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Seeker  By  cover art

Seeker

By: Jack McDevitt
Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck,Jack McDevitt (Introduction)
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Publisher's summary

Thousands of years after an entire colony mysteriously disappears, antiquities dealer Alex Benedict comes into possession of a cup that seems to be from the Seeker, one of the colony's ships. Alex and his assistant, Chase Kolpath, follow a deadly trail to the Seeker, strangely adrift in a system barren of habitable worlds. But their discovery raises more questions than it answers, drawing Alex and Chase into the very heart of danger.

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction by author Jack McDevitt.

©2005 Cryptic, Inc. (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

  • Nebula Award, Best Novel, 2006


"Ideas abound in McDevitt's classy riff on the familiar lost-colony theme. The novel delivers everything it promises with a gigantic whallop." (Publishers Weekly)
"The logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke." (Stephen King)
"Jennifer Van Dyck keeps the story exciting as she recounts each find, telling of artifacts that are much older than anything Indiana Jones ever got his hands on. Jack McDevitt himself reads the introduction." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about Seeker

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great mix of sci-fi, mystery and adventure.

These books remind me of a mix of Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones thrown into a sci-fi setting. (A mystery story set in the future, with an antiquities dealer as the main protagonist.) In this universe the human race has been in space for about 20,000 years. In that time many ships, colonies and valuable items have gone missing. Alex Benedict, with the help of Chase Kolpath, specializes in finding missing and valuable items.

Seeker is the story of Margolia, a lost colony that disappeared long ago and has become a legend much like modern day Atlantis. One of the interesting concepts in the book, and McDevitt's writing, is the use of computer generated avatars of long dead people that are recreated through what is left behind and known of the person. In this case, Harry Williams the founder of the lost colony is used to help with the search. While he does not know where the colony is, or what happened to it, the avatar allows Benedict and Kolpath to get some unique perspectives on the colony and its foundation. In the end the avatar becomes a very sympathetic character.

This is a fun, quick book offers many twist and turns with a very satisfactory ending. Although it is the third book in Jack McDevitt's Alex Benedict series, these books can be read completely independent of each other.

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41 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

no science in this fiction

First off, the narrator, she basically has only one good voice: the main characters (in other words her natural voice). As soon as she tries to make a different character it just sounds fake and sometimes It sounds ridiculous, for example one of the main characters friends (I forgot the characters name) sounds like a retard with a volume problem, and the AI voices were like a robot from the 1950s (thats the ridiculous part) its more than 10,000 years into the future and computers sound like robots? Give me a break. Shouldn't computers sound like lusty supermodels in the future!?! Second, the story is very lacking, I have no idea how this won any awards. The author went WAY too far into the future. Can anyone really imagine what humanity would be like more than 10,000 years into the future? Well the author certainly could not! There was basically no mention of any future technologies except for the space travel. There was no science in this fiction, very disappointing. Listen at your own risk!

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

credit worthy

Just finished listening to this a second time and enjoyed it just as much. Jennifer Van Dyck is the perfect narrator for Chase Kolpath.


If you want non-stop action, you are probably best off watching an action movie while sitting on your couch instead of listening to an audiobook while operating a moving vehicle. The suspense in this book builds up slowly and with convincing detail so that by the time Chase is fending off the villains, you are right there with her. And while the narrow escapes keep you on the edge of your seat, the actual puzzle that Benedict is solving (with Chase's sometimes reluctant help) engages your attention.


***A note on listening order*** There are currently 5 books in this series. Jennifer Van Dyck is the audio narrator for three of them: Polaris, Seeker, and The Devil's Eye. The order doesn't matter for Polaris and Seeker, but you should listen to Seeker before starting The Devil's Eye. All three are good listens, as is Omega from the McDevitt's other series.


Also, while the last book, Echo, has another narrator, McDevitt's website has the following information:
"The Tantor audio edition of Echo was inadvertently recorded using a male voice. It will shortly be available with a female narrator from Audible.com."

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Millenial Fun

This book stays close to the true flow of the growth and fall of knowlege in society over many millenia. Every time man thinks he is great he falls flat on his face. This is a fun romp through time and the galaxy. It does venture into real physics but sticks to what a layman can understand. A who-dunnit with some reverence to what would life be like if?...
It is an enjoyable listen.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A solid little number..

SUMMARY: archaeologist/antique dealer duo Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath (well, probably better to describe them as salvage team) find an artifact in the form of an old cup, from a lost colony ship. In turn this leads them on a voyage to discover what happened to the ship, its crew and passengers....

On it's on it was a good story, albeit a little sluggish in parts - in the end I was still left wanting more.. due to the bold description that Jack McD is the next Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke.

With the hype it was a close 3 - but I am giving this a 4 out of 5 because I enjoyed the book on its own merits. There's a good level of detail and the narration is what I would call mature and firm.




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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Best of the Series

Having read them all. This is the best.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved It

I was on the edge of my seat for most of this novel, it is by far the best of the Alex Benedict novels.

Seeker is a hard sci fi story without the info dumps and cardboard characters that plague the genre. The characters feel real and the story incorporates an interesting mystery that involves cosmic incidents that only an astrophysicist could predict, but McDevitt makes fun and believable.

Jennifer Van Dyck did a wonderful job, her voice fits Chase very well and kept a good pace throughout.

I have to say that the complaints in the comments seem somewhat petty.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Nearly unlistenable

This narrator may have a good tone to her voice, as some have mentioned, but she only has one tone, and used it in nearly every sentence. Almost every statement was spoken with significance, like a librarian in an elementary school trying to make a story interesting to the kids, or a newsreader on cable news. This story, which does have the scope appropriate to a Nebula winner, felt oddly flat to me, like a series of facts (was it the reading, or the writing? hard to say). Fortunately enough of those facts were sufficiently interesting, and I did survive the narration through to the end.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

I don't get it....

After reading the positive reviews for this book I was really looking forward to it. The basic idea seems intriguing enough, a treasure hunt in space.

Unfortunately this book does not deliver. I wasn't really expecting a roller-coaster thriller but this book is on defiantly on rails, rails running across a flat landscape with nothing much to look at as you go by at a sedate 35MPH.

I have always been a fan of sci-fi, enjoying everything from space operas, to hard sci-fi to thrillers. I don't require space battles every five minutes but I do think that there should be something to drive a story along. This book is missing its engine.

From the beginning you know that every mystery is going to be solved eventually and its becomes just a matter of waiting for the inevitable. Must of the 'action' of this book consists of the characters performing research. This in itself is a not a bad idea but instead of a CSI like delving into details the investigation mostly consists of traveling from place to place to ask a few questions.

The few genuine action pieces are so clumsily written that you never are driven to feel any emotion. Mostly you just want it to be over so the plot can move on.

For a much better story of space archeology consider "The Engines of God" which tells much the same story but does a far better job at it.


The only reason this book gets two stars is for the narration, which unlike the writing, is excellent. This reader has one of the most pleasant voices I've listened to on Audible.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Very Good

Ill just say that this was a great listen!! Good plot that kept you interested the whole time!!
Definitely burn a credit on this.

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7 people found this helpful