Quest for the Conestoga

Colony Ship Conestoga, Book 1

By: John Thornton

Narrated by: Erin Macdonald

Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

Dome 17 is the only safe place left on a dead Earth. Life in Dome 17 takes a dramatic turn after some adventurers return from evaluating other domes. The struggling remnant of humanity cannot remain safe in the dome much longer. The question is where to go and how to get there? Can the lost colony ship program provide a possible refuge? Seven vast colony ships were launched 100 years ago, but can one of them be located? Will it offer a chance to survive?

Cammarry and Jerome are faced with going on a mission using unproven technology. Will the faster-than-light ship work? It can only carry two people, so how will the other 1,500 survivors find safety? Will they reach one of those enigmatic, old, and mysterious colony ships? Will they be able to set up the new teleportation system to bring everyone from Dome 17 to that ship? Will technology work or fail?

What will these brave adventurers and Sandie, their new artificial intelligence system, find on their quest for the Conestoga?

Book one of the Colony Ship Conestoga series.

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Conestoga

An interesting sci-fi book is quite interesting but I I didn't really like some of main characters. If you're into sci-fi books you'll find this book quite absorbing most of the time. All in all it was a good audiobook to listen.

Good Science Fiction for the Young Reader

This is my first book in this Science Fiction series created by John Thornton. The books prior to this one fill you in on more of the story that provide you with a better understanding of the backstory.

STORY
I enjoyed the premise of the book and it tackles some scenarios that kept my interest. Some characters were definitely more interesting and further developed than others, but the ones that were more developed I found engaging. I'm not sure if the prior books developed these characters further, but a little more time with them would have gone a long way.

Even though I enjoyed the story line, the writing is more geared toward the younger audience. I still found it enjoyable and it was easy to understand what was going on during the progression of the story. It made it a book that I could easily multitask while listening to without getting lost or having to constantly rewind 30 seconds.

PERFORMANCE
I thought Erin Macdonald did a decent job as a narrator. There were spots that could have used a little cleanup between sentence breaks, and her voice range between characters could have been a bit better to help differentiate between characters. Overall, I found her narrating did the story justice.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Interesting Story

The story is based on the interesting premise that the colony ship is dying and some pretty tough and daunting choices have to be made. This is a pretty solid book that should make an interesting series. I enjoyed listening to it and look forward to the next book. However, this book is probably better for the more avid younger at heart sci-fi fans who enjoy the human issues in space and probably not a book that would get a first-time sci-fi reader interested in the genre.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review

Great

I really enjoyed this audio boom thank you
Ford letting me hear it it was a great story I didn’t want to stop listening

Terri

interesting

A little slow getting started but an interesting idea. Narrator seemed to fit the main character.

Reminds me of pulp sci-fi; I especially liked AI's

“Quest for the Conestoga (Colony Ship Conestoga #1)” is an entertaining space adventure with writing and narration that feels like it was written and produced in the in the “Golden Age of Science Fiction”, circa 1938-1946, or perhaps in the mid-1950s. If you enjoyed “Forbidden Planet” with Robby the Robot, released in 1956, for example, you’ll enjoy this book.

“Quest for the Conestoga” is the first of eight books about the earth Colony Ship. There are six other Colony Ships, and a series of books has been written about each of them, I believe. Plus at least one stand-alone book from a Colony Ship member’s perspective.

The basic plot is that 100 years or so from now, earth is a dead planet because of something or other humans did. The last of humanity survives in scattered protective habitat domes, but now the domes are failing. In a last desperate attempt to stay alive, Dome 17 decides to send seven two-person teams to try and get to the Colony Ships that were sent from earth 100 years ago. Each two-person team is a man and a woman, essentially a married couple, but there is virtually no romance, and certainly no sex (not even a kiss that I remember) in the first book, at least. Yup…very 1930s-1950s. Damned Hays Code!

MCs Jerome and Cammarry select the Conestoga as the ship they will try to find. Now, as with many of the old sci-fi books and movies, the actual fiction part of the sci-fi here is both well explained and a complete stretch of the imagination to the point of ridiculousness. OK, the Dome 17 leaders have managed to construct experimental two-person crafts that include FTL so they can hop right over to the presumed location for the Colony Ship. OK, that I don’t really mind much. But….here’s the nutty part of the adventure: the goal for Jerome and Cammarry is to get to the ship, quickly assemble a teleportation receiving grid, and allow the Dome 17 people to instantly teleport across many many light years. OK, now that’s pushing it for me to accept even in a sci-fi book!!

Instead of Robby the Robot (the dry-witted AI), we get Sandie the optimistic and perky gung-ho let’s have an adventure AI. She’s pretty funny, but the narrator must have inhaled a helium balloon before voicing Sandie.

Overall, the narrator has a great voice, but I generally liked when she voiced people or AI’s more than the narratives. The writing style is often very stilted. Perhaps that’s the author’s style, and perhaps it reflects an effort to mimic the sci-fi era of long ago, but I often laughed at the stiffness. For example, Jerome says “I too will deeply miss all the people from Dome 17”. If Jerome or Cammarry used a contraction anywhere in the book, I missed it.

Well, as you’d guess from there being eight books in the series, they do reach the ship, and they have adventures with broken equipment, and a teen survivor who is in awe at their wizardry.

If you like fast-paced stories with witty conversations and humor, you’d probably be disappointed, frankly. But….if you like golden-age sci-fi written before we all became jaded with Star Wars, Star Trek and Marvel Superheroes flash and hype, and sci-fi stories just felt like they offered a new view of the future and of life beyond planet earth….this is very enjoyable. Recommended with 3.75* rounded to 4*

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

My rating and my review was not in anyway affected by my having been provided a review copy.

What a quest

Quest for the Conestoga introduces us to a new mystery some thing extremely strange just as they think things are going well and takes us deeper into the universe than ever before. This colony ship has clearly been through a lot and our heros have their work cut out for them just locating the ship much less figuring what has happened to the ship and her crew.
It did seem like the narrator was new to this and stumbled over words several times pulling out of the flow. Other than that I really enjoyed this one and look forward to the next.

Things are not what they seem

Another good story. No redundant passages. Not an overly involved or deep story, yet enjoyable. The books in this series are not entirely stand alone stories. I am curious to listen to the next one to see what happens.
This book follows Cammary and Jerome’s tread of the overall series. They are chosen/ volunteer to be one of the couples that leave earth’s dome 17 in search of the Colony Ship Conestoga. It is believed to be orbiting a planet, unlike all the other colony ships that were launched 100 years ago. What they find is nothing like what they expected, not that their expectations were high. Together with the Artificial Intelligence aboard their shuttle, they must figure out how to survive on the Colony Ship and assemble a transportation pad to evacuate the remaining people of Dome 17. They meet a resident of the Conestoga who helps them understand their new home, but, his knowledge is very limited.

There are no explicit sex scenes or excessive violence or swearing.

Some errors in the editing of the audio but it was minimal.

Narrator could be a bit more polished, the narrating was a bit flat, and sounded robotic at inappropriate times, but, she did an okay job.. Her voices for the characters were discernible. I would listen to another book narrator by her.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this unbiased review.

Great sci-fi listen

Loved the story and the characters were great, I loved the A.I.s. Great narrator too! I received a free review copy of this audiobook at my request and I have voluntarily left this review.

This is my type of sci-fi

I enjoy John Thornton’s books, so I was excited to get to listen to this book. It was as good as his other colony ship books, and I will continue the series.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

Good story.

Great story a different pace to what I would normally listen to but great all the same.

Cubie blue knows what to do.

The first in a new quest to save the last remnants of humanity on Earth in John Thornton's Colony Ship universe. This time the story follows Jerome, Cammarry and their AI, Sandie, as their scout ship heads for the old Colony Ship, Conestoga. The last message received at Dome 17 seemed to indicate that it had located a possibly habitable planet. With the life expectancy of Dome 17 now estimated at only 100+ days, if a teleportation platform could be built on the planet, or even in the old Colony Ship, the last of Earth's survivors could escape their deadly planet. But first the Conestoga had to be found.

The initial section of the book is again dedicated to the days in Dome 17 leading up to the hasty despatch of light speed scout ships, each with just two brave travellers, in search of the ancient Colony Ships sent out over an hundred years before to look for a new life for it's human cargo. The happenings in Dome 17 are again reprised, but this time from the point of view of Cammarry and Jerome, giving the reader a new insight into what actually was happening there - a fascinating addition to the series as a whole.

Erin Macdonald's narration, with good articulation, fast paced reading and distinctive character voices, is sadly marred by the dreadfully unpleasant rendering of the AI, Sandie. So little-girlie grating, it made the computer sound imbecilic and made it very difficult for this listener to continue. A great pity as, without this, both story and narration were good.

This is a fun series which becomes addictive. I am glad to see that a different narrator reads book 2 of the Conestoga series.

Interesting sci-fi looking for a new home.

An interesting sci-fi story set in a bleak further near lifeless earth. The story focus on the main characters life in that world and then their attempt to find a better one.

The story is well written and well paced. The characters are relatable but have been clearly hardened and learnt self discipline living in such a hash world. This seems to leave them to just get on with things when bad things happen being far less emotional than people form today. This may make the characters less engaging to some listeners.

The narration is good, easy to listen to and each character is granted a unique voice. The recording quality is fine and the only errors I noticed were a few lines that were repeated.

All in all an interesting listen and I want to know what happens next.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Great Scifi

Any additional comments?

The first book that I listen to by this author was the trailblazer. I really liked that book and wanted to know what is going to happen next.
The people of earth (or what's left of them) live in Dome 17. However it is failing so they come up with the idea of sending 7 ships to 7 colony ships that left earth a hundred years ago.
Cammarry and Jerome are sent to the Conestoga. The trailblazer was another colony ship that a ship was sent too. The beginning start off sort of the same as the trailblazer but from Cammarry and Jerome's POV.
I found this book to be a little more slower then the other two in the series or the trailblazer, but it sets the scene of what is going to happen next.
The narrator I did not like. I believe she is not suited for this type of genre. I felt she didn't give anything towards this story. This might be why I also found the book slow.