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Review: Talon the Hunter by A A Warren

Updated: Nov 9, 2020


Synopsis:

In the lawless stars, life is cheap. But death has a price....

Struggling to return home to Dominion space, an engine malfunction strands Talon in a lawless region of the galaxy known as the Gyre.

Eager to earn a few chips and repair his ship, the former gladiator puts his deadly skills to use as a bounty hunter. Powering up his trusty plasma axe, Talon sets off for a desolate outpost world, in pursuit of a savage murderer hiding somewhere in the planet’s dusty streets.

But Talon isn’t the only one tracking this fugitive. The warrior soon finds himself battling an army of outlaws led by a brutal cybernetic killer — a madman seeking to plunder a legendary alien fortress of untold power.

If this conqueror succeeds in unleashing the forbidden technology within, he will plunge the galaxy into armageddon, sending billions of souls to a fiery death.

And the only thing standing in his way is a bounty hunter named Talon....


Review: Talon the Hunter by A A Warren 8/11/20


Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of this audiobook free of charge in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.


I've listened to a lot of audiobooks and I've come across many ones I like and ones that I didn't but it is rare that I find one that simply frustrates me. Let me explain.


This is a tale of Talon the Hunter, last of a race of mighty warriors for whom a simple bounty leads to him becoming embroiled in a nefarious plot that could spell the loss of trillions of lives. He, with a ragtag group of adventurers, battles across the universe fighting foes of every conceivable type to stop a diabolical plan to awaken an ancient weapon.


Sounds exciting? It sure ticks every box I could ask for but there is one problem with it all and that is I felt lost! I came into the book having been advised that each story was a stand-alone adventure and I had no need to have read any of the other tales but I do feel this was poor advice.


A A Warren has clearly out a lot of thought into the universe he's created as there are countless planets, populated by a whole menagerie of races and religions and I do feel that a lot of the world building was present in earlier books as names and worlds are dropped here with little explanation and it all felt very overwhelming at times.


Couple this with the reappearance of characters who clearly played a part in earlier books and therefore lack a lot in backstory meant I continually felt like I was missing salient points of information to bring the overall world together.


Putting aside this 'issue', I enjoyed the story and found the cast a very eclectic mix ranging from Artemis-type female warriors to a fantastically realised villain who I felt was a perfect marriage of Ulton and Thanos. Talon himself is clearly modelled after Conan but of all the cast he was actually the one I liked the least as he regularly felt too good and honest for a bounty hunter and equally lacked any real sense of swaggering assurance found in his Simmerian-counterpart.


With a heavy lean towards action and combat, I'm pleased to say that the author writes fighting really well and conveys the combatants actions and positions clearly while keeping the fights running at a nice clip. My only complaint is that the characters tended to repeat the same curses and threats a lot which became a tad tiresome.


With a really varied cast of central and side-line characters, it was always going to be difficult for a narrator to really offer an identity to each individual one. Sean Duregger is a narrator with a very likeable timbre but it does mean that his range is somewhat limited and so, while some of the characters can become a little muddled, it's never so much as to detract from the story. I did particularly enjoy his portrayal of Volonte as the similarity to James Spader's Ultron was very apparent to me (although I would assume this is an invention of my own mind).


In closing, I would say that if I was given the opportunity to experience books 1 & 2 before this one, I would have taken it as there are just too many holes for me to have really enjoyed the book as much as I could have. That said, as this is the only Audio currently available, and if you can overlook gaps of knowledge, there is a very enjoyable sci-fi romp here.

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