-
Orphans of the Sky
- The Future History Series
- Narrated by: Graham Halstead
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $13.22
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
Lost in space.
Hugh had been taught that, according to the ancient sacred writings, the Ship was on a voyage to faraway Centaurus. But he also understood this was just allegory for a voyage to spiritual perfection. Indeed, how could the Ship move, since its miles and miles of metal corridors were all there was of creation? Science knew that the Ship was all the universe, and as long as the sacred Converter was fed, the lights would continue to glow, the air would flow, and the Creator's Plan would be fulfilled.
Of course, there were the muties, grotesquely deformed parodies of humans, who lurked in the upper reaches of the Ship, where gravity was weaker. Were they evil incarnate, or merely a divine check on the population, keeping humanity from expanding past the capacity of the Ship to support?
Then Hugh was captured by the muties and met their leader (or leaders) - Joe-Jim, with two heads on one body - and learned the true nature of the Ship and its mission between the stars. But could he make his people believe him before it was too late? Could he make them believe that he must be allowed to fly the Ship?
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Stranger in a Strange Land
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Christopher Hurt
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stranger in a Strange Land is the epic saga of an earthling, Valentine Michael Smith, born and educated on Mars, who arrives on our planet with “psi” powers—telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, telekinesis, teleportation, pyrolysis, and the ability to take control of the minds of others—and complete innocence regarding the mores of man. After his tutelage under a surrogate father figure, Valentine begins his transformation into a kind of messiah.
-
-
We live in the world this book made
- By W. Seligman on 02-26-04
-
The Door into Summer
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dan Davis, an electronics engineer, had finally made the invention of a lifetime: a household robot that could do almost anything. Wild success was within reach, but then Dan's life was ruined. In a plot to steal his business, his greedy partner and greedier fiancée tricked him into taking the "long sleep": suspended animation for 30 years.
-
-
classic
- By Greg on 04-05-09
-
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In what is considered one of Heinlein's most hair-raising, thought-provoking, and outrageous adventures, the master of modern science fiction tells the strange story of an even stranger world. It is 21st-century Luna, a harsh penal colony where a revolt is plotted between a bashful computer and a ragtag collection of maverick humans, a revolt that goes beautifully until the inevitable happens. But that's the problem with the inevitable: it always happens.
-
-
Heinlein's Masterpiece
- By Peter on 12-04-06
-
Sixth Column
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The totalitarian East has triumphed in a massive invasion, and the United States has fallen to a dictatorial superpower bent on total domination. That power is consolidating its grip through concentration camps, police state tactics, and a total monopoly upon the very thoughts of the conquered populace. A tiny enclave of scientists and soldiers survives, unbeknownst to America’s new rulers. It’s six against six million - but those six happen to include a scientific genius, a master of subterfuge and disguise who learned his trade as a lawyer-turned-hobo, and a tough-minded commander....
-
-
The Yellow Peril as it was
- By Thomas Martin on 04-16-12
-
Friday
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Friday, a secret courier, is thrown into an assignment under the command of her employer, a man she knows only as "Boss." She operates from and over a near-future Earth in North America, a vulgar and chaotic land comprised of dozens of independent states. In America's disunion, Friday keeps her balance nimbly with quick, expeditious solutions as she conquers one calamity and scrape after another.
-
-
Almost A Perfect, This Time.
- By Dave Worley on 12-02-08
-
Citizen of the Galaxy
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a distant galaxy of colonized planets, the atrocity of slavery is alive and well. Young Thorby was just another bedraggled orphan boy sold at auction, but his new owner, Baslim, is not the disabled beggar he appears to be. Adopting Thorby as his son, Baslim fights relentlessly as an abolitionist spy. When the authorities close in on Baslim, Thorby must find his own way in a hostile galaxy. Joining with the Free Traders, a league of merchant princes, Thorby must find the courage to live by his wits and fight his way up from society's lowest rung.
-
-
Good nostalgia; pretty good YA sci-fi
- By Mark on 06-18-18
-
Stranger in a Strange Land
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Christopher Hurt
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stranger in a Strange Land is the epic saga of an earthling, Valentine Michael Smith, born and educated on Mars, who arrives on our planet with “psi” powers—telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, telekinesis, teleportation, pyrolysis, and the ability to take control of the minds of others—and complete innocence regarding the mores of man. After his tutelage under a surrogate father figure, Valentine begins his transformation into a kind of messiah.
-
-
We live in the world this book made
- By W. Seligman on 02-26-04
-
The Door into Summer
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dan Davis, an electronics engineer, had finally made the invention of a lifetime: a household robot that could do almost anything. Wild success was within reach, but then Dan's life was ruined. In a plot to steal his business, his greedy partner and greedier fiancée tricked him into taking the "long sleep": suspended animation for 30 years.
-
-
classic
- By Greg on 04-05-09
-
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In what is considered one of Heinlein's most hair-raising, thought-provoking, and outrageous adventures, the master of modern science fiction tells the strange story of an even stranger world. It is 21st-century Luna, a harsh penal colony where a revolt is plotted between a bashful computer and a ragtag collection of maverick humans, a revolt that goes beautifully until the inevitable happens. But that's the problem with the inevitable: it always happens.
-
-
Heinlein's Masterpiece
- By Peter on 12-04-06
-
Sixth Column
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The totalitarian East has triumphed in a massive invasion, and the United States has fallen to a dictatorial superpower bent on total domination. That power is consolidating its grip through concentration camps, police state tactics, and a total monopoly upon the very thoughts of the conquered populace. A tiny enclave of scientists and soldiers survives, unbeknownst to America’s new rulers. It’s six against six million - but those six happen to include a scientific genius, a master of subterfuge and disguise who learned his trade as a lawyer-turned-hobo, and a tough-minded commander....
-
-
The Yellow Peril as it was
- By Thomas Martin on 04-16-12
-
Friday
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Friday, a secret courier, is thrown into an assignment under the command of her employer, a man she knows only as "Boss." She operates from and over a near-future Earth in North America, a vulgar and chaotic land comprised of dozens of independent states. In America's disunion, Friday keeps her balance nimbly with quick, expeditious solutions as she conquers one calamity and scrape after another.
-
-
Almost A Perfect, This Time.
- By Dave Worley on 12-02-08
-
Citizen of the Galaxy
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a distant galaxy of colonized planets, the atrocity of slavery is alive and well. Young Thorby was just another bedraggled orphan boy sold at auction, but his new owner, Baslim, is not the disabled beggar he appears to be. Adopting Thorby as his son, Baslim fights relentlessly as an abolitionist spy. When the authorities close in on Baslim, Thorby must find his own way in a hostile galaxy. Joining with the Free Traders, a league of merchant princes, Thorby must find the courage to live by his wits and fight his way up from society's lowest rung.
-
-
Good nostalgia; pretty good YA sci-fi
- By Mark on 06-18-18
-
Waldo & Magic, Inc.
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
North Power Air is in trouble. Their aircraft are crashing at an alarming rate and no one can figure out the cause. Desperate for an answer, they turn to Waldo, a crippled misanthropic genius who lives in a home in orbit around Earth, where the absence of gravity means that his feeble muscle strength does not confine him helplessly in a wheelchair. But Waldo has little reason to want to help the rest of humanity - until he learns that the solution to Earth’s problems also holds the key to his own.
-
-
I'M NEVER IN A HURRY
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 02-13-16
-
Rocket Ship Galileo
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Spider Robinson
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ross Jenkins, Art Mueller, and Morris Abrams are not your average high-school students. While other kids are cruising around in their cars or playing ball, this trio, known as the Galileo Club, is experimenting with rocket fuels. Art's uncle, the nuclear physicist Dr. Donald Cargraves, offers them the opportunity of a lifetime: to construct and crew a rocket that will take them to the moon. But there are those who don't share their dream and who will stop at nothing to keep their rocket grounded.
-
-
Give us another or two Spider
- By Michael on 03-28-07
-
Have Space Suit - Will Travel
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Mark Turetsky
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First prize in the Skyway Soap slogan contest was an all-expenses-paid trip to the moon. The consolation prize was an authenticspace suit, and when scientifically minded high school senior Kip Russell wonit, he knew for certain he would use it one day to make a sojourn of his own tothe stars. But "one day" comes sooner than he thinks when he tries the suit on in his backyard - and finds himself worlds away, a prisoner aboard a space pirate's ship.
-
-
Wry humor obliterated by inept reading
- By Scott on 07-10-14
-
Methuselah's Children
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the fall of the American Ayatollahs as foretold in Stranger in a Strange Land and chronicled in Revolt in 2100, the United States of America at last fulfills the promise inherent in its first Revolution: for the first time in human history there is a nation with Liberty and Justice for All. No one may seize or harm the person or property of another, or invade his privacy, or force him to do his bidding. Americans are fiercely proud of their re-won liberties and the blood it cost them; nothing could make them forswear those truths they hold self-evident. Nothing except the promise of immortality…
-
-
A delight to revisit a science fiction classic
- By Anne on 02-16-13
-
Beyond This Horizon
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hamilton Felix, the result of generations of genetic selection, finds his life as the ultimate man boring - until a gang of revolutionaries tries to enlist him in their cause.
-
-
Women will forgive anything
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 10-01-12
-
Time Enough for Love
- The Lives of Lazarus Long
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 23 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Time Enough for Love is the capstone and crowning achievement of Heinlein's famous Future History series. Lazarus Long is so in love with life that he simply refuses to die. Born in the early 1900s, he lives through multiple centuries, his love for time ultimately causing him to become his own ancestor. Time Enough for Loveis his lovingly detailed account of his journey through a vast and magnificent timescape of centuries and worlds. Using the voice of Lazarus, Heinlein expounds his own philosophies, including his radical ideas on sexual freedom.
-
-
Age changes perspective
- By Candis on 08-27-16
-
Starman Jones
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Paul Michael Garcia
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Max Jones, a practical, hard-working young man, found his escape in his beloved astronomy books. When reality comes crashing in and his troubled home life forces him out on the road, Max finds himself adrift in a downtrodden land - until an unexpected, ultimate adventure carries him away as a stowaway aboard an intergalactic spaceship.
-
-
A typical Heinlein Juvenile
- By Got My Book on 08-22-08
-
To Sail Beyond the Sunset
- The Life and Loves of Maureen Johnson (Being the Memoirs of a Somewhat Irregular Lady)
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maureen Johnson, the somewhat irregular mother of Lazarus Long, wakes up in bed with a man and a cat. The cat is Pixel, well-known to fans of the New York Times best seller The Cat Who Walks through Walls. The man is a stranger to her, and besides that, he is dead.
-
-
Don't Dilly Dally, Dolly
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-17-14
-
The Pursuit of the Pankera
- A Parallel Novel about Parallel Universes
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin, Jennifer Jill Araya, Richard Ferrone, and others
- Length: 21 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robert A. Heinlein wrote The Number of the Beast, which was published in 1980. In the book Zeb, Deety, Hilda, and Jake are ambushed by the alien "Black Hats" and barely escape with their lives on a specially configured vehicle (the Gay Deceiver) which can travel along various planes of existence, allowing them to visit parallel universes. However, unknown to most fans, Heinlein had already written a "parallel" novel about the four characters and parallel universes in 1977.
-
-
Stupid production
- By Arthur W. Smart on 06-21-20
-
Double Star
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One minute, down-and-out actor Lorenzo Smythe is, as usual, in a bar, drinking away his troubles while watching his career circle the drain. Then a space pilot buys him a drink, and the next thing Smythe knows, he’s shanghaied to Mars. Smythe suddenly finds himself agreeing to the most difficult role of his career: impersonating an important politician who has been kidnapped. Peace with the Martians is at stake, and failure to pull off the act could result in interplanetary war.
-
-
Hugo Award Well Deserved. A+
- By Margaret Pierce on 07-27-20
-
The Star Beast
- Heinlein's Juveniles, Book 8
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Richard Powers
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lummox has been the pet of the Stuart family for generations. With eight legs, a thick hide, and increasingly large size, Lummox is nobody's idea of man's best friend. Nevertheless, John Stuart XI, descendant of the starman who originally brought Lummox back to Earth, loves him. But when Lummox eats a neighbor's car and begins to grow again, the feds decide that enough is enough.
-
-
loved it!
- By Kevin on 09-06-16
-
Red Planet
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Zach Villa
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jim Marlowe and his strange-looking Martian friend, Willis, are allowed to travel only so far. But one day Willis unwittingly tunes in to a treacherous plot that threatens all the colonists on Mars, and it sets Jim off on a terrifying adventure that could save - or destroy - them all.
-
-
RED PLANET--- by Robert A. Heinlein
- By Stephen Hickman on 12-29-16
Related to this topic
-
Methuselah's Children
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the fall of the American Ayatollahs as foretold in Stranger in a Strange Land and chronicled in Revolt in 2100, the United States of America at last fulfills the promise inherent in its first Revolution: for the first time in human history there is a nation with Liberty and Justice for All. No one may seize or harm the person or property of another, or invade his privacy, or force him to do his bidding. Americans are fiercely proud of their re-won liberties and the blood it cost them; nothing could make them forswear those truths they hold self-evident. Nothing except the promise of immortality…
-
-
A delight to revisit a science fiction classic
- By Anne on 02-16-13
-
Starman Jones
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Paul Michael Garcia
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Max Jones, a practical, hard-working young man, found his escape in his beloved astronomy books. When reality comes crashing in and his troubled home life forces him out on the road, Max finds himself adrift in a downtrodden land - until an unexpected, ultimate adventure carries him away as a stowaway aboard an intergalactic spaceship.
-
-
A typical Heinlein Juvenile
- By Got My Book on 08-22-08
-
The Tar-Aiym Krang
- A Pip & Flinx Adventure
- By: Alan Dean Foster
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moth was a beautiful planet, the only one with wings - two great golden clouds suspended in space around it. Here was a wide-open world for any venture a man might scheme. The planet attracted unwary travelers, hardened space-sailors, and merchant buccaneers - a teeming, constantly shifting horde that provided a comfortable income for certain quick-witted fellows like Flinx and his pet flying snake Pip.
-
-
The First of the Flinx and Pip Novels AT LAST!
- By Chris on 01-20-09
By: Alan Dean Foster
-
Falling Free
- Miles Vorsokigan, Book 4
- By: Lois McMaster Bujold
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leo Graf was just your average highly efficient engineer: mind your own business, fix what's wrong, and move on to the next job. But all that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat, where a group of humanoids had been secretly, commercially bioengineered for working in free fall. Could he just stand there and allow the exploitation of hundreds of helpless children merely to enhance the bottom line of a heartless mega-corporation?
-
-
Don't read this one first
- By Carol on 02-20-13
-
Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds
- The First Adventure of Alacrity Fitzhugh & Hobart Floyt
- By: Brian Daley
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mankind was beginning its third leap into the Galaxy, but Old Earth had so long kept to herself that her people were unable to travel safely among the rough-and-tumble cultures that had evolved on distant worlds. That annoyed Earth's rulers, for Hobart Floyt--a minor Terran bureaucrat-- had been left a mysterious inheritance by the deceased ruler of a small but wealthy interstellar empire.
-
-
Best Sci Fi Fun anywhere!
- By A. Foxter on 07-07-15
By: Brian Daley
-
Stand on Zanzibar
- By: John Brunner, Bruce Sterling - foreword
- Narrated by: Erik Bergmann
- Length: 21 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Niblock House is a rising executive at General Technics, one of a few all-powerful corporations. His work is leading General Technics to the forefront of global domination, both in the marketplace and politically - it's about to take over a country in Africa. Donald Hogan is his roommate, a seemingly sheepish bookworm. But Hogan is a spy, and he's about to discover a breakthrough in genetic engineering that will change the world...and kill him. Society is squeezed into hive-living madness by god-like mega computers and mass-marketed psychedelic drugs.
-
-
perfect audio experience
- By Darryl on 03-24-14
By: John Brunner, and others
-
Methuselah's Children
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the fall of the American Ayatollahs as foretold in Stranger in a Strange Land and chronicled in Revolt in 2100, the United States of America at last fulfills the promise inherent in its first Revolution: for the first time in human history there is a nation with Liberty and Justice for All. No one may seize or harm the person or property of another, or invade his privacy, or force him to do his bidding. Americans are fiercely proud of their re-won liberties and the blood it cost them; nothing could make them forswear those truths they hold self-evident. Nothing except the promise of immortality…
-
-
A delight to revisit a science fiction classic
- By Anne on 02-16-13
-
Starman Jones
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Paul Michael Garcia
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Max Jones, a practical, hard-working young man, found his escape in his beloved astronomy books. When reality comes crashing in and his troubled home life forces him out on the road, Max finds himself adrift in a downtrodden land - until an unexpected, ultimate adventure carries him away as a stowaway aboard an intergalactic spaceship.
-
-
A typical Heinlein Juvenile
- By Got My Book on 08-22-08
-
The Tar-Aiym Krang
- A Pip & Flinx Adventure
- By: Alan Dean Foster
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moth was a beautiful planet, the only one with wings - two great golden clouds suspended in space around it. Here was a wide-open world for any venture a man might scheme. The planet attracted unwary travelers, hardened space-sailors, and merchant buccaneers - a teeming, constantly shifting horde that provided a comfortable income for certain quick-witted fellows like Flinx and his pet flying snake Pip.
-
-
The First of the Flinx and Pip Novels AT LAST!
- By Chris on 01-20-09
By: Alan Dean Foster
-
Falling Free
- Miles Vorsokigan, Book 4
- By: Lois McMaster Bujold
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leo Graf was just your average highly efficient engineer: mind your own business, fix what's wrong, and move on to the next job. But all that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat, where a group of humanoids had been secretly, commercially bioengineered for working in free fall. Could he just stand there and allow the exploitation of hundreds of helpless children merely to enhance the bottom line of a heartless mega-corporation?
-
-
Don't read this one first
- By Carol on 02-20-13
-
Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds
- The First Adventure of Alacrity Fitzhugh & Hobart Floyt
- By: Brian Daley
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mankind was beginning its third leap into the Galaxy, but Old Earth had so long kept to herself that her people were unable to travel safely among the rough-and-tumble cultures that had evolved on distant worlds. That annoyed Earth's rulers, for Hobart Floyt--a minor Terran bureaucrat-- had been left a mysterious inheritance by the deceased ruler of a small but wealthy interstellar empire.
-
-
Best Sci Fi Fun anywhere!
- By A. Foxter on 07-07-15
By: Brian Daley
-
Stand on Zanzibar
- By: John Brunner, Bruce Sterling - foreword
- Narrated by: Erik Bergmann
- Length: 21 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Niblock House is a rising executive at General Technics, one of a few all-powerful corporations. His work is leading General Technics to the forefront of global domination, both in the marketplace and politically - it's about to take over a country in Africa. Donald Hogan is his roommate, a seemingly sheepish bookworm. But Hogan is a spy, and he's about to discover a breakthrough in genetic engineering that will change the world...and kill him. Society is squeezed into hive-living madness by god-like mega computers and mass-marketed psychedelic drugs.
-
-
perfect audio experience
- By Darryl on 03-24-14
By: John Brunner, and others
-
Freedom's Landing
- Freedom Series, Book 1
- By: Anne McCaffrey
- Narrated by: Susie Breck
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's the dawning of a new age for mankind when the Catteni descend to Earth and easily overcome the Earth's population. Thousands are herded onto slave ships headed for the intergalactic auction block. Kris Bjornsen is captured in Denver on her way to her college classes and wakes up on the primitive planet Barevi.
-
-
Good Books poor Narration
- By Robin on 01-25-09
By: Anne McCaffrey
-
Shadowline
- Starfishers, Book 1
- By: Glen Cook
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The vendetta in space had started centuries before "Mouse" Storm was born, with his grandfather's raid on the planet Prefactlas, the bloodbath that freed the human slaves from their Sangaree masters. But one Sangaree survived--the young Norborn heir, the man who swore vengeance on the Storm family and their soldiers,in a carefully mapped plot that would take generations to fulfill. Now Mouse's father, Gneaus, must fight for an El Dorado of wealth on the burning half of the planet Blackworld.
-
-
Beautiful Performance
- By Cliff on 05-21-18
By: Glen Cook
-
Cobra Slave
- Cobra Rebellion, Book 1
- By: Timothy Zahn
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cobras are technologically-enhanced warriors bred to fight an alien menace no ordinary human can withstand. At the center of action, on the Cobra world of Aventine, is the legendary Moreau clan. While the Cobras are necessary in times of war, in times of peace, they are often reviled by those they have saved. Now, the Cobras have resisted a second invasion of the alien Troft forces, forcing the Troft to a stalemate - even converting some thoughtful Troft into uneasy allies against their kin.
-
-
What?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 07-09-15
By: Timothy Zahn
-
Refugee
- By: Piers Anthony
- Narrated by: Basil Sands
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Though he was later accused of every crime and sexual perversion in the galaxy, Hope Hubris began as an innocent. Because he defended his older sister against the violent lusts of a wealthy scion, Hope and his peasant family were forced to flee Callisto, one of the moons of Jupiter. Pursued by the bloodthirsty scions across the airless desert, they barely escaped with their lives. The illegal space bubble was overcrowded with refugees, all hoping to reach Jupiter for asylum.
-
-
I fell in love with reading
- By Jeremy Neish on 09-28-17
By: Piers Anthony
-
Crown of Slaves
- By: David Weber, Eric Flint
- Narrated by: Peter Larkin
- Length: 19 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Star Kingdom's ally Erewhon is growing increasingly restive in the alliance because the new High Ridge regime ignores its needs. Add to that the longstanding problem of a slave labor planet controlled by hostile Mesans in Erewhon's stellar back yard, a problem which High Ridge also ignores.
-
-
poorly done
- By Kyle on 04-17-10
By: David Weber, and others
-
Beholder's Eye
- Web Shifters, Book 1
- By: Julie E. Czerneda
- Narrated by: Luci Christian Bell
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They are the last survivors of their race, beings who live on and communicate through energy, who are capable of assuming the shape of any other species. When their youngest member is assigned to a world considered safe to explore, she is captured by the natives. To escape, she must violate the most important rule of her kind, and reveal the existence of her species to a fellow prisoner - a human being. Now her race is in danger of extinction, for even if the human does not betray her, the Enemy who has long searched for her people may finally discover their location.
-
-
Julie E. Czerneda on Audible=WIN
- By Marniac on 08-06-12
-
Gateways
- Original New Stories Inspired by Frederik Pohl
- By: Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, and others
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It isn’t easy to get a group of bestselling SF authors to write new stories for an anthology, but that’s what Elizabeth Anne Hull has done in this powerhouse book. With original, captivating tales by Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, David Brin, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Joe Haldeman, Harry Harrison, Larry Niven, Vernor Vinge, Gene Wolfe, and others, Gateways is a SF event that will be a must-buy for SF readers of all tastes, from the traditional to the cutting edge; from the darkly serious to the laugh-out-loud funny.
-
-
Spectacular.
- By Steve Reid on 08-21-15
By: Greg Bear, and others
-
Mutineer
- Kris Longknife, Book 1
- By: Mike Shepherd
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kris Longknife is a daughter of privilege, born to money and power. Her father is the prime minister of her home planet, her mother the consummate politician's wife. She's been raised only to be beautiful and marry well. But the heritage of the military Longknifes courses through Kris' blood - and, against her parents' objections, she enlists in the Marines.
-
-
Harsh reviews seem undeserved to me
- By Jeffery on 09-29-10
By: Mike Shepherd
-
The Spark
- By: David Drake
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the time of the Ancients the universe was united - but that was so far in the past that not even memory remains, only the broken artifacts that a few Makers can reshape into their original uses. What survives is shattered into enclaves - some tiny, some ruined, some wild. Into the gaps between settlements, and onto the road that connects all human reality and the reality that is not human and may never have been human, have crept monsters.
-
-
Very enjoyable
- By Stewart on 11-14-17
By: David Drake
-
The Skylark of Space
- Skylark Series #1
- By: E. E. "Doc" Smith
- Narrated by: Reed McColm
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brilliant government scientist Richard Seaton discovers a remarkable faster-than-light fuel that will power his interstellar spaceship, The Skylark. His ruthless rival, Marc DuQuesne, and the sinister World Steel Corporation will do anything to get their hands on the fuel. They kidnap Seaton's fiancée and friends, unleashing a furious pursuit and igniting a burning desire for revenge that will propel The Skylark across the galaxy and back.
-
-
Space Operas - Good Story telling!
- By Madge on 01-27-10
-
Perdition
- Dred Chronicles, Book 1
- By: Ann Aguirre
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The prison ship Perdition, a floating city where the Conglomerate's most dangerous criminals are confined for life, orbits endlessly around a barren asteroid. Life inside is even more bleak. Hailed as the Dread Queen, inmate Dresdemona "Dred" Devos controls one of Perdition's six territories, bordered on both sides by would-be kings eager to challenge her claim. Keeping them at bay requires constant vigilance, as well as a steady influx of new recruits to replace the fallen.
-
-
Liked it - But Was Kind of Bored With This One
- By Joki on 11-03-13
By: Ann Aguirre
-
At Any Price & Rolling Hot
- Hammer's Slammers Series
- By: David Drake
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This two-story compiliation, read by Stefan Rudnicki, offers two stories from David Drake's popular Hammer's Slammers series. In At Any Price, Col. Alois Hammer's indomitable Slammers are called in to support human colonists against a native uprising in this novel-length adventure. But even though the natives' off-world weapons are no match for the Slammers, their ability to teleport gives them a frightening advantage! In Rolling Hot, the battle-crazed troop of recruits and vets, led by Captain Ranson, must cover 300 miles of hostile enemy territory.
-
-
Not a cohesive story or stories
- By Jeffery on 01-19-21
By: David Drake
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Puppet Masters
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First came the news that a flying saucer had landed in Iowa. Then came the announcement that the whole thing was a hoax. End of story. Case closed. Except that two agents of the most secret intelligence agency in the US government were on the scene and disappeared without reporting in. And four more agents who were sent in also disappeared. So the head of the agency and his two top agents went in and managed to get out with their discovery
-
-
Great book, distracting narration
- By Jon on 04-25-22
-
Double Star
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One minute, down-and-out actor Lorenzo Smythe is, as usual, in a bar, drinking away his troubles while watching his career circle the drain. Then a space pilot buys him a drink, and the next thing Smythe knows, he’s shanghaied to Mars. Smythe suddenly finds himself agreeing to the most difficult role of his career: impersonating an important politician who has been kidnapped. Peace with the Martians is at stake, and failure to pull off the act could result in interplanetary war.
-
-
Hugo Award Well Deserved. A+
- By Margaret Pierce on 07-27-20
-
Time Enough for Love
- The Lives of Lazarus Long
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 23 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Time Enough for Love is the capstone and crowning achievement of Heinlein's famous Future History series. Lazarus Long is so in love with life that he simply refuses to die. Born in the early 1900s, he lives through multiple centuries, his love for time ultimately causing him to become his own ancestor. Time Enough for Loveis his lovingly detailed account of his journey through a vast and magnificent timescape of centuries and worlds. Using the voice of Lazarus, Heinlein expounds his own philosophies, including his radical ideas on sexual freedom.
-
-
Age changes perspective
- By Candis on 08-27-16
-
Methuselah's Children
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the fall of the American Ayatollahs as foretold in Stranger in a Strange Land and chronicled in Revolt in 2100, the United States of America at last fulfills the promise inherent in its first Revolution: for the first time in human history there is a nation with Liberty and Justice for All. No one may seize or harm the person or property of another, or invade his privacy, or force him to do his bidding. Americans are fiercely proud of their re-won liberties and the blood it cost them; nothing could make them forswear those truths they hold self-evident. Nothing except the promise of immortality…
-
-
A delight to revisit a science fiction classic
- By Anne on 02-16-13
-
Glory Road
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
. C. “Scar” Gordon was on the French Riviera recovering from a tour of combat in Southeast Asia, but he hadn’t given up his habit of scanning the personals in the newspaper. One ad in particular leapt out at him: "Are you a coward? This is not for you. We badly need a brave man. He must be 23 to 25 years old, in perfect health, at least six feet tall, weigh about 190 pounds, fluent English with some French, proficient with all weapons, some knowledge of engineering and mathematics essential...."
-
-
Heinlein's great story, a glorious spin by Pinchot
- By BRKyle on 09-19-12
-
Time for the Stars
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Travel to other planets is now a reality, and with overpopulation stretching the resources of Earth, the necessity of finding habitable worlds is growing ever more urgent. There’s a problem though—because the spaceships are slower than light, any communication between the exploring ships and Earth would take years.
Tom and Pat are identical twin teenagers. As twins they’ve always been close, so close that it seemed like they could read each other’s minds.
-
-
My First Heinlein
- By DJM on 01-27-11
-
The Puppet Masters
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First came the news that a flying saucer had landed in Iowa. Then came the announcement that the whole thing was a hoax. End of story. Case closed. Except that two agents of the most secret intelligence agency in the US government were on the scene and disappeared without reporting in. And four more agents who were sent in also disappeared. So the head of the agency and his two top agents went in and managed to get out with their discovery
-
-
Great book, distracting narration
- By Jon on 04-25-22
-
Double Star
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One minute, down-and-out actor Lorenzo Smythe is, as usual, in a bar, drinking away his troubles while watching his career circle the drain. Then a space pilot buys him a drink, and the next thing Smythe knows, he’s shanghaied to Mars. Smythe suddenly finds himself agreeing to the most difficult role of his career: impersonating an important politician who has been kidnapped. Peace with the Martians is at stake, and failure to pull off the act could result in interplanetary war.
-
-
Hugo Award Well Deserved. A+
- By Margaret Pierce on 07-27-20
-
Time Enough for Love
- The Lives of Lazarus Long
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 23 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Time Enough for Love is the capstone and crowning achievement of Heinlein's famous Future History series. Lazarus Long is so in love with life that he simply refuses to die. Born in the early 1900s, he lives through multiple centuries, his love for time ultimately causing him to become his own ancestor. Time Enough for Loveis his lovingly detailed account of his journey through a vast and magnificent timescape of centuries and worlds. Using the voice of Lazarus, Heinlein expounds his own philosophies, including his radical ideas on sexual freedom.
-
-
Age changes perspective
- By Candis on 08-27-16
-
Methuselah's Children
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the fall of the American Ayatollahs as foretold in Stranger in a Strange Land and chronicled in Revolt in 2100, the United States of America at last fulfills the promise inherent in its first Revolution: for the first time in human history there is a nation with Liberty and Justice for All. No one may seize or harm the person or property of another, or invade his privacy, or force him to do his bidding. Americans are fiercely proud of their re-won liberties and the blood it cost them; nothing could make them forswear those truths they hold self-evident. Nothing except the promise of immortality…
-
-
A delight to revisit a science fiction classic
- By Anne on 02-16-13
-
Glory Road
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
. C. “Scar” Gordon was on the French Riviera recovering from a tour of combat in Southeast Asia, but he hadn’t given up his habit of scanning the personals in the newspaper. One ad in particular leapt out at him: "Are you a coward? This is not for you. We badly need a brave man. He must be 23 to 25 years old, in perfect health, at least six feet tall, weigh about 190 pounds, fluent English with some French, proficient with all weapons, some knowledge of engineering and mathematics essential...."
-
-
Heinlein's great story, a glorious spin by Pinchot
- By BRKyle on 09-19-12
-
Time for the Stars
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Travel to other planets is now a reality, and with overpopulation stretching the resources of Earth, the necessity of finding habitable worlds is growing ever more urgent. There’s a problem though—because the spaceships are slower than light, any communication between the exploring ships and Earth would take years.
Tom and Pat are identical twin teenagers. As twins they’ve always been close, so close that it seemed like they could read each other’s minds.
-
-
My First Heinlein
- By DJM on 01-27-11
-
The Rolling Stones
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of Heinlein's best-loved works, The Rolling Stones follows the rollicking adventures of the Stone family as they tour the solar system. It doesn't seem likely for twins to have the same middle name. Even so, it's clear that Castor and Pollux Stone both have "Trouble" written in that spot on their birth certificates. Of course, anyone who's met their grandmother Hazel would know they came by it honestly.
-
-
Good story well told
- By Frank on 07-14-15
-
Citizen of the Galaxy
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a distant galaxy of colonized planets, the atrocity of slavery is alive and well. Young Thorby was just another bedraggled orphan boy sold at auction, but his new owner, Baslim, is not the disabled beggar he appears to be. Adopting Thorby as his son, Baslim fights relentlessly as an abolitionist spy. When the authorities close in on Baslim, Thorby must find his own way in a hostile galaxy. Joining with the Free Traders, a league of merchant princes, Thorby must find the courage to live by his wits and fight his way up from society's lowest rung.
-
-
Good nostalgia; pretty good YA sci-fi
- By Mark on 06-18-18
-
Between Planets
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Andrew Eiden
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Don Harvey is a citizen of the Interplanetary Federation - yet no single planet can claim him as its own. His mother was born on Venus and his father on Earth, and Don himself was born on a spaceship in trajectory between planets. When his parents abruptly summon him away from school on Earth to join them on Mars, he has no idea he's about to be plunged into deadly interplanetary intrigue. But the ship Don is traveling on is unexpectedly diverted to Venus, where the colony has launched a revolution against Earth's control.
-
-
Like a breath of fresh air
- By MikeFarr on 03-28-17
-
The Number of the Beast
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne, Emily Durante, Malcolm Hillgartner, and others
- Length: 21 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The wickedest, most wonderful science fiction story ever created in our - or any - time. Anything can begin at a party in California - and everything does in this bold masterwork by a grand master of science fiction. When four supremely sensual and unspeakably cerebral humans - two male, two female - find themselves under attack from aliens who want their awesome quantum breakthrough, they take to the skies - and zoom into the cosmos on a rocket roller-coaster ride of adventure, danger, ecstasy, and peril.
-
-
One Aching Pain Short of Heaven
- By ... on 08-12-12
-
The Star Beast
- Heinlein's Juveniles, Book 8
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Richard Powers
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lummox has been the pet of the Stuart family for generations. With eight legs, a thick hide, and increasingly large size, Lummox is nobody's idea of man's best friend. Nevertheless, John Stuart XI, descendant of the starman who originally brought Lummox back to Earth, loves him. But when Lummox eats a neighbor's car and begins to grow again, the feds decide that enough is enough.
-
-
loved it!
- By Kevin on 09-06-16
-
Beyond This Horizon
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hamilton Felix, the result of generations of genetic selection, finds his life as the ultimate man boring - until a gang of revolutionaries tries to enlist him in their cause.
-
-
Women will forgive anything
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 10-01-12
-
Red Planet
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Zach Villa
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jim Marlowe and his strange-looking Martian friend, Willis, are allowed to travel only so far. But one day Willis unwittingly tunes in to a treacherous plot that threatens all the colonists on Mars, and it sets Jim off on a terrifying adventure that could save - or destroy - them all.
-
-
RED PLANET--- by Robert A. Heinlein
- By Stephen Hickman on 12-29-16
-
To Sail Beyond the Sunset
- The Life and Loves of Maureen Johnson (Being the Memoirs of a Somewhat Irregular Lady)
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maureen Johnson, the somewhat irregular mother of Lazarus Long, wakes up in bed with a man and a cat. The cat is Pixel, well-known to fans of the New York Times best seller The Cat Who Walks through Walls. The man is a stranger to her, and besides that, he is dead.
-
-
Don't Dilly Dally, Dolly
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-17-14
-
The Menace from Earth
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Rob McQuay
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Menace from Earth, Robert A. Heinlein, a master of science fiction, presents startling stories of time and space. On the day past tomorrow, time has ended and man has begun his endless journey out into the universe. For those on the Pluto colony, Earth Satellite Base holds the only possible reprieve from a terrifying death sentence. Meanwhile on Earth, alien intelligence prowls the skies, kidnapping people for its own inhuman amusement.
-
-
Middlin' Heinlein
- By W. Seligman on 08-01-05
-
Rocket Ship Galileo
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Spider Robinson
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ross Jenkins, Art Mueller, and Morris Abrams are not your average high-school students. While other kids are cruising around in their cars or playing ball, this trio, known as the Galileo Club, is experimenting with rocket fuels. Art's uncle, the nuclear physicist Dr. Donald Cargraves, offers them the opportunity of a lifetime: to construct and crew a rocket that will take them to the moon. But there are those who don't share their dream and who will stop at nothing to keep their rocket grounded.
-
-
Give us another or two Spider
- By Michael on 03-28-07
-
Starman Jones
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Paul Michael Garcia
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Max Jones, a practical, hard-working young man, found his escape in his beloved astronomy books. When reality comes crashing in and his troubled home life forces him out on the road, Max finds himself adrift in a downtrodden land - until an unexpected, ultimate adventure carries him away as a stowaway aboard an intergalactic spaceship.
-
-
A typical Heinlein Juvenile
- By Got My Book on 08-22-08
-
Have Space Suit - Will Travel
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Mark Turetsky
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First prize in the Skyway Soap slogan contest was an all-expenses-paid trip to the moon. The consolation prize was an authenticspace suit, and when scientifically minded high school senior Kip Russell wonit, he knew for certain he would use it one day to make a sojourn of his own tothe stars. But "one day" comes sooner than he thinks when he tries the suit on in his backyard - and finds himself worlds away, a prisoner aboard a space pirate's ship.
-
-
Wry humor obliterated by inept reading
- By Scott on 07-10-14
What listeners say about Orphans of the Sky
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Larry
- 04-06-20
One of the early stories, and good enough.
A good enough story, but not one of Hienlien's masterpieces written during, and after the mid fifties.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JLJ
- 10-05-21
80 years old and still great
Written in 1941, this story is still a great piece of futuristic science fiction. I first read this in 1975, and it was a treat to revisit.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- StephenH
- 01-07-23
Scary in it's prescience
Something of sci-fi thriller, a story of a spaceship where the inhabitants don't realize the nature of their existence. Orphans has an interesting but familiar premise: what happens to society when it loses (or ignores) knowledge and basic subsistence is the immediate goal. I would have liked the story to have been fleshed out a bit more, perhaps more on the ship's past and the ending feels abrupt, as if Heinlein decided to simply write "The End" to conclude his novel
Orphans is brilliant in another way, however. Heinlein's exploration of human nature is troubling, emphasizing what people will sink to when their point of view is constrained by their environment. He's prescient in describing the current phenomenon of people rejecting facts, even those "in their face," when the facts don't agree with their preconceived notions and what they want to believe (flat earth society, "stolen" elections, etc.). Despite being one of the older Heinlein works that I've read, it feels the least dated
The narrator is good, voicing actions and different characters in appropriate ways. His job is made easier by the story lacking virtually any spoken female lines.
Recommended
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- R. King
- 03-22-22
A self-aware relic of the older space adventures
The story has the scientific background of a Flash Gordon serial, but the social aspects of a generation ship are interesting, if guided by the 1930's.
The book was very well presented by Graham Halstead.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- O. Haskell
- 09-12-22
Nice easy science fiction from before space flight
It's interesting to hear what the writers thought things were possibly going to be like in the future. Making up the science as they went along. I love hearing their novice ideas, and how incredibly close they guess sometimes.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Brian Otterson
- 01-03-23
Definitive but dated
An idea groundbreaker in its time, a believable society, good science and understandable motivations.
And uh, ahem.. far from feminist at the very end.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marshall
- 08-08-21
Heinlein can be dated, but themes!
Robert A. Heinlein's _Orphans of the Sky_ receives 4 stars from me. The story is excellent, but Heinlein's use of women is dated.
This is an audible recording with Graham Halstead narrating. Halstead's voice sounds young which made me think that the age of the characters are teens to late teens to 20s. I don't remember their ages being said, so I'm unsure. However, he distinquished his voices well enough that it sounded like dialogue. He has a couple of "old" voices, that sound very old. He was not required to do many female voices and only short times, but they were fine. He read the book well and interpreted it nicely.
The book: This is kind of a sad Wow! Wow! This book is working with important themes: Racism, class differences, Power and Control, Religion. Which was strongest? Which was the most developed? I'm not sure. Heinlein doesn't overtly discuss the themes, they emerge from the book. So let's go with which one's I enjoyed the most. I enjoyed: religion--Heinlein addresses how religion is used to control the masses. Even when faced with the truth, one character doesn't refuse to believe, oh he believes the truth. But he uses the religion to control the situation more. Racism: there are two kinds of humans not he ship, the humans and the mutants. They hate each other and are fighting constantly. Will they get over their differences? You'll have to read.
What I didn't like: Heinlein, Heinlein, Heinlein. This is great book for men or male teens--not for women. Well, great might be too much. It's a book that is macho at times. For example, they often refer to their wives as "our women". Even more disturbing is the naming of the women. It seems that once they are married they have to change their name (but they have only one name). The husband names the wife. In one scene, that narrator says that the guy hasn't had a chance to name his new wife, so she's called the one without a name. Seriously. Look, I realize that this is a different world than our world, but Heinlein is in control of that and he could have stronger, smarter women. Women in this society are not really considered. (Well there is the knife maker, she's kind of powerful, but we see her one time.)
Recommend: If you like sci-fi and can read understanding how some book misuse women and you can address the wrongness of that, I think it is a good read. I do not recommend this for teens without supervision.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- SHIFTER
- 12-13-20
Sexist but interesting
Classic 60s science fiction. With an overtly sexist slant whenever any of the cattle like females are discussed. I found that aspect distracting. But I love interstellar colony ship stories and found this take on a multi generational journey unique and fun.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ToujoursMoi
- 12-02-20
Orphans of the Sky
Excellent reading of Heinlein and his futuristic vision. This could be compared to current politics.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Billee-Jo Rogers
- 02-04-21
Dated but compelling.
The reduction of work to little more than pets was shocking to me as a modern reader. I remember Heinlein as being rather more forward looking in his treatment of women. Perhaps I have misremembered. The story is interesting in its exploration of the consequences of generational space travel and exploration, and cognitive dissonance, as well as science and religion. There's a bit more telling than showing that makes this story weak, feeling like the ending was rushed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!