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.

Timely and relevant.

it's amazing how this series came out in 2002. 17 years later, the relevance and importance still rings true.

Awsome

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

An excellent depiction of human governmental bureaucracy's betrayal and stupidity

This is The story of man's first deep space journey to investigate an unknown transmission and its first contact with an alien civilization and the intricacies of deep space travel along with the shipboard romance of a young couple and the hardships they and the crew must endure to stay alive

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.

Excellent story, fair performance

While the narration is not first rate, I did not find that it detracted from an excellent story. The plot is well-constructed, the character development good and the story moves along well. I finished the novel in a few days, staying up late to listen to it. I got caught up in Allen Steele's universe, finding it quite believable. Since the reader of the Coyote series knows something about the end of this story already, that's quite an accomplishment. I'm looking forward to the next novel.

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?

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.

Worth reading

I often wonder what it's like coming into a series mid-way and this book is set within the Coyote Universe. I probably missed a number of nuances but I wasn't confused. I suspect the backplot blew some of the storyline from Book1 but I'll probably read that sometime, too.

I found this book to have a 'medium' pace with enough sub-plots and fractious characters. (Kind of like Dr. Smith on Lost in Space).

I found the final chapters odd; the characters seemed to become completely difficult and argumentative and rude or petty. It didn't detract from the overall story, it just didn't seem reasonable.

As someone else stated, this would be more appropriate for YA

First off the narrator had this odd, awkward speech pattern that made listening to the story difficult and frustrating. He did surprisingly better at speaking in character.
The writing was tedious and sophomoric. As a previous reviewer said, the women characters had little depth, they seemed to just be descriptive "arm candy" for the male protagonists.
I had liked this author's coyote books, so this was a disappointment.

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!