They deserve the truth.

John Thornton's Colony Ship world centres around seven ships sent from earth over an hundred years previous when it became obvious the the earth itself was dying. The ships, hopefully, would eventually find new homes for the colonists who, meanwhile, were given habitats within which to live out their generational lifetimes. For those left behind on earth, comes were built to protect them from the ever more toxic and radiation laden atmosphere. But the domes have been dying and only one is now known to survive: Dome 17.
With news that even this Dome is doomed to fail in a few months, a plan is formed - to send out two people teams, one to each of the seven Colony Ships, to see if one would be a suitable home to take the Dome 17 survivors, a plan made possible only because of technology developed since the launching of the ships.

Tracking the Trailblazer is the first of the books about one of these attempts to find the new home. As with each of the other series books, the first section is dedicated to explaining the situation and introducing the couple who will be embarking on the perilous journey. But this time it is different, with more discord and sinister undertones which makes all far more intriguing especially for anyone who has followed the Vanguard and Eschaton attempts, and the two main protagonists, Ken and Janae, are also unusual in that they do not have the close friendship of the earlier adventurers. For this reader, this was the most interesting of the series world so far.

Unfortunately, although her voice is clear and seemed to fit with the female character portrayed, narrator Sylvia At. James read with little expression: excellent when portraying the computers but not so good for humans. Janae especially sounded robotic when not throwing emotional fits. There is an excellent production section, however, some three quarters of the way into the book, in which an event is given with full crowd soundings as well as a distant announcer to the masses. Sadly, this is an isolated event.

Overall, a good S.F. adventure with a very intriguing subplot, not all of which is fully explained, and with reasonable characterisation for the two main protagonists. I have already purchased book two. But if new to the Colony Ship world, do not start with the Trailblazer - try, instead, Finding the Vanguard.

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1 person found this helpful

Space opera adventure.

I liked the description of this book and thought I'll give it ago. I have to admit that the characters really annoyed me at the beginning but I liked them more towards the end. They changed in how they talked and acted to each other towards the end, but I liked them more for it.
There is a few twists and turns and I kept wondering what is going to happen next. There was enough mystery and suspense there to keep you listening/reading the book. It ends on a sort of cliffhanger. I am hoping the author has a book two coming out soon. I want to know what is going to happen to the characters now that they know things they didn't before. My one negative is we don't really know why ken picked that paricular ship. Even Jen questioned it yet we don't get an answer. It was one of those things that stayed with me after I finished listening to the audio book.
There is violence, no sex scenes but there was a lot of innuendos.

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

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Very emotionally charged, toying with interesting ideas

A solid 4star with promise of a good score-fi experience. Visually represented. Professionally narrated if only a bit problematic in production (consistency). Enraging story and I want to see where it takes me.

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