Book Review: We Happy Few: The Leviathan Universe 2138 by Edward D. Hudson

Robert Taylor Ford is an acclaimed Shakespearean actor at the top of his game. His life is perfect until his girlfriend and co-star turn up dead and he’s accused of the crime. Ford narrowly escapes arrest aboard the sleek, luxurious liner called the Pegasus. He’s finally approaching his freedom… that is, until the pirates attack.

With power armor that makes them nearly invincible, the pirates easily take the ship and usher Ford and the other “useless” passengers to the airlocks. Using his unparalleled acting abilities, Ford takes on the most dangerous role of his life. If he fails to convince his new audience, his next performance could be his last…

Book 1 in a new series.

My original We Happy Few audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Robert Taylor Ford, acclaimed Shakespearean actor, is accused of having murdered his girlfriend and her lover. Robert needs to escape, and boards the Pegasus without giving too much thought to where he is going. Just his luck the Pegasus is attacked by pirates.

First of all, I would like to say that this book was not what I expected, so my review could be tinted with that feeling of not getting what one thought at first. In a book set in the future, I did not expect the society where Robert lived in to be an almost Victorian society, where not only her Majesty was the ultimate power, but there was also an aristocratic smell all over the place. It’s not that I don’t enjoy these aspects in a story, but they feel out of place for me in a science-fiction book.

I found the first part a bit slow. We start with Robert thinking about committing suicide when a police agent miraculously decides for him that he should escape the authorities because he must be innocent. I don’t know, but this felt forced and not at all realistic.

Before the Pegasus is boarded by pirates, there is a slow part where some of the secondary characters on both ships are introduced. That part felt too long for me, and there are a bunch of names thrown at us almost at once which got me a bit confused.

The rest of the book is quite entertaining, and here it’s where we see Robert’s evolution and his interaction with the rest of the crew.

Something that I found odd, but could very well be connected to the Victorian feeling of the book, is that there are no important female characters. There are exactly three female characters in the book, and they are barely more than decoration: two of them are interested in Robert and only know how to show cleavage, and another one gets romantically attached to one of Robert’s friends. Nevertheless, there is little character development in general, and I was unable to connect with any of the characters, probably also due to the fact that they were all not very likable. For instance, I couldn’t stand Doctor Drake at all, and he was Robert’s friend.

It’s never clear in the story whether Robert killed his girlfriend or not, which makes me think that he did. He starts to show some character toward the end of the book since for the whole story he just happens to suffer anything that comes his way. This is one the things that probably failed for me. If the main character in the story didn’t care about what happened to him, how could I?

I enjoyed Tim Gerard Reynolds. I think narrating a book like this one is not an easy task, with so many characters Reynolds not only gave them different styles but used accents to distinguish the characters from the Pegasus and the pirate crew.

I’m glad that I listened to this book but unfortunately, I failed to see what the fuss was about. There will probably be more character development in future books, but as a first approach, it was just okay.

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lomeraniel

My name is Elena. Since I was a little child I loved science fiction and fantasy, and I can’t resist a good novel. In 2015, while wait I started to listen to audiobooks and I discovered the pleasure in being able to read while doing my daily tasks, so there’s always an audiobook playing on my phone. If you see me with my Bluetooth headphones on, please be gentle, I get easily startled.

I live with my boyfriend, which I met during my six-year stay in Belgium, four cockatiels, eight lovebirds, and a hamster in Madrid, Spain; and I like to spend my free time knitting and sewing while listening to audiobooks.