
Orphans of the Sky
The Future History Series
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Narrated by:
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Graham Halstead
About this listen
Lost in space.
Hugh had been taught that, according to the ancient sacred writings, the Ship was on a voyage to faraway Centaurus. But he also understood this was just allegory for a voyage to spiritual perfection. Indeed, how could the Ship move, since its miles and miles of metal corridors were all there was of creation? Science knew that the Ship was all the universe, and as long as the sacred Converter was fed, the lights would continue to glow, the air would flow, and the Creator's Plan would be fulfilled.
Of course, there were the muties, grotesquely deformed parodies of humans, who lurked in the upper reaches of the Ship, where gravity was weaker. Were they evil incarnate, or merely a divine check on the population, keeping humanity from expanding past the capacity of the Ship to support?
Then Hugh was captured by the muties and met their leader (or leaders) - Joe-Jim, with two heads on one body - and learned the true nature of the Ship and its mission between the stars. But could he make his people believe him before it was too late? Could he make them believe that he must be allowed to fly the Ship?
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The Rolling Stones
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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One of Heinlein's best-loved works, The Rolling Stones follows the rollicking adventures of the Stone family as they tour the solar system. It doesn't seem likely for twins to have the same middle name. Even so, it's clear that Castor and Pollux Stone both have "Trouble" written in that spot on their birth certificates. Of course, anyone who's met their grandmother Hazel would know they came by it honestly.
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Good story well told
- By Frank on 07-14-15
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Beyond This Horizon
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Hamilton Felix, the result of generations of genetic selection, finds his life as the ultimate man boring - until a gang of revolutionaries tries to enlist him in their cause.
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Women will forgive anything
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 10-01-12
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Assignment in Eternity
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert A. Heinlein is widely and justly regarded as the greatest practitioner of the art of science fiction who has ever lived. Here are two of his greatest short novels: Gulf, in which the greatest super-spy of them all is revealed as the leader of a league of supermen and women who can’t quite decide what to do with the rest of us. And Lost Legacy, in which it is proved that we are all members of that league - or would be, if we but had eyes to see.
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You'll like it because you can think...
- By Trip Williams on 06-05-12
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Time Enough for Love
- The Lives of Lazarus Long
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 23 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Time Enough for Love is the capstone and crowning achievement of Heinlein's famous Future History series. Lazarus Long is so in love with life that he simply refuses to die. Born in the early 1900s, he lives through multiple centuries, his love for time ultimately causing him to become his own ancestor. Time Enough for Loveis his lovingly detailed account of his journey through a vast and magnificent timescape of centuries and worlds. Using the voice of Lazarus, Heinlein expounds his own philosophies, including his radical ideas on sexual freedom.
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Age changes perspective
- By Candis on 08-27-16
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Farmer in the Sky
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Farmer In The Sky is a 1953 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein about a teenage boy who emigrates with his family to Jupiter's moon Ganymede, which is in the process of being terraformed. A condensed version of the novel was published in serial form in 1950 in Boys' Life magazine (August, September, October, November), under the title "Satellite Scout".
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Back to the future.
- By Ray DiFazio on 11-13-16
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Podkayne of Mars
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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A tale beloved by many fans of Robert A. Heinlein, Podkayne of Mars tells the story of a young Marswoman and her interplanetary adventures with her uncle and her genius brother. Told largely through Podkayne's diaries, the story details her travel to Earth with her two companions. Podkayne has definite plans on what to do and how to do it, but not everything is as it seems. She is suddenly thrust into the middle of life-or-death situations when the liner they are traveling on makes a stop at Venus.
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Twisted ending
- By Amazon Customer on 04-13-18
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Have Space Suit - Will Travel
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Mark Turetsky
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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First prize in the Skyway Soap slogan contest was an all-expenses-paid trip to the moon. The consolation prize was an authenticspace suit, and when scientifically minded high school senior Kip Russell wonit, he knew for certain he would use it one day to make a sojourn of his own tothe stars. But "one day" comes sooner than he thinks when he tries the suit on in his backyard - and finds himself worlds away, a prisoner aboard a space pirate's ship.
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Wry humor obliterated by inept reading
- By Scott on 07-10-14
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Farnham's Freehold
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Hugh Farnham is a practical, self-made man, and when he sees the clouds of nuclear war gathering, he builds a bomb shelter under his house, hoping for peace and preparing for war. But when the apocalypse comes, something happens that he did not expect. A thermonuclear blast tears apart the fabric of time and hurls his shelter into a world with no sign of other human beings.
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Heinlein of his time...
- By Lisa on 07-03-11
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Friday
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Friday, a secret courier, is thrown into an assignment under the command of her employer, a man she knows only as "Boss." She operates from and over a near-future Earth in North America, a vulgar and chaotic land comprised of dozens of independent states. In America's disunion, Friday keeps her balance nimbly with quick, expeditious solutions as she conquers one calamity and scrape after another.
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Almost A Perfect, This Time.
- By Dave Worley on 12-02-08
What listeners say about Orphans of the Sky
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- Larry
- 04-06-20
One of the early stories, and good enough.
A good enough story, but not one of Hienlien's masterpieces written during, and after the mid fifties.
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3 people found this helpful
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- JLJ
- 10-05-21
80 years old and still great
Written in 1941, this story is still a great piece of futuristic science fiction. I first read this in 1975, and it was a treat to revisit.
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2 people found this helpful
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- StephenH
- 01-07-23
Scary in it's prescience
Something of sci-fi thriller, a story of a spaceship where the inhabitants don't realize the nature of their existence. Orphans has an interesting but familiar premise: what happens to society when it loses (or ignores) knowledge and basic subsistence is the immediate goal. I would have liked the story to have been fleshed out a bit more, perhaps more on the ship's past and the ending feels abrupt, as if Heinlein decided to simply write "The End" to conclude his novel
Orphans is brilliant in another way, however. Heinlein's exploration of human nature is troubling, emphasizing what people will sink to when their point of view is constrained by their environment. He's prescient in describing the current phenomenon of people rejecting facts, even those "in their face," when the facts don't agree with their preconceived notions and what they want to believe (flat earth society, "stolen" elections, etc.). Despite being one of the older Heinlein works that I've read, it feels the least dated
The narrator is good, voicing actions and different characters in appropriate ways. His job is made easier by the story lacking virtually any spoken female lines.
Recommended
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1 person found this helpful
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- R. King
- 03-22-22
A self-aware relic of the older space adventures
The story has the scientific background of a Flash Gordon serial, but the social aspects of a generation ship are interesting, if guided by the 1930's.
The book was very well presented by Graham Halstead.
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- O. Haskell
- 09-12-22
Nice easy science fiction from before space flight
It's interesting to hear what the writers thought things were possibly going to be like in the future. Making up the science as they went along. I love hearing their novice ideas, and how incredibly close they guess sometimes.
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- Brian Otterson
- 01-03-23
Definitive but dated
An idea groundbreaker in its time, a believable society, good science and understandable motivations.
And uh, ahem.. far from feminist at the very end.
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- Michael G Kurilla
- 09-25-20
Deprecated generation ship
Orphans of the Sky is a novella by Robert A Heinlein. The tale opens with a generation ship that has experienced a past traumatic event. The current situation is a bifurcated population of the original crew and 'muties' who are physically deformed existing in different parts of the ship. The original 'crew' has degenerated into peasant stock the feeds the crew, officers who run things, and 'scientists' who have contrived a theological basis of their universe. They have lost the concept of the ship as a transport medium and regard the ship as just their world and nothing else. A young curious apprentice tries to progress their perspective of the universe and unite the two factions.
Heinlein creates a realistic devolutionary scenario where an apparent accident with the nuclear reactors has led to the current state of affairs. Science texts are reinterpreted in terms of religious metaphors and the human reluctance to evolve perspectives in light of new information abounds. Although a few intrepid explorers make it off the ship to complete their journey, the bulk persist in their beliefs in the finite nature of their world.
The narration is reasonable with acceptable character distinction and brisk pacing.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-22-20
Great story; Weirdly Misogynistic
The story was well written and performed; but the way it portrayed the women was really odd and frankly very off putting. Otherwise, very good story.
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- TODD LAMMERS
- 07-30-21
As always a master storyteller.
Another great book from the master , a must have for a fan. makes you think and dream.
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- Cai
- 08-23-21
holds up well over time
Originally written in 1941 (per narrator), Heinlein had little to inform his story of humans lost in space. published before either NASA or Star Trek, some of the concepts, attitude and language are unsurprisingly dated. Disclaimer aside, it's a unique journey through space that stands on it's own, even in 2021.
On one enormous ship, Heinlein masterfully creates 2 types of cultures that evolved over countless generations: workers and "muties." This encapsulated space colony was built to last in perpetuity and could continue seemingly indefinitely with little maintenance. It also contained farmland and animals. The people's lives were deeply impacted by the entropy of fading knowledge and skills.
Some readers might judge this book for it's treatment of women and narrow world views. And yet, after so many generations of seclusion, it seems likely that some very different ways of living would develop.
Any number of odd perspectives could arise in isolation. Heinlein seemed to pick just a few colorful and historical oddities to drop on the reader to catch one off-guard.
This reader would have enjoyed a few more details at the end, but it isn't so book. It was a fun read, and the last section answered many of my 21st century questions. Highly recommended for sci-fi and Heinlein fans!
Hope you find this review helpful!
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