Bill Baldwin's The Helmsman

By: Bill Baldwin

Narrated by: Steve Cumming, full cast

One of the few survivors of a League sneak attack on his poor and miserable homeworld of Carescria, Wilf Brim sets out to settle the score. Were it not for the attrition from the war that followed, Wilf would never have escaped his lower-class status and been accepted into the Academy. Now, freshly graduated, young Sublieutenant Wilf Ansor Brim, Imperial Fleet, begins his first assignment, Helmsman of the I.F.S. Truculent.

Intended for mature audiences.

(P)Timberwolf Press

Yummy!!

Can you say YUMMY, GREAT, WONDERFUL... did I say great? This book was wonderful, entertaining, and totally enjoyable. Think of a mixture of "Starship Trouper" , a little light romance not quite unrequited love, as the low-ling does get a break with the princess. I listened to the book nearly nonstop.

Whats with the units of measure?

I really enjoyed the story and characters. But whats with the new names for measurments and time.. Why bother? I found it distracting.. Also think I would have prefered a regular reading rather than the dramitization style of this... I sometimes found it hard to hear what was going on, and the sound effects in the background didnt really add to the story.. Those complaints aside I really enjoyed the book.

Excellent Book

I enjoyed this story very much and I am looking forward to enjoying the rest of the series.

Great fun!

Take me away adventure (great for listening on your commute!) - with some steamy lovemaking scenes - not too graphic - thrown in for variety. Not Great Literature, but worth a listen.

What a Great Perfomance and Story

I enjoyed this story to no end. I've listened to it and it's sequel four times now. It's a great escape. Unlike the other readers, I found the dialog, sound effect and acting were fantastic and really drew you into the story. The details and equipment descriptions and functionality made you feel like you were on the bridge of a 1950's Gearing Class Destroyer about to lift out of the water and fly into space. Great story and great escape.

Enjoy the space opera

Baldwin keeps it simple, with characters you love and love to hate. Storey telling at it's best.

I enjoy dramatizations of books.

I heard a few chapters on XM Radio, so I downloaded it. I like some si-fi. This book was a little bit complicated but I still found it entertaining. I like the characters. I really enjoy dramatizations of books, and they did a good job of filling the spaces between the lines with what you might expect to hear as background sounds. Good performance from the voice actors. I liked this enough, that I downloaded the next book “Galactic Convoy”. As a point of reference, I recently listened to “Armor” by John Steakley, and “the Helmsman” is not nearly as substantial or memorable as “Armor”. I probably won’t listen to “the Helmsman” again, but I have already listened to “Armor” twice.

The Helmsman

Having read the earlier edition of this book several times over the years, I approached this with excitement and trepidation. Excitement at having an old friend taken in new directions by the author's rewrite and an audio version. Concern that the audio production would leave a bad taste in my mouth diminishing the enjoyment I have received from the written version.

However, with the exception of a few southwestern twangs, which might be entirely realistic for all that I know, I found the audio version a faithful and enjoyable visit to the universe of Wilf Brim. Voices served to convey the individual characters and the narration was smooth and fluent. Background sounds were a little overblown at times, but rarely enough to not dimish the overall experience.

Looking forward to future voyages.

The Helmsman

One of the best Audible books I have listened to so far. Wilf Brim takes you on an epic journey through space of war,high adventure,romance and a fascinating look at what the distant future may be. This book totally captured me in every way, Timberfwolf did a really great job with the sound effects and cast.

I've listened to the whole book twice in as many weeks and look forward to listening again soon.(Very unusal for me!) I very much hope and look forward to another Wilf A Brim space adventure - with his strange dichotomy of friends and their passion for "Logged Neeme"

Second time is the charm

The first time I tried to listen to this book I only got 30 min in to it before I got bored and went on to another book. The author goes on in great detail about the ships and planets of the book and this can get tedious very quickly. I was also not used to a full cast book, it is quite different then a straight narrated book. I tried to listen to the book again a few months later since I had nothing else to listen to. After getting past the tediousness of the details it turned out to be a good space drama. I look forward to the next book in this series.