#TheWriteReads blog tour | “The Half-Life Empire: An Alien Apocalypse Novel” (Half-Life Empire, Book One) by Shami Stovall

Borrowed Book By: I found out about this novel via The Write Reads who was hosting a blog tour in April, 2025. I decided to check to see if an audiobook copy was available to purchase via Audible as I have a subscription to their Plus Catalogue. I was surprised to find it is included in the Plus Catalogue, thereby, I was able to ‘borrow’ or listen to a copy of the audiobook via my subscription without having to purchase the audiobook at this time. 

Thereby, this is a self-listen of mine and I was not obligated to post a review. I am sharing my ruminative thoughts for my own edification and for continuing to share my readerly life on Jorie Loves A Story. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Why I wanted to step outside my zone of comfort for this audiobook:

I have been in such a readerly rut lately – too much on my heart/mind to properly focus on STORIES. Sad yet true. I knew I needed to pull myself out of this FUNK and guess what? The Half-Life Empire is just the kind of STORY I need right now. I discovered the writings of Ms Stovall with the novels Time-Marked Warlock and Chronos Warlock – of which are future reads and reviews of mine. If the last few weeks were different – the first novel of that series would have been happily consumed and reviewed already. However, if you read over the top anchour of my #BestBooksOf2024 post you’ll understand what has been going on IRL for Mum and I.

Try as I might, I’ve been finding myself pulled out of reading and the stories I want to be attached inside of late. I know what caused the detachment but how to restart reading again when you can’t find yourself able to focus? Wells. Sometimes you have to read something radically outside your normal wanderings and reboot your readerly life. For me, that was choosing a story that was within one of the main genres I regularly read but perhaps not a subniche of the genre I’ve previously read. Towards that end – I was grasping at straws as they say to find such a book and to find a writer I who could hold my attention.

Then, quite unexpectedly this lovely blog tour was announced, and I looked up the story and felt it might kick me out of my readerly funk! Especially considering I know NOTHING about Post-Apocalyptic worlds and rarely do I read stories about aliens overtaking worlds. Science Fiction is one of those delightful segues of interest in my regular wanderings and one that I want to delve deeper into exploring this year which is why I have a stack of Sci Fi Reads in queue. This particular story felt wholly new to me, and I felt would offer a new perspective on a genre I still feel like I’m in the early days of discovering.

Sometimes you just have to take a chance – find a story and buckle up for the ride it gives you! And, for me, the story held my interest for a long while until I reached a point where I wasn’t sure I could continue with the story. Although this ended up becoming a DNF for me – I have a lot of notes and thoughts to share about the story, the lead character (Kita) and the performance of the narrator – in case anyone else feels this is a better fit for them and know they can finish the journey I started with The Half-Life Empire.

The Half-Life Empire
by Shami Stovall
Source: Audible | Subscription
Narrator: Diana Richardson

From the Dragon Award–nominated author of Astra One young woman leads a ragtag band of survivors across a fractured, post-alien-invasion America.

Hacker Kita Yamasaki would do anything to escape the post-apocalyptic landscape that was the result of the Forever Winter. But for a normal person, the only options are the war-hungry nation-state of Ex Cathedra or the isolationist United California. Fortunately, Kita is anything but normal.

When she finds a faded brochure for the BC Oasis—an underground greenhouse capable of sheltering a quarter million people—she jumps at the opportunity, even going so far as to steal a fission battery the oasis requires to operate at full capacity. There’s just one problem . . . The battery belongs to the ruthless judges of Ex Cathedra.

Now Kita finds herself the target of a deadly chase. In her race to safety, she picks up three fellow Dallas; his mute daughter, Crouton; and Bishop, a junk hunter. But will they betray her and take the battery for themselves? Is one of them a member of the cultist Iron-Blooded who worship the few remaining alien invaders scattered across Earth’s wasteland?

Faced with certain death if they’re caught by the judges’ power-armored soldiers, Kita must put aside her suspicions and make a headlong dash for sanctuary—and the promise of a new life.

Genres: Science Fiction

Places to find the book:

Add to LibraryThing

ASIN: B0CJ441FPM

Published by Podium Audio

on 17th October, 2023

Format: Audiobook | Digital

Length: 15 hours and 49 minutes (unabridged)

Published by: Podium Audio (@podiumentertainment) via Instagram

We enter Kita’s life as she’s sneaking into a silver mine to steal alien technology whilst her thoughts and her actions are laced with snarky humour. She doesn’t take herself too seriously and she has a realistic view of her life and situation, too. For a girl caught in a landscape altered by aliens, she has a positive outlook despite the fact the world has been completely destroyed and laid to waste and ruin. Whilst scouring a storage room for items she could sell to make her escape to United California, Kita discovers one of the prisoners locked away in the room was an Ex Cathedra soldier. A visible enemy to her and one she had no interest in aiding to escape. He led her straight to an armory – wherein he realised she could read the alien language and that she had the kind of skills that only a hacker could use on the fly to bypass codes no one else could crack.

From the onset of their time together, Kita had the instinctive edge of knowing she shouldn’t trust Dallas. An instinct that would come to bite her in the tail if she were to go against it too. Dallas was afflicted with radiation poisoning. whilst Kita had her own physical issues and improperly healed injuries. As apparently, in this new America, those who survived were the ones who could overcome anything that life threw at them. And, that apparently included medical emergencies in a world where doctors and hospitals were no longer readily available. The history of how this world became Post-Apocalyptic isn’t very clear in the beginning – some details are revealled here or there as the plot shifts forward but nothing which surmises the back-history of the world itself. To have a better understanding how how long it had been where America was the country we all know to this new state of a country where aliens overtook by their invasion. Or the lengths of altered affairs since the aliens invaded, too. Was it just America that was blighted out by the aliens? Or was this world-wide? What caused the attack and did anyone know about it in advance? Of course, these were the questions I was thinking as I was first listening to the story. Mostly as I love stories that give you a bit of back-history in the beginning arc of the story rather than pulse it out over the course of the novel’s length.

Kita’s entire focus was on securing a fission battery – as this was worth more than gold in this world. It meant freedom but it also meant the power to choose your own course. I immediately knew Kita wanted to be in control of her own destiny. She had been fighting for so long that if she could change her own course in life, she wouldn’t have to dwell on the past. She had a lot of emotional baggage she was suppressing in her bones. That much you could tell straight-off.

In this world, the Judges – of whom were military innovation – wore protective armour  which made them dangerously lethal – were the law of the land. They were ruthless as much as they were in control of the people. Going against them was suicide in this world and Kita was willing to risk her own life just to defend herself against them. They were definitely someone you did not want to cross nor anger as you knew you would not be long for the world if you did.

Meanwhile, we get to see the softer side of Kita – as she speaks about Joel – the original resident of Kita’s hideaway which was more or less a mere cellar – who left messages on the walls. She also creates small toys and talks a lot about the Forever Winter, which makes me wonder if she is referencing a nuclear Winter or if is merely referencing how the alien invasion of the world destroyed everything and gave nothing back in return.

Dallas and Kita were a quirky pair of travellers – they each had their own baggage to carry and not the kind you can visually see in their hands. Their wounds were internal and silent – each of them had their own trust issues too. For Kita she wanted to break free of her current circumstances and strive towards a place that might give her a better tomorrow. If only she could get to United California. Kita was a solo warrior of this age, given to the resolve of being alone and cast adrift – she had grown out of touch with connecting with others. She couldn’t risk connections to people due to the complications that would involve and the mere fact that any person could bring danger and heartache to her doorstep.

When Kita first started to talk about the BC Oasis – you could hear the Hope in her voice and how much she longed to find something outside of her present life which felt like an impossible nightmare to even think of escaping. Kita had more guts in her than most and whenever she had to face another challenge on her journey, she dug deeper and pulled herself through each obstacle which tried to slow her down. There were threats everywhere she and Dallas went – with guards and Judges constantly a stone’s throw from their positions. Yet, they were both equally motivated to continue to push onward – to get closer to their objectives and destinations. For Dallas, it was the hope of a cure for his condition by the Iron-Blooded – a group of people who were aligned with the invaders themselves.

The longer Dallas and Kita spend time together, the more you can see how their becoming reliant on each other and that was something I had a feeling neither of them expected to have happen as they were both loners in their own right. Dallas had more pride than sense at times whereas Kita was just as stubborn and hard-headed. Yet, they both knew they would have to work together and rely on each other to survive the worst of what the journey would yield, which included injuries to their feet which were medically difficult to handle without medics. Yet, nothing would prepare Kita for their rendezvous with the Iron-Blooded – of whom spoke the alien language.

It was here – at this moment in the story – where I found myself being pushed past the envelope of what I could handle listening too. This is where the betrayal happens and where Kita is captured and tortured. The brutality of those scenes shocked me a bit because I felt blindsided by them. For some reason, I had this whole other scenario for the story to play out and her getting tortured wasn’t part of what I had forethought would be her fate. The anguish and pain that Richardson held within her narration during those passages was incredible! Her performance cemented the words by Stovall which etched the despair of Kita so brilliantly into your ears. It was painful just to listen to and it was a performance that was as convicting as the words which were written to describe it.

Yet, I could not find the will to continue the story. I lost joy I had listening to Kita’s adventurous journey – as she provided me with a segue back into reading. Her story was so off-the-wall unique and different from anything I had heard or read previously that it was re-inspiring me to get back into reading. And, perhaps that was the best takeaway from this listening experience for me. Sometimes maybe we don’t have to finish a story to get something positive out of it. What will stay with me was her fortitude to survive the impossible and her dedication to seeking a new future even if she was challenged every leg of the journey to reach it. Kita is one heck of a heroine and Richardson did her justice in voicing her to life.

On the writing styling of Shami Stovall:

Stovall thrusts us front and centre into this darkened world after an alien invasion and having the world turnt upside down by their presence in everyone’s lives. It is Post-Apocalyptic America – where the landscape of our country is still visible if you look hard enough but where everything about how life is being lived is altered and changed evermore! From the moment you begin this story, you’re on the edge of your seat – wondering what is going to happen next and especially if Kita can outsmart and outrun the dangers, she constantly has to face in order to survive.

Stovall has a skill of capturing the emotional toll of a Post-Apocalyptic world through the lens of different perspectives as lived within her characters. Her phrases and words of choice to describe this emotional angst of a world carves out a realistic view of where this world we know ourselves could become altered and scarred by an invasion we couldn’t control. Piercingly real and attune to the emptiness of despair and the desperate act to break free of circumstance – Stovall etched into the backbone of the story a well of Hope. She created characters who refused to give up and refuted any chance of failure. She gave them obstacles which felt near impossible to overcome but each time we heard how they succeeded it gave us a bolt of courage to know that all was not yet lost. I loved how this grey world held a bit of light inside it – you had to look a bit harder for the light, but it was there – flickering through the storyline and guiding the characters forward.

#FuellYourSciFi elements:

→ Alien Tech (ie. Atech)

→ a Post-Apocalyptic World with remnants of the old Earth

Fly in the Ointment:

I nearly made it to the end of Chapter 5 – except to say, I was feeling myself stepping out of the story a bit ahead of that junction. There is one thing I shy away from in fiction and stories – torture scenes and brutality of violence. I don’t do well with graphic violence either – one bit of a blessing about how Stovall writes this series is that she describes the violence in such a way as not to be overtly sickening but still. There isn’t much left to the imagination. You know what is going on in the scene even if its not as grisly described as others might have made those scenes. It is enough. What drew it more vivid for me was the performance of the narrator – she truly emoted her voice with such a full range of emotions – you didn’t just hear the words of those scenes – you half lived them alongside Kita. And, that was just too much for me as a listener.

I was already compelled to listen to the story due to the premise of having to take this ramshackle journey across the wasteland of what used to be America in search of a better and more hopeful tomorrow. What I wasn’t ready for was the imprisonment and torturing scenes of Kita.

Also, I would have LOVED some more back-history in the beginning of the story – to learn what caused the violence against humans and how did the aliens’ takeover everything? There was a hint of this history when Kita heard a video – it echoed to a more telling truth about the world in which this story is set but it was so brief. It could have been expanded upon lateron – after I exited the story but evenso, I truly wanted a few more details of the origins of this Post-Apocalyptic Earth.

Content Warnings:

There are some sprinklings of stronger language within the storyline but whenever they appeared they were in moments where you could understand why someone would say what they were saying in the height of those moments. Thankfully it wasn’t overtly sprinkled into the story but just hit/miss whenever a moment arose which might need a stronger word here or there. The narrative is very descriptive – given the barren landscape and the demolished world around the characters, it was almost a given they would constantly have new injuries to be endured. Those are described in-scene, and they aren’t too hard to move past as they are simply stated and are understood given the climate of their journey. Nothing overly explicit though.

→ Medical Violence and Torture Scenes

→ Physical Brutality on-scene

For these three reference points for they story, I have to admit pulled me out of the narrative. I was enjoying the adventure of Dallas and Kita travelling together through the wasteland and trying to find certain kinds of supplies and leaning on each other to survive the hours. Until a betrayal separated them, and Kita was captured and tortured. I tried to listen past that moment, but it led to another ghastly scene I wasn’t fully ready to handle.

In regards to the audiobook, directly:

I am appreciative of Ms Jess providing a cursory outline of how best to articulate my listening hours on behalf of this audiobook and the others I shall be blogging about or reviewing in future. I’ve modified the suggestions to what I felt were pertinent to respond too on my own behalf as well as keeping to the questions I felt were relevant to share.

Number of Times I’ve heard the Narrator(s):

This is the first time I’ve listened the narration styling of Diana Richardson.

Regards to the Narrator’s Individual Character performances:

Kita: She was a Renaissance woman in her own right in a world turnt upside down by alien invasion. She had a skill set that many should envy as it helped her get what she needed to change her stars. She had a no-nonsense attitude and a personal lifeline of hope pulsing in her blood. She was a loner who knew how to survive and took the advice of someone who lived before her in the same hidden cellar she had occupied. Her snarky humour felt like a personal badge of protection as much as an attempt to offset the dire circumstances of her world.

Dallas: He was a warrior who had worked for the wrong side but turnt companion to Kita on a trek across the country whilst he was terminally ill. He was a man of little talk but the words he spoke held weight. He was also severely wounded and in constant pain but like Kita he didn’t allow his injured body drag him down. He held back a lot too. He did not overshare anything to Kita and there was something about him that felt secretive and protective.

Voice on the Video: Base Commander Robins had that kind of gravel filled voice which dramatically shifted the emotions of the scene which you could tell was piercing through the time void of the past to bring back to reality the events of the past which reflected the present of this world. It was a brief capture of the past and in that moment, you could tell how much this world had been hurt by the actions of the aliens who had invaded our Earth.

How the story sounded to me as it was being Read: (theatrical or narrative)

Richardson gives a very theatrical performance to her narration of Half-Life Empire. She pulls you into the setting and the story with ease and makes you feel like this altered state of the world is your own reality you need to survive. Everything about the world in which this story is set has a high-stakes level of intensity about it – from the dangers of the Judges to knowing that trust doesn’t go very far in a world that is difficult just to survive.

Regards to Articulation & Performance of the story:

Richardson not only articulated the drama of the evolving story, but she performed the characters with so much heart and believability too! She truly gave you a wicked good listen simply by how she etched out each of the characters and drove the narrative forward with her passionate performance of their lives. I love when I listen to an audiobook, and it sounds as if the narrator themselves were so wholly invested into the story that they too were starting to live through the characters they were narrating for us as listeners. I felt this was true for Richardson with this story. There were moments where I felt she wasn’t just performing the story, but she was re-living a story she had already lived. And, that’s a credit to how she approached her performance.

Preference after listening to re-Listen or pick up the book in Print?

I’m not sure how I’d make the transition from audiobook to print with this story. The characters and the plot and the entire setting just felt so much alive for me listening to the story by Richardson. She rounded out the darker shades of the setting too – giving you the light of hope in this insane world by the voices of the characters and that is something I think would be lost on me if I were to read it in print. I might still pick up on those nuances myself reading the book, but it would be a different variant of the story. I very rarely switch to print after listening to an audiobook because the experience of the audiobook is such a visceral experience for me as a listener, that the performance is firmly etched into my memory and imagination.

Any issues in listening to the audiobook? (ie. Sound Quality)

I’m not sure why but when I was listening to the audiobook – every so often, the narration would disappear – I thought maybe it was part of the story until it just became utter silence. I’m not sure if it is an easy with playback with Audible or a glitch in the audiboook. Either way, I could repeat those sections and re-listen to the passages which just disappeared and then, re-appeared if that makes sense?! I also thought it might be my internet connectivity as we’ve been having issues with it lately and have extra buffering issues arising out of the blue. Of course, listening to the audiobook didn’t grant me the luxury of an alert of buffering issues like I would have seen if I was streaming tv. *le sighs*

In closing, would I seek out another Diana Richardson audiobook?

She is the narrator for the ENTIRE series of Half-Life Empire. There are two more books thus far into the series. I’m not sure if it is a trilogy or an on-going saga of stories but knowing that Richardson is there to narrate the stories to life is encouraging for readers who want to seek out the next installments of this series! I love when a narrator can be kept for synchroneity of a series like this one. However, for me personally, I’ll be seeking out another series and/or book to listen to instead of continuing with this one per the reasons I stated on this review about what led it to be a DNF for me.

This book review is courtesy of the blog tour by The Write Reads:

Be sure to follow this lovely blog tour socially and in the book blogosphere!

You will find posts on different platforms –
including the ones I’m active on myself which are #bookstagram and BlueSky.

DUE NOTE: This review was delayed due to medical issues my Mum was having the week of the blog tour – she was also in/out of the ER twice on Friday – the day after my previously scheduled review day. I barely slept that week – as I wasn’t sure what we should do, and I knew we’d eventually have to go to the hospital to get it sorted. It turnt out to be a new variant of her asthma which as been dormant for a very long time. She’s doing much better now – but it did forestall this review from being shared. Sometimes you think what you’re going through isn’t as bad as it sounds and other times, you know you just need medical intervention because what you think is happening isn’t what is happening at all. 

{SOURCES: Cover art of “The Half-Life Empire”, book synopsis, author biography and photo as well the blog tour banner were provided by The Write Reads and are used with permission. Post dividers and My Thoughts badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Audiobook Review banner and the Comment Box Banner.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2025.

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I shared this blog tour whilst listening to the audiobook via BlueSky:

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