Audiobook Review – Forget Nothing (Galaxy’s Edge) by Jason Anspach, Michelle C. Meyers, Narrated by Khristine Hvam (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Length: 4 hours and 46 minutes
Publisher: Audible Originals
Release Date: 04 June 2020
ASIN: B087D51RJH
Stand Alone or Series: Part of the Galaxy’s Edge universe
Source: Free Audible Originals Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

“ The daughter of a Legion war hero, fighting was in Andien Broxin’s blood. But the battles Republic marines face on strange and alien worlds are a far cry from the vaunted, brutal, no-holds-barred conflicts fought at the edge of the galaxy by the elite legionnaires.

Until a devastating war erupts right in the Republic’s stellar backyard.

Newly stationed on a mid-core planet being harassed by terrorist revolutionaries, Andien and her fellow “hullbusters” find themselves right in the middle of a desperate fight for survival. All their training, standards, discipline—all the hard paths—have led to this. If she and her fellow marines are to come out of this alive, Andien will have to find out who she truly is…and what she can become.”

Series Info/Source: I got this as a free Audible Originals audiobook through my Audible membership. This story takes place in the Galaxy’s Edge universe which I am not familiar with.

Audiobook Quality (4/5): The narration for this audiobook was fine. It was easy to listen to and I didn’t have any complaints.

Story (3/5): This was okay. This is basically a prequel explaining to the reader how Andien got into Legionnaire training as a woman (women are just newly being allowed into that training). It’s very GI Jane, Andi is super badass and always “almost” able to upstage the Legionnaire men. This is a very predictable story interspersed with a lot of “deep” thinking from our heroine about her place in humanity and the good soldiers can do. These thoughtful meanderings are interrupted by sudden attacks and intense action scenes.

Characters (2/5): Andi is a bit too rah-rah for me and the other characters are pretty stereotypical. Of course Andi has an ex-military father and of course, most of the other military men try to turn Andi into some fantasy object. This is okay though because Andi is just one of the guys and expects this. As I said, typical male written military fantasy. There are strong female characters but this is undercut by the idea that it’s okay for the guys to mock them, expect them to work harder, or fantasize about them.

Setting (3/5): The setting is on an alien planet that we never learn a lot about. It seems fairly Earth-like although the denizens have a somewhat avian look to them. There is quite a bit of info dumping and sci-fi terminology thrown at the reader, but it wasn’t too bad. It’s written as an intro to this world so I never felt lost. However, I never really felt like I could quite picture this world either.

Writing/Drawing Style (3/5): This was a pretty typical military sci-fi. I felt like it was very predictable and the transitions between character story and action scenes were really choppy. There was also a pattern here, we’d get some character development and Andi would feel sentimental and then an attack would happen…then repeat that pattern over and over.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this is exactly what I would have expected of a military sci-fi and is the reason I am not a big fan of the genre. Characters are over-characterized, the story is predictable, huge infodump on the world and sci-fi terms, and male-centric attitude towards women. I personally won’t be picking up more of this series because of these issues.