The Salvage Crew

By: Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

Narrated by: Nathan Fillion

Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Award-winning actor Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle, The Rookie) brings to life a snarky artificial intelligence you won't soon forget. Don't miss his hilarious performance in a story perfectly crafted for sci-fi fans of The Martian, Red Dwarf, and We Are Legion (We Are Bob).

They thought this was just another salvage job. They thought wrong.

An AI overseer and a human crew arrive on a distant planet to salvage an ancient UN starship. The overseer is unhappy. The crew, well, they're certainly no A-team. Not even a C-team on the best of days. And worse? Urmahon Beta, the planet, is at the ass-end of nowhere. Everybody expects this to be a long, ugly, and thankless job.

Then it all goes disastrously wrong. What they thought was an uninhabited backwater turns out to be anything but empty. Megafauna roam the land, a rival crew with some terrifyingly high-powered gear haunts the dig site, and a secret that will change humanity forever is waiting in the darkness.

Stuck on this unmapped, hostile planet, lacking resources, and with tech built by the cheapest bidder, the salvage crew must engineer their way to payday...and beat Urmahon Beta before it kills them all.

©2020 Yudhanjaya Wijeratne (P)2020 Podium Audio

Critic reviews

"Yudhanjaya Wijeratne's ingeniously crafted The Salvage Crew starts with a comforting science-fictional familiarity, before using its A.I.-co-authored idiosyncrasies to hurtle headlong into the gravity well of its considerable ambition. A novel of meteoric energy, flaring brighter and brighter as it falls further into its world." (Indrapamit Das, Lambda Award-winning author of The Devourers)

"A classic sci-fi adventure wrapped around a deeply philosophical core. With skillful plotting, interesting details, and a motley crew of humans and A.I., it's a story that embraces its meta-origins...with an ending worth waiting for." (S.B. Divya, Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated author of Runtime and Machinehood)

"With animation and wry humor, Fillion introduces listeners to OC, an artificially intelligent yet poetic overseer...with tenderness and sorrow [he] conveys OC's dawning realization that their mission has turned into a nightmare. Fillion's talents are undeniable...." (Audiofile Magazine)

Literary Sci-fi

I was/am blown away by this book. I will need multiple listens to understand some of the deeper intricacies between the characters and the story. Nathan Fillion truly brought The Salvage Crew to life; I felt like I was listening to a Steinbeck novel and wouldn't any part of the story changed. This story is an excellent direction for sci-fi to take so it can make its way into academia and push out some of the dated "classics" that make you want to pull your eyes out.

Listen at 0.9

As an actor, I love Nathan Fillian. As a narrator, you miss the last half of many sentences: he speaks weirdly fast and drops his voice and it ticks you off because you can't understand him. I finally realized that if I slowed him down to 0.9, I could understand what the heck he was saying. By that time, I was ticked off and irritated and realized that I wasn't so engaged with the characters, so I'm bailing on the story. It's probably fun overall if you just start off with being able to hear it properly.

Really?

Don't get me wrong Fillion did an amazing job, story fell short. Would not recommend!

Unexpected Quality Sci-Fi Book

I came to this book without any expectations it was recommended by an author that I like (Craig Alanson), The description of the book didn't give too much away and I thought that I'll just go away with it and try it, at worst case I can return the book if it's boring.

The story or the description of the story sounds boring but the story keeps evolving, it keep drawing you and revealing more and more about the galaxy, society and how stuff works. About the issues and problems.

It's one of those that you might better come without any expectations, knowing that a movie is a blockbuster movie usually ruins it for me because I keep expecting for the big highlight instead of enjoying the story.

The book left me with an "aftertaste", with a wondering about what if and stuff.
It is a good book, I'll try to follow the author see if he has more.

NARRATION

I had a small issue with the narration. The narrator at times when reading a sentence start lowering his voice near the end of some sentences, usually those are descriptive words and you can get away with it. that bothered me when listening in the car. I would have deducted a star away but the issue seems to disappear when listening at home or gone completely away past roughly the 1/3 of the book so it might be an issue with me.
I would have deducted half a star away from the performance but there's no option with that.
I'll consider it partly an issue on my side and leave it at 5 stars and write it as a mini warning here.

SUMMERY

the book is recommended, the story kept changing and drawing me in and I liked the end result

Awesome story, Wonderfully read

This is one of those books that you are sad to see end. You wish that you could stay on board as the characters' story continues.
Nathan adds so much to the telling of this story that I'm having issues articulating a review of his performance. Suffice to say just as I did not want the story to end, I hope that he has the desire/gets the opportunity/finds the time to record more.

Very Interesting

Not what I expected. This is a very thought provoking sci-fi novel. At first, I thought "this is interesting", then, I thought "this is getting too sad to continue", but continuing on, I came to enjoy the final stage. I loved the classic quotes and poems throughout. I know I'll be thinking about this story for some time. I can't say it's a favorite; however, I have no doubt I will revisit several times to pick up what I may have missed in the reading.

Concerning Nathan Fillion's reading, at first I wasn't getting into his narration, but as I continued to listen, I found myself drawn into the story. Sooo, I have to say he's a masterful narrator. I think I would especially like to hear him read some of the old classics.

Finally, even though I did not give it 5 stars, I believe this can be added to those novels that carry on through time. Well done.

My pick for Nov 3

I chose this title for a couple reasons:
1. To avoid the news churn for 8 hrs.
2. To see just how good of a narrator Nathan Fillion could be.

I decided that taking my mind to a place on the outskirts of the galaxy in a far future with the saga of shit job workers was where I wanted to dwell for the day. I didn't do any research on the author or the story itself & chose on a whim.

It did end up in an unexpected place. The pathos of those whose daily grind seemed as pointless as mine didn't make me more maudlin than I already was. I could certainly relate. I enjoy stories of people having to improvise with next to nothing to make something better while they can. Adapt or die is so 2020.

truly enjoyable book

With this book you think you know where it's going but it kind of takes a big change at the end. I definitely would recommend it, if you're a fan of Syfy or Nathan Fillion.

Meh

I originally picked up this audiobook because it was recommended to me, and because it is narrated by Nathan Fillion. It was an interesting premise, but an absolute slog to get through. The only reason I didn't switch to another book was because of the narrator. It had a very very satisfying ending though, and picked up in the last few chapters.

Truly surprised me

I wasn't quite sure what to expect but Nathan Fillion really impressed me. He handled the variety of characters very well and when things got serious, he more than proved up to the task. I hoping to see what he does next with another Audible performance.