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The Outward Urge

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The Outward Urge

By: John Wyndham
Narrated by: Felipe Pacheco, Theo Solomon, Dorje Swallow
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About this listen

The 'outward urge' was a factor in the Troon inheritance. Successive generations of Troons, looking up at the stars, heard the siren voices that called them out into Space. And, as the frontiers of Space receded, there was usually one Troon, if not more, out there, helping to push them back.

The four exciting episodes related here deal with the parts they played in the building of the Space Station, the occupation of the Moon, the first landing on Mars and the trouble about Venus.

John Wyndham, author of The Day of the Triffids and The Kraken Wakes, stays strictly on the tram-lines of future possibility in this book, which he has written in collaboration with Lucas Parkes as technical adviser. In an age in which what goes up need not necessarily come down, the likely adventures of the conquistadors of Space are every bit as exciting as any world menaced by triffids.

©1959 John Wyndham (P)2022 Audible, Ltd Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Space Exploration Fiction Interstellar Solar System

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There's a theme throughout of the curse of the outward urge to explore Space and the ending was full of pathos and fairly unexpected. Great philosophical questions addressed - typical Wyndham. A link to Stowaway to Mars but a much better novel.

The Space Race

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I'm afraid that this is now rather dated, but, nevertheless, is well worth a read.

Great SF

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I really enjoyed these stories. Outdated but still enjoyable, but hay it was written before the moon landings. Great performance by the narrator.

A series of link stories

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I read this in the 70s when I first discovered Wyndham's works and was confused by the story then. Re-engaging with it now through Audible I'm still left with the feeling that this is an epic opus which left a lot out. This could have been a more significant and extensive story.

A Troon to far

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I have enjoyed every Wyndham book that I've tried so far but this one was quite dull.
On the one hand, it is fairly interesting how the story follows the perspective of the Troon family. On the other, the story doesn't stick with one member of the family long enough to get invested in them as a character.
This book felt more like a collection of short stories that were stuck together using the perspective of the Troon family.
The sci-fi, unfortunately, is very dated and not all that exciting. Many concepts are of their time and are almost laughable.
It was good enough as background listening but I won't be revisiting it.

Strange format and dated

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As a big fan of John Wyndham, I’m always surprised at his shear variety of writing. With the hard science fiction feel of exploring the solar system, this story feels like a progenitor of stories like “The Expanse” series. Having the audiobook narrated by 3 different people to cover the different periods and people covered in the span of this story gives the story wonderful depth. The performances make the story feel very natural, with each person in the story feeling very different to each other. John Wyndham deserves more love.

John Wyndham’s Hard Sci Fi Book

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Basically, enjoyable but nothing like his more famous novels. I enjoyed each short story, but they reminded me of retro comic #scifi stories. I think I may have been expecting too much. 😃👍

Very Different from other Wyndham stories.

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One of the few Wyndham books I haven’t read/ heard. Bit slow to start but really enjoyed it nonetheless.

An underrated slow burn

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As usual interesting story love John Wyndham but the narrators style or reading especially the one trying to do an odd Australian accent was annoying and life less like a computer program voice disjointed. It spoils an otherwise great book

Interesting love John Wyndham but

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Like so many Wyndham books this is now rather dated in light of knowledge, but there is still that 50s charm in this linked set of stories. I read it decades ago and enjoyed hearing it again. If you can view it from the period when it was written, it’s a good choice.

It’s John Wyndham, so dated but still enjoyable

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