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  • Stowaway to Mars

  • By: John Wyndham
  • Narrated by: Olivia Dowd
  • Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (172 ratings)

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Stowaway to Mars

By: John Wyndham
Narrated by: Olivia Dowd
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Summary

Aircraft designer Dale Currance undertakes a journey to Mars in an effort to capture the prize being offered to the first man to complete an interplanetary journey, but a female stowaway throws his plans into disarray.

An international prize of one billion has been offered to the first man to complete an interplanetary trip, and Dale Curtance, a millionaire adventurer, emerges as the British entrant. With a hand-picked crew, he blasted off from Salisbury Plain in the spaceship Gloria Mundi, destination—the planet Mars. Once free of Earth's atmosphere, they discover a stowaway—a woman. Her extraordinary story helps them prepare for the dangers they encounter on the Red Planet, and the fantastic world that exists there.

©1935 John Wyndham (P)2022 Audible, Ltd
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What listeners say about Stowaway to Mars

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

tedious and dissapointing

for such an interesting premise the author managed to skate over the exciting parts and labour on discussions between the characters about the nature of life and the British empire.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great listen, great story.

Great listen, great story.Big dan of John Wyndham’s prose and mind for science fiction. Brilliant performance by the narrator as well.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Showings it’s age but a good yarn

Not one of John Wyndham’s best, but I’m curious how so much of what he wrote seemed so very wide of the mark technically given that it was apparently published a year before NASA put men on the moon. Usually his work is well researched…but maybe I’m missing something 🤔.
A good yarn with a nice little Wyndham-esque tease at the end.
Enjoy 😊

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Sci-Fi of its time

This is a John Wyndham story previously unknown to me, obviously not achieving the acclaim of "The Day of the Triffids" and his other more famous novels. After recently revisiting and enjoying his well-known stories, it was a slight let-down, even seeing it in the light of 1960s Sci-fi. Its ending was rather abrupt, and hinted at a sequel to come, though I have no idea whether it was ever written, being quite near the end of the author's life.


The narrator was easy to listen to and very clear, which has possibly raised the book's overall score.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Easy read

The story was entertaining. It’s well written, there is hope, and it is believable. I would recommend it.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Dated but pretty good

A great performance and a fairly interesting novel.
Many of the concepts, especially regarding traditional gender roles, are extremely dated.
The book starts off painfully slow with characters that becomes completely irrelevant about halfway through.
There is some great world building with the discoveries on Mars. Including genuinely interesting ideas around the societal impact of AI and self governing machines.
Unfortunately the book ends in a shockingly abrupt, lazy and boring way.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Stowaway to mars

Has failed to stand the test of time in the way that his more well known titles have, not because the story itself is out of date - in fact it is quite interesting hearing thoughts of what the future would entail from the point of view of a person in the 1930s - but because the ideas that are put under the microscope and debated in the book are now so dated. A large part of the book revolves around the idea that machines could one day become intelligent, which was probably quite a revelatory leap of thinking and perhaps difficult to grasp as a concept when this was written, but is now such an obvious and accepted reality that we don’t need to spend so much time being persuaded that this may become reality. Overall well narrated, and easy background listening, but it’s not going to live long in your memory.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Stowaway to mars

Stowaway to mars is not my usual type of book but it was included so gave it a try and thoroughly enjoyed it. . . .

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not the best from Wyndham but still interesting

I couldn’t find myself captivated with this one. An interesting listen but not his best.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing!

Gives great perspectives and a really interesting story with inspirations from reality at the time.

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