It’s not the author or the book, but the narrator.

I have read and absolutely loved J. S. Morin’s other book series, Galaxy Outlaws, and the spin-offs, Astral Prime and Mercy for Hire. This book is good, but the narrator is getting seriously in the way of my enjoyment.

At the very beginning, he had a bad habit of speaking into the microphone where his exhalation interfered. Then I was nearly startled by his other habit I have never heard in any other narrator’s work. At the end and sometimes the beginning and middle of sentences, he quickly and sharply gasps for breath, almost like a nervous tic. I gave up on the book in the third or fourth chapter, it was too annoying and jarred me out of the story.