M.Boyett - one of my favorite narrators, simply amazing job, especially in this book, where the chat is a lot and many voices are required. There are times when I was forcing myself to listen to the book, while with other authors I simply crave to have free time and listen them.

That kind of development is kinda slow and not so fascinating. who cares - we are not ship commanders and we are not so much interested in the so detailed way the commander controls the ship. I highly recommend the author to re-think the way he makes new books - I get that the commander has good management skills, but I get tired of listening the same commands he give over and over again. In general that's the most interesting book from the trilogy, but still the chatty filling content is too much.

That's the problem - the author has tried to made a trilogy, when he could put all of this content in to 1 or max 2 books and write further development of the story.

Pacing and mood are appropriate making for an easy listen.Īnd finally the interesting part is here! Alien conversations are particularly satisfying without the more typical nasally or psychomotor retardation renditions. The narration is solid with an excellent range of voices of both genders. Overall, this installment is more cerebral than earlier ones and ponders the various possibilities for future human evolution. The battle scenes are quite well done with humans recognizing the inevitable impossibility of fighting a hive mind mentality from the outside that results in Wolfe's 'hail mary' attempt for closure. Wolfe recognizes this dichotomy leaving him and the listener to ponder the possibility of a third way. Dalzelle creates a striking juxtaposition of a super-intelligent race unable to defend itself nor contemplate genocide against an intelligent predator species without regard for alien intelligence. The sci-fi elements are in line with the earlier installments with a greater focus on alien biology and intelligence. At the same time, he learns the frightening origin of the phage themselves and its implications for humanity. Wolfe's main character attribute of following his gut rather than his orders, forces him to go rogue and end the phage conflict in his own unique way. He becomes privy to the background of Robert Blake and his crew as well as the humanity's place on the galactic pecking order. With human forces now focused on addressing the alien invasion and coming to understand the nature of their new alien allies, Captain Wolfe remains unique as the only human who has experienced any contact with the phage which places him in a unique light with their new allies. Counterstrike is Joshua Dalzelle's 3rd and final installment of the Black Ship Trilogy.

Joshua dalzelle black fleet series