Xenophobia

De: Peter Cawdron

Narrado por: Holly Linden, J. T. Johnson

Xenophobia is set in Malawi, Africa, with US soldiers acting as peacekeepers to stop a civil war erupting. When an alien spacecraft arrives in orbit, America is thrown into turmoil and US troops are withdrawn from hotspots around the globe to provide support at home. Malawi descends into chaos. Xenophobia follows a band of US Rangers that stay behind to get doctors and patients from an outlying field hospital to safety. When hundreds of alien spacecraft begin flying overhead, the dynamics of war take on an entirely new dimension.

©2013 Peter Cawdron (P)2014 Peter Cawdron

First audiobook with sound effects... Not bad

Overall the storyline was good. This is the first audiobook that I have purchased with sound effects. It contributed to the book immensely. I can't wait to find more books produced this way.

THOUGHT PROVOKING AND EXTREMELY ENTERTAINING

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

Yes I absolutely would recommend this audiobook to a friend. Why? ***FULL DISCLOSURE*** I'm J.T. Johnson, the male narrator of the book. Aside from my personal involvement (and I get no royalty whatsoever) I truly enjoyed this project. It was such an amazing story that at its surface felt like the first truly "realistic" depiction of how humanity would actually deal with a NON-malevolent alien visitor.

What other book might you compare Xenophobia to and why?

In my not too humble opinion, it's right up there with some of the thought provoking works of Isaac Asimov, perhaps not in truly "sci-fi" (that is techie) content but in the way the characters are (through circumstances) asked to examine themselves and in so doing we find ourselves asked the same questions.

Which scene was your favorite?

Okay my favorite to perform was the scene that has been chosen as the SAMPLE scene. However my favorite from the story itself as a reader/listener was in chapter 5, "Hotel Kasungu" when the UN reporter deals with his own internal issues when faced with the alien ship for the first time.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The trial at the end. I don't want to spoil it so I won't say more than that but there was a lot of intense internal questions when faced with the personal indictment that happens there.

Any additional comments?

Buy this audiobook, not because I was involved (because while I have the original audio files I felt compelled to support this project and purchase it) but because it is a compelling, detail rich landscape of characters and places that dig deep into the heart of what makes us human. It pulls that out and not only do we see some harsh realities but also some truly beautiful insights into our own id.

A true exploration of fear, fear of what is within

I started to wonder what xenophobia is, here is what I found out: intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries. I never knew that this phobia had a name, and I know several people who could be categorized here. Mix in the alien landing and I am ready for some intense cultural war. Especially by the look of the extraterrestrials on the cover, airborne jellyfish, are those ships or the creatures themselves?

Cawdron starts off by introducing us to the cast of characters in the little military team and the civilians that round it out. By far my favorite was Elvis, no not the musical superstar, but a man who insists on talking like the one you just thought of, hilarious and not annoying at all. Just so happens that he is our male protagonist and I could listen to more stories about him. Then there is our female protagonist, Bower, a civilian doctor who stays behind with the military so she can care for the patients. Then all hell starts to break loose.

An alien craft is detected 6 months before it arrives to earth, they took their sweet time. Much political drama ensues, as you would expect, but it was done from the perspective of the soldiers. Never a full story transmitted to them. Now I don't want to give too much away here. Let me just say that this was one of the most thought provoking first contact stories that I have ever listened to. Full of great gritty action, dripping with suspense and plot twists coming from left field. I never knew what was going to happen, every time I tried to guess I was wrong. A true exploration of fear, fear of what is within us, and fear of others. I am now a fan of Cawdron and need to listen to more of his work.

Audiobook submitted for review by the author.

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extremely MEH with a great performance

I really like and appreciate when a story is 'performed' versus just read aloud. I do like just read aloud as well. this was a great job of performing the book. They story on the other hand...(spoilers follow)

Extremely bland scifi. Felt like it was 'science for dummies'. If you are technical and science minded (or a big time scifi fan), this story is borderline insulting in how everything is explained way too much. Maybe good as scifi 'lite'. If you've ever enjoyed Pournelle and Niven, you'll be bored by this. The main female character is just annoying and hardly believable in the setting. Maybe just a little too idealistic and the author makes no attempt to hide his effort to shove his agenda down the readers throat. Saves me the trouble of reading more Cawdon for sure.

I knew Peter Cawdron would pull through...

I've had this book in my wish list for ages so I jumped on the book when Audible put it on sale! As I generally enjoy Peter Cawdron's work and I love first contact stories!
But unfortunately I wasn't quite as enthralled as I expected to be! At first I didn't strongly identify with Dr Elizabeth Bower, and for me I thought that the beginning was slow, not that there wasn't action. Elizabeth was traveling through a war torn Africa nation, to get to a safe zone. But slow because I wanted aliens! And I wanted 'em now! I slogged on and OMG when Aliens finally happened, did I talk about not being engaged? ...it was bedtime, and I spent a sleepless night, worrying about Elizabeth and her buddy Elvis! (Thanks Peter Cawdron. 😆) But yes the rest of the story was perfect!
Although both narrators were new to me, they were perfect and carried me through the beginning...
So if you like first contact stories this might be right for you. I, myself was reminded of Rocky from Project Hail Mary and of all things Robert Heinlein book Have Spacesuit Will Travel...