Islands of Space

By: John W. Campbell

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

As Earth's faster-than-light spaceship hung in the void between galaxies, Arcot, Wade, Morey, and Fuller could see below them, like a vast shining horizon, the mass of stars that formed their own island universe. Morey worked a moment with his slide rule, then said, "We made good time! Twenty-nine light years in ten seconds! Yet you had it on at only half power...."

Arcot pushed the control lever all the way to full power. The ship filled with the strain of flowing energy, and sparks snapped in the air of the control room as they raced at an inconceivable speed through the darkness of intergalactic space. But suddenly, far off to their left and far to their right, they saw two shining ships paralleling their course! They held grimly to the course of the Earth ship, bracketing it like an official guard. The Earth scientists stared at them in wonder. "Lord," muttered Morey, "where can they have come from?"

Public Domain (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

But first...

You may not realize this, but this book is part of a series. The reason why this book starts off making little sense is because it's - not - the first book. That said, you are looking at reviews for a HARD SCI-FI genre. You can't just pop the book open and casually listen to the story with little to no knowledge of science(especially physics). The concepts are not easily explainable. For those that complain there is no plot? It spans across the series and is best described as humanities ascendancy to galactic dominance(albeit a bit fast). That said, the main characters do get fleshed out throughout the series.


Long story short? It's an interesting read... just read the whole series. Look up the author and you'll see what I mean.

We live in the future

The best part of this book was how old it is. The things the earth men do, and their attitudes, are so quaint and weird. It’s a good story and well written. And the oddness of the old-fashioned point of view just makes it the more interesting.

Very very old school sci fi

Fine narration. Super clunky plot structure- BUT if you take it in the context of its era it's kind of thrilling. No one but a tiny handful of sci fi writers even imagined space travel when this was written and the idea that there was more than our single galaxy was literally a brand new concept. From that perspective, this was an incredible leap of imagination and an exciting beginning to imagining cosmic vistas and other star systems with other civilizations.

A captivating story

this was a different kinda story. most books humans are the ones lacking technology. Not this one. this story we are the unstoppable force. for that reason alone it deserves 5 stars and the science behind the weapons is created in a believable fashion. it's a quick listen and worth a credit. fantastically great for free!

This is not your dad’s sci-Fi

From the golden age of vacuum tubes, self developing photographic plates and Magnetism to the “Nigrans” from the dark star. This is Gandpaw’s Sci-Fi. Dated, but fun and entertaining.

Quaint and Entertaining Sci-Fi

This has been an interesting story of four boys taking to an adventure across the universe on a fantastic ship built from the discovery two super meta materials. However, it reads too much like a children’s book devoid of deeper world building and character development.

Certainly entertaining, it is a nice departure from the often heavy and emotionally charged reads of Space Opera books often featured in catalogs. I would recommend this for a lighthearted read or listen.

It's good just a little dated

Good book. I think the build up and story were good. The narrator is great.

Not a bad listen

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Starts off a bit technical and boring, but it gets better

If you’ve listened to books by John W. Campbell before, how does this one compare?

Not as good as some of the others.

What three words best describe Oliver Wyman’s performance?

He is the best, I wish he read more books in Audible.

Did Islands of Space inspire you to do anything?

Nope

Classic Early SciFi

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I could easily recommend this book to anyone used to scifi from from the pre-80's. Islands of Space being written in the 1950's is quite different and may not be for everyone.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Couldn't change it much since it is what it is, a bit of high adventure the way it was perceived in the years before man actually got into space.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The performance was quite acceptable for the material.

Do you think Islands of Space needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Not really.

Any additional comments?

Islands of Space was a satisfying read but being from the same era of other books like the Lensman Series and the Skylark Series by E.E. "Doc" Smith it fell quite a bit short of the quality of the Doc Smith stories which are all available from Audible and which I HIGHLY recommend.

old timey science fiction

stories like this are fun to read sometimes, when you push a button and something happens.