The Last Spaceship

Course of the Worlds, Book 1

By: J.A. Hawkings

Narrated by: Fred Wolinsky

Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Year 2076. The colonization of the solar system has begun. Engineer Jeff Baker and exobiologist Nicole Price find themselves on an exploratory mission. Destination: the Jovian moon of Callisto. As the two are about to land, however, their ship is compromised by a malfunction of its electrical system. Having reached the surface without serious damage, they are startled by the sight of an unknown spacecraft. It appears to have crashed. Baker, an expert in space flight mechanics, explores the ship and realizes it's like nothing he's ever seen before. He suspects there are only two logical explanations: it's either some secret government project or the ship came from another star system.

©2015 Gianluca Ranieri Bandini (P)2015 Gianluca Ranieri Bandini

But for the narrator!

I honestly do not know if I would have liked the book if I read it in print so to not be unfair I am giving the writer the benefit of the doubt and giving him a 3 * rating.

The narrator of this book is so bad that I honestly cannot recommend this audiobook to any audiophile.

I do hope this is simply a matter of the narrator personally not working for me but I honestly doubt it.

As for the plot. I found it disjointed but it is probably because I switched off the book every few minutes due to the narrator.

Needs new narrator

This the first story in a science fiction trilogy.

I am unsure if I liked this book or not. I have mixed feelings about it.

This audiobook is narrated by Fred Wolinsky. Unfortunately, I found his narration to be extremely off putting. Although he read the story clearly, I found the slow pace of his speech and the drawl in his voice to be rather grating for my ear. I found myself switching off the book often to listen to something else, in an effort stop myself from grinding my teeth in irritation.

I normally do character breakdowns in my reviews. However, although I enjoyed meeting Jeff Baker and Nicole Price, I found them and the other characters to be rather one dimensional and lacking the spark that would have made them come alive for me.

The story is told through several points of view. It started off strongly; I love the description of the crashed spacecraft on Callisto's surface, the suspense of who the owners were had me sitting on the edge of my seat. Unfortunately, the story began to go down hill from there. The captain and crew of the Nabira (sorry, not sure of spelling) ship that rescued Jeff and Nicole, and their mission, felt a little dis-organised and had me feeling confused. There are also several unresolved loose ends that promise to be revealed in the later books.

I love science fiction, but this book left me feeling confused and dissatisfied. Although this book is only two hours and forty-seven minutes long, it felt longer. I love it when a book grips me and this one, sadly, did not. I am not sure I will continue with the trilogy in audiobook format if the same narrator will be used.

J.A. Hawkings has written an intriguing start to a science fiction trilogy. I cannot say for sure that I loved his writing style, as I found it disjointed and confusing. This, in my opinion, also affected the flow.

I cannot in good conscience recommend this in audiobook format, but suggest you give the print form a go if you love space operas or science fiction. - Lynn Worton

A very solid 4

Despite the monotone performance I was sucked into the story. I plan on getting the next story. This book left a lot on the table. I should wait and listen to other reads of the performer, I only rated performance a 3, but, by the end of the book I thought doing much better, maybe it was me getting used to style🤔

Narrator needs to find other work.

Unable to finish listening to this because the narrator's performance was so, so bad. Where do they find these people?

not sure about the story but narration is horrible.

I couldn't make it then minutes. The narration has such an odd style and is very jolting. Returning the audio book for a refund.

Narration is too distracting.

I tried to listen to the story but had to quit due to the poor narration. Vowels were enunciated and drawn out. The last syllable of each sentence was enunciated and increased in tonality and octave. This was not just every once in a while but continuously. For me it was too distracting.

It might have been good...Except for the reader

The story might have been good. But I couldn't get past the reader. He sounded like an 80 year old man who hadn't gotten new glass in 20 years. Instead of reading a sentence at a time, he read one word at a time. And he emphasized the last letter of the last word of each sentence for an extra 3 seconds. I gave up after 20 minutes. I couldn't take it any longer. I returned the book.