Culture Shock

2 HR STORY STRETCHED TO 11 1/2 HRS, NO CORPS IN IT

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Someone interested in a view of the effects of being stuck with taking in a bunch of foreign refugees who don’t want to integrate.
I've liked most of the CORPS series. Pretty much only tied to the series by Earth's demise, no Marine Corps involvement. This was basically a maybe 2 hour story stretched out to 11 1/2 hours. Nuttall had a story, didn't know where to put it & was boring as heck for all but a few minutes.

What could Christopher G. Nuttall have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Kept it out of the Empire's Corps series. Reduced it to a short story

Which scene was your favorite?

About 10 1/2 hours into the book, cops were allowed to carry firearms & use them to eliminate the main threat.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Very disappointed.

Any additional comments?

I'll be asking for my money back on this one. If the series continues, I hope it stays based on the marines coping with the loss of the empire.

11 of 11 people found this review helpful

Only for die hards I think

CG Nuttall is an autobuy for me. Love Warspite and Empire Core series, but as this is one of those offworlds stories (not Commonwealth) I think you can skip it. Not sure that it advances the universe as much as some of the other side stories have and frankly the overall story dragged- unusually for a Nuttall storyline. It does tackle a very relevant social political problem we are all dealing with- so the exploration of theory was interesting.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

Hands down the worst in the series.

What disappointed you about Culture Shock?

The Empire's Corps series is one of my favorites ever. I've listened to all of them, but this is just hands down a bad book. It's a poorly written polemic that goes on and on about a culture who's supposed to be some sort of Space Amish/Muslim hybrid but is really about the supposed dangers of letting in refugees - it reeks strongly of anti-Muslim bias, especially as it relates to refugees entering the UK. It's woefully unsubtle - he even references the Page 3 Girl from The Sun as something that one of the Forsakers is shocked by. The characters are wooden and unrealistic, and the story is slow and painfully predictable.

The rest of this series is great, but do yourself a favor and skip this one. If Audible still let me return books I'd be asking for my money back on this one.

Has Culture Shock turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, not at all. Nuttall is still one of my favorite sci-fi authors - everybody has a bomb once in a while and this is one of his.

Have you listened to any of Jeffrey Kafer’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I absolutely LOVE Kafer's narration in everything I've heard him in. He does an admirable job, even though the story sucks.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No. If I could get my money back I would.

Any additional comments?

If the author reads these comments - look man, this was just a bad idea for a book. I get you had a point to make, but this wasn't the right venue for it. This is still one of my favorite series, but if you're going to write stuff that isn't about the Commonwealth, at least make it interesting. I'd love to hear about what happened to the Childe Roland and Belinda Lawson, and the rest of the Marines that made it off Earth during the fall. More about the Trade Federation would be great too. I'm looking forward to book 14 hitting Audible, and I'll definitely buy it, but please let this installment be a lesson learned in what to avoid.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

This may be one book too many

I've listened to each book in the series and enjoyed most. This book discusses an interesting problem, but belongs in another series than the EMPIRE'S CORPS. A series relating to specific problems such as cultural misunderstandings would be a powerful starting point for similar idea exchanges based on today's conflicts.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

could not finish this

No Corps.
Simplistic short story dragged on and on and on,
over and over, then again and again, ad tedium.
Really bad.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Ham-Handed Politics out of place in Series

Christopher G Nuttal clearly wanted to write story about the dangers of Immigrants. Meet the Forsakers, society briefly mentioned in earlier parts in the series now more fleshed out. Imagine a Muslim version of the Amish described by Anne Coulter, and you are pretty much there.

Look. . . I get that there are libertarian undertones through the series, and I never found it off putting. Good gravy though, this story is as ham-fisted as anything I've read by John Ringo, and felt really really out of place in the series. I didn't even mind a rude awakening or what it was called because it fleshed out the story of earth a little bit more and at least had some characters that I wanted to learn about.

This story just sucked. Wooden characters with a predictable story line.

mild spoilers below, but you can pretty much see it all coming from a mile away once you are about an hour into the book

Of course the immigrants are shown to be a horrible drain on society.
Of course they hate our ways and we need to protect ourselves from them.
Of course when seeing wamans who are not covered up they HAVE NO CHOICE but to stares and sometimes rapes them.
Of course the only way to deal with them is to use force and control or the pussies who want to help them will be killed by the people they are trying to help.
Of course only way out is getting a true conservative government

If you want to have your globalism fears catered to you'll dig it but I've had enough eye rolling. Can we get back to the marines now?

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Disapointed

Not bad, but not as good as the previous books in the series. Nothing about the corps mentioned.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Not worth the time.

Culture Shock is a pointless collection of cliches jammed together. Even in text it felt like the antagonist was overacting his part straining credulity that anyone would follow such a character.

Jeffrey Kafer does an excellent job with a very weak story. If you are going to skip any book in this series this is the one to skip!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

great narrator lame story

love the narrators ability, but this book dragged. This is the worst book of the series. the others are amazing though.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Worst book in the series

I wanted another Empire's Corp story and got a story about the space Amish AKA the Foresakers. The story was dull and uncompelling. Skip this book...!!!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful