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Deus Ex Machina

Broker, Book 1

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Deus Ex Machina

By: Derelict Presence
Narrated by: Hollie Jackson
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Summary

To save the world, Sonya must become its greatest hero—and its darkest villain.

The opening of Pandora's Box changed the world, giving rise to an age of superhumans and monsters. Yet mankind was not safe from its own hubris, and in the end, it destroyed itself.

Sonya Chernovna returns to the past with a mysterious new ability that lets her absorb powers, combine them, and even bestow them onto others. It's a power with near limitless potential.

She must manipulate heroes and villains alike, playing both sides while keeping her identities secret. As her power grows, so does the weight of her decisions—and the line between her identities blurs.

She'll do whatever it takes to rewrite humanity's ending—even if it means being the most heinous villain that ever lived.

©2024 DerelictPresence (P)2025 Podium Audio Action & Adventure Epic Fantasy Science Fiction Superhero
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This was honestly amazing!!!!
I've been looking for story I can sink my teeth into and this is perfect.
I love the main chatacter and how far she's actually willing to go.
Can't wait for the next book

PICK THIS YOU'LL LOVE IT

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A good story with very decent characters, good worldbuilding and nice progression.

The main villain is written well, written pretty smartly but the main attraction has to be the fine line of being walked by the character. She is in danger of being found out, undermined and outmanoeuvred, which keeps the tension high and keeps you reading.

Slows down here and there, the pace is maybe not always be perfect, but the story is worth the wait.
The narrator took some getting used to for me, and not sure about some accents.

Good worldbuilding, new ideas, smart villain

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Good story great narration something a bit different but familiar enough very entertaining and enjoyable

Great listen

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I love the plot and the characters, all really interesting, easy 5 stars.

My only issue is that the narrator has her own idea of how a voice modulator should sound, and chooses to completely ignore the author's opinion on the matter.

For context, the protagonist gets a helmet made which has a feature that alters her voice, so that she'll not be recognised while wearing it. Throughout the book, the author repeatedly and frequently specifies that her altered voice is supposed to sound raspy. Instead, the narrator has decided that it should sound like an old-fashioned text-to-speech device. Basically imagine Stephen Hawking's robotic voice but more feminine. She's not a bad narrator otherwise, but I just cannot fathom why you'd choose to ignore such an obvious direction and do your own thing instead.

I'm not gonna deduct a star from my rating for that, as it's not the author's fault, but I really hope that the narrator does a better job with the second title in the series, if and when that gets produced.

Amazing Sfory, Odd Narration

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This was one of those “i’ll get it and see where it goes” type of books, but boy am I glad that I did! Really amazing story with characters that have real depth!

Great characters

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