I loved this military science fiction novel. It's not always a genre that works well for me, but this story immediately pulled me in.

When I initially requested this one, I wasn't entirely sure how it connected to the authors’ previous work. It turns out this is more of a chronological series than a companion one.

Despite jumping into this one blind, I found myself absolutely engrossed. There was a horror element to this story that surprised and deleted me. The military elements were also incredibly interesting. After finishing this one, I wanted to go back to the beginning and experience the full story.

I would definitely recommend this science fiction story to those that love high stakes and gripping narratives.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

I could not get into the story of this book as an audio book. The narrator had a thick accent, that would have worked maybe if there was closed captioning or if I had a hard copy of the book. He read through the description of each character as they were introduced so fast my imagination didn't have time to picture them before he was talking about another character. I just couldn't keep up. I was disappointed with the narration. I will probably read this book when I can access a print copy.

TO CHALLENGE HEAVEN is exciting, dramatic, Science Fiction adventure from prolific author David Weber and Chris Kennedy, third in the OUT OF THE DARK Series [OUT OF THE DARK; INTO THE LIGHT]. Lots of Alien involvement plus Earth survivors who bring Survivalism and righteous Resistance to a new order of magnitude as they battle against the destructive invading aliens to preserve what little is left of Earth's civilization.

Appealing for fans of Military Science Fiction, Survivalism, and Extraterrestrial Species.

I also very much enjoyed the narration of this Audio version, while anticipating the upcoming digital version (January 16).

This audiobook is definitely not for me!!

First - I really wish that the NetGalley/review description would have said that this book is an addition to an already established series. I had no idea - thinking that it was a one-off or beginning of a new series - having never heard of the earlier books.

That said, I did try to listen for quite some time. I listened to at least 15-20% of the story. By that point, I still couldn't grasp what was going on. Further, it seems to have a very masculine, military-heavy, traditionalist tone/emphasis that isn't my style of Sci.Fi at all. I have been reading way too many inclusive books and series, written by BIPOC authors of various genders. I am 50 yrs old and white, but I want the worlds I read about to contain hope of a better world rather than zero development of the human race whatsoever. The bit I did try to get into was also full of gender stereotypes, and I just cannot abide that kind of writing.

So, I am giving up on this audiobook completely.
However, I will not publish my thoughts on GoodReads for this one, as I don't it is completely fair to the author that my ignorance of the earlier books would have excluded me from requesting this. I would like NetGalley and the publisher to know my thoughts though - both that the description did not make clear that this was a continuation of a series, and that publishing the work of diverse authors is much more essential than perpetuating hopeless, patriarchal tropes.