Spindrift

By: Allen Steele

Narrated by: Andy Caploe

Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins

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 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.

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.

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.

Aimless story

Anyone who enjoys sf novels about the exploration of huge and mysterious artifacts from the vastness of deep space, should avoid "Spindrift" and listen to Arthur C. Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama", which is a classic of the genre, instead.

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.

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.

Not a good example of the sci-fi genre

The writing style of this story is reminiscent of 60s pulp sci-fi. Characters are two dimensional and the "bad guys" act like cartoonish villains. The story itself is simplistic and there were a lot of times where I thought that it didn't make sense.

Overall I would not recommend this book.