Naramore does an amazing job of bringing the universe created by Morin to life, and what a universe it is! This isn’t hard sci-fi with heavy plots and deep story lines, this is stories about friends trying to get by any way they can on the outskirts of civilized space. The comparisons to Firefly do hold up since Morin says himself that the void from only one season of Firefly helped inspire this work. It also reminded me of Guardians of the Galaxy with wizards instead of super heroes.
As the stories progress I found it interesting that it felt less like the characters were developed, as much as it felt like you had spent more time with the characters and just knew them better. Some have knocked the series for this, but for me it wasn’t a detriment, but something I enjoyed. Through Morin’s writing and Naramore’s narration, you feel like a member of the crew – you learn something new about a crew member and it doesn’t surprise you, even though you didn’t see it coming. Often times you’ll see through a crew member’s self-delusions and wait with everyone else for them to come around to reality.
Are plot lines and plot twists predictable? Sure, but unpredictable plot twists are not what makes this series great. What makes it the best deal on audible, is the journey. Even when you know how things are going to shake out, it’s a fun ride watching it happen.
My only critiques and the reason I only give the story 4/5 stars are the women in this story were obviously created in the mind of a man, and some unnecessary language. Though I don’t use foul language in my personal life, I understand others do and I understand it’s going to wind up in literature. While I would have preferred it not to be there, I had no problem with the usage of the F-word and the like in Ready Player One. While overall it fit the situations presented here, there were places where the vulgarity was awkward and abrasive. As far as the female leads go, half of them are potentially bi-sexual (not that there’s a problem with having bi characters – but you’re not finding male bi-sexual leads here) and 3 out of the 4 have sex drives/sexual impulses that are much more typical of a male than a female. The combination of these just made the female leads a little less believable and a little more fantasy dream women.
With all that said, over 80 hours of material, it’s easily worth a credit. I got it on sale for $5 – that was an amazing deal.