Amaranthe I: Rise

Amaranthe Collections, Book 1

By: G. S. Jennsen

Narrated by: Pyper Down

Aurora Rising: The Complete Collection: Over 45 Hours of Epic Sci-Fi Adventure

Includes the entire first trilogy in the Amaranthe series (Starshine, Vertigo, Transcendence)

Aurora Rising is an epic tale of galaxy-spanning adventure, of the thrill of discovery, and the unquenchable desire to reach ever farther into the unknown. It's a tale of humanity at its best and worst, of love and loss, of fear and heroism. It's the story of a woman who sought the stars and found more than anyone imagined possible.

When faced with its greatest challenge, will humanity rise to triumph or fall to ruin?

Starshine

Space is vast and untamed, and it holds many secrets. Now two individuals from opposite ends of settled space are on a collision course with the darkest of those secrets, even as the world threatens to explode around them.

Alexis Solovy is Earth Alliance royalty, her father a fallen war hero. and her mother a military leader. She seeks only the freedom of space and has made a fortune as a freelance scout by reading the patterns in the chaos to discover the hidden wonders of the stars. But a chance encounter with a mysterious spy thrusts Alex into the middle of an interstellar war and a sinister conspiracy.

Vertigo

Where do you run when there is no escape? Where do you turn when the enemy within is as dangerous as the enemy unknown?

Transcendence

What does it mean to be human? What if the price of saving humanity is giving up your own?

The lines blur between man and machine, ally and enemy, and soldier and civilian. In a final stand against a powerful ancient foe intent on eradicating it from the universe, humanity comes face to face with its destiny.

©2015 G. S. Jennsen (P)2022 G. S. Jennsen

Starshine, Vertigo, Transcendence

Starshine:
There are so many characters. I have determined that the primary characters are Alex and Caleb. The author does a good job of trying to write political intrigue and conspiracy and government. I really struggled with the narrator on this book as she sounded incredibly robotic and like an AI reading the book. Knowing there are a lot of books in the series I’m curious about how The story is going to go on for so many.

The author seems to rely heavily on plot to drive the story forward. She has some potential to develop characters that are more robust, but something feels missing. I don’t quite know how I feel about the romances. It felt a bit Insta love to me and knowing that there are so many books in the series, I was a bit surprised by the choice of the author to move so quickly on it when she could’ve taken time to really develop it across The series

Vertigo:
This one I was pulled into much more and I think that was partly because it was focused less on the main two characters and their relationship. I like the meeting of aliens and more on the political landscape.

I was much more invested in the storylines in this book. The narrative or wondering if anyone would survive the invasion. The spy games are also interesting. I still don’t care for the audiobook narrator.

Transcendence:
I think this as the climax of this first trilogy. I felt like I moved much faster through this book and was highly motivated to learn what happened and how the story arc resolved. I stayed up late to finish.

One of my favorite themes of Sci-Fi is AI and the ethics. It allows to explore what makes someone human and what is ethical. I enjoyed it in this series. I am curious to see how it is developed. I still felt like the character relationships were not as developed as I would have liked.

This had even more political drama going on and because I have gotten to know all the characters in the previous books it was easier to track but it is still a lot of different characters and plot lines to track.

Fantastic characters and an epic space opera

let's get this out of the way - I would of chosen a different narrator. I can only imagine how good this would of been with a full cast.

That said, this is my personal favorite space opera series of all time, and yes, I've read The Expanse and the rest of the big name ones. Details and characters stick with me in a way that even Holden and Draper don't always manage. Character development is by far the strongest aspect of this work, and the philosophical questions are more relevant than ever.

Adventure, romance, and the most interesting answer to the Drake equation I've ever encountered. I highly recommend this series to all space opera fans, especially if you're the type to enjoy r/HFY on reddit.

Didn't hold my interest

I like hard SF, but this story struck me as being unnecessarily packed with technobabble. The narration felt stilted and lacking emotion; a friend suggested it might be narrated by an AI.

Don't waste your time

Terrible narration and an insane amount of sexual innuendo. I simply couldn't listen to another heart-pounding, long eyelash flashing exchange. I almost stopped listening several times, but thought it must get better. It didn't. Without even looking, I knew this was a female author. So many syfy books are ruined by the way female authors spend so much time on people's looks and how instantly attracted they are to each other. When two strangers are facing a life and death situation, I seriously doubt if they're noticing the other person's looks or sensuality. I like sex as much as any guy, but it just becomes boring after a while.

Narration ruined it, had to return it.

Normally, I can get past a poor narrators, however, this was a game changer. I thought at first it was an odd intro that was computer generated, but no it was the narrator. Monotone, little difference between characters. I couldn't figure out what was happening or follow along. The story seemed good, but I just could not follow the narrator, just awful. I had to return it. Sorry to the author.

D