Chindi

Academy Series

By: Jack McDevitt

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Khristine Hvam

Length: 18 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

The universe has been explored - and humanity has all but given up on finding other intelligent life. Then an alien satellite orbiting a distant star sends out an unreadable signal. Is it the final programmed gasp of an ancient, long-dead race? Or the first greeting of an undiscovered life form?

©2003 Jack McDevitt (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Chindi is an ambitious, exciting, big-idea hard-SF novel that ventures successfully into Rendezvous with Rama territory, and beyond." (Amazon.com review)

Good adventure

I've grown to love Jack McDevitt's visual detail writing, especially his character Hutch.. The Chindi I enjoyed reading and all that I enjoyed of can't wait to get to the next page was just as fun hearing it on audio.. Good twist and turns through out. Enjoyed a story line that I didn't know where it was going even after when we got there, he found a way to slip one more suprise in there through out... Always a good story to return to again and again.

Excellent story

A tremendous story of first contact. It just keeps getting better as you read. You'll love it!

One of my favorite books ever, narration not great

This is one of my favorite sci-fi books of all time. I read it (print version) many years ago and it blew me away.

I was very exited to find this available on Audible, so I got it, but I was less than thrilled with the audio version because of the narrator. She sounds too young and ... well, kind of valley-girl-ish. I don't know if that's an apt description -- she did not sound like I expected Priscilla Hutchins to sound. Not enough gravitas. Too teeny-bopper-ish, or something.

I did not get the same vibe from "Deepsix", yet I see that it's narrated by the same person. "The Engines of God" has a different narrator, and it is far and away the best of the series so far, in audiobook form.

What a story! A must listen for the SF fan.

Almost listen to it in one rush. This is the second audiobook where I was IN the story (next to RAMA). Well plotted storyline, original ideas! Where is the sequel!

Not a bad book

but nothing to write home or rave about either.
This one I bought on sale and it was worth the reduced price to pass the time on my long drives across the country. If you search you will find some things to like about Chindi but you have to search.
The idea and premise are inventive and interesting but I've already forgotten the characters and can't recall much about the story line so the best description 5 months after listening is - forgettable.

Repetition of the same plot point book after book

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The time spent was probably worth it, but it, like Deepsix, became tedious in that the major subtext is everything will go wrong, people will die from bad decisions, but nobody in the group will learn anything from that and will repeat the cycle.

If you’ve listened to books by Jack McDevitt before, how does this one compare?

This book is cry much like Deepsix. The characters refuse to learn anything no matter how many of them are killed. When the same thing happens time after time after time, then the need for the big rescue at the end because nobody every learned anything, becomes tedious.

What aspect of Khristine Hvam and Oliver Wyman ’s performance would you have changed?

Oliver Wyman is used only to read interstitial passages between chapter, so in this book he can't bring any of his characteristic reading to the book. Khristine Hvam is a solid reader, but she assigns pseudo-British accents to some characters of no discernible reason. Especially since at least one of them (if not both) are pretty well identified as American.

Any additional comments?

I enjoy the settings and basic story line, and the details of discoveries, I have problems with characters that seem intelligent but are just repletion engines used to cause disaster. It seems the McDevitt becomes lazy in his plotting and can't do anything besides write a disaster short story 5-6 times in a single novel. He forces the reader to go beyond simple suspension of disbelief into the realm of saying "Oh, come on. Again?"

Sexist, unimaginative, ridiculous

* McDevitt is terrible at writing women.
* People die every other day and no one seems to care that much.
* Aliens have a living room that looks just like ours?

Struggled to finish, looking forward to moving on. Never going to read McDevitt again

my Favorite!!!

I found it through the talking book library for the blind.
Done with an expansive imagination and painted with words. ln Beautiful colors!! I love it!!! Thank You!!!

goldfish

it's a good story but the characters are goldfish with a 3 second memories that just frustrate you.

Fantastic!

This was both my first audio book and the first Jack McDevitt book I have encountered. I have a 2 hour commute each day and thought an audio book would make a change to the technology podcasts I usually listen to. Thanks to the character formation, pace of the story and narration, I looked forward to the drive to and from work - and even listened to the book when I got home (something I never did with the podcasts!)

The story is exciting and very well developed, at times you are literally on the edge of your seat (I found I was gripping the steering wheel very hard at times). I also found I became very emotionally connected to the characters, partly because of the wonderful narration by Khristine Hvam, and partly because of the skilful way McDevitt introduced and developed the characters.

I can recommend this audio book to anyone interested in the Sci Fi genre, and to anyone who enjoys an exciting story. I will definitely be buying other Jack McDevitt audio books.