The Oncoming Storm

Angel in the Whirlwind, Book 1

By: Christopher G. Nuttall

Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo

Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

In the year 2420, war looms between the galaxy's two most powerful empires: the tyrannical Theocracy and the protectionist Commonwealth. Caught in the middle sits the occupied outpost system Cadiz, where young officer and aristocrat Katherine "Kat" Falcone finds herself prematurely promoted at the behest of her powerful father. Against her own wishes, Kat is sent to command the Commonwealth navy's newest warship, Lightning.

Determined to prove she has value beyond her family name, Kat struggles to earn her crew's respect and find her footing as the youngest captain in naval history. She soon discovers the situation on Cadiz is even worse than anyone in power anticipated. War isn't just a possibility - it is imminent. Yet the admiral in position to bolster defenses refuses to prepare for a fight. Can Kat find a way to investigate the enemy, alert the Commonwealth, and whip an entire fleet into fighting shape before the Theocracy's war machine destroys everything she holds dear?

©2015 Christopher G. Nuttall. (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Military SF comfort food

I dig Christopher Nuttall. While this kicks off a series that isn't anything you can't find in a Weber, Bujold, or Campbell novel, Nuttall is such a fun and skilled author that you still get drawn in. I trust when I see his name that I have an enjoyable literary meal in front of me, of that down home Sunday dinner varierty. Nothing out of the ordinary but always satisfying and leaces a smile on your face after.

Ok book

Story was good but the Narration was so bad I couldn't tell male from female.

Enjoyable, but could have used some revision

Another space opera by Nuttall. A lot of the same predictable themes that he really likes to use - inexperienced officer thrust into a position they weren't prepared for; young officers compromised and either blackmailed into betrayal or given an intervention by a fatherly "tough love" minded superior officer; lots of talk about military etiquette and personal relationships.

Oh yes, and the really harsh military justice he likes to imagine in future space navies. At one point there was a brief comment that talking disrespectfully about a superior officer behind his or her back was a court martial offense! I imagine that more than half of any army could be court martialed on that premise!

There's a lot of awkward writing that I had to go over a few times before realizing what was going on. It definitely could have used some revision and editing.

Here's an interesting plot hole for you, which is a minor spoiler if you care about that kind of thing: They sneak up on the system where the enemy is staging their invasion fleet in order to get proof that they're preparing for war. The enemy detects them and they run. As they do, the main character laments that there's no such thing as ship-based faster than light communications, and have to make their way into friendly space to spread the word using their big sciencey communication thingy.

The only thing is that the enemy manages to send a signal ahead of them to sabotage the big sciencey communication thingy, so they were thwarted.

What???

How did the enemy get the signal ahead of them when Nuttall had just finished specifically saying that such a thing was impossible? If the crew of the Lightning couldn't get a signal into friendly space before coming into the system, how could the enemy do it?

Nobody suspected the enemy of having some sort of better FTL communications. Everybody just shrugged their shoulders, like, "Damn! They sent a signal ahead of us! We should have thought of that possibility!!"

The one thing happened right after the other. Nuttall just invented a technological limiting factor for his universe and then completely ignored it right afterwards!

Regarding the narrator, I have to agree with others that she wasn't great. She wasn't a deal breaker for me, but if you have low tolerance for that kind of thing you might find yourself annoyed by her.

Overall, I liked the book. It's rough, and the story isn't spectacular, but it's a serviceable space opera and Nuttall mixes things up bu exploring different ways that space travel and space battles work in this universe.

Ms Ezzo's performance good, but lacked...

Ms Ezzo's performance good, but lacked enough diversity to differentiate some of the characters. I hope she improves, in future episodes.

Good Story, Narration very bad.

Love the story that Nuttall has put together. The narration on the other hand was very bad. All the male roles sound like they have a head cold and are all stuffed up.

This is more of an Honor Harrington reboot

It still was a good listen. I felt the narration was sub par. it took some getting used to,

good story.

this was an interesting book. I both read parts and used the audio book format.

the voice talent did an okay job, but her choice of voice infection for different characters leaves much to be desired. some sounds nasally or just wrong. this is most noticeable in the side characters. I believe she'll get better over time and, to me, it was just annoying not can't continue level.

the story is interesting but suffers from pacing issues.

a mostly strong character lead, except where her father comes in. that's mostly at start and end fortunately. this was just odd. I've met people like her (that's the point isn't it?) but never where they are strong everywhere but... Like she is with her father.

an odd mix of competence and inexperience for the main character. this too is poorly paced. she starts admitting she is too junior for her post then shows shocking competance. I'd blame it on her upbringing, but the author precludes that. so we are left with a suddenly and startling competent lead with no real rationality how she got so much experience suddenly.

very good try that can only get better however.
figure a top rate editor can help with the pacing and surges in ability of the main character.

Great story! Narration - not so much...

This is another great story by Christopher Nuttall. In fact, now that I have listened to it I might get it in print and read it again. In my opinion, a different narrator should have been selected. Her voice is fine for the main character, but since most of the other characters are men older than our heroine, someone who can pull off adult male voices should have been hired to read it. The narrator cannot pitch her voice low enough to sound like a man; she instead comes up with annoying affectations to deliver different voices for the many male characters. If you can get past this, the storyline is engaging. When the book ended, I wanted the story to continue, which is a good sign for me.

War footing

Somewhat interesting. Lacks the brilliance of the Honor Harrington series it is modeled after. Okay read

was good after getting used to narration

story was good but the narrator was hard to get used to, about half way through the story is when the narration was bearable. most likely my own preference on narration though.