Ghosts

A First Contact Standalone

De: Peter Cawdron

Narrado por: Alex Picard

An alien spacecraft four times the size of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier enters the solar system.

Tensions run hot within the UN, but the alien vessel doesn't approach Earth. Instead, it sits off at L4, over a hundred million miles from Earth, baffling scientists around the world.

Chris "Crash" Williams leads an international crew to investigate the appearance of this ghost ship, but he quickly learns that the spacecraft isn't as dead as it seems.

Ghosts is inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's 1973 novel Rendezvous with Rama, which won the Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Hugo Award for Best Novel, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Rendezvous with Rama is a classic that examines a plausible, realistic alien encounter, considering the physics involved and the inevitable politics and religious implications.

First Contact is a series of standalone novels that explore humanity's first interaction with extraterrestrial life. This series is similar to Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone in that the series is based on a common theme rather than common characters. These books can be listened to in any order. Technically, they're all first as they all deal with how we might initially respond to contact with aliens, exploring the social, political, religious, and scientific aspects of First Contact.

Contains a special note from the author.

©2023 Peter Cawdron (P)2024 Podium Audio

Real SciFi

Not the usual bs. Great, well thought out story. Thought I had it pegged near the end but it surprised me in a good way.

An Admirable Work Marred by Political Preaching

I liked the story a great deal. While somewhat derivative of Clarke’s “Rendezvous With Rama”— deliberately and reverentially so — it goes its own way to an interesting and satisfying conclusion.

Then why did I not rate it higher? Simple. I kept being pulled out of the story in its first two-thirds by randomly placed but very specific political preaching. The story would be moving along, when suddenly, one character or another would stop to lecture the reader/listener of a particular political view. This was made much worse by repeated discussion of certain events that have since been proven false.

From the beginning, authors have always woven political and sociological views into their tales. The best do it seamlessly, and it isn’t consciously noticed by the reader but influences all who experience the work. But highlighting such views, especially when reinforcing them by specific events that have since proven incorrect, shatters the narrative.

This author is very good with a story, and I hope in the future he either leaves politics out or, better yet, weaves his political views seamlessly, artfully into his work.

not the best from peter cawdron

this was OK but not up to par with the others in the first contact series

What a Great Ending

Was curious where this was going... Don't get me wrong, plot moved great like any old classic sci-fi, but there were lots of intellectual seeds dropped throughout the plot with no clear reason why. Every chapter added more seeds and little in the way of hints that any of them would be eventual tied.... as each chapter passed, and the remaining time left for the author to tie them to reliance was dwingaling, began to think they were just for show "look at how intellectual I am".
No my fellow readers, fear not, they were indeed great prerequisites for the ending. In just a short few minutes, their mnemonic seeds were dropped to load the necessary context into your brain to understand the ending, holistically, intamately, and with all the weight I'm sure the author intended. F****ING BRAVO Mr. Cawdron!

Great story ruined by wokeness!

The plot line was fantastic but woke politics knocked it off the rails. The areas of the story where the author sticks to science fiction are fantastic and very well done. However, the clear desire to push political viewpoints and other absurdities from that realm detracted greatly from the feel of the story. I won't be reading anymore books in this series or stories from this particular author. I prefer science fiction without politics.