Humanity at its worst - and best

Great idea, society is horrific when its back is to the wall.

While coming from a completely different perspective, this story of what people might do to other people reminds me a lot of what Margaret Atwood did with The Handmaid's Tale. I think that both are amazing examples of speculative fiction based on what might soon be possible. if we let it happen.

I really liked the narrator too. I feel he captured the essence of the story and I always found myself hooked by his characterisations.

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Enjoyable & Interesting Dystopian Sci-Fi Thriller

I initially struggled to get into this book but I am really glad that I persevered as once I did get into it I really enjoyed the story which had a really unique and interesting plot.
I also enjoyed the narration by Ray Porter.
I was given a free copy to give an unbiased and objective review.

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Not Bad

Got this one for free from Aethon so thanks to them and Rhett C Bruno for the sample.

it took a long while to get into it if im honest, it was pretty slow and kept jumping around in timeline.
the neon charcters and neon lights for back drop got a little hard to follow.
it started to get good in the middle and was going well but then the ending changed and finished rushed.
probably needed more world building and focus more on the story.
the premise was good and interesting but it was just a little scattered for me
good book with lots of potential however!

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1 person found this helpful

impossible to predict

I recieved a review copy or this book. It presents the concept of the reintroduction of slavery, through modern genetics, against the backdrop of a devastated and rebuilding society. The story is excellent and well narrated, taking several twists that I did not see coming.

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Average

*Recieved for Free*

Right, where do I begin with this? Lets start with the fact that I listened to 9 chapters, realised I had no idea what was actually going on, and had to start the book over. Authority is an odd one, it has some really good ideas and should in theory be thought provoking, but its let down by 2 things:
1) Its Narrative Structure
2) Its protagonists

Lets tackle narrative Structure first. The book starts with Aliens attacking, and then jumps 30 years later, and spends a significant about of time playing the events of said Aliens down. They do get revisited, but they are really only very as a plot device. You could swap out Aliens with Nuclear War, or a pandemic, and you would have ended up with the same story.

The story jumps backwards and forwards in time on a wim, this would be fine, if there was anything particually interesting in the 2 time periods. Its not really untill the book gets into its second act that things get interesting, and this is quickly shot down by the books second issue.

In theory, the book is presented as coming from the 2 main protogonists, 1 for each time period. By the third act, this has gone out of the window for various reasons, and you are now expected to be interested in other charactors motivations and plots.

Im still giving the book 3 stars though? The actual main plot idea is decent, humanity is struggling after a catastrophy, robots arent practical - so sod it, lets bring back Slavery. Oh they are grown as slaves, its fine, really. The fact that most people in the book are fine with out and out slavery is a bit jarring to be honest, but its interesting how they justify it. The author still fails to really attached a good story to the premise however, which is a real shame.

Lastly, others have said this, but seriously Authority is completely carried by Ray Porter. I think, without good narration, I would have just given up and not finished it. He does his usual 5 star performance, its just a shame the material here doesnt match his talents.

Overall, an average book. Give it a go, but dont expect fireworks

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1 person found this helpful

I wish it had more depth

The book starts off flipping back and forth between timelines and I felt a little confused at the start because of this. From one point you're listening to the story of a couple getting their first neon, and then the next chapter you're thrown back in time to some kind of war from aliens. This happens a few times until the story settles down and we follow the neons. I understand that there needs to be some back story to make a reason why we have neons and the lack of power etc, but it just didn't feel like enough was written about the war or years that past after that.
The story then follows a small build up to something big, but then finishes far too quickly with a soft ending. I think this series would have been much better if it had been in three part with an extended storyline to generate more depth to the why and hows... rather than the some of techno-babble that felt made up and tacked on at some points just to make the story fit without explaining anything behind it. At one point we're just told the tech is just old from someone who was in the war. Alien tech or not, who knows and why the authority of the book doesn't know about it is left up in the air.
Still, the small things a side, the story was fun and tries to delve into what we'd do if we were abel to create our own slaves, and what futuristic controls we'd apply to ourselves inorder make slavery acceptable.
The narration was a bit dry, with a feeling that it was taking effort to tell the story. However, as the story progressed this flippant style actually lends it self quite well to the darker side of the story.

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Took a while for this book to grab me

This was an enjoyable listen, but the book didn't really click for me at first, it felt like the main story hadn't got going enough for the amount of flashbacks near the start that were more disruptive to the story than particularly informative. I found that once the book progressed and the focus was on the present that the story engaged me a lot more and it finished very strongly.

While the world-building could have been done more smoothly, the world the author creates is an intriguing one with an authoritarian state emerging n the wake of an alien attack, so you have an interesting mix of regressive attitudes with technological advances.The cast populating the world of this book is a varied one that steadily becomes more interesting over the course of the book.

The narrator does a good job of voicing that cast and helps to enhance the listener's enjoyment of the book with a tone that just seemed to fit the setting of this book very well.

Overall, an enjoyable book that started too slow for me, but finished strongly.

[Note - I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.]

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1 person found this helpful

Good but not brilliant...

The concept for this book is quite good but just feels like it was rushed out doesn’t really flow well. All of the main characters weren’t fleshed out sufficiently to help for any attachments to them and therefore when I should feel sorry for them I just thought hmmmm ok.

Ray Porters narration is second to none as usual though and to be honest the only reason why I stuck through to the end.

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after listening to this book I hope there are more

when I started this book I was not to sure about it. I'm so glad I stuck with it, by the end I became so caught up in the story that I now want this to be the first of many

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Fantastic!!

wonderfully written and perfectly narrated, strong storylines with great characters and surprising twists and turns. Loved it and would recommend to any one who would love a good story on the plains of possibility.

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