Cold Eyes

First Contact

By: Peter Cawdron

Narrated by: Neil Shah

Cold Eyes is an original First Contact novel, written as a tribute to the 1974 science fiction classic, The Mote in God's Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

The UN warship Magellan is twelve light-years from Earth, exploring a cold eye, a tidally locked super-Earth called Bee. At least two advanced intelligent species evolved on the planet, but the crew's attempts at radio communication result in garbled replies. No one is waiting for them in orbit. The crew has to figure out why. Any misunderstandings could lead to war.

©2022 Peter Cawdron (P)2022 Podium Audio

Sci fi for thinkers

On the order of the old authors, this one gets into many of the sciences. Good read, good plot.

Movie worthy

Our minds sometimes wonder off to places that’s we all want to know either threw the known or in known , this listen is great and make you think if we are the only ones n which we not ijs . But this great story of the known in known

enjoyable story and good narration

very good listen. enjoyable first contact novel with some interesting twists. narration is good with distinct voices for the different characters.

Please, please do not make this the first one of his contact series that you listen to!

I have liked every one of his standalone first contact books. This was actually the last one of them that I bought. I have listened to all of them. So …. he is good, and I like his stories, and they are sometimes very unique in their perspective. This was definitely not one of them.

His other stories showed us how aliens can have absolutely… alien perspectives. This just felt like that Star Trek episode with the half white half Black down the middle people.

Good thing, Captain Kirk came to the planet to set them straight.

I suppose if this was a movie made in the 70s, and it felt a little like that, the floating brains might’ve been out of their budget. But hell, they would’ve looked funny if they tried.

That being said, I am very happy this was not the first of his books i listened to. I honestly think all the other ones were good.

So I wasn’t going to…, not listen to this one. I like the other ones so much, he still deserve my credit. :)

Very sigma book

Quite sigma indeed. Very enjoyable for intellectuals only. My eyes are very cold after reading this book.

This is Cawdron at his Masterful Best !!!

Peter Cawdron has been writing ‘First Contact’ stories for a long time now, each one completely different to the last, but just as outstanding, clever and intriguing, and with each new book, he seems to challenge himself to create a more fascinating adventure to take us on. Cold Eyes is no exception.
At the start of Cold Eyes, we meet our main character, Dali, and the rest of the crew of the Magellan, as they are finishing their 12 light year journey to Luyten’s Star, and the planet Gliese 273b or ‘Bee’ for short. It is here that the crew hope to contact the alien species that inhabit this planet, a tidally locked ‘Super Earth’.
Cawdron starts this story with some fascinating Sci-Fi straight off, as we learn that the crew have been ‘grown’ on the way, and had their memories implanted from the original people that they have been cloned from. This has allowed the ship to travel the incredible distance without a ‘live’ crew as such, and then populate the ship once they reach their destination. The concept, the science, is all exceptionally fascinating, and Cawdron uses his characters to explain it to us, using Dali as he has not properly imprinted and as a result, does not have his memories and needs things explained to him. It is a very clever way of telling the story to the reader, allowing the explanation of some more ‘hard sci-fi’ concepts, but keeping with the story that poor Dali has ended up as a clone with his language and basic features, but none of his core mission and higher learning programming has properly implanted. This is a serious concern for the mission also, as Dali is the missions First Contact expert, and without his skills, the mission could be on an early path to disaster. They need to communicate with the planet to avoid a potential conflict, as whomever is down on the planet is far more advanced than Earth, and with no one in orbit around Bee waiting for them, everyone is worried about what the intentions of those that live on Gliese 273b actually are?
Cawdron begins to unravel the story, of a mission that needs to succeed due to various parameters (I won’t give spoilers), and is now down a key member. Some of the crew advocate for just air-locking Dali and creating another clone so that they can do the imprint again, but this raises some very moral and ethical questions that Cawdron discusses amongst the crew.
What follows is a fascinating, intriguing, and totally captivating series of events as they approach Bee, and you find yourself drawn into this book, and getting so lost, you realise it is 3am in the morning and you have to be up in 3hrs for work. Cawdron’s world building, both of the Magellan, and in a literal sense of Gliese 273b, is just outstanding. He creates this intricate, incredibly detailed and comprehensive places for his characters to tell their stories, but more than that, Cawdron has researched every aspect of every scene, so that it is as realistic and real-life as possible. Without Spoilers, the in-depth descriptions of the Magellan, and of Bee, the science is mind-blowing. As the Magellan manoeuvres through space, the explanation and mental imagery of the orbital mechanics is just exceptional and adds this whole extra dimension to the story telling. Cawdron has created a world on Bee that is just full of sensational surprises and discoveries, it is not only amazing to read about, but once again proves just what an absolute Master he is creating this sort of Sci-Fi.
As with all of Cawdron’s work though, the true standout has always been his character driven story-telling, and Cold Eyes takes this to a whole new level. The characters in this story, Dali, Sandy, Helios and Kari are all beautifully written, each with such different personalities, all so highly intelligent and driven by the mission, but at the same time, having this interpersonal connection with their partner, and the group. It is a fascinating group dynamic to watch, and Cawdron has put a lot of effort into not only creating the characters, but making sure that the psychology of such a small group, and the subsequent group dynamic is accurate as well. The ensuing discussions relating to Dali and his situation are just intriguing and again, this is done with so much realism, intensity, and human emotion.
This is a truly fascinating story, seen through the eyes of Dali, a newly born clone, that has not received the memories of his host, so is basically child like at times in his curiosity, and whilst still having picked up some of his former hosts memories, as Dali struggles in his new environment and the adventure he goes on, it is not only captivating and intriguing, but there is both wonder and some humour in his story. I don’t want to give spoilers, but Dali’s interaction with the inhabitants of Bee, sentient life that has developed on this planet, but has not taken to space, is magical. Dali’s story is an epic tale, beautifully told, with stunning, in-depth and intricate world building, as well as a good bit of Hard Sci-Fi, this will captivate and enthrall you – Cawdron has again shown that he is the Master of Character Driven Sci-Fi, and this is one Not to be Missed!!
As with all of Cawdron’s work though, the true standout has always been his character driven story-telling, and Cold Eyes takes this to a whole new level. The characters in this story, Dali, Sandy, Helios and Kari are all beautifully written, each with such different personalities, all so highly intelligent and driven by the mission, but at the same time, having this interpersonal connection with their partner, and the group. It is a fascinating group dynamic to watch, and Cawdron has put a lot of effort into not only creating the characters, but making sure that the psychology of such a small group, and the subsequent group dynamic is accurate as well. The ensuing discussions relating to Dali and his situation are just intriguing and again, this is done with so much realism, intensity, and human emotion.
This is a truly fascinating story, seen through the eyes of Dali, a newly born clone, that has not received the memories of his host, so is basically child like at times in his curiosity, and whilst still having picked up some of his former hosts memories, as Dali struggles in his new environment and the adventure he goes on, it is not only captivating and intriguing, but there is both wonder and some humour in his story. I don’t want to give spoilers, but Dali’s interaction with the inhabitants of Bee, sentient life that has developed on this planet, but has not taken to space, is magical. Dali’s story is an epic tale, beautifully told, with stunning, in-depth and intricate world building, as well as a good bit of Hard Sci-Fi, this will captivate and enthrall you – Cawdron has again shown that he is the Master of Character Driven Sci-Fi, and this is one Not to be Missed!!
Neil Shah is brilliant as Narrating Cold Eyes, with a wonderful voice that is both clear and concise, but also providing very clear and easy to understand male and female voices. Shah creates very distinct male and female voices so you can easily tell who is talking, but not only ‘human’ voices, but alien as well, creating an exceptional range of different voices with which to tell this story. Shah also creates the emotional state of each of the characters so that you understand how they feel as this this incredible story unfolds. Shah does an Narrating Dali’s tale to us, and this is well worth listening to as it is so exceptionally well done!!

Cold Eyes audio

First, if you’ve read this book, go listen to it. There are nuances and information that were perhaps not perceived in written format. The humor, voices and enjoyment of the main characters also elevated the action.
One positive you will always encounter in all Peter Cawdron’s first contact books, is a steady, paced, explanation of basic space science and technology. Although I don’t always understand it all, I enjoy that 5s flash of, “Oh, I get this!”
We are all conditioned to know what First Contact will bring; war or friendship. Cawdron’s books are an enjoyable revelation of the hundreds of ways First Contact can happen. And, you will love them all!

Someone recommended this on reddit

And I'm glad they did. This is great hard SF. Don't let the small number of reviews put you off- the narration is top notch, as is the story. Enjoy!

I loved it. Cawdron is endlessly interesting

Every one of Cawdron's first contact book explores the subject from a different angle. He simplifies a lot of the science and there are coincidences and commonalities that are extremely unlikely, but it isn't meant to be a science textbook.

Overall, I liked it. Neil Shah did an excellent job reading it as well.

An interesting take on human-initiated first contact

Solid performance by the narrator which well captures the emotion of the story. The story however stretched credulity a few times to enforce the central plot conceit of a gravity- bound civilization