A recent email pointed me towards Project Gutenberg and a public domain novel I’d not previously heard of. After doing a little research I now think it would make a really terrific audiobook!
It’s a standalone SF novel by by Edward Pangborn, it was first published in 1953, and its called West Of The Sun.
Here’s the premise:
On earth it was 2056 A.D. but on the red-green planet it was THE YEAR ONE
There were only six human beings—
DR. CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT, anthropologist— he believed in man’s basic goodness … but could he put his trust in an alien race?
PAUL MASON— he dutifully shared his wife with his best friend.
DOROTHY LEEDS— Paul was her husband, but she knew there were some things more important than love.
SEARS OLIPHANT— the gentle scientist who inspired love in an alien.
ANN BRYAN— the youngest of them all, she had to be taught violence and passion.
EDMUND SPEARMAN— the rebel who had to have his own tribe to rule … even though it meant war with his Earth companions.
Six humans alone against the deadly forces of a strange and distant planet.
Cool sounding right?
I’ve only heard one Pangborn short story, The Good Neighbors, but based on the quality of it, and the reviews I’ve been reading of West Of The Sun (detailed below) I think it’d make a terrific audiobook!
Potential narrators, I suggest you have a look at it HERE.
Posted by Jesse Willis
A first contact story and a mystery story! When a massive alien, the size of a city, enters Earth’s atmosphere fighter jets are scrambled to meet it. The alien seems to be in search of something – but what it is won’t turn out to be what we expect. Here’s part of the description of the alien:
