Contact Window

By: Will Swardstrom

Narrated by: Lanitta Elder

Length: 40 mins

Publisher's summary

The inhabitants of Yeitr Prime use what they call a Contact Window to reach new worlds and civilizations. Gatr and his young lieutenant are sent on a mission to make first contact, but face a narrow chance at success. When disaster strikes will they abort the mission, or continue on in the face of danger?

©2014 Will Swardstrom (P)2014 Will Swardstrom

Alien diplomats race to complete their mission!

Where does Contact Window rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is a great performance, bringing the story to life!

What other book might you compare Contact Window to and why?

Any other Star Trek book about diplomats contacting alien races. This story is reminiscent of that, but with an inventive twist.

Have you listened to any of Lanitta Elder’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not listened to any other Lanitta Elder's performances before.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes!

Any additional comments?

We begin as a spaceship descends into a planetary atmosphere, where Gatr and Litr, members of the diplomatic race called the Yeitr, try to keep their ship in one piece. Why are they being fired upon? Their mission is completely peaceful, as it is their job to seek out new life and new civilizations...

Ahem. ***clears humorous Star Trek reference from throat***

As I was saying, to go to new planets and peacefully bring them into an alliance of like-minded cultures. Not everything goes according to plan, though, as suddenly, they only have a limited amount of time left to complete the mission or otherwise, they'll have to abort it!

The author utilizes flashbacks to move away from the action, develop the culture and provide some character background on our protagonists. He's able to flesh them out nicely in only a space of a few pages and explains their strong motivation to succeed while interspersing this into the suspenseful narrative of their dire predicament in the present time. I found this to be an effective method of telling the story; while I kept wanting to get back to the action, the flashbacks enriched the characters, fleshed out their culture more and caused me to be much more invested in their fates.

I loved the awesome twist at the end which then answered any and all lingering questions I might have had about what the way events happened and why. As for the inspiration of the story, that's a nifty explanation too.

Overall, I found this to be an engaging and enjoyable short story with an unpredictable ending! And I think you will too. :)

Innovative Story!

An interesting approach to contact between worlds. There is a diplomatic race called the Yeitr that attempt to initiate peaceful communication via a contact window. The main characters in this short story are Gatr and Litr, partners on a diplomatic mission that is not going as planned. A lot of detail and character development is packed into this innovative Science Fiction story via the use of flashbacks. I thoroughly enjoyed this!

The narrator’s rendition of this tale is quite impressive.

I'm sorry I didn't like it

I'm sorry to have had this kind of reaction, but the story never really hooked me and the narrator didn't help. The relationship growth seemed too obvious and more serving of making a story than that I believed in them as real people. The plot and scifi elements felt cookie cutter and I soon replaced it in my queue. Every time I came back for a listen it continued to produce the same ho hum response. The narrator could improve by more production work to take out her breaths, which drew my attention away from the story. Again, I'm sorry I didn't like it.