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A review by krakentamer
Adrift on the Sea of Rains by Ian Sales
3.0
A quick listen to an overall entertaining story, but it's definitely not consistent. By far the biggest problem I had with this was the too-intrusive acronym explanations. I think that a simple way to get across the same point would be to use the full term the first time, and then the acronym after that. Also, there were quite a few acronyms that didn't need to be expanded (e.g. AFB). Sure, not every reader will know what all of these terms mean, but this is book is going to appeal only to a very specific set of readers - and those readers will all be able to follow the story even if they don't know every expanded acronym. However, while nearly every subsystem in the Apollo space system got a shoutout, there was a major piece of hardware that got barely more than a handwave, and it was a bit distracting waiting for both the backstory as well as the actual operational description of this piece of equipment, and then to see that it never came.
My second gripe is possibly more with the narration - the narrator would spell out some acronyms that are pronounced as words (such as TAC - it was either "TACK" or the full Tactical Air Command, and it wasn't "The TAC" and definitely not T.A.C.), while pronouncing others that are usually spelled out in that context (such as LEO for Low Earth Orbit).
My final gripe is, again, with the narration - the narrator was a bit flat, and it would be a little jarring when he'd switch to a paragraph that started a flashback or memory. Ideally there'd be a little pause there to let the reader know that there was a context switch occurring, but the narrator just barrelled right through the paragraph gap, leaving me to wonder if I'd skipped ahead in the narration.
So in the end, the story itself was interesting, the flashbacks only made sense to explain some motivations near the end, and the acronym issue was a bit distracting.
My second gripe is possibly more with the narration - the narrator would spell out some acronyms that are pronounced as words (such as TAC - it was either "TACK" or the full Tactical Air Command, and it wasn't "The TAC" and definitely not T.A.C.), while pronouncing others that are usually spelled out in that context (such as LEO for Low Earth Orbit).
My final gripe is, again, with the narration - the narrator was a bit flat, and it would be a little jarring when he'd switch to a paragraph that started a flashback or memory. Ideally there'd be a little pause there to let the reader know that there was a context switch occurring, but the narrator just barrelled right through the paragraph gap, leaving me to wonder if I'd skipped ahead in the narration.
So in the end, the story itself was interesting, the flashbacks only made sense to explain some motivations near the end, and the acronym issue was a bit distracting.