PERSEPHONE STATION

An audiobook story of bad-ass mercenaries protecting Indigenous peoples from a corporation threatening to colonize their planet and swallow them up provides a lot of opportunity for conflict. The core characters are all female, including the villains, leaving the males in peripheral roles. Narrator Maria Liatis adopts a light, perky tone for this quasi-Western in a semi-lawless universe. She relies on subtle differences in pitch and pacing to differentiate characters. The mercenary community is fluid, and people change sides often, fostering strong emotions. Liatis dramatizes the camaraderie and loyalty among the characters and captures the outrage at the occasional betrayal. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2021]