The Ark

Children of a Dead Earth, Book 1

By: Patrick S. Tomlinson

Narrated by: Mirron Willis

Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Humankind has escaped a dying Earth and set out to find a new home among the stars aboard an immense generation ship affectionately named the Ark. Bryan Benson is the Ark's greatest living sports hero, enjoying retirement working as a detective in Avalon, his home module. The hours are good, the work is easy, and the perks can't be beat.

But when a crew member goes missing, Bryan is thrust into the center of an ever-expanding web of deception, secrets, and violence that overturns everything he knows about living on the Ark and threatens everyone aboard. As the last remnants of humanity hurtle toward their salvation, Bryan finds himself in a desperate race to unravel the conspiracy before a madman turns mankind's home into its tomb.

©2015 Patrick S. Tomlinson (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Not man stories about generation ships.

What made the experience of listening to The Ark the most enjoyable?

I liked the idea of a murder mystery in space. The story was pretty quick and had some interesting twists.

What did you like best about this story?

It was a setting I have rarely seen. This allowed a cop story to grow in a unique new way.

What about Mirron Willis’s performance did you like?

Great voice, but may need to work on pronunciation or maybe I have been wrong on many more words than I think I am.

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

This was a book I made excuses to listen to taking longer walks and postponing other work.

I quickly became engrossed

The Ark by Patrick S. Tomlinson is the first novel in the series called Children of a Dead Earth. Bryan Benson is a detective on a gigantic space ship called the Ark. Many generations ago, a sampling of humankind was put onto the Ark to escape destruction. Every person on the ship is equipped with an implant tracker that tracks not only their position, but also every aspect of their lives. So when a crew member goes missing, a surprised Benson is called in. The clues begin to reveal an unsettling trail that imply that the missing crew member didn’t simply commit suicide, but something more nefarious might be at play. As Benson travels to places on the ship that he didn’t know exists and meets with the mostly unlikely allies and enemies, he begins to see the status quo of the ship with new eyes. His investigation threatens to not only solve the mystery, but also lead him to the brink of death.

I really enjoyed this novel - I listened to it in almost one go. Benson is a funny and likable character and his interactions with different characters are fun to listen to. The mystery of the missing crew member is really engrossing, especially as this one seemingly minor missing persons case snowballs into a massive conspiracy involving many unexpected characters. The clues are revealed at a good pace that keep the reader interested. Tomlinson did a great job creating complex interesting characters that I quickly became engrossed in in addition to the mystery. The head of the museum and her parts were some of my favorite parts of the novel. As the mystery is unfolding, there are really nice glimpses into relationships, characters, and aspects of the Ark that could have been detracted from the story, but instead they made it so much sharper. These tangential stories helped build up the complexity of the world that these characters are living in. I’m really looking forward to reading the next novel and seeing how the lives of these characters progress. This novel ends with a definite climax and end, but creates a path for the story to continue in the coming novels really well.

The narration by Mirron Willis was really good. I think he did a great job with most of the characters. The accents did not sound as tight as they could’ve been, but they were consistent and the characters were distinguishable. The production quality was good as well. I would recommend this novel to anyone who likes space mysteries and stories about the journey for the survival of the human race.

Audiobook was purchased for review by ABR.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

[If this review helped, please press YES. Thanks!]

Over enunciated narration!

The premise of the book is fun and the author makes it interesting enough to overcome the reader's maddening over enunciated consonants and weird accents.

Still listening

Any additional comments?

Setting - In a spaceship for generations (250 years) and the author uses "weathered" to describe a museum curator's hands - really. I'm glad I got it on sale.

surprising take on police work

This is a fascinating combination of sci-fi and police investigation! What makes it so different is that investigative procedures and techniques have been lost during the several hundred years the ark has been in flight. So our Chief Constable makes error after error that more sophisticated investigators would not! You know better, but he doesn't.

The ultimate answers to the murder are surprising, but still very human. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next installment. Mr. Tomlinson, write faster!

Great story

The plot was fun. The narration was excellent. Bought this on s whim. Plan to buy more by this author.

Good 1st in series, over-enunciated narration

Creative story,, good feel for the persistence (paralysis) of technology on a generation ship.

Narration often made dialogue feel stilted. New narrator? Will give him a second chance.

Should be called murder on oriental Ark

This book is not at all what you expect. There is a ton of things going on, sub-plot after sub-plot and twist after twist.

With all these sub-plot, the book just works.
Can't wait to read the next one.

Narrator sounded so effeminate !

Good story narrator ruined it!! Would not recommend this book to any one, save your money!

Nearly there

I wanted to like this book. I'll try the next one in the series. The concept is clever and the possibilities enormous. BUT. The writing needs tightening and editing, better character development,a stronger story arc and something I can only call heart. It kept almost catching fire, then fwizzle.Narration was decent, not enough to save it though.