An Arthur C. Clarke Collection – 16 Novels & 104 Short Stories – Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter, Gentry Lee, Alastair Reynolds Free Audiobook

Written by Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter, Gentry Lee, Alastair Reynolds
Read by Greg Wagland, Toby Longworth, Louise Jameson, Scott Brick, John Lee, Peter Kenny, Ben Onwukwe, Buffy Davis, Mike Grady, Nick Boulton, Roger May, Sean Barrett
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Unabridged

My collection of stories by Arthur C. Clarke.

These are all brand new encodings based on the new USAC 44.1kHz encodes.

For compatibilities sake, I have re-encoded as mono AAC VBR M4B chaptered audiobooks with a target bitrate of 128kbps.

The only exceptions are Sunstorm and Firstborn, both are 64kbps 22.05kHz True Decrypts.

3001꞉ The Final Odyssey had very spikey sibilance and was unpleasant to listen to so I ran it though a de-esser. It should hopefully sound better than other copies of the same book.

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1951 – The Sands of Mars – Narrated by Greg Wagland

It is the 21st century, and on Mars a dedicated group of pioneers – among them some of Earth’s finest brains – struggle to change the face of the planet.

Science fiction writer Martin Gibson finally gets a chance to visit the research colony on the Red Planet. It’s a dream come true – until he discovers the difficulties and perils of survival on another world…and the very real terror it holds.

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1953 – Childhood’s End – Narrated by Greg Wagland

When the silent spacecraft arrived and took the light from the world, no one knew what to expect. When the Overlords finally showed themselves it was a shock but one that humankind could now cope with, and an era of peace, prosperity and endless leisure began.

But the children of this utopia dream strange dreams of distant suns and alien planets, and soon they will be ready to join the Overmind…and, in a grand and thrilling metaphysical climax, leave Earth behind.

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1956 – The City and the Stars – Narrated by Mike Grady

Men had built cities before, but never such a city as Diaspar; for millennia its protective dome shut out the creeping decay and danger of the world outside.

Once, it ruled the stars. But then, as legend had it, the Invaders came, driving humanity into this last refuge.

It takes one man, a Unique, to smash the legend and discover the true nature of the Invaders.

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1957 – The Deep Range – Narrated by Mike Grady

It has taken a long time, but humankind has won its battle against the sea. Now Professionals like Walter Franklin patrol the infinite savannahs of the oceans, harvesting from the plankton prairies.

But like that other great frontier, space, the sea has not yet yielded up all its secrets. And men like Franklin will never rest until its every fathomless mystery has been challenged…

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1961 – A Fall of Moondust – Narrated by Greg Wagland

Time is running out for the passengers and crew of the tourist cruiser Selene, incarcerated in a sea of choking lunar dust.

On the surface her rescuers find their resources stretched to the limit by the mercilessly unpredictable conditions of a totally alien environment.

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1973 – Rendezvous with Rama – Narrated by Toby Longworth

Winner of the 1973 Nebula and BSFA Awards and the 1974 Hugo, Campbell, and Locus Awards.

At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is huge, weighing more than 10 trillion tons. And it is hurtling through the solar system at inconceivable speed.

Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is, incredibly, an interstellar spacecraft. Space explorers and planet-bound scientists alike prepare for mankind’s first encounter with alien intelligence. It will kindle their wildest dreams…and fan their darkest fears. For no one knows who the Ramans are or why they have come. And now the moment of rendezvous awaits – just behind a Raman airlock door.

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1975 – Imperial Earth – Narrated by Mike Grady

Set in 2276, Imperial Earth is the fascinating odyssey of Duncan Makenzie, travelling from Titan, a moon of Saturn, to Earth, as a diplomatic guest of the United States.

Duncan’s initial challenge is to prepare for the 500-million-mile trip to Earth. Once there, he is caught up in a sweep of new experiences – including the social whirl of Washington, a strange visit to a carefully preserved ancient city, and a search for the woman he loves.

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1979 – The Fountains of Paradise – Narrated by Mike Grady

In the 22nd century visionary scientist Vannevar Morgan conceives the most grandiose engineering project of all time, and one which will revolutionise the future of humankind in space: a Space Elevator, 36,000 kilometres high, anchored to an equatorial island in the Indian Ocean.

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1989 – Rama II by Arthur C. Clarke & Gentry Lee – Narrated by Toby Longworth

The sequel to Rendezvous with Rama: the only SF novel to sweep all SF awards and one of the best sellers of all time.

In 2130, an alien spaceship, Rama, entered our solar system. The first product of an alien civilisation to be encountered by man, it revealed many wonders to mankind; but most of its mysteries remained unsolved.…

Sixty-six years later, a second approaching spacecraft was detected; four years on, the Ramans are definitely returning. But this time, Earth is ready. And maybe now, with the arrival of Rama II, some of the questions posed by Rama will at last be answered.

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1991 – The Garden of Rama by Arthur C. Clarke & Gentry Lee – Narrated by Toby Longworth and Louise Jameson

In the year 2130 a mysterious spaceship, Rama, arrived in the solar system. It was huge, but empty – apparently abandoned. By the time Rama departed for its next unknown destination many wonders had been uncovered, but few mysteries solved. Only one thing was clear: everything the enigmatic builders of Rama did, they did in threes.

Eighty years later the second alien craft arrived in the solar system. This time, Earth had been waiting. Now Rama II is on its way out of the solar system. Aboard it are three humans, two men and a woman, left behind when the expedition departed. Ahead of them lies the unknown, a voyage no human has ever experienced; and at the end of it may lie the truth about Rama.

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1993 – Rama Revealed by Arthur C. Clarke & Gentry Lee – Narrated by Toby Longworth

Years after the appearance in the solar system of the immense, deserted spaceship, Rama, a second craft arrived, destined to become home for a group of human colonists. But now the colony has become a brutal dictatorship, terrorizing its own inhabitants.

Nicole Wakefield, condemned to death for treason, has escaped to New York. There she is reunited with her husband, but pursuit is not far behind and they are forced to flee to the subterranean corridors of New York inhabited by the menacing octospiders.

So begins the greatest adventure of the Rama cycle, a story of massive scope and extraordinary revelations.

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1997 – 3001꞉ The Final Odyssey – Narrated by Scott Brick

In 3001: The Final Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke brings the greatest and most successful science fiction series of all time to its magnificent, stunningly unforeseen conclusion.

As we hurtle toward the new millennium in real time, Clarke brilliantly, daringly leaps one thousand years into the future to reveal a truth we are only now capable of comprehending.

An epic masterpiece at once dazzlingly imaginative and grounded in scientific actuality, 3001 is a story that only Arthur C. Clarke could tell.

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2003 – Time’s Eye by Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter – Narrated by John Lee

For eons, Earth has been under observation by the Firstborn, beings almost as old as the universe itself. The Firstborn are unknown to humankind – until they act. In an instant, Earth is carved up and reassembled like a huge jigsaw puzzle.

Suddenly the planet and every living thing on it no longer exist in a single timeline. Instead, the world becomes a patchwork of eras, from prehistory to 2037, each with its own indigenous inhabitants.

Scattered across the planet are floating silver orbs impervious to all weapons and impossible to communicate with. Are these technologically advanced devices responsible for creating and sustaining the rifts in time? Are they cameras through which inscrutable alien eyes are watching? Or are they something stranger and more terrifying still?

The answer may lie in the ancient city of Babylon, where two groups of refugees from 2037 – three cosmonauts returning to Earth from the International Space Station, and three United Nations peacekeepers on a mission in Afghanistan – have detected radio signals: the only such signals on the planet, apart from their own.

The peacekeepers find allies in nineteenth-century British troops and in the armies of Alexander the Great. The astronauts, crash-landed in the steppes of Asia, join forces with the Mongol horde led by Genghis Khan. The two sides set out for Babylon, each determined to win the race for knowledge…and the power that lies within.

Yet the real power is beyond human control, perhaps even human understanding. As two great armies face off before the gates of Babylon, it watches, waiting.

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2005 – Sunstorm by Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter – Narrated by John Lee

Returned to the Earth of 2037 by the Firstborn, mysterious beings of almost limitless technological prowess, Bisesa Dutt is haunted by the memories of her five years spent on the strange alternate Earth called Mir, a jigsaw-puzzle world made up of lands and people cut out of different eras of Earth’s history.

Why did the Firstborn create Mir? Why was Bisesa taken there and then brought back on the day after her original disappearance?

Bisesa’s questions receive a chilling answer when scientists discover an anomaly in the sun’s core – an anomaly that has no natural cause, evidence of alien intervention over two thousand years before.

Now, plans set in motion millennia ago by inscrutable watchers light-years away are coming to fruition, in a sunstorm designed to scour the Earth of all life through a bombardment of deadly radiation.

Thus commences a furious race against a ticking solar time bomb. But even now, as apocalypse looms, cooperation is not easy for the peoples and nations of the Earth.

Religious and political differences threaten to undermine every effort. And all the while, the Firstborn are watching…

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2007 – Firstborn by Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter – Narrated by John Lee

The Firstborn, the mysterious race of aliens best known as the builders of the iconic black monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, have inhabited the writing of science fiction master Arthur C. Clarke for decades.

In the first two books of his acclaimed Time Odyssey series, Clarke and co-author Stephen Baxter imagined a near-future in which the Firstborn seek to stop the advance of human civilization by employing a technology indistinguishable from magic.

That fate was narrowly averted, at an inconceivable price. But now, 27 years later, the Firstborn are back. This time, they have sent a “quantum bomb” speeding toward Earth, a device that human scientists can barely comprehend, let alone stop or destroy.

But when shocking new insights emerge about the nature of the Firstborn and their plans, an unexpected ally appears from light-years away.

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2011 – The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke – Narrated by Ben Onwukwe, Buffy Davis, Mike Grady, Nick Boulton, Roger May and Sean Barrett

In a single volume, the complete short fiction of one of the greatest SF writers of the century.

Author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Childhood’s End, The City and the Stars, and the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke is, with H. G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, and Robert A. Heinlein, one of the writers who define science fiction in our time.

This is the definitive edition of his collected shorter works.

From early work like “Rescue Party” and “The Lion of Comarre,” through classics like “The Star,” “Earthlight,” “The Nine Billion Names of God,” and “The Sentinel” (kernel of the later novel, and movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey), all the way to later work like “A Meeting with Medusa” and “The Hammer of God,” this immense volume encapsulates one of the great SF careers of all time.

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2016 – The Medusa Chronicles by Stephen Baxter & Alastair Reynolds – Narrated by Peter Kenny

A Sequel to Arthur C. Clarke’s ‘A Meeting with Medusa’.

Following an accident that almost cost him his life, Howard Falcon was not so much saved as he was converted, through the use of prosthetics, into something faster, stronger and smarter . . . but also slightly less human and more machine than he was. And with this change came an opportunity – that of piloting a mission into Jupiter’s atmosphere, and ultimately of making first contact with the life forms he discovers there.

Picking up the threads of humanity versus artificial intelligences and machines, and of encounters with the alien, this collaborative novel between two superb writers is a sequel to Howard Falcon’s adventures. A proper science fiction adventure, this is perfect for fans of Golden Age SF as well as the modern SF reader.