Prelude to Ascension

The Assemblies of the Living, Book 1

By: Brent Clay

Narrated by: Samuel Peery

John Riley is a physicist who achieves his lifelong dream of unraveling the mysteries of anti-gravity, but along the way, also unwittingly discovers the secret of interstellar communication. When he and a small group of coworkers attempt to respond to an unexpected message, believing it to have originated from somewhere on Earth, they find more than they anticipate. The message is from deep space.

Once contact is made, the Remotes, as they are called, will not be dissuaded. Humanity becomes an unwilling newcomer to a staggeringly ancient galactic collective, which regards the Earth as an "emerging world" that is subject to its oversight. As humanity slips further into the grip of the enigmatic consortium, the mysteries become deeper; there is more to Earth’s history than meets the eye, and even the galaxy itself is not what it seems.

©2018 Brent Clay (P)2019 Brent Clay

Stay with it...if you can (*yawn*).

The summary description of this book made it sound right up my alley...lots of hard science mixed with plausible extra-terrestrial contact. I almost gave up on it quite a few times during the first third of it, however. The story is so slow to unravel that it made me wonder if I had perhaps purchased the wrong book. The author takes character development to a whole new level at such an excruciatingly slow pace that I began to suspect nothing would happen until the book's sequel. The narrator's monotone and at times hypnotic voice did not lend to the experience. I forced myself to keep listening, however, and sure enough my suffering was eventually rewarded with some interesting events. I honestly feel that the author could have left out about 5 or 6 hours worth of the tedious details without subtracting from the main story. The plot is intriguing, though, and despite the ridiculously abrupt ending I think it will be worth reading the sequel.

Slow To Build, But a Great Story

Because the characters are so important to the telling of the story, it takes a while for things to really get going. The story is fairly technical in nature, but the technical aspects don't drive thus take. I really enjoyed it.

Excellent and enjoyable First Contact

My only gripe is it’s a touch long-winded, especially in the beginning. However this does help connect the reader with characters. I’ve read/listened to a ton of sci-fi and first contact stories and enjoyed this more (forgive pun) down to earth tale. Looking forward to the next book in series.

Well imagined and thought provoking!!

This is an enjoyable book! The ideas about a gravitational communication medium were quite novel, and I enjoyed how there were additional facets to the story involving Trial and the ruins on the moon. I’m looking forward to book 2.

Kept my interest

I enjoyed listening to this book but a couple things held me back on that last star. One was the dialogue. I find that really good dialogue is seldom found among science fiction writers, especially with personal banter. Don't know why. The main couple were so boring with each other. I appreciate that they were decent and conservative but still, they're young, who talks like that in this day and age, and I say that as a 64 year old.
Peery has a wonderful, smooth voice. He'd make a good therapist. He did accents well. He makes a great reader, but not an actor. Very little personality came through, the lines were merely read with just minor fluctuations in volume or speed depending on what was being read.