Tracking the Trailblazer

Colony Ship Trailblazer, Book 1

By: John Thornton

Narrated by: Sylvia St. James

Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Janae and Ken are part of the remnant of humanity which lives in Dome 17, surrounded by the radioactive, toxic wasteland of a dead Earth.

The leadership of the dome has sent out adventurers to explore the other domes, but all they have found are failed domes, and deadly ruins.

Some of those adventurers have self-terminated upon return from those grueling missions.

Only Dome 17 survives, but now, Dome 17 is facing its own failure.

Looking to history, they come up with a plan to try to find the seven lost generational colony ships which left Earth a century before. Those ships had biomes filled with the flora and fauna of Earth, as well as people who would live all their lives inside those ships. However, the colony ship program was considered a failure. Nothing is known about the condition of those huge ships, but they might offer a possible way to save the people of Dome 17. If they still exist. If they can be found. If the people can somehow get to one of them.

The Committee designs a plan using two unproven technologies, faster-than-light scout ships - which can only carry two people - and teleportation.

Will this attempt to find one of those colony ships work? What will be found? And, what threats are waiting, both from Dome 17, and from the Colony Ship Trailblazer?

Janae and Ken set off to track down the Trailblazer, but will they find hope, or more death and destruction?

This is book one of the Colony Ship Trailblazer series, another exciting sci-fi adventure set in John Thornton's Colony Ship Universe. A parallel series to the Colony Ship Eschaton, the Colony Ship Vanguard, the Colony Ship Conestoga, and Battle on the Marathon.

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Is this the same author?

I recently reviewed Exploring the Colony Ship and enjoyed the book so, I jumped at the chance to review/ listen to Tracking the Trailblazer. This one feels like it was written by a different author.
Audible does a good job summarizing the book for the most part. There is a tragedy at the beginning of the story and one of the main characters (Janae) determines what really happened. She wants to tell everyone, but, is threatened if she reveals it. Throughout this and her subsequent trip to the Trailblazer, she repeats and repeats ad nauseam, how she wants to tell everyone the truth- even to the exclusion of events that you'd think would knock her into the present for at least a moment. I many times found myself saying "oh, just get on with the story.. enough whining from Jenae"

Despite this, the story is compelling. I love the premise of the series: a group of people (living in a failing bio dome on earth) and they send out seven pairs of explorers to try and make contact with seven space ships. Theses ships were launched 100 years ago and no one knows what the explorers will find, even if they are able to make contact. Each book covers a pair of explorers and tells their story. Each seems to tell a story that parallels the timeframe of the others.

The narrator was able to provide different voices for the characters but, she reads instead of "tells" the story. Her reading cadence is not how someone would naturally tell a story. She pauses between words where we would typically pause. When she was voicing the peoples conversation it was a more realistic pace to the words but occasionally they still sounded like robots.

Despite the extremely repetitive, tiring dialogue from Jenae, I would listen to another book. I like to think that Exploring the Colony Ship is a better representation of this authors work.

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

Narration could be improved, but okay overall.

Earth's environment is toxic and Dome 17 -- home to more than a thousand people -- will soon be rendered uninhabitable. After becoming unwitting pawns in a malicious plot, two adventurers from Dome 17 set off in search of a colony ship where they hope to find aid in saving the inhabitants of the failing Dome. Aboard the behemoth colony ship our travelers discover a culture full of strange customs and technology. Can the people of Dome 17 depend on these two adventurers for rescue before time runs out?

Tracking the Trailblazer was my introduction to John Thornton's body of work. I hope someday to start at the beginning and work my way through each series. But for now, I was able to enjoy this title without knowledge of the content from the preceding series sets. My only suggestion concerns narration; Trailblazer's narrator spoke in a somewhat monotone, robotic manner for the duration. While this type of narration could be intentional, I've personally found that a natural, more conversational tone can create a relaxed listening atmosphere that fosters increased comprehension. Overall, Trailblazer remains a clever, enjoyable scifi adventure title.

I was provided a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for my unbiased review. Many thanks for this opportunity!

Saving Humanity

An interesting concept of post-apocalypse domes and colony spaceships sent out before the collapse of earth, together holding the remnants of humanity. Population is declining and dome failure is imminent. Since FTL ships have been developed it seems that technology has not been lost or forgotten yet no one seems to have been aware of the dome system decline until the last minute. And then there is the fraught political arena within the dome. The plot moves fairly swiftly and a number of surprising and inventive overlapping scenarios are played out as the manned FTL reaches the Colony Ship. This is the first in a series and ends rather abruptly on a bit of a cliffhanger within the whole story arc but the instant tale is resolved. Rather like watching episodes of (name your favorite SF TV show here!) which always have continuing characters with their interactions.

The narrator [AUDIO] does an excellent job of providing a wooden, staccato voice for the AIs and clearly has a blast enacting several of the villains, but the main characters also slip into machine mode a bit too often.

Overall I enjoyed this story and look forward to exploring further with the series.

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

Post-Apocalyptic Meets Space

This was an interesting take of a Post-Apocalyptic world where space travel becomes necessary. A woman finds out the truth about the people in power, and she has two choices. Do what they want, or die. She reluctantly goes on a space mission, away from the Dome on earth, the last surviving dome with human life, in search for a space station that has the potential to hold them all. Time is short. The bio-dome her companions are in is failing, and they need somewhere safe.
My biggest problem with this story is the dialog information dump. The author has a creative world set up, but cannot find a way to trickle pieces of information about the world we're in throughout the book. A lot of times it's done in dialog, overheard dialog, or over the top dialog. A lot of the time, I can't see these characters talking in a history lesson sort of way when they all know the past already. It doesn't feel natural. That aside, the world building, situations and the characters are a lot of fun. However, with this one, don't expect a perfectly happy ending.

Thornton Starts a New Series!

Any additional comments?

Several weeks ago, John Thornton arranged for me to receive a sample audiobook from his collection. Mr Thornton has been very productive. He told me he has produced 18 audio books already (and maybe more by the time of this writing). The book he supplied me with was titled: “Tracking The Trailblazer”. With it, Mr. Thornton starts a project that feels a little like he has created his own private TV show, and that’s probably not far from the truth. He’s established a cast of characters, and a scenario that can play out in stand-alone installments while expanding a larger story line (Earth is ruined. Bio-domes will soon fail and their inhabitants find they are running out of time. A desperate mission sends a man and a woman in a faster than light craft to catch up to a colony ship launched many years earlier. If the team can board the ship, they can assemble a teleporter, and the inhabitants of the bio-dome will be able to escape Earth and start life over on the colony ship, where they could be part of the human race that actually has a future).
The team sent on the mission consists of a man and a woman. What they find when they arrive on the colony ship is not what they expected, and the novel is about their contending with the sudden challenges they face. I don’t want to give away any of the adventure here. It’s a short book.
I’m very limited in my knowledge of Sci-Fi, but my guess is that fans of Larry Niven’s Ringworld and the original Star Trek might like this series, especially if the books stay short. I liked the characters well enough, including a host of individual AI characters. I liked the scenario over-all. I did find some story events that I strongly disagreed with, but that’s the luck of the draw.
A stand out of the project for me was a scene where the two humans meet a security detail of helpful AI. Mr. Thornton does an EXCELLENT job of presenting an AI that appears to want to be helpful, who appears to offer helpful suggestions, but who is never moved one iota from the agenda it wants the humans to comply with. The exchange came across as completely authentic and strangely chilling. I didn’t know how the characters could possibly advance past the security detail, and I was tense while I listened.
The voice artist is Sylvia St. James and she gives a complete and full effort - her performance offers good basic reading, occasional accents, (including robotic AI) and impassioned delivery - though sometimes a little too impassioned for my tastes, (She seems like a pro. I wouldn’t be surprised if she adjusts as the series continues).
I have pros and cons about this novel, but with 18 audiobooks under his belt and with a new franchise starting, Mr. Thornton is absolutely getting things done. If you are in the mood for some light sci-fi, consider giving the series a read.

Thank you,
-- Rik Ty

Horrible narration

When I first started listening i thought they might have used a machine to read the text, like what happens in those bad YouTube videos. The narration is flat without any hint of character. I hung in there for a few chapters hoping I’d get used to it but just couldn’t get past the mechanical voice. So ended up just giving up on this book.