Review of The Colors of Space by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Please welcome another new reviewer, Tom Schreck. Tom heard about the call for reviews from another new reviewer that you will hear from shortly.

SFFaudio Review

The Colors of SpaceThe Colors of Space
By Marion Zimmer Bradley; Read by Jim Roberts
Publisher: Speculative! via Brilliance Audio
ISBN: 978-1-4692-5948-2
5 discs – 5 hours [UNABRIDGED]

Themes: / space / aliens / science fiction / interstellar travel /

Publisher summary:

Young Bart Steele, Space Academy graduate, is waiting in a spaceport for a ship to take him home when something happens that suddenly thrusts him into the center of a quest for the secret of interstellar travel. The method of faster than light travel, called “warp drive” in later Sci-Fi stories, is a tightly kept secret of an alien race known as the “Lhari.” Some humans feel that they should not have to depend on the Lhari to get to far away planets and enlist Bart to help them wrest the secret from the Lhari by undertaking a perilous mission. Bart’s survival and the freedom of the human race suddenly depend on his courage and wits.

The Colors of Space is one of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s earliest books and is a solid enjoyable book. It’s short, the pace keeps moving, and overall comes to a satisfying conclusion.

Mankind has expanded throughout the solar system and nearby star systems but it takes years to travel those distances with their current technology. Sometime in their exploration they met an alien race called the Llari who have the capability of faster-than-light travel. The Llari are happy to supply such transport to humans but won’t share the secrets of their technology with humans. The humans and Llari entered into a mutually beneficial relationship for interstellar travel, but some parts of humanity have become disgruntled of the monopoly the Llari hold. Our protagonist Bart Steele gets involved in a human plot to discover this secret in this story.

The book is fairly simple so don’t expect any deep/intricate character development, but it explores interesting social issues like relating to people different from yourself, friendship, and loyalty.

Jim Roberts has a great voice but his performance comes off kind of stiff and dry. As I got further into the book, I either got more used to his reading style or he relaxed a bit in his reading. If trying to decide between the print or audio version, the audio book version is pretty good but I don’t think it adds anything to the enjoyment of the book.

Posted by Tom Schreck

Leave a Reply