
Shakespeare's Planet
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Narrated by:
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David Drummond
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By:
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Clifford Simak
About this listen
A human space traveler trapped on a remote planet must somehow unravel a confounding alien technology - or else surrender himself to a host of incomprehensible horrors.
For thousands of years, Carter Horton has been traveling across the galaxy toward a distant world capable of supporting human life. At journey's end, awakened from his millennia-long sleep by a curiously adaptive android, he is informed that his crewmates have all perished due to a system malfunction. But worse is yet to come: Horton's sentient ship is refusing to return him to Earth, and a strangely cordial predator is waiting for him on the planet's surface.
The repulsive creature, Carnivore, arrived here via a tunnel across the universe, as did his late companion - a human dubbing himself William Shakespeare - whom Carnivore just recently devoured. But the tunnel moves in only one direction, and if Carter is unable to reverse it, he will find himself marooned forever in this incomprehensible world, at the mercy of monsters and a terrifying, mind-freezing alien anomaly that occurs every evening in the "God-hour".
With unparalleled verve, award-winning science fiction grand master Clifford D. Simak performs a truly astonishing feat of world creation in Shakespeare's Planet. Bursting with intelligence, imagination, and breathtaking invention, this is a gem of speculative fiction from one of the genre's most revered and innovative artists.
©1976 Clifford D. Simak; This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc. (P)2015 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Enchanted Pilgrimage
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A scholar, a goblin, and a gnome, among others, pursue the secrets of a vanished ancient race through a wasteland of dark magic in this enthralling fantasy quest adventure. On an Earth that is different from ours, the young scholar Mark Cornwall becomes a target of the Inquisition and, specifically, its most evil and obsessed agent, Beckett. Damned for asking questions, Mark is forced to escape over the border into the Wastelands, a magical realm that is home to all manner of flesh-devouring monsters.
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Didn’t get it
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The hunt for his killer leads a dead professor of supernatural phenomena into the perilous intrigues of aliens, fairy folk, and time travelers in this classic of science fiction. Until the day he was murdered, Professor Peter Maxwell was a respected faculty member of the College of Supernatural Phenomena. Imagine his chagrin when he turns up at a Wisconsin matter transmission station several weeks later and discovers he's not only dead but unemployed.
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Perhaps my #1 favorite Science Fiction Book
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Mastodonia
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In rural Wisconsin, wonder clashes dangerously with corporate greed when an alien visitor opens up a gateway through time into a breathtaking prehistoric lost world. On sabbatical from teaching at a small university, paleontologist Asa Steele is content to relax amid the pastoral splendor of his Wisconsin farm. That is until his dog starts bringing home unrecognizable artifacts and, strangest of all, fresh dinosaur bones.
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Excellent. But more could have been explored.
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I Am Crying All Inside
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People work; folk play. That is how it has been in this country for as long as Sam can remember. He is happy, and he understands that this is the way it should be. People are bigger than folk. They are stronger. They do not need food or water. They do not need the warmth of a fire. All they need are jobs to do and a blacksmith to fix them when they break. The people work so the folk can drink their moonshine, fish a little, and throw horseshoes. But once Sam starts to wonder why the world is like this, his life will never be the same.
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Classic science fiction short stories
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City
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Jenkins was a robot. He was built to be the perfect worker, tireless and uncomplaining. But, quite unexpectedly, he also became a close companion to generation after generation of his owners as the human race matured, moved beyond the confines of its once tiny planet, and eventually changed beyond all recognition.
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A very special kind of story.
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Childhood's End
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The Overlords appeared suddenly over every city - intellectually, technologically, and militarily superior to humankind. Benevolent, they made few demands: unify earth, eliminate poverty, and end war. With little rebellion, humankind agreed, and a golden age began.
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Food for Thought
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Redefining the future
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. C. “Scar” Gordon was on the French Riviera recovering from a tour of combat in Southeast Asia, but he hadn’t given up his habit of scanning the personals in the newspaper. One ad in particular leapt out at him: "Are you a coward? This is not for you. We badly need a brave man. He must be 23 to 25 years old, in perfect health, at least six feet tall, weigh about 190 pounds, fluent English with some French, proficient with all weapons, some knowledge of engineering and mathematics essential...."
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Heinlein's great story, a glorious spin by Pinchot
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Time Enough for Love
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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
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A whole lot of fun!
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Way Station
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A very special novel that will inspire you.
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Out of the Silent Planet
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Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of the Cosmic Trilogy, considered to be C.S. Lewis' chief contribution to the science fiction genre.
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Original, complex, not middle of the road
- By Phantom's Furnature on 05-27-05
By: C. S. Lewis
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Insightful and beautifully written
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This is a think piece.
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By: Clifford Simak
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Great book
- By R and N. Ukiah on 03-12-22
By: Clifford Simak
What listeners say about Shakespeare's Planet
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Overall
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- JBP
- 04-13-23
Slogged thru it
I bought this based on the fact it was a Simak book I hadn’t read before. The characters were thin and unbelievable. There was too much pointless philosophy
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