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Ida, one of the largest Asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, has finally been colonized. A group of engineers lead by John McVey, Craig Osborn, Gail Trabor, Andrew Dee and Jennifer McGee, occupy the largest space station every built to plan the future of the tiny colony. Sent there by Kennedy Lacombe, the richest man in the world, their only task is to find ways to mine the asteroid as efficiently as possible. John, however, has grandiose plans including riding a comet around the sun to obtain enough water for the colony to one day survive independent from Earth. His ambition quickly shifts when he discovers an accident with the station's birth control pills causes 20 women, including Jennifer, the woman he loves, to become pregnant. The rules on pregnancy are simple; a baby is a drain on resources and must be removed. John, his friends, and a large group of miners will do anything they can to prevent that, including declaring themselves the first independent colony outside of Earth.

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Audio Quality: Out of 35 ratings

Narration Quality: Out of 35 ratings

Writing Quality: Out of 35 ratings

Overall Rating: Out of 35 ratings

By: Jeff
Great story!!! I'll definitely read your other books, but I'm not likely to listen to them. The accent has a tendency to make me want to slap someone. ;)

By: malcolm
On chapter 14 and enjoying ever minute, Got to say it's one of the best so far. malcolm

By: jim
I liked this story, let me just say that before I throw in my 50pence worth of criticism. However, some parts of the story were so carelessly hinged on moments of stupidity by the characters, it almost seemed they were suffering from some kind of schizophrenic cretinism. Is Andrew a psychopath or a level headed leader with adolescent crush. The whole John is/isn't alive thing seemed like a cheap shot at getting the story to adhere to a plot already outlined by the author. John sending the email to the person he had just had fisticuffs with in the zero gee tennis court was real a cop out. It would have been much better if say... Andrew had intercepted the email during a routine scan or something. Also some of the characters seemed over complicated and cumbersome, others well thought out and plausible, while others seemed shallow and unbelievable. Thankfully the inconsistencies in behaviour seemed to diminish as the book progressed, which was indeed a godsend. All that said, and providing you are prepared to be a little forgiving in the first couple of chapters this doesn't really detract from the enjoyment of this story. Tim Callahan really does have a talent for telling stories and there is no denying it. He puts this one together quite well and it is actually relatively easy to overlook the few flaws because the story is really quite compelling. I listened to 'The Arwen' before this one without realising it was Tim Callahan and now I really appreciate how much this author has improved and how well his style is developing. I would definitely like to see a lot more from Tim Calahan in the future.

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