Warship: Black Fleet Trilogy, Book 1 Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Joshua Dalzelle (Author), Mark Boyett (Narrator), Podium Audio (Publisher)

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From Joshua Dalzelle, author of the best-selling Omega Force series, comes an all new vision of humanity's future.

In the 25th century, humans have conquered space. The advent of faster-than-light travel has opened up hundreds of habitable planets for colonization, and humans have exploited the virtually limitless space and resources for hundreds of years with impunity. So complacent have they become with the overabundance that armed conflict is a thing of the past, and their machines of war are obsolete and decrepit. What would happen if they were suddenly threatened by a terrifying new enemy? Would humanity fold and surrender, or would they return to their evolutionary roots and meet force with force?

One ship - and one captain - will soon be faced with this very choice.

Listening Length

8 hours and 20 minutes
Author

Joshua Dalzelle
Narrator

Mark Boyett
Audible release date

June 30, 2015
Language

English
Publisher

Podium Audio
ASIN

B00W8EBE8I
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	8 hours and 20 minutes
Author	Joshua Dalzelle
Narrator	Mark Boyett
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	June 30, 2015
Publisher	Podium Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00W8EBE8I
Best Sellers Rank	#38,877 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #217 in Hard Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #833 in Space Opera Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #877 in Hard Science Fiction (Books)

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mjk76

Hard Military SciFi

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2022

Verified Purchase

Many times, when I go to read a military sci-fi book, I get irritated by things like nonsensical rank structure, improbable weapons, ridiculous tactics, etc. Josh Dalzelle has managed to avoid all of those pitfalls in this book. It's a pretty neat tale of a captain and crew coming into their own, after being written off by higher command.

Having spent some considerable time in the Air Force I could readily relate to many of the ideas and many of the concepts in this book. One thing that I particularly liked was the balance between computers and people. There were no extraneous characters, and the author felt no need to turn the ship's computer or computers into characters of their own. We live in an age where people seem to believe that they must personify their machines. So this came as a welcome relief.

The book moves at a brisk pace, the story Dodges a lot of the absurdities of Star Trek, where the command staff does everything and the crew pretty much does nothing. In this story, the crew members and their value and efforts are very much part of the Blue Jacket's success.

I have to say that I'm very much looking forward to the next book in the series, and that I will also be exploring the author's other works.

2 people found this helpful

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Guardsix

Anybody Want to Fight a War?

Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2016

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I’ve had this book and this series on my reading list for quite some time. I just couldn’t seem to get to reading it until now. Boy! Why didn’t I read these a long time ago? This is a great science fiction space warfare series. I really, really like the way the author has taken present day military terminology and used it in his book just the way it’s supposed to be used. No more weird rank structure or having to figure out where someone fits in the chain-of-command. He’s also developed his characters very solidly especially his main character, Captain Jackson Wolfe.

Those of us who have seen their military careers wind down to an ending, probably never wanted that career to end or didn’t fully understand why it had to end when it did. And most of us probably had a superior officer that at least thought we were significantly to a purposeful mission even while are careers were coming to an end. Not so for Captain Jackson Wolfe. He’s an Earther, which in his universe, is about a bad a planet of origin as can be. Earthmen may have moved off their mother planet and settled the galaxy, but they also quickly forgot where they came from. Now anyone from Earth is considered a backward neanderthal and certainly not fit to command a Confederate star ship. Yet, Captain Wolfe has fought his way through the ranks and now commands the "ISS Blue Jacket", an integral part of the Black Fleet located in the Alpha Centauri system and ported on the planet Haven.

Now, the "ISS Blue Jacket" is not a sleek state-of-the-art spacefaring destroyer you might imagine it would be in 2423. Instead, it’s a bucket of bolts that’s barely being held together. It hasn’t been updated in hundreds of years and probably should have been retired a long time ago. The Blue Jacket’s crew also isn’t the most highly prized crew around either. In fact, this is where the mis-fits, trouble makers and rift-raft of the Black Fleet get assigned. They are sent on extremely long voyages to keep them from Haven and out of trouble. Admiral Alyson Winters is Captain Wolfe’s immediate superior office and she hates him with a passion, mostly because he’s an Earther! So, now he’s been ordered to take on an unknown Commander as his XO. He knows with certainty that Commander Celesta Wright has been hand picked by Admiral Winters to replace him as soon as possible. This next mission could be his last and will be if Admiral Winters has the final say.

So, now the fun starts. The "Blue Jacket" is sent to the far frontier to find out what’s going on for real and report back to Haven. There have been some alarming activities going on that make it appear that one or more of the different colonial factions are preparing for war. This is extremely frightening to a number of military people since a war hasn’t been fought between humans for several hundreds of years. With the colonial expansion going on and the fact that no one had ever found an alien civilization to contend with, anyone and every one with the money can colonize whatever planet or system they desire and reap the economical benefits of doing so unopposed.

That is going to come to a sudden halt. The "Blue Jacket" finds two formerly human colonized planets that have been wiped clean. Nothing left on them other than a slick, smelly sludge. Humanity has finally found someone that doesn’t like their presents and is wiling to go to war over it. Unfortunately, humanity will be represented by a ancient, barely space capable starship. Guess who’s going to win this first battle?

This series is so good that I immediately bought the second book, “Call to Arms” and will more than likely buy the third book immediately after reading the second.

26 people found this helpful

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Fleetcom has forgotten what it is like to be warriors!

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2016

Verified Purchase

Captain Jackson Wolfe is in command of an antique raptor class destroyer spacecraft over 40 years old. He is sent out on a mission by the Admiral in charge of him and his fleet. His Executive Officer has been replaced against his own choice even though his former Executive Officer was a total loser. Wolfe knew that his admiral hated him and that something was going on.

On a routine mission to deep space he is trying to whip his aging ship and crew into shape while training a new Executive Officer. Missions in his battle fleet are routinely and primarily message carrying. Mankind has not been at war in over 200 years. While transversing into a human colony solar system they discover that the primary inhabited planet has been attacked and all of the life and the cities on the planet have been destroyed by a massive alien battleship. He now faces the first intelligent alien race that mankind has even met and all the aliens seem to want to do is destroy all the humans that they find. Planet by planet total extermination!

Jackson is faced with taking his ancient warship into battle with a ragtag crew and weapons that haven't been fired or used in decades. Even the nuclear weapons on the ship have been dismantled and rendered inert. With no spare parts and weapons that don't always work, all he has to do is defeat an alien spaceship with technology far beyond his ship’s capabilities or else mankind faces extinction………

I purchased the Kindle book version and the Audible version of this story. The audible book was excellent in the way it was professionally narrated. I enjoyed the book and I rated it at 5 stars. I was surprised at the way the crew of the ship disrespected the captain but that is part of the storyline. This is a good book and I have already purchased the next book of the series and the Audible version of the second book also.

16 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

William J. Fox

Takes a while to deliver

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 6, 2015

Verified Purchase

Well written story of first contact with a difference. Humans have expanded across space without meeting any sentient alien races and have colonised many star systems, each one based on a particular political, religious or ideological system from Earth. In the scheme of things Earth-born humans are considered the lowest of the low and Captain Jackson Wolfe has been relegated to an obsolete CentCom battleship the Blue Jacket. To compound his problems the Black Fleet ships are used to dump any difficult crewman who cannot be discharged from the fleet due to political or family connections. He is taking the ship on its final patrol before being decommissioned when they come across a colony world which has been totally destroyed by forces unknown, but probably alien.

In Dalzelle's favour is a slightly different way of looking at first contact with an aggressive alien race and the writing is generally good. Unfortunately the story strolls along for quite a while before anything really interesting happens. Did I really need to know about the nitty-gritty of deploying the FTL drive mechanism? Not really. Dalzelle seems to explain a lot of the mechanics just to defer moving the plot along. There is a lot of political chicanery and backstabbing of the main character which seems to be a major plot device for this kind of story and there are, at first, some similarities to the film Battleship, Chris Nuttall's Marines stories and Nick Thomas's Battle Earth series.

For the price a passable read which improves once first contact has been made. Some of the characters are interesting, others merely sock puppets or stereotypes. Dalzelle really shows his talent when the poorly maintained and supplied Blue Jacket starts trading blows with the massive alien ship. The outcome is a foregone conclusion but how this comes to pass is what makes the book worth reading. Recommended but with reservations.

29 people found this helpful

Mrs C A Sharp

Wow!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 2, 2022

Verified Purchase

I was struggling to find something to read that would keep my interest and saw this book which was free. Well, I have to say I really loved it.

The characters are wonderful and the world building was just great. Not too many technical stuff but what there was was understandable.

The second book was free too and that is my next read. I highly recommend this book to readers, you will enjoy it.

One person found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Interesting Mil SF

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 5, 2022

Verified Purchase

Getting the balance right between military and SF is always a little bit tricky. Felt there was a good balance of action, hand wave and technical stuff.

Bit disappointed that the women leads are... understated but hey ho. Having a black captain be in the black fleet felt a bit on the nose but I liked the effort.

All in all, I picked this book up and read it through in two sittings so despite my quibbles the TL;DR is good story, well told, excellent pacing.

JPS

Good and plausible, even if unoriginal

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 13, 2015

Verified Purchase

Warship is the story of the despised captain of an ageing destroyer who, together with his crew, makes first contact with a rather aggressive and predatory alien race. He survives to tell the story to a complacent humanity that has colonised numerous planets and which remain divided into rival alliances but has known no wars for about two centuries.

As you will see for yourself, there is nothing terribly original about most of the elements or most of the events that take place within this book. Those who are familiar with space opera and military science fiction will recognise a number of themes and features that first appeared in others books belonging to the same genre.

Despite all this, Warship is a good title. The story is well-told and it just about plausible. In particular, the author has taken care to avoid some of the most obvious and annoying stereotypes that similar books can sometimes exhibit.

To begin with, Captain Jackson is no young and dashing “super-hero”. He is despised, lonely and suspicious because of his origins and has a bit of a personal problem that I will not mention to avoid spoilers. He will, of course, rise to the occasion but this is achieved by being an extremely competent and dutiful officer, not through some totally implausible heroics. There is one such scene towards the end but even this smacks of despair more than anything else.

Then there is the alien scout ship about which nothing is known except that its capacity for utter destruction is soon seen to be considerable and it proves incredibly difficult to destroy because of its very nature.

Then there is the action itself. The long travelling and the jumps through space are well-told and so are the space battles. Here again, the author has managed to avoid drowning the reader in “pseudo-science” although he does provide enough information about spaceship propulsion and faster-than-light technology for this to be interesting. The battle scenes themselves are also well told with a sobriety that makes them all the more efficient.

Four stars for a good, solid and exciting story, and I will certainly read the next instalment.

One person found this helpful

Mark Chisholm

Well Written Space Opera

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 30, 2015

Verified Purchase

A great example of the aliens vs humans military encounter - which is a fairly crowded and generally rubbish sub-genre of sci-fi. And Dalzelle has improved. His other books - Omega Force - all of which many people like and rate highly I thought were a tiny bit crap. I still read them but I have to say they were just a bit too wooden in characterisation to work for me.

In this book, Dalzelle has nailed the gung-ho space opera well. Okay, the science is not there but the characters are fleshed out and have a bit more depth than his other earlier books. The fighting is well thought out and exciting enough to pull the pages through at speed.

And, whilst this book is clearly the first in a new series, it does have an ending rather than leaving you hanging on half way through a storyline.

Overall a great fun, easy on the brain space romp done with some panache.

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