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Narrated by:
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Kevin T. Collins
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By:
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Jack McDevitt
About this listen
The classic first-contact science fiction novel that launched the career of Jack McDevitt, the nationally best-selling author of Coming Home - now revised from the original edition, and featuring a new foreword.
From a remote corner of the galaxy, a message is being sent. The continuous beats of a pulsar have become odd, irregular...artificial. It can only be a code.
Frantically, a research team struggles to decipher the alien communication. And what the scientists discover is destined to shake the foundations of empires around this world - from Wall Street to the Vatican....
©2015 Cryptic, Inc. (P)2018 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Very good - but the cover and title are deceptive
- By Brian on 09-25-10
By: Jack McDevitt
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Black Earth
- How We Got Here
- By: Michael Cook
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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What truths lie in the black void between the stars? It’s late September 2019 when a young astronomer working at the Haleakala Space Observatory in Maui, Hawaii, accidentally spots a black dot in the night sky and is calculated to be closely trailing Earth by only seventy-five million miles…on the same ecliptic plane. NASA launches an unmanned probe to Earth’s nearest neighbor, given the name ILK-87b. The images coming back from the black planet both shock and amaze those inside the halls of NASA. Curiosity, fear, and dread overcome insiders as infrastructure is detected on the black ...
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What you say 5 stars
- By Anthony on 03-03-25
By: Michael Cook
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Visitor
- Transcendence, Book 1
- By: John Triptych
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Years have passed since Earth encountered its first known interstellar object: Oumuamua. Now an even larger one has been discovered, following the exact same trajectory as its predecessor. Scientists around the world theorize that this can no longer be passed off as mere coincidence - the new contact must be an artificial construct of some kind.
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The Story had Potential but Failed in Execution
- By Commander Dave on 12-12-21
By: John Triptych
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Thunderbird
- By: Jack McDevitt
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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A working stargate dating back more than 10,000 years has been discovered in North Dakota, on a Sioux reservation near Devils Lake. Travel through the gate currently leads to three equally mysterious destinations: (1) an apparently empty garden world, quickly dubbed Eden; (2) a strange maze of underground passageways; and (3) a space station with a view of a galaxy that appears to be the Milky Way.
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Frustrating Story, Ill-suited Narrator
- By Buzz Park on 12-20-15
By: Jack McDevitt
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Stars and Bones
- By: Gareth L. Powell
- Narrated by: Rebecca Norfolk
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Seventy-five years from today, the human race has been cast from a dying Earth to wander the stars in a vast fleet of arks—each shaped by its inhabitants into a diverse and fascinating new environment, with its own rules and eccentricities. When her sister disappears while responding to a mysterious alien distress call, Eryn insists on being part of the crew sent to look for her. What she discovers on Candidate-623 is both terrifying and deadly.
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just a bit too average to get into
- By JCRW on 08-23-22
By: Gareth L. Powell
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The Arrival
- A Military Sci-Fi Alien Invasion Series
- By: Joshua T. Calvert
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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On New Year's eve 2022, unknown flying objects appear over Europe and ignite an inferno of violence among themselves. Debris from one of the spacecraft falls on Athens, turning the city center into a smoking crater. The destroyed remnant of the former metropolis is declared a restricted zone by NATO forces and sealed off. Amid the few survivors struggling for food, medicine, and clean water, Nikos takes care of his girlfriend, Maria, only to soon find out that to avert a creeping death, there is only one way out of the hell of Athens—the wreckage of the alien ship.
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Started slow. Good finish
- By Tim on 05-06-22
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Dark Matters
- Dark Matters Series, Book 1
- By: Michael Dow
- Narrated by: Graham Halstead
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Rudolph "Rudy" Dersch is the newly minted CEO of the world's largest, multi-trillion-dollar corporate conglomerate. But the job comes with an unexpected twist - an invitation to join the Consortium, a small, secretive group of global elites who effectively decide what's best for the rest of humanity. How does Rudy's struggle to reconcile business and family impact the world's future? And who, if anyone, can break the Consortium's iron grip on the status quo?
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Great story line that builds into real captivating
- By Janine Lex on 09-05-17
By: Michael Dow
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Echoes of Extinction
- Echoes of Extinction, Book 1
- By: D. Ward Cornell
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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When Kyle Wimberly, the hands-on president of Full Cycle Solar, Inc., investigates a unit failure, he finds an alien shuttle has crashed into it. The shuttle's captain is grievously injured, his crew dead. Then, to Kyle's surprise, the captain asks for help, speaking perfect English. Kyle and colleague Alexandra Reyes carry the captain to the shuttle's medical bay for treatment by its auto-doc. This simple act of compassion launches the two down a path that will change their lives and the world forever.
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A well performed well told captivating story
- By Maryann Lewis on 09-01-24
By: D. Ward Cornell
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Sleeping Gods Boxed Set
- Books 1-2
- By: Ralph Kern
- Narrated by: Shaun Grindell, Jeffrey Kafer, Michael Kramer
- Length: 29 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Includes books one and two in the Sleeping Gods series: Endeavor and Erebus.
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As a set, it was so so
- By Sarah Bellew on 08-30-21
By: Ralph Kern
What listeners say about The Hercules Text
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- @richferguson143
- 07-07-24
original and gripping
new concepts and ideas spring forth in this fresh approach to life amongst the stars.
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- Massha
- 11-26-23
a thoughtful contemplation
To start with, if you are looking for some sort of adventure with aliens, space battles, etc - this is not the book. The alien signal is received and decoded and that's it with them aliens. The rest is about humans. I quite liked it. It's thoughtful.
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- Matt Rowe
- 12-31-24
Intellectual Analysis of 1st Contact
I enjoyed the story and the characters. This plays out like one would realistically expect should such information ever arrive here from an advanced alien species. Lots of issues and different stakeholders to consider in this story.
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- Rusty
- 04-23-22
Entertaining
A good story for light reading. Flawed in that the author dabbles in Christian theology with which he obviously has only a surface understanding. I have enjoyed many of his other books.
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- Autumn Starr
- 10-15-22
Long drawn out story
eExpected a lot more story regarding the text besides that last hour. Too much drama over Harry's relationship omg. is this scfi?
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- Michael G Kurilla
- 03-22-25
First contact without contact
Jack McDevitt’s The Hercules Text is a first contact tale, although there is no real contact. A recognized pulsar known for its regularity suddenly becomes irregular. Interpreted as a code, deciphering initially yields mathematics, but gradually evolves to encompass a wide range of subjects including poetry and philosophy as well as the senders’ DNA. The bulk of the story consists of various groups reactions to the text, including religious, scientists, and the US president who becomes overly concerned with na-tional security.
Devitt offers a fascinating perspective on potential reactions not only to the revelations derived from the text, but both valid as well as misplaced concerns about the impact of the text on humanity overall all set against a backdrop of a late 20th century cold war mentality.
The narration is good with solid character distinction and moderate pacing.
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- jonji22
- 10-01-24
what curious ideas may be lost to bureaucracy
super chill reading of a slower but still very interesting sci-fi. lots of food for thought
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- J. Frost
- 03-07-25
Extremely thoughtful story!
I loved this novel. I'm a big fan of Jack McDevitt to begin with but several of his novels were subpar. So, I'm a fan but not one who will say everything is fantastic.
This novel was great because McDevitt put so much thought into the ramifications of receiving a signal from ET. His conclusion is basically that receiving such a signal would not be a good thing. And that runs counter to my initial thinking. However, McDevitt provides so much thought on the issue from various perspectives including: the government, national defense, religion, stock market, medical issues and global concerns that I can see his viewpoint. He also shows how aliens might be alien in ways that we can't fathom, particularly through a radio message traveling such extreme distances.
As with many of McDevitt's novels, there's not a lot of action, but this one has even less than usual. It's often various characters talking about the issues, ramifications, and deciding what to do. Read this novel to gain a well reasoned perspective on what could happen if we were to receive a message ET. That's the main takeaway from this novel. Go in knowing what to expect. No alien space battles or confrontations. It's all Earth bound considerations and trying to figure out alien beings. But it's extremely well thought out.
I happened to love the ending. It involved courage and bravery from one of the characters in a very thoughtful way. However, some reviewers thought it was anti-climatic. If you understand the nature of the main character and his weaknesses, I think you'll find that the resolution was beautiful.
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- Matthew
- 10-19-18
Lots to recommend here!
An update on the debut novel by Jack McDevitt. Granted, he misses some updates, and some references are a bit off putting. Also, there were some rather explicit editing issues, esp. later in the book. That all said, the concept, and Kevin Collins' performance put this on the recommended list. Enjoy it as much as I did!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Lynnelle
- 07-05-20
The Hercules Text
Jack is my favourite sci-fi author. However he lost me completely with this book. For me, it's not character driven, it's situation propelled and way beyond anything I can find interesting. I say, sorry Jack, even though I know you are no longer living.
I've tried twice, but have only read halfway through. I love hard scifi, but this is hard-hard sci-fi, and continues to be beyond me. I must quit now, but I will probably try it again, 07/04/20.
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1 person found this helpful