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  • Seeds of Earth

  • Humanity's Fire, Book 1
  • By: Michael Cobley
  • Narrated by: David Thorpe
  • Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars (320 ratings)
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Seeds of Earth cover art

Seeds of Earth

By: Michael Cobley
Narrated by: David Thorpe
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Summary

First contact: the dream that became a nightmare when the first alien life encountered swarmed locust-like through the solar system. Merciless. Relentless. Unstoppable.

With little hope of halting the invading forces, Earth's last, desperate roll of the die was to send out three colony ships - seeds of Earth - to different parts of the galaxy. Earth may perish, but the human race would live on, somewhere.

Fully 150 years later, the human colony on the planet Darien has established a new world for humanity and forged a peaceful relationship with the planet's indigenous race, the gentle, scholarly Uvovo. But there are secrets buried on Darien. Life is about to change for the last children of Earth, as surprises spring from below and above. How will the Darien colonists react when all they have worked for is overturned at a stroke? And what choices will the Uvovo make when their true nature is revealed - and the skies grow dark with enemies?

From the author: "Audible did a great job with the audiobooks of Seeds Of Earth and The Orphaned Worlds - and David Thorpe is one versatile guy, able to lend his vocal talents to every strange character I was able to think up. Just excellent!"

©2010 Michael Cobley (P)2011 Audible Ltd

Critic reviews

"Proper galaxy-spanning Space Opera... a worthy addition to the genre." (Iain M. Banks)
"A complex, finely detailed thriller-cum-space opera." (The Guardian)

What listeners say about Seeds of Earth

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    75
  • 4 Stars
    108
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    37
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Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
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    41
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  • 2 Stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Bringing It To Life

The narration for this book is just absolutely amazing. The reader has an unbelievable facility with accents and voices. That works especially well for this book, where the premise is that earth has been overrun by aliens, and ships have been sent out--the 'seeds of earth'--to preserve humanity. Just a fantastic story, and one that's really brought to life by the talents of the reader here.

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

DONT BOTHER

What would have made Seeds of Earth better?

Better editing. Plus tighter plot. Avoid racial stereotyping which I think many Russian, Chinese and some Scottish listeners may find offensive.

The author has an "irritating annoying" tendency to use double verbs at any opportunity. This has a role to play when used for effect sparingly to create atmosphere but gets plain infuriating when used at any opportunity. I am sure it is not but it seems that way due to the high frequency of its use.

What will your next listen be?

The new Peter F Hamilton book or the new Richard K Morgan book.

What does David Thorpe bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

He does a good job giving a depth of character that is lacking in the prose.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Seeds of Earth?

There are too many to mention. Unfortunately I have listened to the entire trilogy and can see a great deal of irrelevances and padding in the story.

Any additional comments?

I bought the entire trilogy of which this is the first before completion of the first book. I have read and enjoyed worse when I was young and new to Science Fiction so can see why this will be okay listen for some. But once used to the quality storytelling of Iain Banks, Peter Hamilton and Richard Morgan you raise your expectations.

I found after the first book I really could not care about the fate of many of the characters.

I usually listen to the books only when I am on the exercise bicycle or going jogging. This motivates me to do the exercise as I want to know what happens next. Sadly with this trilogy I have put on a lot of weight due to a reduced exercise programme.

If you are new to Science Fiction you may enjoy this if you can put up with the prose style and lack of depth of characterisation . If you are not new to science fiction then there is nothing new for you in this or the following books.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • M
  • 27-10-12

Techno-Gaia?

I really enjoyed this audiobook. It was extremely well read by David Thorpe who brought the vast range of characters to life. The book itself would be well suited for a younger reader I think (I'm 37 but still in touch with my 16 year old self) as against other current Space Operas The Seeds of Earth feels a bit tame; it lacks the visceral brutality of Neal Asher or the scathing wit of Iain M. Banks but the universe(s) are well realised and the politics, drama and science are quite satisfyingly complex. In short, even though I wouldn't claim this as a classic, I'll be carrying on the series (in audiobook form) because whatever it may lack it's still a lot of fun.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    out of 5 stars

pleasant surprise

Excellent story, superb narration: Enjoy it.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Not good

What a load of gobbledegook. Utter guff and the Scots accents were straight from music hall. Not for me !

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

David Thorpe Woeful Performance

Currently struggling to work my way through the book due to the awful accents that David Thorpe deemed suitable for this production. He distracts from the storyline with his parody accents, he lacks any semblance of tempo to drive the story and positively the worst ever narration I've had the displeasure of enduring. I'm currently on chapter 6 and am struggling with how painful it is to listen to each sentence from his mouth. I am aware that I'm not reviewing the book which would be the norm but the narrators performance is so bad that I spend each minute cringing on his painful performance that I literally forget the words and themes of the book which is a shame as I purchased the trilogy and if David Thorpe is the narrator in all I'll get no further forward that Ch 6 which is where I leave it. Awful awful awful awful !!! ( I give the story 1 star but in all honesty that's because I couldn't focus on it due to narration, I recommend buying the actual book as it will be more enjoyable that listening to this)

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant Story, Brilliantly Read

Once again a story picked up via a recommendation by Audible, in fact for the 3rd book of this trilogy - The Ascendent Stars, has lead me to a story and an author I'd probably never have picked up (whilst a Sci-Fi fan my life is too busy to keep a finger on the pulse). I have to say that David Thorpe is an even better than Michael Page who so excellently read Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies.

The way the story unfolds is such that I just can't bear to go into too much detail over the story as you don't want any spoliers. However it can be said that all the characters are belivable and the main ones (excepting the Sendrucan Ambassador - boo, hiss!) I was rooting for from a couple of sentences in. I like the way Cobley structures the books with each episode telling the wider story by way of what is affecting an individual character, whose name is the chapter title.

My only cautionary comment is that by the third book there are so many characters and layers of story that you really need to pay attention - on several occasions had to rewind way, particularly when listening in the car and distracted by that dratted traffic!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

new to sci-fi.. get the book and not the audiobook

It?s an interesting story, but very hard to
understand and to keep up with due to the many
people, things and places involved.

I found myself constantly rewinding or skipping back
to previous chapters to remind myself who
people/things were, what had happened previously,
and where the story is taking place.. i.e. highly
confusing and frustrating. Hence why i think its
best to purchase this story in book form and not as
a audiobook

But once i got my head around the plot, and all the
other stuff, i found it quite alright but not
amazing.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Absolute GOAT!

Absolutely amazing. I have listened to this series on more occasions than I care to admit. My Audible library is legion. This was my first foray into audio books, I have yet to come across one that surpasses this. The narration is consistent, layered, structured, consistent, and most importantly captivating. The story is original, which is exceptionally difficult for sci-fi. Just to put this into context, I love the Expanse universe, the Bobiverse, I even enjoy the Ringworld, Shoal, Old Man's War, and Ender's series. I can comfortably recommend the dramatisations of the Alien series and yes, even Battlefield Earth.

Yet absolutely nothing compares to the story weaving in this series.

I am looking forward to AppleTV's Foundation, feel disappointed with Amazon for cancelling The Expanse.

What would be spectacular would be a high end streaming series based accurately on this material. There are 3 books, each should be 1 season in length containing 10 x 1.5hr episodes.

Bravo sir! From a sci-fi fanatic I salute you.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Dreadful narration

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A better narrator such as John Lee.

What could Michael Cobley have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

I'm not sure as I threw in the towel after 90 minutes.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Dreadful Scottish accents. In fact all the accents were bad.

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