Empty Space

By: Alan Black

Narrated by: Todd Haberkorn

Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

York August Sixteen was abandoned as a baby, abused and molested as a child, and beaten and harassed as a teen and had his rightful place in the Republic's Space Navy stolen from him. Fighting back against huge government systems was useless. Dispensing justice on an individual, case-by-case basis was more to his liking, yet even that was taken away when he was stationed on a lonely communication space station. York's life would change when he decided to seek justice for people even less fortunate than him.

©2015 Alan Black (P)2015 Podium Publishing

In space, no one can hear you kill

Alan Black's Empty Space is a futuristic, semi-dystopic vision of a society divided into the "haves" who can do anything they want and the "have-nots" who must suffer with it. York 16 is an orphan and a poster child for how magnanimous the wealthy can pretend to be until he begins to outshine his betters.At that point, the machine takes over and he is relegated to 3rd shift on a deserted space station orbiting a backwater planet with a three man crew. What no one realizes is that society has forced York 16 into becoming a sociopath with cunningly deceptive homicidal tendencies that he uses for justice and vengeance.

The sci-fi elements are minimal with advanced space flight and little else. Life and society is pretty much traditional. The twist to the tale is an endearing character whose life has been miserable from childhood molestation, to beatings, frame-ups, and anything else society can throw his way. All along, he handles himself with class and dignity until he goes stone cold diabolical, ruthless killer with no mercy or empathy. He manages to sublimate his tendencies mostly for good with a sense of cosmic justice, but he's still not the guy you want to walk into a bar with unless trouble is headed your way.

The narration is well done with a good range of voices and nice pacing. The opening foray has the potential for a longer story arc with similar type adventures, but whether he will ever succeed in dislodging the dominating power structure is unclear, but it would be fun to see him try.

Dexter in Space

OK, I loved it and want to hear more of this character. The pace was quite brisk and there was a lot of stuff going on. It definitely ended leaving me hanging and wanting to hear more.

Surprisingly good

Character-driven storyline in a sci fi setting. I appreciated the protagonist's viewpoint, and there were many likeable characters. My only complaint is that it was wrapped up a little too neatly. I was a little disappointed that the author went to the effort to write a complex character, but failed to explore those complications in an effort to wrap up the story.

Topnotch Sci Fi.

Coming of age, the hard way. with a pragmatic Dexter twist of psychotic genius.

Phenomenal! Like Dexter in space!

Loved the story! It was my first time listening to Todd Haberkorn narrate an Audiobook and he blew me away with the incredible voices he used for each and every character, I knew who everyone was without the "he said, she said" yada yada and this book did very well to not have an issue with that anyway. If you enjoyed the show Dexter the intelligence, the brutality, and the cold sharp wit are all here York is a great character and so are all the others!

Chuckling

This book was a bit of a guilty pleasure. Thoroughly enjoyed the sadistic revenge on tormentors. Another reviewer compared this to Dexter and I agree, although of course it's quite different, but the book features a likable character who has been horribly treated throughout his life and is good at getting away with revenge. He also grows through the book and that's fun too.

Juvenile sadistic fantasy

The protagonist of this work is a sadistic sociopath who never pays any price for his actions, and in fact is rewarded for them. While the story does a long slow buildup to it, his actions toward those who 'deserve it' are described as increasingly graphic and by the end are very clearly at the level of "torture porn", and the author never shows a single hint that what the character is carrying out are anything other than his own fantasies. Additionally, the way women's bodies are discussed throughout is equivalent to the education a 12-year old boy might pick up from other boys in the school locker room,

I give the story 2 stars only because the actual world building and narrative structure are fairly interesting and original, but the interior life and exterior actions of the main character are either under formed or explicitly sadistic, or at times both. The excellent narration by Todd Haberkorn is sadly wasted. Unless you are someone who felt like Dexter was "too nice", I strongly recommend you avoid this title. I only stuck it out to listen to the whole thing because I kept thinking at some point the main character *must* either experience some kind of redemption or else suffer consequences for his actions, but neither ever occurs.

Interesting story about different types of people

Loved this book. I could hardly stop listening to it. Great characters. Awesome narrator. York was a multi faceted character.

Many people.

Many people might not like the fact the lead character is a killer. But I find the story intriguing and a great spin on the warrior slash military man. Sometimes maybe it is self defense to make a preemptive strike at an enemy when all other actions are removed from possibly? And that in the characters mind, that he had to stick to military protocol, might have left him with few possibilities, is something a person with these physiological issues would be dealing with. Very well written, very intriguing!

Interesting concept - variable execution

In many ways, this is more a libertarian wish-fulfillment yarn than science fiction. The characterization is inconsistent, the story requires acceptance that everyone in a position of authority is corrupt and varying degrees of highly incompetent, and that only the antihero protagonist is capable of long-term strategic planning. There are times when the protagonist is sympathetic, and others where he is sadistic and sociopathic. Not a bad read if you can handle the inconsistencies.