Progeny's Children

By: Ray Jay Perreault

Narrated by: Christopher M. Allport

Humans were forced to leave Earth when the pollution became a threat. Mankind could no longer live on the planet. They traveled 189 light years to their new home they named Horizon. When they left Earth they abandoned much and over the years they grew, developed, and matured. A long time in humanities' future they returned to Earth and found something else living there.

©2016 Raymond J Perreault (P)2016 Raymond J Perreault

Thought provoking sci-fi story

This is an interesting and thought-provoking sci-fi story of political deception, human aggression, discrimination and moral dilemmas. This combination of his two short stories, Progeny and the Circle is Closed, has made for an excellent story. The author melded them together to give us a great story where humans left a dying planet and traveled to a new world, only to return to a healed Earth many centuries later. To their surprise, they find a society of salient robots, the Us, and even more shockingly, a race of humans, the Them, created by those robots from DNA samples found hidden in another primitive humanoid type race. The narrator did a good job with this story; his tone and pace gave you the feel of robots but at the same time he managed to add individuality to the Us. Allport made the humans seem more animated than the Us, illustrating the differences well. I loved the contrast of attitudes in this story; from the Prime Ministers entitled, superiority, the all-inclusiveness and logic of the Us, the fear of the unknown and sheep-like following shown by the majority of the arriving humans, the open acceptance and intellect of the Them, and the slow rebellion against injustice by the Captain and others. It is not a simple story of good vs evil but rather one of the ability to see beyond one's prejudices, to act for justice and be willing to try to understand and accept that all forms of life have worth.

Progeny's children

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

The story was great and took a few twists and turns with some surprises, both good and evil. The author combined two of his previous short stories into this full length book. Great scifi book

A story that can make you think about life.

To start off... the title of this books makes it sound like a sequel to Ray's short story "Progeny." It's not. It would be closer to say it is a novelization of that story. The complete story of Progeny is included and expanded in this novel. This is mentioned at the end along with mention of the story "Circle is Closed" which I have not read but is also apparently included in this story.

Overall I like the premise of the story and the execution is engaging. The loud beeps in places you eventually get used to (they apparently are supposed to be there), but the blank pauses can be disconcerting. The reader fits the story and has a good voice for the characters.

This story reminds me of why I like Orson Scott Card in the "Ender" series and other story's that Card writes. This story, like the "Ender" Series, makes you think about right and wrong and how we treat others that may be different than us in some way. Ray is just getting started but shows lots of promise in his story lines. Some work is still needed to bring this novel up to the level of a great story but it shows the thinking of the author is growing in good directions. The author repeats the same points several times and at least once did so in the same section of the book. This is often done to bring home a point but some finesse is needed to weave it further into the story so it does not slap you around with the repetitiveness.


I received a free copy of this audiobook for an honest review.”

Politicians!! Grrrrr

I know this is supposed to be a review about the wonderful story, Progeny's Children written by the talented Ray Jay Perreault and narrated by Christopher M. Allport....BUT I first need to rant a bit about the deep emotions this book has brought to the forefront. There is a lot of good about humankind.... BUT there is also a lot of hate, bigotry and fear. Sadly those ruled by the latter are why visiting aliens are going to wipe out the human race, unless unlike some humans and more like the wonderful US and THEM in this book they take a step back and realize that all types of beings are worth saving, even humans.

Now onto the book. The story was wonderful and definitely took a few twists and turns thus providing some surprises, both good and evil. Perreault combined two of his previous short stories into this full length book brilliantly, "Good Morning... Processes Must Be Improved" and "Progeny". That being said I feel that certain details of the various issues were repeated a few too many times when new discussion on that issue was to be undertaken. Also the production decision to put a beep at the end of a scene was a bit annoying, the pauses in the vocals was plenty of notice that the scene was changing. These were minor issues and did not detract from the overall appeal of the book.

Christopher M. Allport has some tempo and vocal qualities similar to Wil Wheaton who I am very familiar with and definitely appreciate. I also hear bits of sarcasm in Allport’s manner that as always appeals to my inner snark.

I am so appreciative to have been given a copy of this book for review and I look forward to future work from the author and narrator.

Unique Scifi Adventure

What did you love best about Progeny's Children?

I like the fact that there were no absolute good or evils in this story. It was truly unique in that aspect. In most scifi. There is the truly good and the truly evil. Here there were many shades of gray and it was for the reader to decide who to root for in the story and decide where their own moral compass would point them.

What did you like best about this story?

I really liked the changing points of view from the robots, to the created humans, to the humans who left earth it made for a great weaving story-line.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Christopher M. Allport?

Yes Mr. Allport created a nice world. He has a rich voice that brought the world to life with a great depth and fullness.

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

I did not have and extreme reaction. But I did feel anger when the Prime Minister killed the Robots and the Other organics with complete disdain. I wished someone would lead a coup and kill her or overthrow her.

Any additional comments?

"This review copy audiobook was provided by the author/narrator/publisher free of charge via Audiobook Boom."

Interesting premise, written robotically

I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book had an intriguing premise - what happens when humanity forsakes Earth for another planet, after making their own planet unlivable, and returns centuries later to reclaim their planet only to find it isn't empty?

This should have been an extremely interesting book, but I had a number of issues with it.

!) It portrayed humanity as totally monolithic in viewpoint and purpose. After 1300 years, a millennium on a new and welcoming planet called Horizon, their only goal is a return to Earth as soon as possible. The idea that any large group of humans could maintain such a monomania for a decade, much less a millennium, is completely preposterous.
2) When met with evidence of the Earth being populated by others, the Horizon government officials don't even bother to report it to the people who will be returning as colonists,
3) The most fully fleshed character in the book is a sentient robot, who is also the only character who shows growth.
4) The author uses repeated phrases and redundant explanations to give the reader very little information about either civilization and does it in a manner that would have been appropriate for a dry history textbook, not a Sci-Fi novel. The book seemed to go on forever, without saying much of anything.
5) The ending was abrupt and without any real explanation. The immediate crisis was solved by a Deus ex Machina plot and no effort is made to give us any idea how the long term issues will be dealt with.
6) The narrator delivered the story in a perfectly robotic style that went well with a textbook but did not enhance what should have been a novel.

I listened to the whole audiobook, hoping that the style would improve, but it didn't. In two sentences the author used the word "celebration" 6 times. At one point, a character repeated a complete conversation that had just happened in the book to another character, rather than the author saying "the Commander told his daughter what had been said".

Return to Earth

After 1300 years on the planet of Horizon, descendents of Earth are ready to return home. They hope the planet their ancestors ravaged has regenerated. What they find is unbelievable. With the passage of time, things like superiority are still a part of human nature. Thinking robots and human cousins won't stand in the way of a ambitious leader. I was gifted this from the author.

Journey to space and back

Would you consider the audio edition of Progeny's Children to be better than the print version?

I do not know the answer to this question as I only have experience with the audio version. However ,I think the book would read just as well as it is spoken.

What did you like best about this story?

Gosh, I really enjoy delving into the lives and the mental processes of the robots. I also really enjoyed the character creation of the captain. I was really able to relate to him, and he represents much of what I hope all humans could aspire to be in life. The Prime Minister represents the narrow-mindedness and the elitist nature of humans. This really made me think about how humans rule the Earth and how we should be mindful of how our actions affect others (living or not).

Which scene was your favorite?

My favorite scene was not a scene at all. I really enjoyed following the main robot character as she morphed from complete machine into something more diverse and worldly. Watching her grow was very inspiring.

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

I would've loved to listen to this book all in one sitting, but my life does not support that kind of free time. I did listen to is as often as I could though. I really enjoyed coming back to this book every time.

Any additional comments?

I definitely recommend this book to readers who enjoy moral dilemmas and expanding the human consciousness. I think this would be a great book for anyone to read and learn from.

Progeny's Children

Any additional comments?

3.5 stars

I ended up really enjoying this book. For me it started a bit slow but it pulled me in bit by bit until I was hooked. This was an entertaining, interesting, engaging and enjoyable story. Creative and very thought provoking story line.

If you abandon a place can you still lay claim to it no matter how much time has passed. Each side has an opinion, not everyone agrees.

Humans left the earth, and 1000 years have passed since they left. Now they are returning to the earth. What the humans thought were disposable items and left behind have evolved into something new. An advanced society of AI. The advanced AI are not the only living beings they find on the planet.

It only takes 1 self-righteous power hungry idiot to ruin something. Power goes to people's heads. Even though this is a work of fiction and the characters are different. It's the same situation that plays out repeatedly today and throughout history. One group of people who think they are more entitled to something than someone else based on a prejudice, because they want it or what ever justification they assign to it.

I understand why it was done but personally don't really think they needed the beeps to separate the scenes. The constant repeating of the laws got irritating.

Christopher M. Allport did a good job with the narration. This is the first time I have listened to him narrate a book. Pleasant voice. Nice even pace. Some good character voices. His narration of the AI's was great. The narration did not always flow smoothly and had awkward pauses especially in the beginning of the story. This was very distracting it pulls you out of the story. A narrator shouldn't distract you from the story. I would listen to him narrate other books, he just may need to be more familiar with the material he's narrating next time.

I was provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher.

Enjoyable Sci-Fi Novel with a Unique Perspective

Progeny’s Children took two of the author’s previous short stories and combined them into a full-length novel. I had previously listened to the short stories Progeny and Circle is Closed and had highly enjoyed them, so I was excited to hear the author expanded them into a full-length novel, and it was definitely worth a listen. I appreciated that the author did something unique here and he didn’t base the entire novel from the human’s perspective. That made for an interesting change of pace and it leads to situations where mankind might not be the good guys. The narrator did a great job here and I really enjoyed his used of sound effects, like some distortion from people talking over the radio. That led to a greater sense of immersion in the novel, and I really enjoyed it.

This audiobook was provided by the author at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review.