Classic Audiobook Collection

Naudsonce by H. Beam Piper audiobook. Genre: scifiNaudsonce? What does THAT mean? Well, to find out you will need to listen to this story where Piper's unique mind explores what we mean by 'communication' and how it happens. The joint Space Navy-Colonial Office expedition was looking for new planets suitable for colonization; they had been out, now, for four years, which was close to maximum for an exploring expedition. They had entered eleven systems, and made landings on eight planets. Three had been reasonably close to Terra-type but were all disqualified by terrible animals or warlike inhabitants. Now, finally here was an ideal world; their last chance before returning in disgrace. Now the only thing was to get an agreement from the local king or whatever to the colonization. Easy, right? Well first, you've got to talk to them ...... and there the trouble starts.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 1(00:21:54) Chapter 2(00:48:40) Chapter 3(01:11:49) Chapter 4(01:31:57) Chapter 5 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ministry of Disturbance by H. Beam Piper audiobook. Genre: scifiScience Fiction at it humorous best written in the golden age of all the greats and published in Astounding Science Fiction December 1958. Piper can't be matched for sardonic comment on human nature. The Empire is stagnant; thousands of planets spread around Earth but nothing new is allowed to happen and disturb the static situation. Our emperor Paul knows this but is powerless to make a dent in the centuries old hide bound bureaucracy of intergalactic politics. But is there a plot to overthrow him? It certainly looks like it. Follow this story closely as it builds to an excellent and exciting climax. Piper's talent and creativity shine through in this story. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 01(00:21:58) Chapter 02(00:42:25) Chapter 03(01:04:31) Chapter 04(01:26:39) Chapter 05 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lone Star Planet by H. Beam Piper audiobook. Genre: scifiAmbassador Stephen Silk expects routine interstellar diplomacy until he is assigned to New Texas, a rough-and-ready colony world settled largely by Texans who are fiercely allergic to outside authority. The Solar League wants New Texas in line, but Silk arrives to find his predecessor, Ambassador Silas Cumshaw, has been murdered - and the locals seem to consider that sort of political housecleaning not only normal, but healthy. While Silk quietly tries to untangle who wanted Cumshaw dead and why, he is also tasked with selling an unpopular message: a dangerous alien power, the z'Srauff, may be closing in, and New Texas might need allies whether it likes it or not. Between cattle the size of boxcars, larger-than-life ranchers, and a political culture built on radical local freedom, Silk must survive long enough to do his job - and figure out whether the biggest threat is off-world, or buried in the planet's own proud, trigger-happy traditions. Part frontier romp, part murder investigation, and part sharp satire of bureaucracy, Lone Star Planet pokes at power, patriotism, and the price of independence.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 01(00:14:19) Chapter 02(00:36:12) Chapter 03(00:56:32) Chapter 04(01:18:13) Chapter 05(01:34:25) Chapter 06(01:58:20) Chapter 07(02:16:28) Chapter 08(02:24:35) Chapter 09(02:43:41) Chapter 10(03:07:49) Chapter 11 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last Enemy by H. Beam Piper audiobook. Genre: scifiIn Last Enemy, H. Beam Piper drops the listener into a polished, tradition-bound society where reincarnation is more than faith - it is the foundation of law, status, and power. Dallona of Hadron, a gifted psychic researcher, is on the verge of a breakthrough that could turn that foundation into something measurable, provable, and therefore dangerously disruptive. Her test is set to unfold at an elegant dinner party hosted by Garnon of Roxor, a gathering that is not a celebration at all but a carefully staged discarnation feast: a voluntary death meant to serve science. When the moment arrives, a trained sensitive in hypnotic trance becomes a living conduit, and the after-death testimony that follows threatens to make death itself a solved problem. But in a world where belief systems are political weapons, proof can be as lethal as any lie. As factions maneuver to control, suppress, or exploit what Dallona has uncovered, she finds herself forced to weigh truth against the human cost of revealing it - and to consider what happens to a civilization when its oldest fear loses its teeth.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 1(00:34:55) Chapter 2(01:09:37) Chapter 3(01:40:08) Chapter 4(02:14:34) Chapter 5 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Four Day Planet by H. Beam Piper audiobook. Genre: scifiOn Fenris, a world where a single 'day' lasts 2,000 hours and a whole year is only four such days, human life survives by hiding from blistering heat and murderous cold in a few hard-bitten settlements. The planet has one prize worth exporting: tallow-wax, a rare, high-value substance taken from enormous sea creatures by daring monster hunters who ride heavy flying-subs that are part aircraft, part submarine, and part whaling boat. Seventeen-year-old Walter 'Walt' Boyd, a cub reporter at the Port Sandor Times, expects his job to be mostly weather, arrivals, and small-town disputes. Instead, a ship's landing, an unexpected visitor, and a sudden shift in the politics of tallow-wax pricing pull him into a struggle that could break Fenris's only industry. As rumors spread and tempers flare, Walt and his father follow money trails, crooked deals, and backroom alliances, trying to expose who is profiting while ordinary hunters risk their lives for less and less. Four-Day Planet blends frontier survival, investigative legwork, and mounting political tension into a classic mid-century tale of integrity versus corruption on the edge of civilization.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 01(00:26:51) Chapter 02(00:50:42) Chapter 03(01:10:38) Chapter 04(01:30:45) Chapter 05(01:52:12) Chapter 06(02:08:59) Chapter 07(02:25:22) Chapter 08(02:42:47) Chapter 09(02:56:06) Chapter 10(03:13:33) Chapter 11(03:29:07) Chapter 12(03:41:17) Chapter 13(03:52:26) Chapter 14(04:04:56) Chapter 15(04:28:21) Chapter 16(04:43:40) Chapter 17(05:02:42) Chapter 18(05:21:19) Chapter 19(05:53:45) Chapter 20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fables for the Frivolous by Guy Wetmore Carryl audiobook. Genre: poetryIn Fables for the Frivolous, Guy Wetmore Carryl turns the familiar shape of the classic fable inside out, delivering a brisk collection of witty verse tales that end not with solemn instruction, but with sly punchlines and upside-down morals. Each short poem introduces a small cast of recognizable characters - vain social climbers, stubborn fools, self-satisfied experts, and a menagerie of animals who behave with all the charming pettiness of polite society. With a narrator who is equal parts storyteller and conspirator, Carryl sketches quick scenes of temptation, pride, miscommunication, and misplaced certainty, then snaps them shut with a concluding couplet that skewers the lesson you thought you were about to learn. The central conflict in these miniatures is almost always the same: a character's tidy worldview colliding with reality, and losing. Written with nimble rhyme and a satirist's eye for human habits, the book invites listeners to laugh at pretension, question easy wisdom, and enjoy language that lands like a well-timed wink. Light, sharp, and endlessly quotable, these fables are built for replay.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 1(00:02:57) Chapter 2(00:05:38) Chapter 3(00:08:20) Chapter 4(00:10:23) Chapter 5(00:12:45) Chapter 6(00:15:05) Chapter 7(00:17:03) Chapter 8(00:19:12) Chapter 9(00:21:58) Chapter 10(00:23:51) Chapter 11(00:26:04) Chapter 12(00:28:30) Chapter 13(00:30:35) Chapter 14(00:33:06) Chapter 15(00:35:38) Chapter 16(00:37:57) Chapter 17(00:40:16) Chapter 18(00:42:31) Chapter 19(00:44:29) Chapter 20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The British Barbarians by Grant Allen audiobook. Genre: comedyAfter Civil Servant Philip Christy crosses paths with the mysterious Bertram Ingledew in the respectable suburb of Brackenhurst, Philip and his sister Frida, married to the wealthy Scot Robert Monteith, become friends with the stranger. Bertram has some unconventional concepts about society, and as the story unfolds, his beliefs and actions cause much disruption in the family and the neighbourhood.Who is Bertram? Where does he come from? Allen explores some interesting ideas about society, some of which are curiously relevant today.The story is preceded by an introduction which, although it may appear to have no connection with the story itself, the reader is earnestly besought by the author to read. The introduction begins as a diatribe against publishers, and develops into a philosophical justification of Allen's writing, and may, if desired, be omitted by the listener who is only interested in the story.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 00(00:23:17) Chapter 01(00:50:44) Chapter 02(01:19:17) Chapter 03(01:28:11) Chapter 04(02:06:58) Chapter 05(02:34:38) Chapter 06(02:54:10) Chapter 07(03:11:14) Chapter 08(03:44:20) Chapter 09(04:04:58) Chapter 10(04:30:03) Chapter 11(04:45:43) Chapter 12(04:53:09) Chapter 13 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Story of the Pony Express by Glenn D. Bradley audiobook. Genre: historyThe Story of the Pony Express offers an in depth account behind the need for a mail route to connect the eastern U.S. with the rapidly populating west coast following the gold rush of California, the springing up of lumber camps, and all incidental needs arising from the settling of the western frontier. Here we learn of the inception of the Pony Express, its formation, successes, failures, facts, statistics, combined with many anecdotes and names of the people who were an integral part of this incredible entity which lasted but less than two years, yet was instrumental in the successful settlement of two thirds of the land mass comprising the expanding country.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 1(00:10:23) Chapter 2(00:29:23) Chapter 3(00:56:28) Chapter 4(01:20:33) Chapter 5(01:46:06) Chapter 6(02:07:44) Chapter 7(02:25:25) Chapter 8(02:55:09) Chapter 9 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Orthodoxy by Gilbert K. Chesterton audiobook. Genre: religionIn Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton sets out to explain how he arrived at Christian belief, not through inherited convention, but through a hard-won sense that the world is both stranger and more meaningful than modern cynicism allows. Framed as a personal intellectual adventure, the book follows Chesterton as he tests the fashionable ideas of his age - skepticism, materialism, and self-made philosophies - and finds them unable to account for everyday experience: joy and duty, wonder and reason, sin and virtue, freedom and constraint. With wit, paradox, and vivid imagery, he argues that Christian orthodoxy is not a dull set of rules but a daring balance of opposites that protects the color and sanity of life. Along the way he reflects on imagination, humility, morality, and the peril of making the self the measure of truth. Both a defense of faith and a critique of modern assumptions, Orthodoxy invites listeners to reconsider what seems obvious, and to see belief as a living, dynamic response to the real world.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 1(00:11:32) Chapter 2(00:56:00) Chapter 3(01:38:08) Chapter 4(02:35:26) Chapter 5(03:17:24) Chapter 6(04:15:57) Chapter 7(05:18:58) Chapter 8(06:04:21) Chapter 9 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Equation of Doom by Gerald Vance audiobook. Genre: thrillerA world weary space pilot on the lam from earth for crimes unspecified; the most beautiful (earthly) tri-D woman in the universe who is determined to be the most powerful too; a planet of crafty and unscrupulous giant frogs intent on kicking out all aliens; and finally beings who live outside of time. Mix them all together and some very interesting things happen. Very interesting. And disastrous. But there's more! Why did 3000 worlds across the galaxy suddenly blossom almost simultaneously with very similar life and intelligence? Could there have been a common ancestor? Well, give or take a million years, simultaneously. The answer to all these questions is in this story. Listen and find out what happens in Equation of Doom.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 01(00:27:20) Chapter 02(00:57:14) Chapter 03(01:27:10) Chapter 04 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices