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Colossus and the Crab

Colossus Trilogy Series, Book 3

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About this listen

The 22nd Century. Dr. Charles Forbin is Earth's most powerful man. As mediator between Colossus, the Super Computer, and the rest of humanity, Forbin holds the key to Earth's fate.

When Colossus, an awe-inspiring technological creation, suddenly became self-aware and took upon itself the task of righting humanity's wrongs with no regard for humans themselves, Forbin intervened. He took the decision to turn off his great machine - but could not do it alone.

Forbin called upon invaders from Mars. The Martians did their fastidious work, shutting down Colossus. The Earth descended into chaos. Rival factions sparred for supremacy, with only Forbin to control the populace and maintain order.

But now, the Martians have returned. And they want compensation. Forbin is asked to design a super Collector in order to solidify the Earth's supply of oxygen - or, a large proportion of it - to be handed over to the Martians. But to do so would condemn the lives of hundreds of millions of Earth's inhabitants. There is only one entity on Earth with the power to stop the Martians...Colossus must return.

©1977 D. F. Jones (P)2017 Tantor First Contact Science Fiction Technothrillers Thriller & Suspense Solar System Mars Fiction Technology Emotionally Gripping Thriller
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A little dated and simplistic at times. The ending is a bit of a let down and humans don't really come out of it as winners. Colossus to some degree sides with the Martians. Odd timescales in use, alot of worry about the sun growing in size a billion years in the future. Forbin seems to be drunk most of the story.

Good if iffy ending

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Dated dialogue full of casual misogeny where women are shouted at dismissed and abused constantly for no reason in the plot

interesting premise for main story

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This was a reasonable conclusion to the trilogy. However (full disclosure) first of all I am a Brit and secondly I am a narrator. And I hate to criticise narrator because I am fully aware of how difficult it is to use accents other than our own. I would never attempt an American accent, for example.

So first of all, kudos to the narrator for most of the British English accent. However, the text makes much mention of the fact that the Martians speak in a Devon accent. More than narrator uses BBC/Oxford English for the rest of the narration, the attempt to produce a Devon accent which is very distinctive was absolutely infuriating.



“Aus” as in exhaust is how “us” is pronounced throughout. It would only be said in such a way by somebody from the north of England. So you have BBC/Oxford English with one word pronounced as a northerner would pronounce it. And the narration describing that this is a Devon accent. Where Text makes a big deal at the start of a book about a particular accent, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for me to expect that the narrator would’ve researched and discovered what that accent was on the Internet. even not attempting the accent to Talk would’ve been better than using something ridiculously incorrect.

As you can tell I found this really irksome and it spoil the narration for me. Hence giving less stars. However, otherwise the narration was really good so I have no complaints, and I’m sure that this problem wouldn’t have been obvious to anybody who isn’t a Brit

Decent conclusion annoying narration.

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