WINGS of HONOR (Forgotten Fleet Book 1) (audiobook) by Craig Andrews

The premise of this book is not particularly original, but it still enjoyable.

Originally published in book form in 2021 by My Story Productions.

Audiobook published in March of 2024 by My Story Productions.
Read by Shamaan Casey.
Duration: 9 hours, 16 minutes.
Unabridged.

Synopsis:

In Wings of Honor, humanity is at war with an alien insectoid species, much like in the book Ender's Game, the movie version of Starship Troopers, and the 1990's Fox Tv show Space Above and Beyond. In this novel, the bad guys (the bugs) are called the Baranyk. 

The fight ebbs and flows - sometimes humanity is winning, but currently humanity is losing. Humans used to use a fighter/carrier system in which fighter space ships launch from carrier space ships to engage the enemy - much like another classic show and its reboot, Battlestar Galactica. The death rate for fighter pilots were atrocious so the fleet developed a sophisticated fleet of drone fighter ships. If the drone ship gets destroyed the pilot just loads up another drone and rejoins the fight.

That system worked out great and was used to push back against the Baranyk - literally turning the tide of the war in favor of the humanity. That is until the the Baranyk developed a jamming system to block out the signals to the drones, leaving the space fleet without its first and best line of defense. 

This book is about the plan to convert the best drone pilots into fighter pilots and all that it entails. There are lots of clashes between pilots with big egos, a demanding commanding officer, and the difficulty of moving from a video game type of system to really being out in the flight vehicle.

My Review:

As I stated in the title, the premise of this book is not a unique science fiction concept. That being said, the author took it and decided to really delve into the characters of the trainees and the nature of the training. I found the book to be interesting and engaging if not always riveting.

The audio reader was Shamaan Casey. His voice was perfect for the commander of the "Forgotten Fleet" - the new squadron of manned space fighters. He did a very good job and helped to make this an enjoyable audiobook. I would be interested in continuing on with this series.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: WINGS of HONOR (Forgotten Fleet Book 1) by Craig Andrews.

My review of the second book in this trilogy can be found here: Wings of Mourning.

Note: A copy of this audiobook was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.





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