Hyperspace and a Frontier World

This is the first time I have read a book from Allen Steele, and it turns out that Coyote Horizon is the 4th 'Coyote' book from the author.

While it follows on from a trilogy about humankind's first colonisation of a planet outside the solar system, you really don't have to read the trilogy to enjoy the story here.

Indeed, it's the author's voice is the first you'll hear on this Audible recording, explaining how the trilogy turned out to be incomplete and that there were a few threads and back stories he wanted to explore in this book, Coyote Horizon, and in a 5th book that is currently being written. After that narrator Peter Ganim takes over, telling the tale.

Overall I enjoyed the story very much. The characters were well defined - even though I had not 'met' them previously by omitting to read the trilogy first - the story line was always rich and well planned, and I was truly moved in the book's closing chapters

The setting for the story is a newly colonised planet (Coyote) which was all well and good, but I felt it drew a little too much on the Wild West Frontier, with people burning fish oil lamps and travelling on animals, all the while the colonist have data pads, sat phones and starships flying overhead. It just seemed to lack a certain amount of imagination. The planet itself never truly felt like an alien world. Still, perhaps that was explored more in the trilogy.

It was well read by American Peter Ganin, despite a few awkward moments when he attempted non-US centric accents. Peter's style may be a little too measured for British ears, but after an hour or so, I became more engrossed in what he was saying, rather than how he was saying it.

So, a decent book, well worth a spending an Audible 'credit' on and it was a chance to hear a work from a lesser known Sci-Fi author for a change. Recommended

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Not the best

I have read/listened to all the Coyote books plus the two spin off books, (Spindrift and Galaxy blues) and enjoyed them all, but this one is just all right. It is read well enough, but there is really very little going, as it follows one character's involvement with an alien religious cult, however at the end it does truly take off. I was tempted to stop listening half way along but am so glad I listened to get that ending. There are so many areas which might have been explored and were taken nowhere. Do not judge the rest of the series from this book

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