Down Below Beyond

I won an audible code prelaunch of the book via a giveaway done by the author. The narration by Kyle Snyder is fantastic and brings the characters to life. 
This is my first read from this author, but it certainly won't be the last. This is a scifi fantasy novel that heavily features found family and friends. It really is at its core about choosing your people and making the best of things. Everyone knows loss and hardship, certainly so does Levort Aatra. Perhaps even more than others. As a prospector, he has to forage and search for every little bit he can call his own, which makes sense, as that is his actual arc throughout the novel itself too. 
My favorite thing about the mixture of scifi/fantasy is that it doesn't feature hard science. The author is creating languages, races, planets. I don't need to have heavily believable science backing it, I can allow being told what is, is just what it is. And the novel itself progresses at such a pace that you won't even have time to dive too deep. 
I really loved the villain role being kind of ambiguously filled by Levort's best friend Bayfo. It exists as this really incredible way of showing two sides of the same coin as each of them just want to make a better life for themselves. I love the utilization of the ‘villain' thinking his friend is so misled that he has to save him no matter what, therefore becoming blinded himself. 
Personally a 5/5* for me. I need a physical copy and so do you.