First Contact

Tantalus, Book 1

By: M.A. Abraham

Narrated by: Brian Callanan

Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Twenty ships have left the gravitational field of the Earth with the intention of colonizing Mars. Each is independent of the other and set to become domed cities upon landing. The mission is simple: go forth to develop the new planet, make it an extension of our home. Well, it sounded simple.

No one expected life on Mars to be easy, they are pioneers and that is a type of life that comes with dangers. What they didn't expect was for the settings of one of the ships to be off enough to miss their landing, to miss the very planet they were meant to settle.

Even more astounding was to find another planet within a three-week travel period that lies in the shadow of the red planet. It is where they will land, where their ship will unfold to become a domed city. Where life is dangerous in a hostile land and they find unexpected help. The indigenous winged people of the planet don't live on the surface of the planet, they live in cities in the clouds, but they are willing to extend a welcoming hand to those who have come to their land, as well as teach them what they can to survive. Their relationship begins with three words.

"Welcome to Tantalus."

©2014 Mary Ann Abraham (P)2018 Mary Ann Abraham

WE ARE THE 🌏 ALIENS

Cool new look at what it’s like to be the aliens and needing help from the indigenous species. There’s the story of a missed target and a stranded human ship with all the whodunnits and it’s tied into a story about a planet that’s having it’s own problems. Fortunately for the romance aspect, the two species are compatible. There is a lot of graphic sex scenes and romance interwoven in the two separate plot lines.
This is a surprisingly good start to a new and unique series.
Brain Callahan is a Class A voice artist and he does both male and female parts with talent.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. My review is HONEST.

TWO THUMBS UP!! 👍🏻👍🏻

Great new alien adventure.

Loved reading this first in a new series of M.A. Abraham's! Listening to Brian Callanan enhanced my experience and enjoyment of the story! Please bring out the next volume soon!

Enjoyable space story

This turned out to be an “easy read” and enjoyable time out. This is NOT hardcore science fiction. The book is written from two perspectives: a group of Mars colonists sent from Earth travel off course until they land on Tantalus; and a newly bound couple on Tantalus that are integral to replacing the ruling council. Recommend!
Callanan does a decent job with narration.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Not my favorite so far

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This was a slow starting and somewhat dry sci fi story for me. This could be because the author is just finding their way, but I'm unsure at this point. There were parts in the book where I struggled to get through, but it did start to pick up towards the final third of the book. I would have liked to see better explanations on the technology and what science rather than focusing so much on sex and relationships, but that's just my opinion. I am undecided at this time as to whether or not I will continue the series (once it is released, of course).

Great storyline and narration!

I love this book! I don't normally read sci-fi but am glad I gave it a chance. First Contact was well-written, has a great storyline and is very descriptive. I could easily picture the spaceship, world, and it's inhabitants in my head. Brian Callanan did an excellent job at narration. He has a great voice, was easily understood, and kept my attention. Overall a perfect for this book. I can't wait for the next to come out on audible!

Loved it!

I bought this book as an ebook originally and lived the story as I read it then. I was so pleasantly surprised to discover that listening to it as an audiobook was like hearing the story for the first time only better!! The narrator brings the whole experience to a new level and brings the characters to life like my imagination never could. I was so sad when it ended. I can't wait for the next audiobook in this series!! Definitely would recommend!! I

Not my cup of tea.

I received a copy of this audiobook for an honest review. I apologize to the person who gave it to me because that was back near the end of January, and it somehow got mixed up in my list of audiobooks to where I only realized I was late listening to it just recently.

While I had a hard time getting through the first quarter of this story, I ended up finishing it. I can honestly state for the record that I have no clue how I finished it, to begin with. I didn’t find the story interesting, to say the least. It was different, as in a different idea/storyline from the typical books I read/listen to, but I don’t know. I found it boring, yet it somehow held my attention the majority of the time. I don’t get it. Stated in my profile paragraph, I state that I don’t like having to leave long reviews because that’s a sign the story wasn’t that good. These kinds of reviews involve lots of questions and/or comments relating to issues I found throughout said story. In this case, stuff wasn’t adding up, in my opinion. The biggest area of issue, I guess you could say, was regarding how human-like the aliens were. Yes, they can look human (with wings), but there were no fancy, new alien terms. They knew English, would say things that humans would normally say. I know there was a part of the story that mentioned how the aliens hadn’t always been on the planet. I’m imagining a backstory as them originally being humans and somehow magically ended up on a planet that the rest of mankind knew nothing about. Over the years they started growing wings or something. Yeah…anyways…

Questions/Comments:
(Heads up, I don’t know how to spell any of the characters names.)

The "aliens" seemed way too friendly, was it just me? They're all eager to please the newcomers/humans and already telling their people the rules regarding having sexual relations with the humans. I thought it strange how one of the first things the humans asked the aliens was regarding the dangerous stuff on the planet. I don't know, but when I imagine a group of humans going to space, heading to another planet-Mars originally, and suddenly hearing from another life form that was previously unknown to the humans, well they didn't really seem all that shocked or surprised. There were times when they said they were surprised but never acted that way.

I probably missed this part, somehow, but why were they heading to Mars in the first place?
Mitchel had been with Keria as her guardian for how long? Long time. So why when Nilor (originally betrothal) started attacking her, both verbally and then physically, did he seem to take his time before intervening. Similarly, her father didn’t even do anything. Yet, there was lots of talk throughout the story about how males never hit or are violent towards the females because they were so important. Right...

The Tantalus society was surprised(?) that their world was no longer as warm as it once was. Yet, they continued forcing their women to marry men they didn't want, knowing that the heat came from their phoenixes, which was achieved when in a life-force relationship. This goes back to my previous question regarding how important the females supposedly were. Additionally, if their society originally had the females as the "top-dogs," thousands of years prior, when and why did that ever change?

Why was Keria sad that the humans couldn't get to Mars?

One big area that I just couldn’t wrap my mind around was the fact the aliens used human terms/English? They seemed to know what specific things were. For example, they referred to intimate relations as having sex, they knew what trees were and what the air was made of. Yet, the only word that they didn’t understand was “angel.” I found it even stranger that they referred to themselves as "people." Or when the tribunal alien states that "No from the female still means no."

I'd like to know what all they had on the ship regarding their food sources. For whatever reason, it sounded weird that they'd be eating lobster.

Alina (Keria's grandmother) is supposed to be "all that" since she's a scribe, so why has the world slowly been going to sh*t and they (the tribunal/scribes) haven't come forward prior? Her grandfather states they were distracted or caught up in their work, but considering the planet has been going to crap for thousands of years…yeah…

I can't imagine there will ever be a time when discrimination against those that are different would stop. So, what was the deal with there being witch hunters on the ships and those in charge questioning that as though it couldn't possibly be true? Or specifically referring to themselves as witch hunters? What year was this story taking place in?

Was it strange that there seemed to be tons of people on Earth (now on the ships) who were telepathic? I know some of the people became telepathic while on the ship, but there seemed to be a good amount that already had the talent prior.

I thought it strange that Keria’s grandfather felt there was nothing to be ashamed of when they were barely clothed in their ceremonial wear. That’s such a human thing to say. What did they normally wear? Or when he said that the humans would appreciate the view or when he told the captain that he shouldn’t be surprised if the two species got together as in having relationships with each other. Why would the captain have been surprised by that, especially considering the alien had already said that the human females could get with the male aliens, but not vice versa?

What about the fact that neither species really knew anything about the other, yet they were both so trusting and assumed everything was going to be great?

Or when they leave the ship once the dome is down. How did the aliens get inside the dome?

Lastly, regarding my questions about the story, having just arrived on the new planet, meeting “aliens,” and knowing that they’ll be landing near dangerous water, why would Tyler have had the opportunity to wonder off?

Narrator:
Overall, the narrator had a good speaking voice regarding the female and males voices he used throughout the story. My main issue with this narrator was the robotic talk. This was very obvious when he provided the voices for the Tribunal members. He was more than likely saying exactly what he was reading, so that would be a fault with the author since he/she didn’t provide the dialogue with a natural flow to it. I don't know about anyone else, but it came across as very unnatural and stuck out like a sore thumb. Usually (at least when I read something), no matter what the writing says, for example, "I am going upstairs," this would be read (whether in my head or aloud) as "I'm going upstairs." Maybe the narrator is a newbie, I don't know. But the majority of narrators I’ve listened to are sure to provide natural-flowing dialogue, whether the author helped them in that area or not.

I can understand how it might be difficult coming up with a good variety of speaking voices for the variety of males in a story. When it came to Tormac (the father of the guy originally betrothed to Keria?), the narrator spoke as though his mouth were full of spit. I don't know about anyone else, but that grossed me out hearing him speak.

Everything

I really loved this book. It has everything you want in a great book. Excitement, romance, action, and living in a new world. Recommend to all.

Fantastic listen!

Complex and very well developed world and characters. Intriguing storyline. Amazing narrator as well. I received a free review copy of this audiobook at my request and I have voluntarily left this review.

a very good one

what would have happened if we as humans habitat on an order lend ?
the book is very very interesting the situation is so well described and so vivid that you can see any fraction and scene in your head the story is good this is it nothing else should be said

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."