Seeker

An Alex Benedict Novel

By: Jack McDevitt

Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck, Jack McDevitt (Introduction)

Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins

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)

I Really Enjoyed This Book

I do not usually enjoy books written in this style BUT, Seeker was a breath of fresh air.
It is fun, light and very engaging.
A great listen.

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.

Best of the Series

Having read them all. This is the best.

Fun and Familiar

I enjoyed the pace of the book - it was never dull even when describing the astrophysics involved. I like the fact that the future was familiar and strange at the same time. I listen during my daily commute and always know an audiobook is a winner when I start slowing down as I get closer to work/home so I can listen a few extra minutes. I found myself doing that every day I listened to this one

A fine mystery sci-fi

This is not great fiction, but I really enjoyed the read. It is a nice mystery with some interesting ideas. The characters are fun and the story has enough twists to keep me interested. The technology side of the sci-fi is on the weak side, but the interesting ideas part of the sci-fi is alive and well. This is mostly a mystery, and like most mysteries, there is only a modest amount of action. Overall this is was well worth it. The narration is good and adds to the story.

Better than average search for aliens

I always like Jacks books they mix Hard Si-Fi and adventure. You can almost believe what's happening.

A great read

The twists and turns were interesting and I found myself actually caring about finding the seeker. It's hard to care about something so separated from us but the author did it well. I'm looking for more books from him now.

best alex Benedict story

O have listened to every book bu zkack Mcdevitt and this os my favorite including the dtoryteller

Good story, but the reading ... ouch!

I enjoyed the story, but could NEVER listen to it again.

This must have been reader Jennifer Van Dyck's first book, for her performance was a disaster---especially throughout the first 105 minutes! Only then did she start easing up on her over-enunciated plodding style. Enduring her unnecessary stress at the end of each word was like listening to pulsating-but-slow disco, and her every sentence ended sounding like it was the summation of a paragraph.

While her performance in the second half of the book was more acceptable, right to the end she remained incapable of creating male voices. They all sounded similar, and many times I had no idea which of the few male characters was speaking.

interesting, imaginative, and fun

I picked this for an audiobook, and I was not disappointed. The narrator gave a great performance. I would love to hear her in other stories. The story itself was light and interesting. It was not memorable. but that's what I was looking for in a book I could listen to while driving. I would definitely look for more stories by this author.