
Prelude to Space
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Narrated by:
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Derek Perkins
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By:
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Arthur C. Clarke
About this listen
Here is the compelling story of the launching of Prometheus - Earth's first true spaceship - and of the men who made it happen.
Dirk Alexson, chronicler of the greatest space adventure of all time: He was chosen to immortalize the incredible story of the men and their heroic mission.
Sir Robert Derwent, Direct-General of Interplanetary-London Headquarters for the International Space-Flight Project: He was the man who got the mission off the ground and into the pages of history.
Professor Maxton, the world's leading atomic engineer: He designed the huge ship's drive units and he waited with the rest of the world to see if the project would be a success.
©1954 Arthur C. Clarke (P)2012 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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The Overlords appeared suddenly over every city - intellectually, technologically, and militarily superior to humankind. Benevolent, they made few demands: unify earth, eliminate poverty, and end war. With little rebellion, humankind agreed, and a golden age began.
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Food for Thought
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2001
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It has been 40 years since the publication of this classic science-fiction novel that changed the way we look at the stars and ourselves. From the savannas of Africa at the dawn of mankind to the rings of Saturn as man adventures to the outer rim of our solar system, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a journey unlike any other.
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The Movie Makes More Sense Now
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Time is running out for the passengers and crew of the tourist cruiser Selene, incarcerated in a sea of choking lunar dust. On the surface, her rescuers find their resources stretched to the limit by the mercilessly unpredictable conditions of a totally alien environment. A brilliantly imagined story of human ingenuity and survival, A Fall of Moondust is a tour-de-force of psychological suspense and sustained dramatic tension by the field's foremost author.
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Old Fashioned Science Fiction
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The Fountains of Paradise
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Hard
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Earthlight
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The time: 200 years after man's first landing on the Moon. There are permanent populations established on the Moon, Venus, and Mars. Outer space inhabitants have formed a new political entity, the Federation, and between the Federation and Earth a growing rivalry has developed. Earthlight is the story of this emerging conflict.
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Overall
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Performance
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The story of Island in the Sky centers around a young man, who, after brilliantly winning a space-related competition, requests a vacation on a space station as his prize. It is written with Arthur C. Clark's obvious knowledge of science, but moves at a page turning rate throughout the entire narrative. The short novel gives a realistic possibility of work and play in future space, heightened with constant excitement and action.
-
-
Fun early novel, aimed perhaps at teens
- By Darryl on 10-28-12
By: Arthur C. Clarke
-
Childhood's End
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer, Robert J. Sawyer - introduction
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Overlords appeared suddenly over every city - intellectually, technologically, and militarily superior to humankind. Benevolent, they made few demands: unify earth, eliminate poverty, and end war. With little rebellion, humankind agreed, and a golden age began.
-
-
Food for Thought
- By Kindle Customer on 11-17-08
By: Arthur C. Clarke
-
2001
- A Space Odyssey
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It has been 40 years since the publication of this classic science-fiction novel that changed the way we look at the stars and ourselves. From the savannas of Africa at the dawn of mankind to the rings of Saturn as man adventures to the outer rim of our solar system, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a journey unlike any other.
-
-
The Movie Makes More Sense Now
- By Douglas on 12-10-08
By: Arthur C. Clarke
-
A Fall of Moondust
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Time is running out for the passengers and crew of the tourist cruiser Selene, incarcerated in a sea of choking lunar dust. On the surface, her rescuers find their resources stretched to the limit by the mercilessly unpredictable conditions of a totally alien environment. A brilliantly imagined story of human ingenuity and survival, A Fall of Moondust is a tour-de-force of psychological suspense and sustained dramatic tension by the field's foremost author.
-
-
Old Fashioned Science Fiction
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 12-03-11
By: Arthur C. Clarke
-
The Fountains of Paradise
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vannemar Morgan's dream is to link Earth to the stars with the greatest engineering feat of all time: a 24,000-mile-high space elevator. But first he must solve a million technical, political, and economic problems while allaying the wrath of God. For the only possible site on the planet for Morgans Orbital Tower is the monastery atop the Sacred Mountain of Sri Kanda.
-
-
Hard
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-30-11
By: Arthur C. Clarke
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The City and the Stars
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- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Diaspar is Earth's last city - surrounded by deserts, on a world where the oceans have long since dried up. It is a domed, isolated, technological marvel, run by the Central Computer. Diaspar has conquered death. People are called forth; they live for a thousand years and then are recalled, to be born thousands of years later, over and over again. No child has been born for at least 10 million years. Until Alvin....
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A Classic
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Performance
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From early work like "Rescue Party" and "The Lion of Comarre", through classic stories including "The Star", "Earthlight", "The Nine Billion Names of God", and "The Sentinel" (kernel of the later novel and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey), all the way to later work like "A Meeting with Medusa" and "The Hammer of God", this comprehensive short story collection encapsulates one of the great science fiction careers of all time.
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List of stories from
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The Songs of Distant Earth
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Performance
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June 1958 issue of If. It was later expanded into the novel of the same name. Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) is regarded as one of the most-influential science fiction writers of all time. He was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
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Not the full book - the original short story
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The Light of Other Days
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Performance
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The Light of Other Days tells the tale of what happens when a brilliant, driven industrialist harnesses the cutting edge of quantum physics to enable people everywhere, at trivial cost, to see one another at all times: around every corner, through every wall, into everyone's most private, hidden, and even intimate moments. It amounts to the sudden and complete abolition of human privacy - forever.
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When Seeing All is not Understanding All
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By: Arthur C. Clarke, and others
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The Damned Trilogy
- A Call to Arms, The False Mirror, and The Spoils of War
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- Narrated by: Mikael Naramore
- Length: 36 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For millennia, the Weave, an alliance of species, have fought to resist the telepathic Amplitur, who strive to unite all self-aware life-forms in their great "Purpose." The Weave is slowly losing ground, but for both sides, warfare focuses more on outthinking and outmaneuvering your foe than destruction. In fact, most regard violence as hideously barbaric, and even the thought of harming another sentient being is beyond imagining.
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One of my favorites
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By: Alan Dean Foster
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Seveneves
- A Novel
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.
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Odd narrator choice
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Rocket Men
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
By August 1968, the American space program was in danger of failing in its two most important objectives: to land a man on the moon by President Kennedy's end-of-decade deadline and to triumph over the Soviets in space. With its back against the wall, NASA made an almost unimaginable leap: It would scrap its usual methodical approach and risk everything on a sudden launch, sending the first men in history to the moon - in just four months.
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The Men Who Saved 1968
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By: Robert Kurson
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Man Plus
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Roger Torraway watched in horror as the monster lurched, toppled over and died. Project Man Plus had gone suddenly and drastically wrong. The race to colonize Mars was too important, too costly, and America was already too committed, for plans to be scrapped. They would have to make a new Martian. And Roger Torraway was it, candidate for the endless surgery, operation after painful operation, that would enable him to survive on that faraway planet.
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More timely now than ever
- By Sandy R on 06-28-10
By: Frederik Pohl
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I, Robot
- By: Isaac Asimov
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
This classic science fiction masterwork by Isaac Asimov weaves stories about robots, humanity, and the deep questions of existence into a novel of shocking intelligence and heart.
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Thank you
- By Fredrik on 06-11-04
By: Isaac Asimov
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The Apollo Murders
- By: Chris Hadfield
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
NASA is about to launch Apollo 18. While the mission has been billed as a scientific one, flight controller Kazimieras "Kaz" Zemeckis knows there is a darker objective. Intelligence has discovered a secret Soviet space station spying on America, and Apollo 18 may be the only chance to stop it. But as Kaz races to keep the NASA crew one step ahead of their Russian rivals, a deadly accident reveals that not everyone involved is who they were thought to be. With political stakes stretched to the breaking point, the White House and the Kremlin can only watch as their astronauts collide.
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Was dubious at first but happily surprised
- By Brett Fluri on 10-17-21
By: Chris Hadfield
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Legacy
- A Prequel to Eon
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this prequel to Eon, Greg Bear continues to explore the possibilities presented by the asteroid Thistledown, a remnant of a lost human civilization. The Way is a tunnel through space and time that leads to other worlds, some more like planet Earth than Earth itself. It is perhaps the most formidable discovery in Thistledown and with it come disputes as to the nature of the Way and how it should be used. The Way can be reached only through Axis City, the only space station of Thistledown.
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Barely related to Eon and Eternity
- By David A. Kingston on 02-21-15
By: Greg Bear
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Contact
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The future is here...in an adventure of cosmic dimension. In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who - or what - is out there? In Cosmos, Carl Sagan explained the universe. In Contact, he predicts its future - and our own.
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Technical problems with this recording - skips...
- By Matt on 11-28-12
By: Carl Sagan
The City and The Stars is my favorite. Most people like the Rama books, as I do too. 2001 is what he is most famous for.
The narrator is great and makes the listening better then reading.
PRELUDE
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Old time SF
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Another good early Clarke
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Interesting view into past thoughts
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