Steal the Stars is a 14 part audio drama/podcast that's been being released every week for the past 4 months. A novelization is also being released this month, but as I listened to the audio drama in its original form, this review is going to concern that format and not the novelization. For the time being, the audio drama/podcast is still available as a free podcast download - I'm not sure when that will end. As it tells a full SF story, I do think it's worth a review, so here we go.
Steal the Stars tells the story that is essentially a love story......except in a future US where a Corporation basically controls the Country and involving an Alien and his crashed spaceship. The story is really well acted - while we're solely in the head of main protagonist Dakota "Dak Prentiss," - each of the various voice actors are extremely good in their roles. And until the very very end, the story's twists and turns kept me on the edge of my seat - it's only the last twist that kind of doesn't work. In short, Steal the Stars is a pretty fun audio drama/podcast and well worth listening to.
More after the Jump
-------------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------
The story is from the point of view of Dak Prentiss, the head of security at Quill Marine, a secretive research facility run by mega-corporation Sierra (which basically runs the United States in this dystopian future). Dak is the best at her job, but part of her job relies upon her having no personal relationships with any other staff member.....and when she falls in love with new security officer Matt Salem, she realizes that this love could destroy them both.
So Dak hatches a plan to steal the most valuable object at Quill Marine - an actual extraterrestrial named "Moss," as well as another piece of alien technology known as the "Harp" in order to safely find a way for Dak and Matt to escape to a Country where they can be free to act on their love. But Sierra controls not just the US, but much of the globe, and there may not be any place they can hide, so one false move in their escape will mean the end of everything for Dak and Matt - can they manage to pull it off? Or will their love destroy them both?
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One of the nicest things about Steal the Stars is that it pulls of the character dynamics really well. the story is told solely from Dak's point of view, and at first I felt that the Dak-Matt relationship was too sudden and I wasn't sure if I really believed how committed they were to each other, but the show totally realizes that (no spoilers) and incorporates the issue into the plot. Each of the characters is very well voice acted, so you really get to hear their personalities come through.
And for the most part, the characters are really well done. Dak is a bit of a jerk, but she's lovable all the same, and all of the supporting characters, from Dak's sidekick Patty, to the tech geek Lloyd, to the very bit players involved in Quill security, are really well done even in the most minor of roles. One of these characters gets EXTREMELY screwed by Dak's actions, and you really really feel bad for her - which is of course what the show is going for. It's always a good sign when a story can make you feel extremely sympathetic towards a character getting a bad break, and Steal the Stars does that.
And for the most part the adventure's twists and turns are well done. Most podcast episodes end in a cliffhanger, but the cliffhangers are fair and well done. The plotting is extremely well done, and in a limited time you really do get to see what a crapsack dystopia this is (I think it's episode 4, which is just a brutal demonstration of how awful things are in this world).
The story is far from perfect, or even up to the standard of a truly great story though. The biggest flaw is that until near the very end, Matt Salem is kind of a blank slate, which is a problem when he's your secondary main character. I now a lot more about Patty, Lloyd, or even Harrison, who isn't a major character at all, than I do about how Matt thinks or reacts, and that made me more annoyed with Dak than I probably should've been as she screwed over some of those other characters for Matt's sake.
The ending is also a bit of a deus ex machina that I wasn't so enthused with. The story seems to back itself into a corner, requiring a deus ex machina to not have a real downer ending, and it basically comes out of nowhere without any setup. Not sure how that would be fixed, but well....when you have a final twist of that nature, it would help for it to be foreshadowed a bit more so it doesn't come out of nowhere.
Overall though, a very good listen, and well worth your time, given that it currently is available as a free podcast. Give it a listen.
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