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Stowaway to Mars

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Stowaway to Mars

By: John Wyndham
Narrated by: Olivia Dowd
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About this listen

Aircraft designer Dale Currance undertakes a journey to Mars in an effort to capture the prize being offered to the first man to complete an interplanetary journey, but a female stowaway throws his plans into disarray.

An international prize of one billion has been offered to the first man to complete an interplanetary trip, and Dale Curtance, a millionaire adventurer, emerges as the British entrant. With a hand-picked crew, he blasted off from Salisbury Plain in the spaceship Gloria Mundi, destination—the planet Mars. Once free of Earth's atmosphere, they discover a stowaway—a woman. Her extraordinary story helps them prepare for the dangers they encounter on the Red Planet, and the fantastic world that exists there.

©1935 John Wyndham (P)2022 Audible, Ltd Adventure Science Fiction Space Exploration Fiction Solar System Mars Interstellar
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A great performance and a fairly interesting novel.
Many of the concepts, especially regarding traditional gender roles, are extremely dated.
The book starts off painfully slow with characters that becomes completely irrelevant about halfway through.
There is some great world building with the discoveries on Mars. Including genuinely interesting ideas around the societal impact of AI and self governing machines.
Unfortunately the book ends in a shockingly abrupt, lazy and boring way.

Dated but pretty good

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There is a lot here that is classic Wyndham but he proves not to be as skilled on writing on extraplantary adventures as some of his contempories. Wynham's interest of how changes and technology challenges and changes comes through but this 1930s novel has not aged well and makes an awkward listen at times.

A novel that has classic Wyndham elements but...

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A good story but very dated in how the technology and society are shown. The way women are handled by today's standards is terrible. However a good underlying story.

Excellent narration and characterization by Olivia Dowd.

Dated but an illustration scifi's roots.

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So what happens when you go to Mars?
Will humankind will take its pettiness with it?

For a tale written in 1936, this is surprisingly modern and well described account of space travel.
Well worth the time, a good listen.

Elon Musk has to read this 🤔

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Not one of John Wyndham’s best, but I’m curious how so much of what he wrote seemed so very wide of the mark technically given that it was apparently published a year before NASA put men on the moon. Usually his work is well researched…but maybe I’m missing something 🤔.
A good yarn with a nice little Wyndham-esque tease at the end.
Enjoy 😊

Showings it’s age but a good yarn

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