The Artifact Audiobook By Peter Cawdron cover art

The Artifact

A First Contact Standalone

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The Artifact

By: Peter Cawdron
Narrated by: Siobhan Waring
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Five hundred miles from the Mediterranean, deep in the interior of Libya, lost in the heart of the Sahara itself, lies an oasis trapped in the past.

With no surface water, Harat Zuwayyah barely supports any life at all. The scorching wind howls across the desert, driving the sand and threatening to bury the village. Professor Susan Taylor is excavating an Egyptian tomb dated to 4500 BCE. She uncovers the mummified remains of a wealthy family that died on the trade route, revealing insights into a lost culture, but it's the talisman watching over the grave that causes her heart to race. Red eyes glow from the back of the cave...

First Contact is a series of standalone novels that explore humanity's first interaction with extraterrestrial life.

Contains a special note from the author.

©2023 Peter Cawdron (P)2024 Podium Audio Adventure First Contact Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Heartfelt

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I patiently got through the long African portion of smuggling the artifact to England but when they started into examining it, I found the science banter, questions and arguments to be at a middle school/ high school level. This is very very typical of sci-fi targeted for an American audience. Too bad. I am looking for something much deeper as this book seriously lacks depth.

Juvenile science content

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The story starts strong and pulls you in early, but the portrayal of one of the main characters—especially the voice actor’s dialect—was grating and took me out of it. It’s mislabeled as science fiction; there’s barely any sci-fi element throughout. The pacing drags significantly, and by the final chapters, finishing the audiobook felt more like a chore than a payoff.

I really wanted to like this book

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Welsh Professor Susan Taylor is excavating a 7000-year-old tomb in Libya when she uncovers the mummified remains of a wealthy family that died on the trade route. The find reveals insights into a lost culture, but it's the talisman watching over the grave that causes her heart to race. Red eyes from an alien artifact glow from the back of the cave.

I enjoyed the book, but it's more adventure novel than scifi. Most of the book is an Indiana Jones-esque escape from the desert to get the artifact out of Libya and into the hands of the proper authorities.

Narration was excellent, except for O'Connor, who was supposed to be American but sounded almost Irish to my American ears.

Lady Indiana Jones

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Tiresome ideological instruction wrapped around threadbare plot. If one removed all sentences referring to first contact it would maybe total 10 percent of text. The rest is indoctrination.

One part story Three parts ideological talking points.

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I've read several books in this series and I was looking forward to this one, however, this is my least favorite. At various points in the narrative when the author is getting ready to reveal some juicy information or revelation he overbuilds the delivery. By the time he spills it the reader is so frustrated that it lacks the impact it could have had. I found myself thinking, " Get to the point already!" The other aspect of the story I did not like is that the vast majority of the narrative had very little to do with first contact as most of the story was just a traveling adventure. it seemed as though the book had more to do with first contact among various cultures of humanity than with otherworldly beings. Perhaps that's what the author intended but it was a letdown. I feel as though I could have listened to the first hour or so of the book until the artifact is found and then skipped to the last 2 hours and saved quite a bit of time. the other books in this series are great, this one, not so much.

great story idea but the delivery fell flat

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Great tempo and fresh Indiana Jones Adventure like tale. Good academic references with a Fermi Paradox thought experiment.

Adventure and Fermi Paradox thought experiment.

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