Seeds of Earth: Humanity's Fire, Book 1

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.

Excellent story, superb narration: Enjoy it.

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.

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!

A decent enough sci-fi yarn. The story may not win any awards for innovation, but it's very well paced and quite entertaining. The characters, while definitely not as complex or multi-facetted as those of Iain Banks, are also rather enoyable.

I need to mention the narrator. It's true that his work with accents feels a bit artifical, but I think that's forgivable, considering that he manages to give almost every character in the book (and there's plenty) a distinct, recognisable voice and infuses every scene with the appropriate emotions and excitement.
Mr. Thorpe's work on this book was reason enough for me to take a look at his other work on Audible.

One last thing: This is definitely not a stand-alone novel. While some plot points are resolved, it is very much a beginning. Things are put in motion and events are set up for future books.

The missing link to this inventiveness was the need to engage the reader; I simply lost interest and ditched it during part 2, appalled that it was going to go on and on.......

The reader makes a valiant effort. The book isn't bad, nor is it good. So what's wrong? It's a fairly strong story line and some of the characters are nicely drawn. Yet, overall it doesn't work. I think the reason is probably because the author set out to write a multi-book series. This book needed a good editor to cut it down and turn it into the tightly written, exciting book it could have been.

if you need to know what shirt button he got done up , enjoy endless description of things that really do not need you might like this. I think that he had so little story that he feels the need to pad it out so it looks like an epic.

David Thorpe's characterisation is excellent and nearly worth listening to just for that! But as others have said, the story does jump around a bit, there are lots of alien races and names that you feel you need to track. But some just pop in to add depth and disappear again, others hang around for longer. My advice is to sit back and enjoy the story. Don't worry about all the smaller detail as it does settle and the main threads are strong and interesting. I've just downloaded the second book now but when I first started on book 1 I couldn't image I would.

Really good story and very well narated.

However the story is incredibly difficult to follow and i have to say I was relieved once I got through it.

The actual story being told is great, the people potrayed are believable and certainly help to draw you in. The back and forth nature of the book which jumps between various side stories is very difficult to follow, however I really enjoyed and was relieved that it was not as "spacey" as I first thought it would be.