The Ship

The New Frontiers Series, Book 1

By: Jack L. Knapp

Narrated by: Tom Lennon

Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Building a spaceship that uses Nicola Tesla's revolutionary space drive is only the beginning. From a new industrial revolution to the brink of global war, restless humanity presses onward, eventually to the first contact with an alien species.

There will be changes...if we survive.

Fans of Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clarke, and Jerry Pournelle will love this hard-SF series.

©2016 Jack Knapp (P)2016 Jack Knapp

Set up for #2 in Series

If you could sum up The Ship in three words, what would they be?

Complicated, Interesting, voluminous

Has The Ship turned you off from other books in this genre?

Not sure. There was so little action and so much useless detail about nothing important, it may turn me off on the author, but not the genre.

Which scene was your favorite?

Chapter 1 - The Bedstead!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

No. Amazingly even when the Inventor dies, I simply didn't care. The characters are cardboard. The narrator sounded as bored as I was at times though he generally somehow managed to sound interested right up until the ending.

Any additional comments?

Now that the Ship exists there are certainly lots of things that can happen in number 2. Hopefully the characters will be more human and the pace will be faster.

Interesting but a little long winded

The basic idea is a very good one. Nice SF without getting into anything supernatural. To me plausible.

My only complaint is the pace. Obviously the good parts of this story will come in later books. As an introduction to the series this is much longer than it needs to be. Unfortunately with an audiobook you can't just skim over meaningless detail.

The narrator I thought did a good job trying to keep it interesting and gave some of the cardbooard like characters a real personality. Without him I am not sure I would have hung in there. I will definitely be looking for the next title in the series as the action should start to really pickup it seems. Now that we have a Ship let's see what happens.

Great Beginning to a unique series

What did you love best about The Ship?

The premise was so real. Sci-Fi yet actually had me believing in the ship.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Ship?

Opening chapter with Morty flying outside the building.

Which character – as performed by Tom Lennon – was your favorite?

Morty. He was Morty. He is very easy to listen to which for such a long book is very important.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Mel's crash.

Any additional comments?

Moves along at a leisurely pace after a great beginning. Really sets up the next book. Hope they record that one soon.

Please record the rest of this series

What did you love best about The Ship?

Narration; character development

What other book might you compare The Ship to and why?

The Silver Ships (and the rest of that series).
Because while being si-fi, it still provides a slim hope for the future.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Slow to start but it grows on you

The content of the story is intriguing. The narrator is abysmal. The whole story was read in a monotone that would best be used for a lecture on tax law. I am interested in continuing the series but I will read them instead of buying the audiobook. With such a great group of narrators I’m not sure how Audible let this one through. The story has potential but if you listen to the audio be prepared to be disappointed.

Interesting with reservations

interesting story with potential for upcoming books in series. Needs more specific character development. Story also plods along tediously often. Finally I personally was not fan of narration performance.

good story

Good storyline but narration was weak ,, Since there was only one narrator it was hard to separate characters

Tedious

Would you consider the audio edition of The Ship to be better than the print version?

I doubt I would have made it through the printed version. Great beginning and reasonably fast pace for the first few chapters. After that is simply plods along making very little progress then after around 10 hours it seems like the writer realized he needed to end it and wrapped it all up in a fast and somewhat confusing finale.

What was most disappointing about Jack L. Knapp’s story?

Twice as long as it needed to be.

What about Tom Lennon’s performance did you like?

I liked his voice. Easy to listen to. Only thing that allowed me to stay with it until the end.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No

Great premise

For most people I think the basic "science" of this book will be plausible. Certainly enough science-speak to make it seem that way.

My big complaint is that the book moves at an absolute snails pace. There is some humor to lighten the load. The opening especially is light and fast paced. After that however it seems to become almost a diary of a not very interesting character.

I thought all things considered the easy going tone of the narrator was perfect.

Feals like it was written in the 40's

What did you like best about The Ship? What did you like least?

This book read like it was written a long time ago. The science is up to date, but the interactions of the characters and governments felt very dated.

Would you be willing to try another book from Jack L. Knapp? Why or why not?

I do t think so

Would you listen to another book narrated by Tom Lennon?

No

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No