Shadow Captain

By: Alastair Reynolds

Narrated by: Clare Corbett

Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

The gripping sequel to the Locus award-winning science-fiction adventure, Revenger, tells a story of obsession and betrayal as two sisters hunt for the greatest treasure in the universe.

Adrana and Fura Ness have finally been reunited, but both have changed beyond recognition. Once desperate for adventure, now, Adrana is haunted by her enslavement on the feared pirate Bosa Sennen's ship. And rumors of Bosa Sennen's hidden cache of treasure have ensnared her sister, Fura, into single-minded obsession. 

Neither is safe; because the galaxy wants Bosa Sennen dead, and they don't care if she's already been killed. They'll happily take whoever is flying her ship.

Shadow Captain is a desperate story of cursed ships, vengeful corporations, and alien artifacts, of daring escapes and wealth beyond imagining...and of betrayal. 

©2019 Alastair Reynolds (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Critic Reviews

"The sequel to last year's space heist story, Revenger, is an equally-gripping story about two sisters, Adrana and Fura Ness, on the hunt for the greatest treasure in the universe." (Kirkus)

"This wonderfully complicated, fascinating space opera carries on the adventures of teen sisters Adrana and Arafura Ness, who find themselves over their heads in deep space intrigue.... [A] marvelous mix of character study and space adventure." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

This book is a money grab

I am a big fan of Reynolds BUT....
This book is drivel. Everything that makes his other books great is absent here. It’s filled with day time soap dialogue. The sisters are stupid and I honestly think he got them confused in various parts of their dialogue with each other because those conversations don’t make sense. The author is in the weeds but not in an interesting way. I can get into the weeds if the content is interesting or complex. More than absurd, this book is pedestrian.

In truth, the previous book by Reynolds was also terrible. It was the prequel to the Prefect but was released after the Prefect.

I base my book selections on reviews so I’m being brutally honest. This book disappointed me.

Check out Nick Harkaway or Joel Shepard.

sluuuuuuurp.

there is no reason to make slurping noises after every freaking line of a character ever. putty I liked the reader otherwise.

Slurped

Unlistenable.
The narrator depicts a “watery voice” by making a slurping sound after each sentence. The character with the “watery voice” plays a major rule. The slurping ruins the book.
Isn’t there some editorial input on these recordings? Why didn’t someone stop her from doing this?

Glimmery

I might stop listening in spite of the quality of the story because the voicing of this character is so obnoxious.

Don't like the reader

The posh accent really puts me off, I'll update the review when I've struggled through it all

Great... Slurp Story...Slurp

I love the story, but the slurping noises from the Narrator are bugging the crap out of me.

The slurpening.

The first books problems with audio production continue into this book. It's not nearly as bad but it's till enough to regularly annoy you out of the story, since that's all that matters, it's still unlistenable.


For headphone users there exists a volume sweetspot that won't hurt too much during the loud bits, and you can still make out the soft bits without adjustment. If this were the only problem then this book would have been easier to soldier through than the first.


Remarkably the bad audio production is only a secondary dealbreaker with the introduction of the slurper; An important character described as having a "watery voice."


The narrator chose to depict this watery voice with a loud slurp sound after every sentence. This character has hours of speaking interactions with the main characters.


It sounds like the narrator is eating a bowl of ramen inbetween sentences. Every sentence.


That is hands down the worst narrative decision I've ever heard.


I tried to soldier through but couldn't make it, five hours to go and the interactions with the slurper have no end in sight.


I'm out, I am done with this series of Audiobooks. I wish I had time to read the text since it seems like it would be another good Reynolds book.

Now I'm waiting for Bone Silence

I'm making my way through Alastair Reynolds' works and just completed the Revelation Space series. It was nice to have a continuation of Revenger. This wouldn't be my favorite of his works and isn’t exactly wrapped up by the end, but I look forward to continuing the story when Bone Silence is released in about a month. From my perspective, the complaints about the narrator and 'slurping' are overblown. Yes, one of the characters slurps...If I hadn't read the reviews before the book, I never would have thought twice about it. The rest of the performance is good.

Not his best work

Honestly not his best work. Not sure if the story sucked or the narrator did, but I couldn't get into the story at all. Returning

Another great story from the Master!

Clare isn't whispering near as much in this one, thankfully!

I love that the main character / narrator switched from Arafura to Adrana. Not for any reason but to view the former's actions in this story from the outside. I think this was a great choice of Mr Reynolds.

The story of the Ness sisters hits on all fronts. We have us versus them, Prozer playing solo, and an amazing character in Mr Glimery. The sucking of saliva in his parts could not have been described in the books, so I'm lead to believe the voice actress and Alastair/ production team had a say in how those parts were vocalized. Great job!

Overall, the story was great, and I really look forward to another one with the crew of the Night Jammer, Revenger.

A rare miss from AR

I have enjoyed all of AR's other works, including Revenger. I struggled through this - it adds very little to the Revenger world apart from teasers about greater events. I expected more from the Ness sisters.

Some interesting bits

Overall a poor book with some interesting bits and theories and some more character development but too many unanswered questions and a poor ending