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Traveling in Space
- Narrated by: Jeff Cannata
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
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Traveling in Space
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Summary
A unique science fiction first-contact novel told from the aliens' point-of-view; a 21st-century Gulliver's Travels with Homo sapiens as the Lilliputians. The last thing the factfinders - who call themselves Life - expected to find while traveling in space in The Curious on a mission from their planet, The Living World, was other life. But one day they stumble upon the third planet out from a backwater sun and find it teeming with a vast diversity of life, including one sentient and cognizant, if primitive, species that they dub: Otherlife. Being not only from The Curious but inherently curious themselves, they begin to study the Otherlife and their alien culture, discovering such strange things as: marriage, intoxicating drinks, weapons of minor and mass destruction, the gleeful inhaling of toxic substances, two-parent families, layered language, genocide, non-nude bathing, and - the strangest thing of all - religion. This first contact between Life and Otherlife, disconcerting for both, has moments of humor and moments of horror - and neither escape the encounter unchanged.
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What listeners say about Traveling in Space
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Corvax
- 03-05-15
Oddly Compelling
Strange and unusual story that although nothing really happens makes you want to keep listening. The performance is exactly right for the story, in that it is slightly annoying, quite bland but perfectly suited. Not your usual fare but absorbing all the same.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- George France
- 06-07-14
Excellent slant on alien first contact
First congratulations to the narrator Jeff Cannata for an fantastic rendition of this story. His obvious enjoyment of telling the tale shone through and his dynamism made the characters come to life. Well done Jeff. I hope you get many more job offers.
The aliens in Traveling in Space are neither nasty nor particularly nice. What they are is curious. They are factfinders, what we call scientists, on a mission of discovery and a search for knowledge, which is their greatest passion next to a deeply held love of Life. Not their individual, personal lives, but Life itself in all its manifestations, especially their own sentient, cognizant Life. This primary passion dictates their secondary mission, which is to seed their life onto any suitable planet they happen to find. Lest you suddenly think Traveling in Space will become a novel of conquest by either war or sex, put your worries aside. The mere fact that they find Earth already occupied makes it unsuitable for them — a true mark of their alien nature.
The aliens in Traveling in Space simply call themselves Life, the planet they come from they call The Living World, and the huge starship they travel in is referred to as a lifeship. This nomenclature is quite understandable when you consider that these aliens are under the impression that they are the only life in the universe and thus are the matrix of Life. It is an impression rather rudely shattered when they “stumble” upon the Earth and its occupants, which they dub, “Otherlife.”
What happens after this stubbing of their collective consciousness is the story of Traveling in Space. It is a story told completely from the point-of-view of the aliens, a “people,” if I may use that term, not perfect, but perfectly situated and full of perfect curiosity to study the Otherlife; to observe and comment on them and their “alien” nature and culture, which includes such strange things as marriage, intoxicating drinks, weapons of minor and mass destruction, the gleeful inhaling of toxic substances, two-parent families, layered language, genocide, non-nude bathing, and — the strangest thing of all — religion.
For alienness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
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3 people found this helpful