Colonization: Second Contact Audiobook By Harry Turtledove cover art

Colonization: Second Contact

Colonization, Book 1

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Colonization: Second Contact

By: Harry Turtledove
Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
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In the extraordinary World War tetralogy, set against the backdrop of World War II, Harry Turtledove, whom Publishers Weekly has called the "Hugo-winning master of alternate SF," wove an explosive saga of world powers locked in conflict against an enemy from the stars. Now he expands his magnificent epic into the volatile 1960s, when the space race is in its infancy and humanity must face its greatest challenge: alien colonization of planet Earth.

Yet even in the shadow of this inexorable foe, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany are unable to relinquish their hostilities and unite against a massive new wave of extraterrestrials. For all the countries of the world, this is the greatest threat of all. This time, the terrible price of defeat will be the conquest of our world and perhaps the extinction of the human race itself.

©2009 Harry Turtledove (P)2010 Tantor Adventure Alternate History Fiction First Contact Historical Fiction Military Science Fiction Imperialism War

Critic reviews

“[Turtledove] develops an exciting, often surprising, story that will not only delight his fans but will probably send newcomers back to the Worldwar saga to fill in the backstory.” ( Publishers Weekly, Starred Review)
Compelling Storyline • Excellent Worldbuilding • Solid Performance • Cultural Interactions • Emotional Moments
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I loved the World War series, I was eager to finish every book. And when it came time for the Colonization series I was even more excited to hop right into it. I really wish Todd McLaren narrated this series as well because Patrick Lawlor was so bad. I'm sorry but its hard to enjoy a great book when the narrator makes me cringe every time I hear him. Butchered names, words, accents, hell even voice cracks from time to time. It makes me feel like I'm listening to a teenager's bad fanfiction. Like I said; Great Book, Bad Narration

Great Book. Bad Narration

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the change of nerrationstyle from worldwar series were unexpected, but welcome.
of all the new characters and plot elements that were introduced, I suprised myself on how quickly I took those for granted, as I got fully immerged.
The Race-variant of In der führer's face, early in the book, made me laugh for minutes nonstop. would have been better if the nerrator also sung to the tune.

The ending makes me wonder what happens next. Not the best cliffhanger ending so far, but it is a good one.

Right in the Fleet Lord's face!

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A warning to people looking at this 1st novel of a new series it gets real slow by the 4th book. if you hope that the pace will pick up in 2, 3 and 4 it won't. if you like 1 a lot then maybe you'll like the rest. You've been watned.

Starts strong, finished slow...

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The narrator was weaker than for World War. Too much hissing. Made the choice to cough after reading that a character gave a cough. There are different coughs in the story but the narrator had just one & it was gross & also superfluous.

Slow narrator - I went to 1.2 speed & was able to puzzles .

The usual from Turtledove unpredictable action& some great characters- repetitive as usual - mark of a good teacher which he has been.

Arc of Kasquit & Ttolmos.

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Although a little outrageous, it's extremely interesting. I hate books, but Harry Turtledove is always good. The sex scenes (I'm on book 3 I can't possibly remember if there are any in book 1, but this goes for Harry in general) sound like they were written by someone who is a virgin and just come across as forced and unnecessary. It's a book. There's no sex appeal in that.

Good Read!

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Do not let the naysayers discourage you from this sequal! While Todd McLaren's absence is felt, I quickly grew accustomed to the new narrator who does an excellent job despite pronouncing a couple names differently.

Story wise it is less action packed than the previous books but that is because the focus is much more squarely focused on Humans and the Race interacting working to understand eachother. Personally I found this just as interesting as the conflict found in the previous installments, but if you are coming here for nonstop action do be warned.

Overall I heartily recommend this audiobook for those who enjoyed the previous batch. Turtledove constructed an excellent world here and all should enjoy it.

An Excellent Continuation

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Great follow up to the World Was series. It leaves a few unanswered questions about previous main characters. This narrator may not have the range that the previous one did, but I found him more than adequate. The only complaint I have would be on pronunciation of names, but that's a small piece to a greater work of art.

Solid follow up to the World War series

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Where does Colonization: Second Contact rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Got this primarily because I had read the previous titles. I like the story, this title is a bit slower than the others but not bad. The biggest problem is the performance, as stated in other reviews, would it be to much to ask a performer to go back and listen to the pronunciations of names from the previous performer? Some of them were so far off it took me a few minutes to figure out it wasn't a new character.

What did you like best about this story?

The continuation of the story

Would you be willing to try another one of Patrick Lawlor’s performances?

hopefully not, only if it is in a continued strory.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

don't know

The story continues to be interesting

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Ok, so I'm going to power through the Colonization series because it continues the great alt-history Turtledove wrought. It's one of my favorite series from when I devoured books as a kid. But oh man, this narrator. I want to strap him into a chair and force him to binge the 100+ hours of the Worldwar Series and then re-record the Colonization Series. Not only does he try too hard on The Race's accent, but he also alters the pronunciation of their names from Worldwar guy, so you might miss a couple steps linking names from the first series. That can be overlooked (they're aliens, so who's to say for sure about proper pronunciation there), but he also mispronounces HUMAN names and places.

Oh and he'll also enunciate each and every interrogative and emphatic cough wherever Turtledove mentions one. Lats guy didn't do that. I'm not sure which is more annoying: the accents, the coughs, or the mispronunciations.

I know it's been mentioned...

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After listening to the first four books in the series, this is a let down. I'm not happy about the change in reader - the guy that read the first books was really good. This guy is so-so. My biggest problem is the change in pronunciation of SO many names - i was struggling to figure out who he was talking about, until I realized he was just saying them differently (and drastically so, in some cases).

I'm also not a fan of him adding the actual "cough" sound to lizard utterances. The previous narrator didn't do that, and didn't need to. Also, too many of the characters' voices sound too similar here, it's hard to tell when one stops talking and another starts.

I love the storylines, I'm just a bit put off by the performance.

Love the saga, not so much the performance

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