Coyote

A Novel of Interstellar Exploration

By: Allen Steele

Narrated by: Peter Ganim, Allen Steele

Length: 17 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Coyote marks a dramatic new turn in the career of Allen Steele, Hugo Award-winning author of Chronospace. Epic in scope, passionate in its conviction, and set against a backdrop of plausible events, it tells the brilliant story of Earth's first interstellar colonists - and the mysterious planet that becomes their home...

The crime of the century begins without a hitch. On July 5th, 2070, as it's about to be launched, the starship Alabama is hijacked - by her captain and crew. In defiance of the repressive government of The United Republic of Earth, they replace her handpicked passengers with political dissidents and their families. These become Earth's first pioneers in the exploration of space...

Captain R. E. Lee, their leader. Colonel Gill Reese, the soldier sent to stop Lee. Les Gilles, the senior communications officer, a victim of a mistake that will threaten the entire mission. Crewman Eric Gunther, who has his own agenda for being aboard. His daughter, Wendy, a teenager who will grow up too quickly. Jorge and Rita Montero, ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. And their son Carlos, who will become a hero in spite of himself.

After almost two-and-a-half centuries in cold sleep, they will awaken above their destination: a habitable world named Coyote. A planet that will test their strength, their beliefs, and their very humanity...

In Coyote, Allen Steele delivers a grand novel of galactic adventure - a tale of life on the newest of frontiers.

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction by author Allen Steele

©2003 Allen Steele (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Engaging and entertaining

I will admit that in the beginning of the book I began to get irritated with the political slant. However, if you bear with the book, and listen through to the end, I think you will see that the author does, in the end, redeem himself in this regard (at least for those of us who see the middle of the political road as the best course). I can't really say more without risking a spoiler, so you will just have to trust me on this one.
The story itself was engaging, and while you could tell that the original was written as a series of shorter stories, it was patched together very nicely, and still maintained a good flow. While it could stand alone as a novel, it doesn't do so comfortably. I was left wanting to know what happens next, and I have already downloaded the second book. As for narration, there is a short intro from Steele himself, which is fine given he's an author and not a reader. What I find odd is that Mr Ganim is mentioned as a narrator, but there was also a female narrator at various places during the book when a female character's story was being told, and she is not credited at all. I thought she did a fine job. Mr Ganim's narration was a bit plodding, and the only reason the book lost a star in my rating.

Good story, keen insites

The writer walks the line between battle between left and right. Neither seems to get the upper hand but each has it's days. One can believe this plot unfolding 50 years from now. Maybe this will be the "1984" of 2070.

Just fantastic!

The book is amazing, the story engaging. I love this whole series and my physical copy of the book is close to being in pieces. This is a wonderful story and the staet of a scifi epic not to miss.

The main narrator is not going to be for everyone. I know someone else who listened to this and didn't like the style. The book is very scientific at times and goes into amazing details. For certain parts of this book I find it perfect. Then in other parts where there are more characters and action, the natrorator does a great job with voicing and still keeping the book flowing. But with his own style. Also there are multiple narrorators? Which I didn't remember.

Listen to a preview, but the story is well worth it.

Great book. Always something happening.

This book was full of action and impossible to predict what was going happen next. I finished it in less than one week.

Looking forward to the next in this series

What did you love best about Coyote?

The storyline and characters are interesting and feel familiar even though we're just meeting them in this book.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I found the long explanations about the time shifts quite dry, but expect that aspect is more important later in the series.

What does Peter Ganim and Allen Steele bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narrators voices reinforced the character images very well.

Any additional comments?

I found this much easier to get into than many Fantasy Sci-Fi novels, as originating on Earth, it keeps enough Earth flavor to be instantly identified with! Good work, Mr. Steele!

A different narrator would have helped

My biggest complaint about this novel is the male narrator. He is very monotone and pauses between each word so that it becomes difficult to listen to. I noticed that the other books in this series are narrated by the same person so I haven't decided whether to purchase them.

I also can't understand the role of the female narrator. She basically only narrates the logs of one female character. Why not have her do all the female characters (especially since the male narrator doesn't change his tone much for female characters)?

The content of the book is pretty good. The author skips over periods of time quite a bit. I often found myself wondering what had happened to the characters during this time (such as their 1st winter on Coyote which is completely skipped).

Be sure to listen to the preview before buying. If you can handle the narrator, the book is worth getting.

It gets better

This book is a series of short stories that were peicemealed together to form a novel. Once I got past the "Stealing Alabama", which quite frankly seemed a bit drawn out and started to bore me after a bit, I started to get deeply into the novel, and I finished it in a couple of days. The colonization stories were top notch. I read some of the other reviews and I can't believe that someone would take issue with the authors political ideology, which was expoused in "Stealing Alabama". This is science fiction for crying outloud. It's not real. Enjoy the novel.

Unlike others, I liked the narrator

Not sure why others didn't like the narration. Or perhaps, I have just recently listed to other books with really bad narration. The story is about as advertised, not a 5 star book, but well worth listening to. I will buy the next book in the series.

Excellent Book - Mediocre Narration

I enjoyed this book, despite a few minor quibbles and the dreadful monotone narration. Peter Ganim does passable dialects, but his "narrator" voice is dull in the extreme. There's an alternate female editor midway through who is much, much easier to listen to.

The story is compelling and reasoned, if a bit sparse in the world-building department. While the pacing and plotting were well done, I found myself mildly disappointed by how bland Coyote turned out to be. We get a few trees, maybe four or five animals and ton of...well...grass. There are some setups that may pan out in future installments (which I do intend to listen to,) however, the alien biosphere as described in this book is rather threadbare.

Recommended, albeit with muted expectations relative to the word "epic."

excellent beginning to a great trilogy

As I listened to the first part of this book, I kept experiencing deja vue... I was sure I had read something like this before! Much to my surprise and delight, I realized that I had read the first chapter in a Sci Fi magazine. I was really delighted to hear the rest of the story in the entire novel.

This is one which, for me, was not complete until I had heard the subsequent novels, all equally good.

I liked the narration, once I got used to the slower pace of the reading. I listen in the car on my commute, and have been caught up in the story from the first moment I recognized the first chapter.

I do have to say, I also had to get used to the author's writing style... so much of it was in present tense.

But a good way to spend my time, I have enjoyed all three of the novels.