Down Below Beyond
Lodespace is a collection of worlds dominated by the Fessenog Fleet trade empire. Thanks to the Voyalten portals, alien civilizations from all over the universe can gather for glorious trade. For the wealthy, there has never been a more lucrative circle.
But the Fleet is hiding something from its investors. A secret that, if exposed, could bring the empire to its knees.
Levort Aatra is a prospector on the planet Tayoxe. While scavenging the wastes of the abandoned world, he discovers a mysterious starship and stakes his claim on it. Little does he know, he just made himself the most wanted man in Lodespace.
-Goodreads
Title: Down Below Beyond
Series: Standalone
Author: T.A. Bruno
Page Count: 332
Genre: Science Fiction / Fantasy
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Date Read: March 11th, 2025
Opening
I'll start this review stating that T.A. Bruno is one of those authors that have been on my radar now for a couple of years. Unfortunately, I just hadn't gotten a chance to slide any of his work into my monthly TBR. I still want to get to his The Song of Kamaria series as I have book one In the Orbit of Sirens waiting.
Luckily enough though I was able to get his standalone Down Below Beyond into my March TBR and it was so much fun! This gives me rather high hopes for the other series and I just may have to make sure I get the above mentioned started yet this year.
Pacing
I can't speak highly enough about the pacing within Down Below Beyond. I settled in to this one so quickly. I elected to go the route of the audiobook version so I could keep on top of this one more frequently and not have to depend on finding time to sit still and visual read it. However, I will touch on the Kindle version when I get to the Character Development in a moment.
The audiobook was narrated by Kyle Snyder who I believe was new to me. I can't recall if I've experienced his performances previously or not. If I have it hasn't been very many. Kyle did such a great job with so many difference voices bringing each of these characters and the world to life. (While doing research on this very topic I found out Kyle has been narrating another fun series I enjoy, Toroth-Gol by Kenny Gould. Even though I'm caught up on visually reading that series, I might have to go back and give Kyle's performance a listen)
World Building
The world building was very creative. The author seems to take full advantage of this being a science fiction world where he can just go wild with the world environments and races. There was so many things to experience for the first time. Especially early on when things are just being introduced and laying the foundation for the rest of the story.
I honestly don't want to give too much away but there are various locations that give a very dark feeling and others that seem more light and whimsical. Bruno does a wonderful job describing these places allowing the reader to lose themselves within.
Finally, I wanted to touch on the fact there is also plenty of political intrigue and different castes and races providing a lot of depth to the world and its history.
Character Development
The character development could be described in many of the same ways as the world building. We have so much diversity of characters. I had heard from some friends in the bookish community that T.A. Bruno does aliens very well and they weren't kidding. I was struggling a bit early on trying to picture all of these unique character races. That is until I picked up the Kindle version just to get a better idea of character names and I found out there was a wonderful single page drawing of our main characters. That was all I needed to settle in and visualize these characters the rest of the way while listening to the audiobook.
We have several amazing character arcs through Down Below Beyond. Levort and Bayfo had a great relationship for the story. Maybe not with each other but the story definitely benefits from these two. I will admit I'm more than a little bit of a fan for Floem though. What a great character! Whether she was bringing some much needed comedic relief at times or she was just off being her own strong self, any scene with her was a pleasure to experience.
Closing
In the end, I really enjoyed this book. I'm kicking myself now that I haven't gotten to his first series yet and I need to remedy that this year. I doubt I'll get through its entirety by end of the year, but I plan to at least get through book one.
Down Below Beyond is easy to recommend to readers of Science Fiction, looking for a deep, wild and adventurous space tale that is darker at times but has a rich world and some amazing characters. I'd be shocked if readers couldn't find at least one character to gravitate towards and latch onto in this one.
Scoring
Pacing 5.0 / 5.0
Worldbuilding 4.5 / 5.0
Character Development 4.5 / 5.0
