When Worlds Collide

By: Edwin Balmer, Philip Wylie

Narrated by: Peter Ganim

Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

A runaway planet hurtles toward Earth. As it draws near, massive tidal waves, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions wrack our planet, devastating continents, drowning cities, and wiping out millions. In central North America, a team of scientists race to build a spacecraft powerful enough to escape the doomed Earth. Their greatest threat, they soon discover, comes not from the skies but from other humans.

A crackling plot and sizzling, cataclysmic vision have made When Worlds Collide one of the most popular and influential end-of-the-world novels of all time.

©1932, 1933 Edwin Balmer & Philip Wylie (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

2012, but better

It is the year of the end, but this is far better than the movie. The sociologic anachronisms are a little camp, but the story has aged very well. If you enjoy this type of older, science fiction-adventure story, read "Space Prison" by Tom Godwin. It is available for free on Kindle. You will enjoy it.

Dated but still a classic

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

If your a fan of the Sci-fi end of the world genre this is the starting point. Considering when it was written the science is excellent, and the characters could be from today.

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

With every end there is the hope of a new beginning.

Old Time Stuff

Granted. Classic sci-fi, I mean, who has not seen the George Pal movie. As usual the movie does not compare well to the book. The over all story is pretty good. But for me, I tend to find the writing style of back then a bit too wordy and full of hyperbole. Yes, I have read the book and listening to it decades later doesn’t soften style of writing from then.

A classic story and timeless

Written in the early 1930's, the story holds up extremely well. The story is imaginative and engaging. The characters well defined. In my view, this is a must read. Highly recommended.

A SiFi Classic

For a book written almost 30 years before space travel you have to expect the authors got a few things wrong, but overall it is still interesting.

90 year old story and still strong

Would you consider the audio edition of When Worlds Collide to be better than the print version?

I never read the print version. Yet I know from experience print is always better. But being a man with 3 kids who works opposite shifts from my wife, I don't have time for reading. I listen to books while I'm at work. That being said, I enjoyed the audio version a lot. Very descriptive.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I like Ducane the French physicist. Even though he didn't make his appearance until well after half the book was read I like him a lot. He was very animated with his words and Peter Ganim made him very animated in the tone of his voice which made me imagine him being very animated with his arms and posture. He is entertaining to say the least.

What three words best describe Peter Ganim’s performance?

Somber, animated and natural

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I found myself laughing several times out loud at the way Ducane talked. Ganim did a fantastic job of voicing him and giving Ducane a jovial inflection.

Any additional comments?

This book took a long time getting to the meat of the story which was everything after and including their departure. It just seemed like a lot of filler that was used to pass time. I kept asking myself when are they going to get to it. I'm guessing though that this was the style of writing in the early 1900s. On a different subject altogether I found myself reflecting on stories that I've read by another author of the science fiction genre, Larry Niven. If you're interested in more books of this nature, check him out.

Amazing for It'sTime

I own a DVD of the 1952 film and have watched it many times. The film was amazing for it's time as well - it won an Academy Award for special effects. Keep in mind that in 1952 no country had put any device into Earth orbit. Space travel of any kind was still in the future.

The characters and the plot of the book are similar to the film. The book has characters and events that are not in the film. The pace of this book may seem slow when compared to books written now. In 1932, when the book was written, the pace of life may have been slower than it is now.

I enjoyed this book very much. Until it showed up as a "Daily Special" I wasn't aware that it existed. I'm glad that I found it.

As soon as I finished "When Worlds Collide" I started "After Worlds Collide". I'm four chapters in and liking this book even more than the first.

We Can not stay here anymore

The book is a minor masterpiece of old school science fiction, it deals with two rogue planets that will destroy the Earth, Itis about the desperate race to save mankind and deal with disasters that befall humans. All of the planning for what mankind will need on the new planet to survive. The biggest question will the planet be able to support life, even if they make it.

The governments deal with the gravitational disturbances that follow when the two bodies called Bronson Alpha, a gas giant like Jupiter, and Bronson Beta, the hopefully livable world. The floods, earthquakes and volcanos that occur. The vast changes to land masses around the world, the noble and profane responses by human beings. The building and crewing of the ark.

The characters are more than the usually functional archetypes in these stories. A real good story and never boring.

This is one for the older generation.

Being a youngster of 73 this book was written a few years before I was born. I remember going to the movie theater, spending my $0.25 for the picture and becoming rapt in it. I enjoyed it so much I actually got the book and read it.

It must be remembered that this was written before the conditions that exist today but it still applies to people. Listen to it and it will bring back memories of when you were younger.

Interesting but outdated

This book, written prior to World War II, presents a quite dated look at the end of the world. A pair of runaway planets are on a collision course with earth. The world is doomed--but humanity might have a chance to survive, if the best and brightest minds in the scientific world can succeed in building a spaceship to take a few lucky pioneers to resettle on one of the approaching planets.

Without question, this book was ahead of its time in a number of respects. The description of space travel, for example, is remarkable, given that the book was written more than a decade before the earliest high-atmosphere rocket launches. Likewise, the use of atomic energy in the book predates the actual use of fission power by a number of years. The apocalyptic genre is similarly prescient; nowadays, this kind of book is everywhere, but in the 1930s, prior to the doom-and-gloom days of the Cold War, the end of the world was not something too many people were writing about.

The writing quality, narrative style, and characterizations all betray the book's age. One glaring example of this is the main character, who is horribly sexist, bordering on misogynistic, and this is portrayed as perfectly normal and acceptable. This is doubtless a fairly accurate depiction of society's view of women at the time, but it's distracting nonetheless. I found myself rolling my eyes at least once a chapter.

The almost monotonous reading does not help matters. Peter Ganim is at his best when speaking in the accented voices of scientists from South Africa and France, but most of the time his reading is less than compelling.

The story itself is pretty good, particularly the imaginative natural-disaster scenarios that play out as the planets approach earth. As "modern" society descends into chaos, only the strongest and smartest survive, and the authors did a good job of showing what that might look like.

When Worlds Collide is a worth listening to if you enjoy science fiction, particularly early science fiction. It's not exactly on a level with Ray Bradbury, but it's a good story and will hold your interest. Recommended without much enthusiasm, but recommended nevertheless.