Same but different

The story of First Contact is an old one, but the way it's told is different. Jeff Carlson does a fairly good job with a female main character but it's obvious from Vonn's reactions that the author is male.
The performance is good. But missing the other voices. It's all read in one voice.
The story of the aliens is interesting and enough different from stock to be interesting and hold my attention.
Worth the $1.99 I paid for it.

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First person action story with unique sci fi first contact plot

I took a gamble on this mostly because I am intrigued about Europa... The first bit is a fast action shoot-EM-up and was a bit too much but as the story developed it became more creative and intriguing. The concept is first rate and highly imaginative concerning the life forms in Europa but the constant fast action detracts from the excitement of first contact. In a way it's probably more realistic in any case. I will probably read the next installment to see where the author takes the story. Overall, the imagination is first rate.

I listened to the audible book at 3x speed and found the narration pleasant and easy to listen and I would recommend the audible version.

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Suffers from poor narration

The narrator has a nice voice but she barely even tries to dramatize the story or vary the character's voices. Also, there are missing gaps in the recording where she apparently took a break. Very distracting and confusing.

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Mulit layered, Sci-fi, Aliens on Frozen Moon

Any additional comments?

The Frozen Sky: The Novel
Written by: Jeff Carlson
Narrated by: Darrin Revitz
This is a very, multi layered book. It is a book about technology, space exploration, finding new life, deceit, what is life worth, what life is worth saving, and so many more layers. This also has so many cool things in it. A computer that can be programmed into the suit that can take over when our gal is trying to get away from the savage small creatures. The computer/suit took over to evade and protect and she was in the suit and along for the ride for a while. She can take over when needed but the computer can take over when necessary. That was awesome. This same programmed computer came in handy and was a big part of the story. I liked this book so much I bought book 2.
The narration was excellent. She was easy to understand and was great at keeping the voices straight and making the excitement and suspense heightened. Great job

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recommended to science fiction fans

Frozen Sky by Jeff Carlson is the first in a series by the same name. Alexis Vonderach is among the crew that is sent to investigate potential evidence of sentient life on Jupiter’s moon, Europa. When her two companions are killed, she realizes that there is more to be found than anyone first thought. Alone, she must traverse the ice moon attempting to survive as she interacts with creatures that no one thought existed, until she can be rescued and attempt to forge a new path of understanding and communication with these strange new creatures that are trying to kill her.

This novel deals with issues that are timeless in hard science fiction with regards to alien life. Carlson does a fantastic job of laying out all the different issues that come up, including misguided curiosity, ethics, and the fight between politics, commerce, and scientists. He also touches on artificial science, the challenges of small crews living together in confined areas in space and even women in science. One aspect of the novel that I really enjoyed was the features of and any interactions with the alien species. Alexis’ quickly realizes that she doesn’t really know what she’s dealing with and I really liked that. There was no clear superiority implied from her and she is the champion for the alien creatures. The novel is also packed with action, which was exciting. While the alien life, the technology, and the larger brush strokes surrounding the ethics involved were fantastic, the actual character building in general felt a little flat to me. Most of the characters were interesting enough, but there were a lot of them and the only ones that came into sharp relief were those that Alex interacted with frequently. I especially didn’t like the romantic relationships and Alexis’ preoccupation with her interaction with her male colleagues. I felt that it was forced and could have been left out for some more in depth relationship building among the different characters instead.

Unfortunately, the narration by Darrin Revitz really made me frustrated with this novel and tainted the story for me. I think a narrator used to using accents would have done a better job. There were characters from a lot of different nationalities and hearing the different accents would have helped a lot, especially, because it was extremely difficult to follow who was speaking at times. The production quality was okay. There might have been a few skips in the audio, which is not ideal. I would recommend this novel to any science fiction fan, especially those who enjoy space-centric settings and high level issues about interactions with alien life.

Audiobook was provided for review the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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9 people found this helpful

Great story, horrible narration!

I definitely enjoyed the story but did not interview the narrator ahead of time? She has one voice and one voice only for the multitude of characters, with a lispy rasp that makes it painful to listen to. I can normally listen to a book of this duration in a couple of days, this one took me a week! On multiple occasions I had to stop the book and do other things before coming back because I was too annoyed with how poorly she pronounced common words. Sadly, she's narrated the second book too, it might take me a while to get through that one as well!

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1 person found this helpful

Mediocre

it's not bad and performance is good but im spoiled with better, more interesting stories, I'm sorry.

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"Cool" story

A very thouhgtful story of first contact anf the challenges of anthropologic differences. Narrator needs maturity and better vocabulary for improved emotion and correction of many disturbing mispronunciations.

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inspiring story. definitely glad I read.

nothing really new here, though. what makes this story, is its presentation and delivery of inspiration and hope. Vonnie became annoying sometimes toward the end, but understandably so. because she was frustrated.

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Excellent science fiction

This may be the most well thought out first contact story I have ever read. The author does a great job exploring how an alien culture may evolve and think.

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