The Band of Moonlit Waters

Spero’s Legacy, Book 1

By: Brad Bussie

Narrated by: Lyle Blaker

Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

After going into cold sleep aboard Earth's last surviving colony ship, Commander Tyler Ryan Tor awakens marooned on an alien world.

Having gone to sleep expecting to awaken orbiting a distant habitable planet with the rest of Earth's refugees, he finds himself alone and hunted by an ancient evil.

The darkness that pursues Commander Tor wants the knowledge in his head, but there is one problem–Tyler can’t remember anything before the crash.

It is up to a ragtag band of unlikely heroes to keep the commander out of the dark lords’ clutches and to save the world from total annihilation.

©2021 Brad Bussie (P)2023 Brad Bussie

Giving up

The premise sounded interesting; however I'm finding the non-stop action exhausting. Also, I like to do other things while I listen and this book requires more attention. I don't usually have a problem following unfamiliar worlds with new language/terms - but this moves so quickly that it requires focus. I only got around 1 and a half hours into it, and so far it's been non-stop fighting against a variety of protagonists. This is a great book for action lovers who don't mind the focus being on getting out of predicaments, but not so much for those of us who prefer action balanced with character and world development.

Could not finish

There was just something about high tech and simultaneous medieval tech happening at the same time. And the difficulty in maintaining a suspension of disbelief with regard to the laws of physics.

struggles, development, mostly just battle scenes.

events just run from one battle to another without justification (like mc "no one tells me what to do", so he just starts killing). The battles seem well described, but thats the gist of the story action. Characters come and go without background world development. too many character names sound the same to me so had hard time distinguishing. maybe story would be filled out in next book? However I don't recognize any hints or hope for explanations to come. the story idea seems novel though, but not well developed imo. performance is good, but cant really save the missing story elements.

DNF

the first chapter had a great start, but after that the story became lots of battles and confusing motivations. I really didn't care what the characters did or why they did it because the author never gave me anything to connect to emotionally.

Not interested in reviewing

What an unpar management audible has, that requieres reviewing. Some fancy speeking small minded...

it’s ok

good premise for a story. But the book has a feeling of being written in a hurry. Things happen and you don’t know who some of the characters are. There seems to be a lot of backstory. That just isn’t developed making it relatively shallow. Still, I’ll probably listen to the sequels to find out what happens.

Never Really Coalesced Into Something Great

We’re given the bones of a great setting - a world of dangerous creatures and mysterious magics, built upon the ancient bones of high technology.

However, the world just isn’t fleshed out enough. We’re constantly told that the natives are using weapons made with hafts of bone and blades of giant crystals or stone - but not why (or how, for that matter). There seems to be plenty of high tech metals available - apparently (unbelievably) just sitting around, unscavenged for centuries.

Heck, our hero even comes across a shipping container - apparently no worse for wear, electronic locks still charged and ready to open up its undisturbed contents with the press of a button.

We’re introduced to too many characters with too little background, and the dialogue between them is rather stilted.

I’m still not sure how the three types of magic (the Many/crystals/liquid metal) work, as their powers and requirements seem to change to whatever the story needs in the moment.

Really enjoyed it

I don't normally write reviews but I really enjoyed this story and wanted to balance out some of the negative reviews. I'm an avid audiobook listener. Typically, I listen to at least 15 books a month. In an audiobook, I want to entertained, have interest in the characters, like the narrator and have the story move at a fast pace. This is a fun (not humorous) adventure. The narrator is great. I just purchased the next book.

Should be classifies as 'YA'

This book isn't horrible, but it isn't good either.
ALL of the characters as cliched, boring, and you just don't care what happens to any of them.
You should enjoy it of youare 15 and haven't really been exposed to good, original SciFi.
Don't waste your credits; i couldn't even finish it.

I wanted to love this

This could be an amazing book with some editing. The character development felt shallow as characters come in abruptly and leave quickly with the feeling that we’re supposed to know who they are and their importance but without any context to actually know. There was not enough given about any character to make me care about them or their story. Sometimes a dramatic backstory would be shared but it’s like none of it was actually developed enough to create characters you feel one way or another about. The setting is constantly changing and, much like the characters, it’s as if we’re already supposed to know the context. The story didn’t flow well but I kept listening because I hoped it would finally start coming together. I gave up with 3 hours left in the book. I really wanted it to become cohesive and real but it felt jumbled and unwieldy. There is great potential here but it doesn’t feel like it was ready for publication.