Damocles

By: S. G. Redling

Narrated by: Angela Dawe

Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

When Earth is rocked by evidence that extraterrestrials may have seeded human DNA throughout the universe, a one-way expedition into deep space is mounted to uncover the truth. What linguist Meg Dupris and her crewmates aboard the Earth ship Damocles discover on Didet - a planet bathed in the near-eternal daylight of seven suns - is a humanoid race with a different language, a different look, and a surprisingly similar society. But here, it’s the "Earthers" who are the extraterrestrial invaders, and it’s up to Meg - a woman haunted by tragedy and obsessed with the power of communication - to find the key to establishing trust between the natives and the newcomers. In Loul Pell, a young Dideto male thrust into the forefront of the historic event, Meg finds an unexpected kindred spirit, and undertakes an extraordinary journey of discovery, friendship, and life-altering knowledge.Told from both sides of a monumental encounter, Damocles is a compelling novel about man’s first contact with an extraterrestrial race.

©2013 S. G. Redling (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

A little above ho hum

I almost didn't listen to this book after the first 10 minutes because the narrator seemed so out of character with the characters…a sweet female voice using profanity…I didn't mind the profanity, it just grated because it was incongruous. The attempts to lower her voice to male timbres didn't work for me either. I had forgotten to download another book, so it's all I had and I slogged through. The story dragged, it seemed like there was a chapter missing in the end when we skipped from one character to another without any link. Wouldn't recommend it.

Another space exploration story…? Not really… :-)

It started out in a familiar SciFi Space scenario. Then, it slowly began to change on many levels, as a new world, peoples and culture were revealed. Only once, was I able to predict ahead.

We Don’t Even Have A Translation For Lunch

Great coupon purchase. I look for Angela Dawe, narrations, and she brings this sci-fi story to vivid life. Each of the characters can make you laugh, mad, and joyful. Sci-fi is not my genre, but this story is so colorfully written and imaginatively thought out. If you enjoyed the film, the planet of the apes years ago with Charlton Heston, this is for you. This is an uplifting story.
Were my comments of help?

interesting premises with unpleasant narration

The story is exclusively about first contact - Trials, tribulations and a large focus on language. Some interesting ideas presented though at times I felt things dragged on a touch. The narration was not great - when she wasn't doing voices (for which I ended up longing for) I felt like I was being talked at, sometimes even yelled at. Drove me insane and I ended up listening to the last half at 1.2 speed to get through it.

Glad I stuck with it

Started a little slow but then became a can't put down kind of book. Good character development, even with the Aliens.

Great story-Hard to get past narrator speech pattern.

The storyline was wonderful. Creative, well paced, believable. The narrator did a good job of giving each character a voice and personality of their own but she has a speech pattern that was hard for me to get past. She has a tendency to draw out her words. I tried to find the actual term for her speech pattern but couldn't find anything. Obviously I wasn't disturbed by it enough to stop listening but it very definitely reduced the enjoyment of the listening. I will be cautious about getting other books narrated by her.

An excellent "First Contact" novel-I loved it

This is a very slow paced novel and though I did give it a 5 star review, it could have been so much better had author Redling given us a better verbal picture of what the Didodes (I have no idea how it is spelled) or the aliens that are visited really looked like. I finally ended up picturing a neanderthal-ish person in my mind. I'd have preferred know what the author envisioned when writing.

The similarities between Earthers and Didodes are many as are the differences and Redling with excellent narration from Angela Dawe does a lot to show these...but it all brought up several questions in my mind, akin to the physical description issue that I won't go into as it would be very much a spoiler.

I think this novel is appropriate for a younger teen interested in space exploration that focuses on interpersonal skills more than plasma ray guns and hyper drives...not lots of tech in this book, just lots of talking.

I basically listened to this in 2 days and even dreamed about it the night between..did this story have an effect on me? Apparently so!.

I recommend it for people who don't need blood and guts stories.

Brilliant story that kept me wishing for more.

I loved the concept of first contact with humans as the intruding aliens. The commentary on what humans would do and how they would behave if the rules were reversed was very appropriate. The ending was very anticlimactic and somewhat disappointing. Perhaps it leaves room for a sequel...

Was oK yes ?

story end missed something, didnt enjoy the audio voice for men wonder what happened loul

A unique SF story

I’ve been reading science fiction for 15 years, and this story surprised me.
You’ve already read the summary: you know that it is about a first contact with an alien race, but the twist is that Homo sapiens are the aliens landing on another planet.
I loved the way the narrative alternated between Meg, the principal linguist among the humans, and Luel, the accidental first contact.
What I loved most about the story were the many enormous questions raised about how one makes connections when there is a lack of shared context. How does one explain day and night to someone on a planet that has three suns that never set? How do you reach consensus on a concept like trust?
Like most great science fiction, this was less about the science, and more about the people. The character development was excellent on both sides (both the “human“ and the “alien“). This story could have been written about human explorers, on Earth, long ago, encountering new civilizations and striving to make sense. The fact that it was set in space was a bonus.
Finally, Angela Dawe’s narration was solid. I often judge a reader by the degree to which I start to recognize voices before they are identified. Besides looking for more books by this author, I will undoubtedly seek more books read by this narrator.