"Two hundred choices and they're all algae."

An interesting S.F.adventure story, cleanly written which, though dependent on technological achievements, does not try to blind the reader with science, explaining enough without interfering with the story. Character development is sufficient if a bit fluffy and there is enough that is unexpected to lure on the reader. Some aspects felt annoyingly absent, however, like the actual how of the planet and the background situation which had put it into being, but perhaps more of this will emerge in future volumes. Meanwhile, the story remains as an enjoyable non military young person's adventure story.
Read by Dina Pearlman, this Audiobook could have been better with a different narrator. Although her pacing is good and her modulation carries vocal interest, her voice is somewhat nasal and abrasive and her character voice differentiation poor, most ending up sounding much like the main protagonist, Holly, who in turn sounds like the text itself. There are occasional exceptions, as with the young boy, Beau, but given that there is a fair amount of dialogue, this does cast a bit of a shadow over the book as a whole.

Altogether, an easy read, imaginative tale for younger audiences.

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It’s quite a novel story line

It was too easy to predict the story from very early in the book. I still enjoyed it.

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Good Book... Not as good as his 1st

Before I start I would like to say that this is a very good book and I've only dropped it one star on the story rating because this is a well written book with a very good story that keeps you engaged all the way through.

I got this book because Mr Falconer's first book (Not Allan) was outstanding. It had some plot twists that I found completely unexpected and I loved the book from start to finish.

This book feels like it was maybe finished to hit a deadline given by the publishers. It has plot twists but most of them I picked up on from the very first clue... And yes, I mean the very first clue... It took chapters and chapters for the main characters to catch up with me. There was only one or two twists that I saw much closer to the reveal but nothing that really kept me on my toes.

So in shot, a good book that you will enjoy if you love Sci-Fi like me, but unfortunately falls short of his first work.

Still looking forward to Mr Falconer's next book ;-)

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1 person found this helpful

Not as good as "Not alone"

I bought Terradox on the strengh of Not Alone, which was an excellent book, although I felt it lost its way a bit towards the end. Terradox isn't a bad book by any means, but it didn't live up to my expectations. The story deals with the same kinds of things as Not Alone -- conspiracies, government corruption and cover-ups, space defence -- but in a much more fictional setting. So while Not Alone was based on real conspiracy theories (or actual conspiracies, in some cases), Terradox is more speculative.

The story is fast-paced and the plot surprises keep, well, surprising; but I thought that the characters were not particularly convincing. The writer's attempt to write a character with conflicted motivation was not, I thought, a huge success. In a sense, I was reminded of "young adult" books by, for example, Philip Pulman. Being compared to Pulman is not a bad thing for an author, I think; but Falconer's fictional worlds and situations do not have sufficient depth and richness to compensate for the thin characterization, while Pulman's do.

So, in the end, not a bad book, and not a regrettable purchase, but not as good as I expected.

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2 people found this helpful

The Falconer has landed!

This is a great listen - an exciting and well-thought out science-fi thriller/whodunnit/adventure, with enough twists to it to maintain your interest.

The story follows Holly Wood and the other occupants of a spaceship that inexplicably crashes into a planet that no-one can see, and absolutely cannot exist. How is it there? How will they survive? Can they every get home?
The planet is dangerous, and they need to try and find a way of getting to safety. Then they discover that this already weird story isn't the half of it. So it turns from fun sci-fi to a thriller/whodunnit.

It got off to a slightly slow start (it seemed to have a lot of scene to set, which took some time), but once it picked up it rollicked along and was a thoroughly enjoyable adventure. The narration was largely good, although the English accents were a little wide of the mark which I found distracting during the slower parts of the story. Honestly, if the narrator can't do the accent wouldn't it be better not to try and just to use their own voice? Or maybe writers should consider making their characters from more obscure places - if they'd been Norwegians who grew up in Kenya, I'm pretty sure it would have seemed spot-on to my ear.

But, the main point is this is a great book, well worth the listen.

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6 people found this helpful

Any Easy Old Fashioned Sci Fi Tale

not a bad book
well acted
ticks all the Hard Sci Fi boxes
enjoyed it
worth a read

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2 people found this helpful

If Siri narrated audio books

the story is fine. not as good as "Not Alone" but a good solid story. unfortunately Dina Pearlmans narration is nothing short of robotic. the recording seems to have a Strange Echo that makes it sound like it was recorded while she was sitting on the toilet, and is very off putting. her attempts at a British accent make Dick van dyke sound good. I only put up with it as the book is only 11 hours long. much longer i would have had to tap out. she sounds like Mrs Stephen Hawkings.

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7 people found this helpful

TERRADOX ..... TERRIBLE!

Oh dear ! not anything like his brilliant first book which should be made into a TV series btw!
this is a sci fi by numbers not worst book ive listened to but by far not the best suspiciously similar to Artimis but not as good !
if any one knows craig please ask him to do a sequel to NOT ALONE Pleasse!!!!!

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3 people found this helpful

Disappointed

From a gripper "Not Alone" to this, very disappointed. Slow to get into, slow all the way through

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6 people found this helpful