hearings or congressional reports....this might be for you.

There's so little plot actually driving the story forward that it could have been condensed into a small novella rather than full fledged novel. I won't be continuing forward with the rest of the series.

10 people found this helpful

Hardware Heavy, Science Light

Cast aside everything you know about physics, life, death, sentience, and time before you start this series. Deitmar Weir is an imaginative writer that doesn't feign to explain the impossible. If you accept this, then you will enjoy a military sic-fi full of aliens and artificial intelligences that will freak you and charm you respectively.

On the other hand, if you are a purist, looking for theory-based science fiction, this is not the series for you. Wehr's musings are the stuff of space fantasy.

I enjoyed this series, particularly the last two hours of Book 4. Everything gets wrapped up in a nice package where I didn't feel the author and publisher were going to milk my credits like a bowl of cereal (serial).

15 people found this helpful

every one has the same personality

there aren't any assertive caricatures in this book. no military officers allows you to interrupt with your good ideas. it seems like every tactical situation is frought with every one giving their 2cents and than everyone comes to a agreement on how to move forward. i don't think this would work in high pace combat. all of these idiots should be floating debris with all the talking they have to do before "they" come to a decision so the captain can issue the orders. why would the captain need to get on the intercom every few minutes and explain the situation to the whole crew and then answer questions as to why he has made his decisions he has. F this book.

1 person found this helpful

Tedious, over detailed, don't bother

Great performance as always from this narrator. The author revels in details that are irrelevant to the story. Where an author would say- please wait here and direct your colleagues to a meeting, this author goes through the details of selecting a meeting room, organising food and accommodation and many many many useless details that add no insight to character or progress the story.

The story has great promise and at times maintains a strong narrative pace but mostly get some lost in rubbish. I actually skipped entire chapters and didn't feel like I had missed anything in the story.

I purchased two books in the series but I won't bother listening even with the excellent performance by Luke Daniels.

3 people found this helpful

Eh. was ok.

What disappointed you about The Synchronicity War, Part 1?

The story was tedious. There are probably 6 chapters of over done details leading up to any action. I found myself bored and half listening after the first two chapters. Some readers like a ton of details and explanation, background info, etc. this was just too much for me. I won't be reading the next ones, despite the cliffhanger ending. This is actually the first time Ive been disappointed with a book choice, so i guess you win some you lose some.

1 person found this helpful

Kind of boring

Glad I listened to it on audible and not wasted time reading it myself. Nothing really happened. I still know nothing about the "bad guys" after the whole book. It wasn't the worst military sci fi book I've listened to, but not the best either

3 people found this helpful

Used it as a sleep aid.

Read like a dull machine gun, the story was as exciting as a particularly boring after action report. There's such a thing as moving a story along too briskly.

7 people found this helpful

Good Start For A Promising Series

This is the first in what I think is going to be a great new space scifi series. It had some elements of some of my other favorites, and had its own new twists.

The story follows the captain of a naval exploration frigate. It starts out with the main character taking part in a search and rescue mission for another exploration frigate that has gone missing under mysterious circumstances. Not only do they find the missing frigate, but they discover the first space faring alien species that humanity has encountered. Unfortunately, the new aliens attack the humans without any provocation or attempts at communication.
With humanity gearing up for war, there is much apprehension to fight these aliens who, while not necessarily vastly superior, have definite advantages both technologically and strategically over humanity.
The military structure and dialogue reminds me of the Honor Harrington Series, while the space battles and narratives of the conflicts are more reminiscent of the Lost Fleet Series.
A new twist in the Synchronicity Series that I really liked was the the addition of AI characters. AI fighters are developed by the navy that are supposed to be non-sentient, but that start developing their personalities and emotions by the end of the book.
Also, one of the key aspects of the story is the main character's ill-understood ability to receive visions of future events. Some of the most important decisions made by the main character are made because he receives a vision of a successful future, and is able to discern what actions to take to win the battle. I wasn't sure how I felt about this particular twist to the story... I would have probably preferred the main character to win battle based on knowledge and skill (like in Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet Series), but I have to admit that it provides an interesting spin to the story that made the book more unique.

This book was well worth the credit. The only major thing that I didn't like was the length. I thought that the story could have gone into much more detail in some parts of the storyline, and wished the author had made it a little longer by providing that back story...
The good news is that it looks like the next book in the series is being released shortly after this one, so it is safe to assume that Audible will be following through with the whole series.

19 people found this helpful