Despite its intriguing premise (Alien artifact linked to the origin of life in the solar system) I could not make it to the end of this story. Certainly some of the dialog is humorous and the set up is very interesting. But the characters are not just cardboard cut outs but wooden in the character and almost a send up of L Ron Hubbard’s space operas (and if you have to ask who HE is just think one of the worst prose writers in the genre). The protagonist is “the hardened army vet who will kill anyone he has too but is essentially a nice guy”) while his side kick is a nerdy scientist who becomes “A hardened but smart companion”. The whole interplay between these two and the evil Lieutenant in the US Space Corp is so silly and ridiculous occasionally I thought “Maybe this crappy book is a parody” but no- the author is serious. As far as the commanders of other nation’s space vessels (I will not give it away to anyone brave enough to finish this- or as I did get 75% through it) their actions are simply unbelievable and their reactions to events just silly.

Not a single character is fleshed out- there are no shades of gray or any shading at all in the characters. That is being kind because the characters are simply one sided representations of something that no one would ever meet or encounter in any situation. I probably could get my money back but since I paid $1.99 on sale I will not. Whelp was it worth $1.99- NO because I waster 6 hours of time listening to this just God Awful tripe.

I will say that the reader did a nice Job with this terrible material.