Cauldron

Academy Series

De: Jack McDevitt

Narrado por: Khristine Hvam

The year is 2255. The academy that trained the starfarers is long gone and veteran star pilot Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins spends her retirement supporting fund-raising efforts for The Prometheus Foundation, a privately funded organization devoted to deep space exploration.

But when a young physicist unveils an efficient star drive capable of reaching the core of the galaxy, Hutch finds herself back in the deepest reaches of space, and on the verge of discovering the origins of the deadly Omega clouds that continue to haunt her.

©2007 Jack McDevitt (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Great story

Another great book in the series. Lots of adventure, ties up some of the long standing mysteries of the series.

Had potential

I love most of Jack McDevitt's books, but this one spent way too much time on the development of a new spaceship engine, and not enough adventure.
I fell in love with the characters after great development (7.5 of the 13 hours are character development and the engine development. However, less than half the book had the adventure portion that makes us love Hutchins.
The author raced through three different plot lines (two of which were tying loose ends from previous books). Could have gone into great depth if he would have focused on one of the 3 plot lines in his marvelous universe.
I love character development and the author is great at making us care about the characters, but we want them to do more, after reading about them for 7.5 hours.
Felt like Mr. McDevitt was in a hurry on this book.
Still worth a read for true fans.

Unlistenable narration

I love this series and the adventures of Hutch. But the narration is so god awful I had to download the book and read it.

It's Hutch!

Big fan of the series, really cool to hear a voice to Hutch's character often all the books. reader sounded great

Not the return to the clouds I expect

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

If you've read the earlier books in the series you might as well read this one. However I did not like the answers to the questions this book explorers. So I'd recommend it if you really wanted to but it's not the best in the series.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

"Really" Of all the answers to Omega Clouds, what are they, what makes them, etc. and this is all you could come up with?

What about Khristine Hvam’s performance did you like?

She is excellent. She was the reason I pressed on finishing the book.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No.

Any additional comments?

It was nice to have Hutch up front and center in this one.

Great Read

What made the experience of listening to Cauldron the most enjoyable?

I enjoyed what appears to be the end of the series book. It was fast paced and unlike one review I read did not leave any unanswered questions.

What does Khristine Hvam bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Great reader.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Some places laughed

Mediocre

In all the book was ok but not great. I agree with the other reviews that mentions too much time was spent on the engine. He had a multitude of opportunities to enhance the story but focused on meaningless aspects that didn’t need to take up half the book. After about 7 hours of listening the book finally started to be entertaining.

Not his best but still good.

There was a lot touched on in this book like most of his books in the academy series. I only wish he would have done more with each location as they traveled. They all deserve to be their own books.

Boooooring

I've listened to a few sci-fi books and this one is by far the most uninteresting book. They go to strange new worlds, but they do not come to life. The narrator also makes it very difficult to differentiate between characters. The characters themselves don't have much of a personality either. I have not read the other books in the series, so I cannot judge the author, but this book is a flop.

This is the end of the Academy Series for me

What would have made Cauldron better?

There was little in the book to keep my attention. I kept waiting for it to get better and in the end, it was disappointing. It's like he had to write another in the series but really wasn't into it. I have enjoyed the series up to this point but I won't be looking for any more books in this series.