Earthlight

A Random House Audiobook Original

De: J. Michael Straczynski

Narrado por: Erik Braa, Pete Bradbury, William DeMeritt, Ryan Haugen, David Lee Huynh, Mars Lipowski, Saskia Maarleveld, Brandon McInnis, Stefan Rudnicki, Salli Saffioti, Christopher Smith, Marc Thompson, Will Watt, full cast

An Audiobook Original from Penguin Random House Audio

From the creator of Babylon 5 and Sense8 comes a full-cast action/adventure military audio drama set in the near future, for fans of Tom Clancy and Timothy Zahn.

International tension is rising as the Russian military forms an Eastern Alliance to create a new age of Russian supremacy. The rest of the world is scrambling for a united response.

Enter Project Earthlight.

Earthlight is a NATO operation under U.S. command based in the ultimate military high ground: space. A group of the best fighter pilots is handpicked from around the world to fly the first generation of advanced planes capable of maneuvering in the vacuum of space and inside the atmosphere.

Learning how to fly experimental planes while learning to trust their new squadron, our pilots are plunged into a high-stakes life-and-death mission with everything at risk. Can Commanding Officer Colonel Scott Dane get the other pilots on the same page in time to prevent World War III?

With cutting-edge soundscapes and an action-packed plot, EARTHLIGHT will keep listeners on the edge of their seats from start to finish.

Read by Erik Braa, Pete Bradbury, Jonathan Davis, William DeMeritt, Robert Fass, Jeff Gurner, Ryan Haugen, David Lee Huynh, Mars Lipowski, Saskia Maarleveld, Kathleen McInerney, Brandon McInnis, Sean Kenin Elias Reyes, Stefan Rudnicki, Salli Saffioti, Kristen Sieh, Christopher Smith, Marc Thompson, Will Watt, Michael Ann Young, Beka Sikharulidza, Stephanie Walters Montgomery, and Robin Atkin Downes

©2024 Penguin Random House Audio (P)2024 Random House Audio

Babylon five fighters terrible story

Aged like milk, this story about a multinational force fighting a rogue Russian government using babylon five style fighter jets. They're in space using scram jets. Scram jets need an atmosphere to work. They burn air! The characters are hack. Note all hot girl spens the story. Teasing milk toast man in a uninspired love story. Thankfully it's mercifully short. The shallow writing style works okay for a forty two minute network show, with actors carrying all the weight. But here the strasinsky, flaws really shine through.

The First Steps of Space Force

Earthlight is JMS’s tale of the first steps of Space Force, in a realistic and entertaining story about the inevitable evolution to the inclusion of Space in warfare and peacetime. While there were nods to Babylon 5, and the Alexander was an allusion to Babylon 5, while the Gagarin was an allusion to Deep Space 9 (the knock off that was quickly rushed to production in response to B5), Earthlight is its own story, in its own world, with its own characters. It’s immediately engaging, feeling more like an old school radio drama than an audio book. The characters were three-dimensional, and the story was made more organic by virtue of the opening quotes establishing the tone and context. I could see this becoming a television series or movie. Well done.

Must listen...engaging story

Fast paced high energy and engaging story. Great sound effects add to story. Highy recommend.

The failure to do basic research.

The story isn't bad. It is short, seemed like a tv pilot. The operation of the carriers/ space stations is very Babylon 5 as is the description of the American fighters.

I felt the failure to do some basic research on real world aircraft and militaries was lazy. A few examples are Tornadoes are in no way stealth. There are no Corprals in the USAF or US Space Force. A main character is described as a Captain in the USAF, a fairly junior officer rank, but is later described as a Captain in the US naval air forces which would make him a very senior officer of equivalent rank with the C.O. of the fictional American unit. He is also described as flying a USN aircraft in the beginning of the book when he is being described as a USAF pilot. Stratcynski has no idea what a squadron is or how it is organized. a little bit of easy wikipedia level.research would have corrected these mistakes. I thought calling the American fighters Raptors was lazy writing.

Amazing!

Started listening when it was released this morning, and soon had to choose between Earthlight or sleep. Sleep lost. Thankfully this title's one and only flaw of being three hours in length is appreciated, or I'd probably have taken it with me and still be listening this afternoon. Production is excellent and the full cast gave an extraordinary performance. To summarize in a few words - think of the experimental fighters as an early version of a B5 Starfury.

Verbal and Technological Hyperbole

I am a big fan of J. Michael Straczynski’s work. Babylon 5, even after all these years, is still one of my favorite science fiction series. When I saw he had come out with an audiobook about a near-future military conflict, it was a given that I was going to spend a credit. Why wouldn’t I? It was marketed everywhere. First, my credibility. I am a huge consumer of military fiction and non-fiction with an affinity for speculations of future conflict. I have had a 20-year career as a Naval Aviator and an almost equal number of years as a maintenance test pilot. I’ve written a master’s thesis on nuclear weapons. Suffice to say, I have a bit of technical knowledge and that was my doom.

This technical knowledge kept me from enjoying the production. I finished the entire thing. I even re-listened to a few parts. I started to keep notes on errors. Then I stopped keeping notes as there were too many. Will these errors prevent a reader without close connection to the military from enjoying this short listen? Probably not. If you are a fan of wooshing noises and explosions, and I am, this could be for you.

Below are a few such examples and egregious spoilers:

Air Force pilots, in general, do not fly F-18 Hornets. The F-18 is a U.S. Navy aircraft.

Corporal is not an Air Force or Space Force rank.

A Raptor, or F-22, is a contemporary U.S Air Force fighter. In this story, it is the name of the supersecret hypersonic aero-spaceplane. Sure, the name, Raptor, is cool but why not name the hero aircraft something other than an existing aircraft.

A space battle platform? I can buy into it just like I can dig ridiculous Marvel heli-carriers. A space battle platform built in secret in a geo-synchronous orbit over the north pole. No, I cannot. Something like that would be insanely difficult to keep secret. The number of launches! The number of eyeballs just looking up! The budget lines! Americans are really good at spying on themselves.

Placing this platform in a geo-synchronous “orbit” over the north pole is an utter impossibility. The only place a geo-synchronous orbit is possible is over the equator at an altitude of about 22,000 miles. Parking something such that it is stationary over the north pole means it will fall.

The USS Vicksburg, CG-69, a Ticonderoga-class Aegis cruiser, a vessel I have landed upon, is beset while peacefully at anchor in international waters by small boats crewed by resurgent Russians. These Russians manage to disable the ship and its four LM 2500 gas turbine engines mounted on twin shafts with a missile called a Stinger. Is that the U.S. made Stinger missile, a short- range, shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft missile? Our hapless cruiser is damaged sufficiently that the crew is evacuated before it is scuttled. Scuttled? Only one person can scuttle a ship and that is the captain of the ship. There is so much wrong with this scenario it is difficult to begin. Cruisers do not pointlessly anchor in international waters in a warzone. The USS Cole took a thousand pound C4 hit amidships from a small boat and was still mobile. After that incident no small boat approaches a U.S. Navy warship without challenge.

The characters are cliched caricatures of fighter pilots. A hyper-aggressive commander recruits an international cadre of hyper-aggressive, super-competent pilots who screw around at hypersonic speeds. I know a good story needs drama but the production could have used a military advisor to capture a more genuine tone of how real warfighters sound and behave.

I had the sense that those involved in production just googled the word missiles and copied down all the coolest sounding names they could find.

One particular irritant is the pilot character’s constant narration of their own actions. I concede that this is a weakness of the format. Action needs to be conveyed somehow, but having sat in cockpits, I know what they sound like. They are pretty boring even when it gets exciting.

Clearly, the story and the format was not for me. I am way too much of a military and aviation nerd but there are ways drama could have been conveyed without the verbal and technological hyperbole. Google F-16 evades 6 Iraqi missiles if you want some real- world fighter pilot drama. It’s about ten minutes worth of Holy crap and heavy breathing.

Bottom line: I did not get a near future military techno-thriller story that requires a modest suspension of disbelief. I got a superhero story with all the accompanying explosions and superlatives.

Which is okay if that is what you want.



The characters are cliched caricatures of fighter pilots. A hyper-aggressive commander recruits an international cadre of hyper-aggressive, super-competent pilots who screw around at hypersonic speeds. I know a good story needs drama but the production could have used a military advisor to capture a more genuine tone of how real warfighters sound and behave. The voice acting was good. The actors just didn't have much to convey other than righteous anger and bravado.

I had the sense that those involved in production just googled the word missiles and copied down all the coolest sounding names they could find.

One particular irritant is the pilot character’s constant narration of their own actions. I concede that this is a weakness of the format. Action needs to be conveyed somehow, but having sat in cockpits, I know what they sound like. They are pretty boring even when it gets exciting.

Clearly, the story and the format was not for me. I am way too much of a military and aviation nerd. There are ways drama could have been conveyed without the verbal and technological hyperbole. Google F-16 evades 6 Iraqi missiles if you want some real- world fighter pilot drama. It’s about ten minutes worth of Holy Shit!

Bottom line: I did not get a near future military techno-thriller story that requires a modest suspension of disbelief. I got a superhero story with all the accompanying explosions and superlatives.

Which is okay if that is what you want.

Do not drive and listen......

This was an amazing listen. Very well acted , sound effects/music were awesome. Very suspenseful I was listening as I was driving to work and stuck in traffic. Made me wish I had a Raptor to clear my way! My only complaint is that it is too short and wrapped up a little too quickly. Worth the credit!

Unforgivable technical errors

I wanted to like this book but just couldn't do it and returned it halfway through. From the insubordinate behavior from "elite" pilots to the author using anti aircraft missiles to try and sink a ship I just couldn't do it anymore. I loved Babylon 5 and hoped this would be in the same light but when you use the real world suspending disbelief is much harder.

disappointing

I'm a real fan of Michael strachinski, however I was very disappointed with this piece. the dialogue in particular was very cliched and the plot was just string together all the standard Moments One expects from a action combat movie. I'm so used to Michael giving us something more thoughtful that this is a true disappointment.

very shallow and very short.

I enjoyed the multiple voiced and sound effects but the plot was very shallow and predictable.