A Question of Will: Aliomenti Saga, Book 1 Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Alex Albrinck (Author), Todd McLaren (Narrator), Tantor Audio (Publisher)

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Will Stark is a self-made multibillionaire, happily married, and a proud father. He arrives home to find his house destroyed and his family murdered and is himself rescued from certain death by a mysterious trio.

His rescuers are part of a splinter faction of a centuries-old secret society that has developed incredible technological advances and unlocked the method to release humanity's innate potential. Will was mistakenly believed to be a key dissident and fugitive, on the run from the primary group, known as the Aliomenti.

Society believes him dead, and Will elects to work from the shadows to learn the secrets of the Aliomenti - secrets that can help him seek his own form of vengeance. Or, perhaps, become the man they'd sought all along.

Listening Length

10 hours and 49 minutes
Author

Alex Albrinck
Narrator

Todd McLaren
Audible release date

May 10, 2016
Language

English
Publisher

Tantor Audio
ASIN

B01F2KSZMW
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	10 hours and 49 minutes
Author	Alex Albrinck
Narrator	Todd McLaren
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	May 10, 2016
Publisher	Tantor Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B01F2KSZMW
Best Sellers Rank	#122,839 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #428 in Time Travel Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #1,609 in Time Travel Fiction #3,396 in Classic Literature (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

869 global ratings

5 star		52%
4 star		28%
3 star		10%
2 star		6%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Wendy Wyrostek

Excellent boost to the imagination

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 13, 2022

Verified Purchase

Albrinck delivers a wonderful fantasy world with profound ideas and concepts. The book can stand alone or you can enjoy more of the series. Each book can stand alone with a solid finishing point without the series reader getting frustrated with half the book catching readers up on previous books. Truly genius writing.

Helpful

Grossly Irrelevant

There is very little accurate science in this piece of fiction. It has interesting concepts but with flawed execution and dialog

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 11, 2014

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This is science fiction written without the benefit of a good understanding of basic science. Or perhaps the author *does* have a good grasp of current science, but either cannot trust himself to communicate it effectively to a lay reader base, or simply cannot believe that his audience is capable of comprehending it? This 1st book was free for download, and I only barely managed to convince myself to read the whole book after the 1st several chapters because I'd already purchased the rest of the trilogy, anticipating I would like the novel based upon the Amazon description and an intriguing cover. Rarely has the old adage, "Don't judge a book by its cover" been more appropriate a warning, even though this 1st title was free.

I *did* read the 1st 4 books, 3 of them as Nook books. That earns them at least 2 stars from me, since I am reserving my 1 star reviews for titles I couldn't force myself to finish. Books 1 and 4 are the most poorly-executed of the 4. I simply don't understand all the wonderful 4 and 5 star reviews of works so light on science and so heavy on fiction and fantasy, and burdened with such large flaws of fact and voice. But I'll guess that the creative ideas behind the work and perhaps a poor understanding of basic scientific concepts allowed them to ignore things which stopped me cold, popping me right out of the story as efficiently as might my hearing Sister Mary Francis cover a gangsta rap track.

On the topic of free, I truly do appreciate authors like this one, having a large catalog of works making their early titles available for free so one may try them without risk. But in all honesty, a review is a review and it would defeat the purpose to allow the price to defeat the purpose of an honest review. So, plain and simple, thanks, but this author could have done far, far better. If he has a word processor and computer, or even access to a public library, he could very easily have fact-checked any of this science which he has so completely ignored. He isn't meeting the reader half-way to even barely-plausibility along the way to the reader's requirement to suspend his disbelief as he takes up the story.

If you remember a few of the most essential and basic science lessons from your early school days, e.g. the following laws: 1) the law of conservation of energy, 2) Newtonian Mechanics, 3) Boyle's Gas Laws, 4) the Second Law of Thermodynamics, 5) "Nature Abhors a Vacuum". 6) and basic economic theory, you will constantly be jarred out of this story and plot line by blatant disregard for basic physics and economic theory regarding critical points of the storyline. Granted, all readers are expected to meet the authors mid-way with a voluntary suspension of disbelief. But this author either simply doesn't understand what he's writing or asking, or he simply doesn't care to try to earn the right to list this title as science fiction instead of in the more proper pure fantasy category wherein this work and its subsequent titles belong.

For the author's benefit, I'll share that:

1) There is going to be a great deal of waste heat generated by the storage or the discharge of electrical energy, sufficient to vaporize his envisioned nanobots, should they even begin to attempt 0.001% of the feats he expects them to perform routinely as major plot points. Likewise, only in fantasy could a human body store or liberate such energies without generating immense and unmanageable/ unsurvivable heat.

2) A nano machine is not impervious to mechanical or thermal energies. So a microscopic layer, for example, couldn't prevent a papercut, much less a sword stroke, a bullet's impact, or an explosive shockwave overpressure event. They would be converted from nanomachines to either an aerosol dust of nanoparticles, or a cloud of silicon vapor, or both, coating the wounds they failed to prevent.

3.) Ordinary submarines, even modern ones, cannot operate at miles beneath the ocean. Each 32 feet of depth adds 14.7 psi (an atmosphere) of pressure. WW2 boats routinely had a crush depth under 1000 feet and even modern nuclear subs cannot survive more than a 1/2 mile deep. Experimental vehicles like the Woods Hole's 'Alvin' can reach and maintain 2 miles depth, for only several hours before being required to surface. But each 1,000 feet of depth adds another 30 atmospheres of pressure, so at 2 miles depth, there will be 300 atmospheres of pressure on all surfaces, over 3000 psi, enough to squeeze a liter of air into 3ml of space, and there could simply *never* be a vacuum-filled chamber having any outlet to the sea. And no passenger capsule using metallurgy prior to the 1960s could survive such depths.

Likewise, a 21st century American couldn't even *begin* to effectively communicate with an Englishman from circa 1000 AD, and certainly would not be able to converse using his habitual cliches, metaphors, mannerisms, etc. Since such time travel is a main plot feature, it is remarkable that all the characters in each era still speak with precisely the English of the modern era to our protagonist... a massive convenience for both he and the author, doubtless. But the convention truly hampers the character's dialog, often jarringly so when a person of an archaic age uses a modern phrase or euphemism.

And while we're speaking of dialog, ouch! Seriously, the 1st 5 chapters or so is filled with the most ridiculously over-the-top dialogue from the most ridiculous comic book styled cardboard cut-out villains, who act more hapless than Keystone Cops.
Blessedly, this tapers off somewhat as we moved into the story, which is what allowed me to finish the works, but, painfully, there is a tendency for this comic-book voice and author intrusion to pop up jarringly and repeatedly around major plot points. And then there's what I could never shake from the moment that I read the title. I mean each time I read the word 'Aliomenti', I couldn't help but to recognize that the fictional (Bavarian) 'Illuminati' also contains 5 syllables, many of the same or similar phonemes, and that it is difficult to imagine that the similarity was accidental.

And to top it all off, at some point, the narration begins to read like an accountant delivering a childrens' Sunday school lesson as if reading it from an antiquated telephone residential listings book. At some point, the character Will's internal dialog becomes indistinguishable from his spoken dialog, and even from the author's routine intrusions. It really makes it hard to remain 'inside' the story as you read it, able to experience the storyline through the character's eyes instead of having it narrated to you as if by Ferris Beuller's teachers droning on and on. I'd really like to have had the chartacters tell the story more often, using their own unique voices, rather than to have the author narrate it to me in his own voice, using the characters more like finger puppets than actors on a stage contained between two covers.

I can't honestly recommend this title to anyone, and so I won't. But it is free, and more entertaining that watching late night infomercials, if you've little else to do. And Books 2 and 3 earn 3 stars, albeit sharing many of the flaws already shared. So far, I'm out $3 and about 24 hours, and I can live with that, for now. And I believe this author deserves the chance to hone his craft using such donations.

31 people found this helpful

Helpful

J.C. Prins

An Amazing Adventure

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 10, 2016

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This book is a wonder. The writing is crisp and evocative; the plot is innovative and exciting. The characters, even minor ones, are given compelling or humorous or just explanatory descriptive details. While some of the actions seem over the top, one certainly knows, or knows of, individuals who act out of the motives identified as driving each character. The sci-fi elements are generally believable, since much of the technology identified has a basis in things going on today. The main protagonist, Will Stark, and his small coterie of cohorts are understandable and delightful. You care about Will and his family and friends. The bad guys are a little campy, but, as I said, not out of the realm of understanding. This is a page-turner. I stayed up way too late/early on Saturday (thank heavens) to make good use of Sunday. Had it been a weekday I would have been toast.

I do have two complaints - one fairly trivial, one more substantive. The heftier complaint relates to the method of telling the story. The tale does not progress linearly, but hops about from place to place, time to time, and person to person. The various points of view are fascinating, so no problem there. However, the jumps in time make the thread of the story confusing for the first few paragraphs after each shift. The author always makes it work out fairly quickly and the technique does raise the elements of mystery and suspense, but it does cause moments of disorientation. It also tends to make the book feel ponderous when, in fact, there is really no excess to cut out. As to the minor quibble, the editing is less than pristine. I read my books on a Kindle, so it may be (aargggh!) due to that. Further, it is not so egregious as to be highly distracting. It is more of a minor irritation. If it is the author, another edit run through would have been a good idea. If it's the Kindle, please, please, please get it fixed!

Because I read a Kindle and have a service where I can acquire new books for free or minimal cost, I have so many books that I will have to live to a very ripe old age to read them all, but I am just compelled to buy more. So if a book isn't compelling rather quickly, I stop reading, something I would have never of dreamed of doing earlier in life. However, it also means that I can be annoyed if a book can't stand alone and I am supposed to purchase another book to continue the story. Arguably, one could stop reading at the end of this book, since one generally and vaguely knows what is going to happen next, but one would miss all the wonderful, intriguing details and how the author gets to the unknown, but expected ending. (One expects a happily-ever-after ending, but I could be seriously wrong.) In this case, I will be cheerfully buying the next book in the series, which fortunately is not outlandishly priced. I highly recommend this book and likely the series. For even minor sci-fi fans, it is a fun, yet fulfilling read.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

WENVOENIAN

The Aliomenti Saga

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 25, 2022

Verified Purchase

Wow, I read the first 3 books of the Ravager series before starting book 1 of the Aliomenti Saga, little did I realise what I was getting into. Alex Albrinck weaves a story involving time travel as an incidental thing. I am hooked. I want to know how everything is going to progress and work out for Will Stark, legend in his own and past lifetimes.

One person found this helpful

Cheryl M-M

Sci-Fi dystopian story with a secret society of super-skilled Uebermenschen...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 9, 2013

Verified Purchase

A meld of Sci-Fi meets dystopian world with secret Uebermensch societies.
It is fairly complex and strewn with small details that often don't become relevant till much later.
The main character is hunted and yet it remains unclear to a certain extent how innocent he really is. The book starts off with a race against time to save his wife and child. He is hunted by the Assassin and my favourite three musketeers, well known from the prequel Hunting Will (The Aliomenti Saga - Prequel) .
The whole money/inheritance sub-plot was far too distanced from the rest of the story and a lot of the details were superfluous. Saying that, it might become important in the next book, which might explain the abruptness and unexplained ending of that particular sideline.
I think the author needs to bring a little more emotional depth to the characters. At the moment they are quite cold and as a reader it is hard to relate to them on any level. The story went from strong to weak and then in the last quarter of the book the author kicked it up a notch or two and I can honestly say, without revealing any spoilers, that I didn't see that one coming.
I can see Albrinck becoming someone to watch out for when he has ironed out the wrinkles and finetuned his craft a little more. He has some interesting ideas on a sci-fi brain bashing timeloop understanding level.

One person found this helpful

Joolsies

The secoond book is better, but this one is worth reading for the back story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 5, 2016

Verified Purchase

I expected a tale of someone battling a sect or some such, with twists of demons thrown possibly.

It was the tale of a family and the groups they are linked to, focuses around one man Will Stark. It was mostly a well told tale. I enjoyed reading it. I finished is some time ago and have had time to ponder it and mull over the storyline somewhat. I guess I will have forgotten any annoyances that there may have been, but they can't have been too bad if indeed they were there, else I would remember them! The story does keep coming back to me and not in a bad way, like some books or films where you keep going over the flaws in the plot or execution. I will be reading the second book in due course to see where the story goes and to see if the author maintains the standard of the first book.

Amazon Customer

Good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 7, 2014

Verified Purchase

The fast paced action and well formed characters make this book easy to read and captivate the reader quickly. However it does get confusing when the narrative starts to change time zones, and only gets worse towards the end as all sorts of unexpected twists come along. It left me with a lot of unanswered questions and I'm not sure if I want to read the following books just to find the answers.

It is well written and I'm sure lots of people will enjoy it but be prepared as you will need to get the other books.

One person found this helpful

L. Meadow

Good but Needs an Editor

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 20, 2014

Verified Purchase

Sadly this book lives up to the reputation of self-published books. It needs a good editor to correct grammar and slash a red pen through all the needless repetition.

However despite those flaws, it was an enjoyable read. A bit light on detail when it comes to the technical stuff but the baddies are suitably bad and the good guys suitably good without being unbelievable. Plot line is a bit contrived and heavy handed in places (editor again) but for the most believable.

I am contemplating reading the next in the series but haven't rushed to buy it because of the lack of good editing in this one.

2 people found this helpful

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