But the Stars Audiobook By Peter Cawdron cover art

But the Stars

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But the Stars

By: Peter Cawdron
Narrated by: Nicole Poole
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"But the stars that marked our starting fall away. We must go deeper into greater pain, for it is not permitted that we stay." (Dante Alighieri, Inferno, AD 1301)

At the start of the 22nd century, the starship Acheron is in orbit around WISE 5571, only, unbeknownst to the crew, the ship has been overrun by telepathic extraterrestrials. How do you fight an enemy that distorts everything you see? What do you do when you can't trust your own senses, let alone anyone around you?

©2020 Peter Cawdron (P)2020 Tantor Adventure Fiction First Contact Science Fiction

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At points this book gets a little preachy about science that doesn't really need to be explained in depth for the story to be told. Or maybe is was the characters explaining to other characters at times in the story that seemed a bit forced. This pulled me out of the narrative a bit. But not enough to not thoroughly enjoy the book. The Thing meets Dante's Inferno meets Secret Hitler. Fun, well written, and enjoyable all the way through.

Worth it.

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This was a very different sci-fi novel which introduces an alien life form. I am happy to recommend it.

Well worth the time to engage

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I really enjoyed this book. I would compare Peter Cawdron with Adrian Tchaikovsky. Intelligent authors with good scientific knowledge. This is my second of Cawdron's "First Contact" novels and I look forward to more.

This is intelligent science fiction

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I thought that I was going to hate this book at first, but I loved it. Very minor spoiler warning…
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in the first few chapters you discover that the main character keeps having her memory wiped. I typically hate stories that have any kind of “dream” sequence (including actual dreams, time loops, alternate realities, or memory loss) as it’s usually just poorly thought out and lazy writing. However, Cawdron did a phenomenal job with the mechanics and I’m so glad that I gave this book a chance. There is depth in the characters, provoking questions about what it means to be human, and an overall refreshing take on first contact. Excellent read.

Thought provoking book that made me like my least favorite trope again.

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I would give it 6 on the story except that I wanted a book 2 and maybe a book 3. Plus the rating doesn’t go to 6 😄

Fantastic.

Outstanding

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Knowing what is real is one of the most important skills of modern times and we have to be brave to face indicators when our model of reality appears to be off. Loved this book as a fun exploration of these struggles in a visceral high stakes manner that borders on cosmic horror.

So fun. Plays with a scary topic, absolutely mental.

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This read like someone's self-published fanfic.

The characters you spend 90% of the book with are the small crew of a ship. They have zero real personality and in no way seem like the expert crew of a 22nd century exploration vessel - they're just those bland versions of someone you might find on Tiktok or Bluesky that are common to a lot of these day's mediocre genre writers. There's a little bit of boring relationship stuff, but mostly it's just ludicrous conversations & dialogue that is clearly just the writer pontificating, with occasional 2025 therapy-speak thrown in at weirdly inappropriate times.

Most of the narrative scenes are some variation of "Is this real, or... A SIMULATION???", and I kept listening to hear the outcome - but there's no real puzzle to solve and the ending just sort of dribbles out without saying much of anything. None of the questions I had got answered.

The fact that this currently averages 4.3 stars is either an indictment of humanity's low standards for sci-fi, or due to the writer getting their online followers to repeatedly 5 star it. Wish I had those 9 hours back. Narration was fine.

Just kind of... amateurish?

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