Seeker

An Alex Benedict Novel

By: Jack McDevitt

Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck, Jack McDevitt (Introduction)

Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Thousands of years after an entire colony mysteriously disappears, antiquities dealer Alex Benedict comes into possession of a cup that seems to be from the Seeker, one of the colony's ships. Alex and his assistant, Chase Kolpath, follow a deadly trail to the Seeker, strangely adrift in a system barren of habitable worlds. But their discovery raises more questions than it answers, drawing Alex and Chase into the very heart of danger.

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction by author Jack McDevitt.

©2005 Cryptic, Inc. (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Nebula Award, Best Novel, 2006

"Ideas abound in McDevitt's classy riff on the familiar lost-colony theme. The novel delivers everything it promises with a gigantic whallop." (Publishers Weekly)
"The logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke." (Stephen King)
"Jennifer Van Dyck keeps the story exciting as she recounts each find, telling of artifacts that are much older than anything Indiana Jones ever got his hands on. Jack McDevitt himself reads the introduction." (AudioFile)

I advise this reading...I ll look for the others

very good narrator indeed...she really helps you diving into the story! I will search for the other Alex benedict novels

Very Slow!

If you could sum up Seeker in three words, what would they be?

slow! Boring! action-less!

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

the very end had a Little action but it took forever to get there.

Any additional comments?

If you like the investigative reporter type stories, then this is your book! If you like high speed action like me this book had me saying out loud

Interplanetary travel

Excellent series reminiscent of classic space opera. Looking forward to listening to the rest of the series.

Excellent entertainment

Great writing, McDevitt has a rich imagination that he successfully translates into a compelling narrative. Narrator does a good job, but much like other narrators of other science fiction books, pronunciation of common words could be better. Correct pronunciation should be researched and utilized to make sure the errors do not detract from the story

Very good listen

Very good !

no science in this fiction

First off, the narrator, she basically has only one good voice: the main characters (in other words her natural voice). As soon as she tries to make a different character it just sounds fake and sometimes It sounds ridiculous, for example one of the main characters friends (I forgot the characters name) sounds like a retard with a volume problem, and the AI voices were like a robot from the 1950s (thats the ridiculous part) its more than 10,000 years into the future and computers sound like robots? Give me a break. Shouldn't computers sound like lusty supermodels in the future!?! Second, the story is very lacking, I have no idea how this won any awards. The author went WAY too far into the future. Can anyone really imagine what humanity would be like more than 10,000 years into the future? Well the author certainly could not! There was basically no mention of any future technologies except for the space travel. There was no science in this fiction, very disappointing. Listen at your own risk!

ok, but....

hard to believe this won the Nebula: more info-dumps than story.

I finished it mostly because the narrator was decent: the story itself has potential but is poorly told.

The narrator for this is distracting

Would you try another book from Jack McDevitt and/or Jennifer Van Dyck and Jack McDevitt (Introduction) ?

I don't think I'd try another book from this author. I certainly would not get another book by this narrator.

What could Jack McDevitt have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The book seemed as if it was written in the 50's. The technology he imagines is clunky and uninteresting. The plot was silly. The two protagonists went around telling everyone about the big secret -- the one that would bring untold riches to its discoverer -- to everyone they met. Its asinine.

What didn’t you like about Jennifer Van Dyck and Jack McDevitt (Introduction) ’s performance?

The narrator's performance was distracting and annoying. She attempted to inject way too much emotion into the material she was reading. And frequently, the emotion of the narrator seemed at odds with the emotion I thought the character would have been displaying.

A boring story read by an over excited narrator

As other reviewers have mentioned, the majority of this book involves the main characters doing research. Really. That's it. The mysteries were never that intriguing, and their solutions were still a let down. But the narrator was what really got to me. She says every line like its the most exciting thing she's ever read. I think I would prefer listening to Microsoft Sam. I finished it just because I had nothing else to listen to. A sad waste of my monthly credit. I often choose books from the Nebula and Hugo award winners. This book is making me second guess that strategy.

Stupid plot and poor writing. How could this win an award?

After an hour I lost interest. This book is bad in so many ways.

One of the worst problems is the idiosyncrasy in the plot. 10.000 years in the future, the main plot driver for the whole series is that so much about the past is forgotten, but then people still have the very same names and general cultural habits as contemporary America? Going to restaurants and ordering red wine and friggin breadsticks! Please.

Apart from that irritating nativity the dialogue is childish and the descriptions like that of a gifted high school student.

Again how could this junk win a Nebula award?