I cannot believe this author actually received a Hugo award for other books in this series. His characters are paper thin and his style of writing in my opinion leaves much to be desired. ( )

The premise: taking place during the events of the Coyote Trilogy, the EASS Galileo disappeared during its mission to investigate a strange, unknown object that might be alien in its origin. This is the Galileo's story, as told by the three survivors, which chronicles everything that happened from Galileo's take-off to its shuttle's appearance on the planet Coyote. Their story reveals what happened and what the survivors encountered, including humanity's first contact as well as the most destructive force the galaxy's ever seen.

My Rating

Give it Away: But it's worth the cash only if you're already a fan of the Coyote trilogy and you're caught up on all the books. I really don't feel this book stands on its own if you're NOT familiar with the trilogy, because even with my familiarity, there was little keeping me going save for wanting to fill in the blank of this part of history. Even in that, I feel the book is lacking a bit, just because there are no surprises in the story or the plot, because you pretty much have all the answers at the start. Still, Steele's prose is enjoyable, easy to read even when he gets wrapped up in technical details, so fans of the Coyote trilogy will want to give this a shot. If you're not a fan, or you haven't read any of the Coyote books yet (and mind you, you need to read ALL THREE before this one, starting with Coyote which I strongly recommend to EVERY SF reader), then you can safely pass on this one, methinks.

The full review, which does include spoilers, may be found in my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome.

REVIEW: Allen Steele's SPINDRIFT

Happy Reading! :) ( )

Compared to the rest of the Coyote series that I have read, this book is rather on the bland side.

A competent enough story of a first contact situation, and yet again the screwups made by the old Earth politicians and their divisions, as they sneak an unpleasant surprise onto the starship sent out to investigate the receipt of a signal for intelligent aliens.

The crew includes a convicted mass-murderer, who helped posthumans kill many humans in an experiment, because he is the planet's leading exobiologist. Haven't read Coyote Frontier, not sure if this story is in there, or not.

When a ship includes a politial officer as well, though, things are just about guaranteed to go fubar.

I'd call this one just a 3.25 I think, because I like the Coyote thing.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/07... ( )

A supplement to the Coyote trilogy. An expedition to an alien artifact discovered near a distant star is presumed lost when communication fails. Near the end of Coyote Frontier, three survivors and an alien turn up. Spindrift is the story of how those survivors came through their journey from Earth and their encounter with the aliens.

This read like a short book to link up two stories. I hope he is writing the next part. ( )

When Earth detected a large alien artifact drifting past a distant star, a hastily organized and fractious expedition was sent to investigate. Communication failed just after the Earth crew arrived on the scene and began exploring, so everyone was presumed lost until decades later, when three survivors and an alien envoy turned up at the end of Coyote Frontier (2005). This latest installment describes what the ill-fated expedition discovers, what goes wrong and how a few people save themselves by recognizing their ignorance and isolation, then resolving to work past those limitations. ( )

http://home.earthlink.net/~karen20000... ( )