Hurry up and check out David Lee Summers’ new book, Children of the Old Stars.
The Cluster is a vast alien machine that destroys starships indiscriminately in its quest for something or someone. Commander John Mark Ellis, disgraced and booted out of the service when he fails to save a merchant ship, believes the key to stopping the Cluster is communication. His mother, Suki Firebrandt Ellis, is an astronomer who believes the very leaders of the galaxy are withholding information about the Cluster. Clyde McClintlock believes the Cluster is God incarnate, seeking retribution. G’Liat is an alien warror whose own starship was destroyed by the Cluster. All together, they set out to solve the mystery of the Cluster before it finds the object of its quest.
Presented in association with LBF Books and Hadrosaur Productions.
“Children of the Old Stars presents an engrossing vision of the future … David Lee Summers has created a fascinating, imaginative, and very entertaining cast of characters and worlds.” S. Derrickson Moore, The Las Cruces Sun-News
“In Children of the Old Stars, David Lee Summers has created a wonderful mix of characters and a gripping plot. From the aliens to the whales of Earth, who now communicate with people, each character seems to come to life from the moment they enter the story.” Kate Hill, author of The Chieftain’s Bride
This entry was posted by NJ
on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Coming Soon.
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October 2nd, 2007 at 2:25 am
And the missing link to the book is …
http://podiobooks.com/title/children-old-stars/
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:53 am
I’m really looking forward to subscribing. You last was a good read. I hope the audio quality has been improved this time though.
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:09 pm
I was hoping this would show up here
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Thanks for finding the missing link, Robert! (Although that sounds a bit like you made a major discovery in biology!)
Likewise, thanks for the feedback on Pirates, Badcam. Hopefully you’ll find the audio quality on Children a bit better. I’m using a new mic and recording direct to digital. Pirates was recorded on analog and converted to digital. It sounds better to me through my iPod and CD player… so hopefully you feel the same.
Finally, thanks, James… took me a bit to clear some time to work on Children. Hope you like it!
By the way, I don’t think the book is really much more “explicit” than The Pirates of Sufiro — but I do recommend that parents preview it before deciding whether to let younger people listen.
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:20 pm
By the way, I just noticed that the price was reduced on the print edition of Children of the Old Stars over at Amazon.com. Also, for ebook fans, The Pirates of Sufiro was just released at Fictionwise. Both Children of the Old Stars and Heirs of the New Earth should be appearing at Fictionwise soon, too.
October 24th, 2007 at 9:54 am
love the book so far nice work
I was just wondering are you going to try and get
the three book release as a podcast ?
October 24th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Thanks, Matthew!
I’m hoping to talk to my publisher about the third book next month. I’d like to do it and hope we can make it happen, but I won’t know for sure until we talk it over. I’ll post a note here once I know the plans.
December 3rd, 2007 at 9:31 am
I just discovered David Lee Summers with this book, and am glad I did! Engrossing, great characters, a view of the future that I found very plausible and well constructed (which is WAY harder than authors usually get credit for it being), Can’t wait to read his other books!
December 4th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Thank you, Danielle! I’m delighted you’re enjoying the book and hope you enjoy the others as well.
December 9th, 2007 at 9:59 am
so how goes the work on getting the three book up here David Lee Summers
?
December 9th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Unfortunately, my publisher hasn’t given me the all-clear to record book three, yet. But, I’ll drop a note today and see if I can get an update, and then look at my schedule.
December 9th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Great second book in the series. I thought the audio quality was fine and the added music tracks really built the atmosphere nicely.
The characters were nicely developed, the plot really carried me along through the story and the constant action and twists really kept me engaged through the whole book.
I hope we’ll be seeing book 3 on here in the not too distant future.
December 10th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Thanks, Chris!
As of this morning, it is official, I’ve been given permission to record “Heirs of the New Earth” for Podiobooks. Given other items on my schedule, look for it to start somewhere around late spring or early summer.
Thanks so much for listening, everyone!
February 29th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Allow me to preface what I am about to say: I can understand how hard it is to write a book any book. I can appreciate the effort required to write an essay having written a few in my time.
I managed to plod through the first eight chapters of the book, and I cannot continue. I have a fairly vivid imagination, and I have had to use it to fill in what was missing from the story, plot, and dialogs. I give Mr. Summers credit for having the guts and skill to even write a book, but maybe his style is simply not to my taste, having grown up reading Asimov, Clarke, Bradbury, Farmer, Brinn, etc.
I don’t mean to offend, and this is not the first audio book I have erased from my player without finishing it.
Mr. Summers: Thank you for the effort, and I hope your style develops and matures going forward.
March 1st, 2008 at 12:07 am
Thanks for the feedback, Woody and likewise thanks for giving the book a try. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it more, but do appreciate that you took time to share your thoughts. I wrote “Children of the Old Stars” almost ten years ago and it was first published in 2000. Personally, I think I have improved as a writer and hopefully those folks who tune in to “Heirs of the New Earth” later this year will think so as well.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:06 am
This book is a considerably better than the reading, which is to say it is mediocre. I plodded through it with mild interest and enjoyment, but not enough to make me really look forward to subsequent episodes. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if I had read it rather than listened becasue I don’t think the reading is particularly good. Normally I try to judge a book on the literary credit rather than the naration, so I will still say it is fair to good, but if you are listening to it you may find it ‘wanting’. I was distracted by the flatness which was remarkably consisteny, and was even more surprised that it was being read by the author. Normally those who read their own works are accutely aware of expression intonation and tone, but sadly I found this reading distinctly askew to the content. Sorry Just being honest.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Thanks for the feedback, Jim, and for the good words about the writing itself. I know opinions vary on the reading. I’ve actually received a lot of positive feedback on the reading, but I appreciate your opinion. I’ll keep it in mind when I do the next book and see if I can improve. Of course for those who would rather read the book, it is available in print at Amazon.com and other places. A very inexpensive ebook edition is also available at Fictionwise.com.
April 13th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I’m enjoying the story, but find the reading style extremely difficult to listen to. The sing-songy cadence of the reading, and seemingly indifference to punctuation, is very distracting. I feel like I’m listening to the “bad actors club”.
April 14th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Thanks for the feedback, Lee Hu. As it turns out the “sing-songy” cadence is just the way I speak naturally. There’s little I can do about that. Some people seem to like it, others don’t. We’ll certainly take the feedback that’s been coming in and try to improve the acting for the final book.
May 7th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I just wanted to say that I enjoyed the first two books and am looking forward to the third. Thanks for putting these out there!
May 7th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Thanks much, Jerry! The third book may be slightly delayed because of a new day job on my part, but I’m hoping to get started on that before too much longer.
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:10 am
Thanks for the second book!
One note about the book’s description on Podiobooks.com. It might help listeners if you mention that this is the sequel to Pirates of Sufiro. When I downloaded it, I just skimmed the summary and thought “good, more sci-fi,” and put it in my que of books to listen to. I was surprised when I realized it was book II. Talk about delayed gratification! lol
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Thanks for the great suggestion, Thomas. I sent a note to the folks at Podiobooks.com asking if they can make the change.
October 11th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Responding to a review/comment that was posted just a few days ago over at iTunes since I figure that author and others would like to have an answer/update. Children of the Old Stars is, indeed, complete. The story picks up in Heirs of the New Earth which is about 80% recorded at this point. I just need to finish editing some of the early chapters and then it’ll start appearing here at Podiobooks and over at iTunes.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
To follow up on my last post, the third book in the series is now in progress. Find out what happens next in Heirs of the New Earth at http://www.podiobooks.com/title/heirs-of-the-new-earth
March 23rd, 2013 at 8:41 pm
I wanted to take a moment to say thanks to everyone who listened to Children of the Old Stars in its time at Podiobooks. I just renewed my contracts for the novel and my publisher is actively seeking an audio production company, so the podcast edition was taken down this weekend to make sure I’m complying with the updated contracts. Here’s hoping an audio edition will be back soon and better than ever! Thanks for the comments and support for the past few years.