• Spindrift

  • By: Allen Steele
  • Narrated by: Andy Caploe
  • Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (352 ratings)

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Spindrift  By  cover art

Spindrift

By: Allen Steele
Narrated by: Andy Caploe
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Publisher's summary

June 1, 2288 - Europe's first starship, the EASS Galileo, launches on its maiden voyage to investigate an unidentified object, code-named Spindrift, which is traveling outside our solar system. An object that may be alien in origin. The Galileo disappears soon after...

February 1, 2344 - The Galileo's shuttle returns to Earth carrying three surviving expedition members, who still appear to be the same age they were when they departed. They report that they have, indeed, made contact with an extraterrestrial race - and become enmeshed in a conflict that brought them face to face with the most apocalyptic force in the galaxy. It is up to Director General John Shillinglaw to piece together the puzzle created by these events - for the survivors tell their stories from their own conflicting perspectives. And the truth is more difficult to glean than it appears.

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction written and recorded by author Allen Steele.

©2008 Allen Steele (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Spindrift

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    132
  • 4 Stars
    119
  • 3 Stars
    71
  • 2 Stars
    15
  • 1 Stars
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Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    115
  • 4 Stars
    72
  • 3 Stars
    26
  • 2 Stars
    14
  • 1 Stars
    7
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    119
  • 4 Stars
    66
  • 3 Stars
    35
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    6

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Should have been a novella

I stayed with this book because in the midst of all the unfunny jokes and the stupid characters, there was an actual good story. The telling of the story was just too tedious at times. If a character leaves a room and goes to meet someone in another room, you may get (he grabbed the door knob and turned it counter-clockwise, pulling the door inward he stepped into the narrow hall, walking at a brisk pace he noticed a smug on the wall ....) Boring detail that does not add to the story. Then the lead character is a scientist who is a mass murderer, who the author thinks we should like. He smokes pot so the narrator gives this genius scientist a surfer dude voice. This guy killed 30,000 people and tried to kill more and we are suppose to feel sorry for him because others won't include him in there circles. In the end the scientist does nine years for killing 30,000 people. Am I the only one that sees something wrong with this?

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Great author, terrible production

I've loved Steele's other Coyote universe books, but I couldn't finish Spindrift. The voice talent was just awful. The narrator and main characters were unimpressive at best, and some of the supporting voices - the main scientist in particular - were so whiny, overwrought, and just plain annoying that it was unlistenable. I hate to downvote what is probably a good book based solely on the reading, but do NOT purchase this audiobook. Get Steele's Coyote books in audio, but get this one in print instead.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Horrible Voices

The over the top voices ruined this book. The stoner scientist voice was so annoying it was a fight to continue to listen. Save your credit. Get Chindi instead if you want the same story but written 10x better.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Awful reader

I have been listening to audible books for more than 20 years - since you had to get them on cassette tapes (and they were called books-on-tape). In that 20 years, I've listened to over 400 books and have enjoyed nearly all of them.
I really like Allen Steele's books. I enjoyed the Coyote series very much. To be sure, there are readers I have really liked and readers I did not like so much. But Andy Caploe is the worst I listened to in those 20 years. Though I like Spindrift so far (I'm about half through it), I'm not sure I can finish it because of the terrible reading. Many times, I'm not sure Mr. Caploe is listening to what he's reading or is even aware that the individual words are part of a sentence. The emphasis is frequently overly dramatic and even more frequently misplaced. The voices are also terrible. His English and Russian accents are laughable. Why he would chose to cast Ramirez - a highly educated, if somewhat flawed character - as a Southern California surfer boy is entirely beyond me.
I have never stopped listening to a book because of the reader. Yet. I may be just interested enough in learning how the story turns out to push through, but I'm not sure I'll make it. I will be sure to never again get a book where Mr. Caploe is the reader.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Not bad

I have never before agreed when others have whined about bad readers. Usually I manage to get used to the reader after a while. This time it was a lot harder than usual though. The narrator's rhythm is "unusual" and the voice acting leaves something to be desired.

I did eventually get used to it and listen through the entire story. It is not bad. I liked it. I suspect I would have liked it even better if I was familiar with the Coyote Universe.

Ideally I would have liked more exploration (of the unknown) and less preparation. The ending was not the best either, but all in all I enjoyed it.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

not great story - terrible narrator

This is not his best. I love Allen Steele's writing, and am currently re-reading the Coyote series for the second time, but this story is just not very interesting. It is like late Heinlein when my beloved old favorite master was engaging in drunken ranting about love and sex for hundreds of pages. But the really bad thing about this one is this dreadful narrator.
I often wonder if some of these narrators are receiving direction to do this? The thing I refer to is, that this guy is reading as though he were told that his audience would mostly be six or seven year old children... and not very bright ones, at that. Especially when it comes to the voice that he chose for the main character, who is supposed to be this brilliant scientist. This narrator has the guy talking like some moronic stoner kid from the San Bernardino Valley. He sounds like Keanu Reeves in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure! It is very hard to take the story seriously with that cheesy, hammy nonsense going on. Fine for lunch, but not so good for a novel.
My ongoing problem with so many of these readers is how many of the words they mispronounce, but this guy mispronounces every other word! I have NO idea where he came. up with his bizarre (and oft repeated) pronunciation of Kuiper. The mispronunciations are a constant reminder that these narrators are mostly really poorly educated, which makes me too constantly conscious of the thought that they are largely out-of-work actors and "journalists". Never trust information from anyone who says "tome" and "temblor" instead of "book" and "earthquake".
I often wonder if the authors seldom listen to these. I can't help but think that they would be furious. Poor reading makes a story seem less serious and intelligent. This guy turns adult science fiction into children's stories. What a terrible disappointment.
Rock on, Dudes! Wyld Stalyuns forever!

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1 person found this helpful

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

What a letdown.

What would have made Spindrift better?

I like the premise but the execution of the whole audio book was a huge letdown.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I think the narrator was the biggest draw back for me. His voices were not far from his own and after 6 hours his voice became very grating.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

A bit long and predictable.

As my first SciFi outing on Audible, I really wanted to enjoy this much more than I did.

Personally, I found the whole premise to be very similar to so many Sci Fi novels before it, Spindrift seemed very predictable and therefor was a bit of a letdown for me. I know this comes off like a cheap review, but the problem is there are so many comparisons to make to other re-hashed plotlines in the genre, I don't know where to begin.

The most interesting part of the story came in the last two hours as our 'survivors' learn the secrets of Spindrift and must return feom whence they came, and even then, it seemed a repetition of many tales I've seen or read before. Even the epilogue was anti-climatic.

I didn't much care for the narrator, Andy Caploe, at times either. Some of his characters sounded exactly the same, and his take on female voice and Russian accents was comically exaggerated. The worst was his portrayal of Cruz, who sounded more like a Southern Californian wasted surfer dude than a hispanic scientist he actually was.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Fun story, peters out a bit at the end

I disagree with some of the other comments about the narrator. I liked his reading quite a bit, and thought it went very well with this kind of "hard science fiction." He only fell down on the voice of one character which is done as a bad Tommy Chong / 70's stoner impression--that just didn't work. (I think it's usually better when a narrator doesn't push "voices" and accents too hard).


The book itself is a nicely paced space exploration story, very traditional and well worked out. Nothing innovative, but satisfying, until the final chapter or two when the story just kind of fades away. It might be because important revelations are being saved for other "Coyote" novels.

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1 person found this helpful

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

Awsome

Loved it. the only part I didn't like was the fact that it ended. I wished it was longer😉

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