Hell Ship

By: Philip Palmer

Narrated by: Gideon Emery, Tim Gerard Reynolds, Bianca Amato

Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

A prolific writer for film, television, and theater, Philip Palmer here delivers a science-fiction thriller that rockets along from blistering start to fiery conclusion.

A juggernaut striking fear into the hearts of planets that fall within its path, the Hell Ship mercilessly slaughters innocents as it travels through space, amassing slaves. But one slave, Sharrock, refuses to accept his shackles—and his cause is soon to be boosted by Jak, who’s following the ship and determined to destroy it for its crimes.

©2011 Philip Palmer (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC

A Very different kind of story!

Well this is a tough one. I will say it has GREAT narration. Now for the story. This story is a strange one. It's not bad just very different. I has more foul language then if it was written by Frank Zappa's evil twin. You'll laugh of 5 streight minutes at a time of constant swearing,the most foul stuff you ever heard. The story has a good plot. It does not have all good science. But it gets by. Over all not to bad not great either. But worth listing to. I'm not shore why! LOL

I was so glad when this ended

This was recommended at the end of a book that I loved so I got it. You know, there's enough scary stuff going on in the real world right now and I use Audible to escape. There was NO Escape here. IT was so depressing a world with so depressing past, present and future. IT was well done and the book IS well written, its just not for me and maybe not for you.

Somehow unsatisfying...

First, the good: The three narrators are top-notch and do a very good job with their respective parts to play. The concept is interesting and the writing itself is fine. The writer seemed to use this book as an excuse to construct a litany of crass insults, and it's (unintentionally?) hilarious to hear them. The writer also had a lot of interesting ideas about how the Hell Ship worked and the biologies of the races within it.

The not-so-good: It takes an excruciating amount of time to draw one of the characters into the story involving the other two, and just when you do...it sort of immediately becomes irrelevant. I get that life isn't fair and everything, but I feel like Tim Gerard Reynold's part was superfluous in the end. The ending also felt rushed and even though it's probably a happy ending, it felt deeply unsatisfying on a lot of levels.

Prose was fine, actors were fine, story was a bit of a hot mess in places.

What a Strange and Wonderful Trip!

Would you consider the audio edition of Hell Ship to be better than the print version?

I didn't read the print version, though I suspect I may have lost interest as it doesn't really follow the usual storytelling conventions. But, that's okay!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Hell Ship?

The absolutely insane action, strange twists and turns and unusual characters. Not a human in sight! I love scifi, but I don't like it when authors take the easy way out by having all of the aliens behave and resemble humans. This is written fiction, you can have anything, any shape, any voice, smell, customs, morals, ethics, religions...! Mr. Palmer didn't take the easy way out, not by a long shot. He doesn't let you forget for one minute that these are a varied group of aliens, many so completely different from humanity that we would scarcely recognize them if we had encountered them. Luckily we get to spend a lot of time in their heads.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

I think that if this book were read entirely by one voice actor it would have been dull. With the addition of two others, it really kept my attention.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Over fourteen hours of strangeness, wonders, cultures, action and aliens!

Any additional comments?

The ideas in this book are the biggest, craziest, mind blowingest, ideas I've read in a book. One crazy thing after another!

Not really science fiction

Any additional comments?

Maybe it's fantasy? I don't know why fantasy and Sci Fi are often put in the same catagory because they are distinctly different genre. The author is a great writer but not a Science Fiction writer. Weird aliens and monsters don't make it Sci Fi.