You can always count on Nicholas Sansbury Smith to write a good apocalyptic tale, and he has quiet a variety of those to choose from: Hell Divers, Orbs, The Extinction Cycle, and Trackers to name a few. So I was excited to see a sci-fi series written by him, and The Last Steward is the first book in that series. This is a battle heavy series that follows a few different PoV characters, Axel Finn, the captain of a diverse crew of misfits that make a living running salvage missions, a young sergeant, Jax, who finds out quickly that doing the right thing in the military isn't always appreciated, and a paranoid bounty hunter, Rangnar, who collects ancient artifacts. This series has a rich universe inhabited by many different species, multiple factions vying for power, and a brewing war that puts the main characters right in the center of things. But, is it on par with the rest of Sansbury's work?

And the answer for me personally is a resounding no. For me, the characters were not that interesting and at times, quite juvenile. So much so that i considered bailing before the end and at times I felt like this was written to be a cartoon. One of the characters talks in baby talk and every time it happened I just wanted to skip ahead. So despite the rich universe and backstory created here, this is ultimately a book where the execution just lets down the promise of the premise. It has lots of positive reviews, so YMMV, but for me this will be the first series by Smith that I walk away from and do not finish.

The audiobook version is narrated by Mark Boyett and Khristine Hvam and both are talented narrators that I enjoy listening to, but that didn't matter here. I recommend that if you try this one, you read it instead of listening. Maybe that will help you accept the baby-talk.