The High Ground

Audiobook review

I had seen this book in passing when I was looking for other books narrated by Nicole Poole , I have to admit the cover and blurb didn’t catch my attention and I scrolled past it. Then I saw one of my blogger friends review this one and her review made me curious and combined with the fact it was narrated by Nicole Poole, I decided to give this one a try. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect form this book, but I definitely had a great time listening to it.

The High ground is told in mostly dual point of views from Tracie and Mercedes. The first two chapters have other point of views, but after that it sticks with those two. Tracie is one of the lower born citizens, but thanks to a scholarship he gets the chance to attend The High ground, a prestigious school for the elite to become officers for space combat. Tracie wants nothing to with the elite nobles and doesn’t plan to attend.

Mercedes is on the totally opposite side as Tracie when it cums to social class. She is the heir to throne. Her father only got female kids and he changed the law so Mercedes can be the heir. Now the first step she has to take is attend the High Ground as all nobles have to attend. But Mercedes doesn’t want to attend The High Ground.

So we start with two opposites in social class who both have no intention of joining the elite school, but then a chance meeting changes everything. And they both end up at The High ground. Most of the story takes place at The High ground and it’s a bit of an academy style story set in space, which was fun.

This book is full of social and cultural complexities and most of the focus is on that. The differences between the high and low born, the way they threat each other, how Tracie doesn’t quite fit in because he’s a scholarship student, how Mercedes doesn’t quite fit in because she is the heir and the first female to attend The High ground. There are lots of social complexities, decisions that have to made, who they have as friends and who not. It was all well thought out and the author’s world building really shines in the way she brings this futuristic civilization to live.

The pacing is quite gentle, with the focus on the social intricacies. It kept my attention the whole time, but when it sped up toward the end I really couldn’t stop listening. There is quite an action packed part at the end and the consequences and implications of what happens are heartbreaking. And it feels like this book has a lot of set ups and hints and foreshadowing for future events, but at this point it’s hard to predicts where it will go. I am excited to find out where the story goes next.

I enjoyed following Tracie and Mercedes along as they try to find their way and place at the academy The High ground. See who they make friends with and most of all how they interact with each other. There is a bit of romance as well, it’s nicely woven in between the other parts. I also liked how different these two characters are. Tracie might be a low born, but he is proud and has to find out how to fit in and make a place for himself among the nobles. While Mercedes is quite isolated due to her position and politics play a role in almost everything she does. And while for the most part she seems okay or even happy with her role, there are moments where you really see the struggle it is. And when she slowly realizes what being a ruler entails and the difficult decisions they have to make, I really felt for her. She has to make some difficult decisions toward the end of the book.

Besides the two main characters there is a huge cast of side character. Everything from family members, to other students, to teachers, to important nobles, to the alien servants. The big amount of side character could be a bit overwhelming for me and at times I struggled with remembering who was who. And in some cases only the narration of their voices reminded me of who they were. Other times it took me a while to remember it until the right cue came along. It does make sense why there are so many characters involved, but it could make it difficult to remember everyone at times. There are some great side characters, but mostly every character has it’s role and place and with the big amount of them, it’s hard to really get to know many very well.

The author did a great job with the world building, both the social aspect of it as well as the space part of it, although the latter we see less of than the former. Most of the story takes place aboard a space station and a lot of the focus is on the space part, but it’s also still pretty small scale for now as most of what we see is the planet and the space station. It’s also a lot about the social order of this futuristic society, their social norms and how it works and that gets shown really well to the reader. And it’s also about the solar league which humans lead, the aliens they have enslaved and the way their elitism creates enemies as well as those who want to keep the social order in place. There are a multitude of alien species around. I especially liked Donald, who is Tracie’s servant. There are hints about how not all aliens are happy with their enslaved position, but besides mere hints, it doesn’t go much further. I can see how throughout the series that might change.

Nicole Poole really did an awesome job with the narration. I am still pretty new to audiobooks and this was the first time I picked up another audiobook series by a narrator I already knew and I was surprised how already knowing the narrator and their style made it so easy to slip into the story. I really like Nicole Poole’s narration style and how she gives each character their own voice and vibe just be the way she does their voices. This story has a lot of Spanish words in it and she handled those great as well. It was easy enough to figure out what most of the Spanish words meant form the context too and I thought it added some flavor to the story, although there never was an explanation why English and Spanish are the two common langues now. I am really glad I picked this up as audiobook as I think that helped me enjoy the story more.

To summarize: after a review by a blogger friend and seeing Nicole Poole narrate this book i decided to listen to the audiobook of this book. I really enjoyed this story, with it’s focus on the social complexities of this futuristic society, but also a well done developed world with well done sci-fi elements. I enjoyed reading about Tracie and Mercedes, who are on opposites sides of the social ladder, but who form a connection nonetheless. They both end of at the prestigious High Ground academy and it was interesting to see them find their way and the challenges they faced. they both face very different challenges too and I liked seeing the perspectives of two such different characters. There is a huge cast of side characters and I struggled at times remember who was who. There is a lot of hints and foreshadowing that I think will become relevant in later books. The pacing is quite gentle, which works here, but toward the end things sped up and I had to know what would happen. Nicole Poole’s narration was awesome. The audiobook was pleasant to listen to and I like how everyone has a different voices and vibe due to how she narrates them. She also handled the Spanish words well. All in all this was a great science fiction read and I am glad I picked it up and am eager to see how the series continues.