Joe Abercrombie's talent is to make an experience so real that you feel you're there.

He turns an incident when a boat, being portered over a mountain, slips its ropes and must be held fast by an exceptionally strong man a great personal cost, into something filled with tension and pain and sweat and stoic selfless bravery that bypasses analysis and hits your emotions like an injection of adrenalin to the heart

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

This was great! After loving the first book in this series, Broken World, I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. Once I started listening to this book, I didn't want to stop. This is one of those series that is just completely addicting. I feel like I become more investing in the welfare of the characters with each passing hour. I really had a great time with this book from beginning to end.

This book picks up right where the first book left off. This is a series that does need to be read in order since each book builds on the previous installments. It is a great series so you really want to be with the characters from the start anyway. This review will have spoilers from the previous book due to the ongoing nature of the story. 

Vivian, Axl, and the rest of the group are in a dire situation as the story begins. They have brought the billionaire to his shelter in the desert but he is now refusing to let them in where it is safe. They are outside the compound, surrounded by zombies and preparing to fight for their lives when a well-known actress comes to their aid, allowing them in the shelter. It seems too good to be true. The nearly empty shelter is full of amenities and should be able to sustain the group for a long time. Of course, it does prove to have some pretty big problems.

My favorite part of the book was the developing relationships between the characters. Vivian and Axl are both great characters and I love how they are with each other. They really seem to be better in each other's company. Axl wants to protect Vivian but she is tough and can hold her own in most cases. They really make a great team and I love how much chemistry they have with each other. Hadley was a great addition to the cast. She is a down to earth Hollywood star who is more than willing to do her part and seems to fit in with the others surprising well.

This book had all of the excitement that I hoped for. It took a while for zombies to come into play in the first book in this series but this book starts out with some real zombie action and there is plenty to go around during the course of the story. I was really worried about how things would work out for the characters several times during the story. I thought the there were also a lot of more heartfelt moments in this installment. It really was a very well balanced book.

Hillary Huber did a fantastic job with this book. I think that she does a great job of bringing Vivian to life. She handles the fairly large cast of characters very well and the dialogue in the book flows very nicely. I thought she had a very pleasant reading voice and I had no problems listening to this book for hours at a time. 

I would recommend this book to others. It is a very well done post-apocalyptic story with the perfect blend of action, great characters, and just enough romance. I cannot wait to read more of this amazing series!

I received a review copy of this audiobook from the author.

Heya BookLikes friends....

Since January, I've been working on The Only Living Boy Volume 5 -- the final volume in the series -- and that's pretty much where all of my days and nights have gone, but it's FINISHED and it feels awesome. 

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Thank you for the support! 

Mini Review:

This is the second book in the Starbound Series, the first which I read many years ago. It is linked to the first book in that it basically continues the story line of the mysterious Whispers and Leroux industries shady dealings with them. Lilac and Tarver from the first book also make and appearance and play a big role in the action. By the end of this book, more and more people in the galaxy are becoming aware of Lilac's father and the true nature of his organization and his ambitions, and the stakes with the Whispers are becoming higher. 

I don't want to give away spoilers....so I'll leave it at that, but both books follow a similar theme. They both have a Romeo and Juliet type romance. Two people from different walks of life, that are opposed to each other in some way...being forced together and having to work together despite all odds. This second book fits this theme, more than the first. Flynn and Jubilee are as opposite as they can be. Flynn the leader of a rebel group on the planet Avon, and Jubilee a soldier of the occupying force sent to the planet to keep the locals calm and fight the rebels. They hate each other just on principle. The night they meet Flynn goes to a local bar on the Base in order to find information on a mysterious complex he came across on the planet. One his people know nothing about, and he suspect the army might. He suspects it has something to do with the climate instability and other issues his planet has faced over the years that is preventing them from being added to the galactic counsel and into the developed world. That final step finally allowing his plant to get all the resources and support they need to survive. He happens upon Jubilee, an infamous Captain known and feared by all Rebels, and ends up kidnapping her for information....and it all goes downhill for the both of them from there.

But this was a good look at how conflict and war continues. Two groups get entrenched in fighting each other, and so set in their view of each other, that anyone who is up to no good...could use their hatred and distrust for each other to manipulate them however they want. Divide and conquer. Let the people spend all their time fighting each other, that they don’t see the real enemy. The mutual enemy. Flynn and Jubilee see who the enemy is, and they spend the rest of the book trying to convince everyone else to lay down their weapons and see it too.

This is a great SciFi series. Not heavy sci fi light enough for anyone to read, but still full of actions and tension...and of course and nice love story in the middle.