A Small and August Group.

Yes, you can have an august group in September. Because I say so, that's why. The group in question is Audiobooks I Have Shut Off. I've listened to many zillions of audiobooks, and have only shut off three. Today, Allen Steele's Spindrift joined the group. I put up with the science errors, the character deficiencies, the excruciatingly slow pace, the fact that it read like a book from fifty years ago, and the bland writing. I even made it through the half hour spent describing a hatch, the crawling conclusions about what the alien that built the hatch must look like, and the alleged space explorers saying "ewww" at the idea like a bunch of eight-year-olds.

What finally made me bail, not far from the moment when, even in such a hideously slow-moving book, we must, must be about to encounter the aliens? The moment when a scientist, allegedly having spent his entire life waiting for this moment, and stating himself to be an atheist, moves into the realm of the expected aliens, and starts praying. Sorry, folks, I can take only so many clichés and so little understanding of humans. Screw the aliens.

Next.