Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Solar Express
    Solar Express
    Solar Express
    Audiobook16 hours

    Solar Express

    Written by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

    Narrated by Robert Fass

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    You can't militarize space. This one rule has led to decades of peaceful development of space programs worldwide. However, increasing resource scarcity and a changing climate on Earth's surface is causing some interested parties to militarize, namely India, the North American Union, and the Sinese Federation.
    The discovery of a strange artifact by Dr. Alayna Wong precipitates a crisis. What appears to be a hitherto undiscovered comet is soon revealed to be an alien structure on a cometary trajectory toward the sun. Now there is a race between countries to see who can study and control the artifact dubbed the "Solar Express" before it perhaps destroys itself.
    Leading the way for the North American Union is Alayna's friend Captain Christopher Tavoian, one of the first shuttle pilots to be trained for combat in space. But, as the alien craft gets closer to its destination, it begins to alter the surface of the sun in strange new ways, ways that could lead Alayna to revolutionary discoveries-provided that Chris can prevent war from breaking out as he navigates among the escalating tensions between nations.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateNov 3, 2015
    ISBN9781494580643
    Solar Express
    Author

    L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

    L. E. Modesitt, Jr., is the bestselling author of the fantasy series The Saga of Recluce, Corean Chronicles, and the Imager Portfolio. His science fiction includes Adiamante, the Ecolitan novels, the Forever Hero Trilogy, and Archform: Beauty. Besides a writer, Modesitt has been a U.S. Navy pilot, a director of research for a political campaign, legislative assistant and staff director for a U.S. Congressman, Director of Legislation and Congressional Relations for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a consultant on environmental, regulatory, and communications issues, and a college lecturer. He lives in Cedar City, Utah.

    More audiobooks from L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

    Related to Solar Express

    Related audiobooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Inhibitor Phase

      Aug 11, 2021

      Inhibitor Phase
      2 min read

    • Article

      Astrocomical Ends

      Mar 24, 2022

      Perceiving UFOs as novel phenomena occurring within our atmosphere, as they are by any reasonable definition, appears both common sense and good science. But as we saw last month, it took a long time for UFO investigators and scientists to reach that

      4 min read

    • Article

      Tuning In To Radio Station Jupiter

      Mar 4, 2020

      Tuning In To Radio Station Jupiter
      3 min read

    • Article

      How NASA’s Mission to Pluto Was Nearly Lost

      May 17, 2018

      On the Saturday afternoon of July 4, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons Pluto mission leader Alan Stern was in his office near the project Mission Control Center, working, when his cell phone rang. He was aware of the Independence Day holiday but was much mor

      14 min read

    • Article

      Searching For E.t.

      Jul 14, 2022

      Searching For E.t.
      5 min read

    • Article

      Astronomical Transients

      Feb 22, 2024

      Astronomical Transients
      5 min read

    • Article

      Cosmic Beats

      Jan 26, 2021

      Cosmic Beats
      4 min read

    • Article

      Cutting Edge

      Dec 16, 2021

      Cutting Edge
      4 min read

    • Article

      Our Fate Is in the Stars

      Jun 3, 2019

      Our Fate Is in the Stars
      8 min read

    • Article

      What Are the Odds of Alien Contact?

      Jan 16, 2020

      The only intelligent life forms we know of reside here on Earth. But that hasn’t stopped us from trying to answer the question: “Are we alone?” The search for extraterrestrial intelligence now has an accepted acronym, SETI, and a growing number of in

      10 min read

    • Article

      Cutting Edge

      Jul 15, 2021

      Cutting Edge
      4 min read

    • Article

      NASA Learns the Ugly Truth About UFOs

      Jun 1, 2023

      At a meeting in NASA headquarters yesterday, the public had some blunt questions about UFOs, or, as the government now calls them, “unexplained anomalous phenomena.” A NASA spokesperson summarized them aloud: “What is NASA hiding, and where are you h

      3 min read

    • Article

      Cosmic Beats

      Jan 7, 2021

      Cosmic Beats
      4 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Aug 10, 2023

      New astronomy and space titles reviewed Avi Loeb John Murray £20 • HB The central argument of Interstellar is that humanity is unprepared for the realisation that advanced extraterrestrial civilisations are common, and that we have not even begun to

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Disappearing Physicist and His Elusive Particle

      Jul 25, 2019

      The members of the physics institute at Via Panisperna were in the habit of giving themselves jocular nicknames: Enrico Fermi was “The Pope,” Orso Corbino was “God the Almighty,” and Franco Rasetti was “The Cardinal Vicar.” It was 1930, and the Itali

      11 min read

    • Article

      The Disappearing Physicist and His Elusive Particle: He ushered symmetry into theoretical physics, then vanished without a trace.

      May 8, 2014

      The members of the physics institute at Via Panisperna were in the habit of giving themselves jocular nicknames: Enrico Fermi was “The Pope,” Orso Corbino was “God the Almighty,” and Franco Rasetti was “The Cardinal Vicar.” It was 1930, and the Itali

      11 min read

    • Article

      The Planet-hunting Machine

      Oct 1, 2019

      The Planet-hunting Machine
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Madness of the Planets: Our Home in the Universe Continues to Rock out of Control.: Our home in the universe continues to rock out of control.

      Dec 12, 2013

      I am a staunch believer in leading with the bad news, so let me get straight to the point. Earth, our anchor and our solitary haven in a hostile universe, is in a precarious situation. The solar system around us is rife with instability. Residents of

      12 min read

    • Article

      Star Women Three Trailblazers Who Transformed Astronomy

      May 1, 2022

      Star Women Three Trailblazers Who Transformed Astronomy
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Solar Express

    3.5/5

    34 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      Less than ten years after publication elements of the story have become anachronistic, such as limited data communication in space.
    • 3/5
      Interesting and pretty well paced though, it was a bit repetitive due to the format. And it had to dress up the story in an ‘international’ crisis and technical glitches.
    • 3/5
      An astrophysicist stationed at a telescope on the far side of the moon makes an amazing discovery. He pen pal, a space pilot, is sent to check it out. But so are the Chinese (or in the book, the Sinese Federation), and they, apparently, are being run by a bunch of paranoid and war-mongering nut-jobs.

      I liked some parts of this story.
      -It does a good job at reminding us that dull, routine duties constitute the largest part of most jobs, even cool things like flying spaceships and running a space telescope.
      -It has a fair amount of physics technobabble. Some of it is even plausible.
      -There is relevant commentary about the long-term effects of the societal choices we are making in the U.S. now, specifically on energy, the economy, infrastructure, and the environment.

      And some things just didn't work for me.
      -The relationship between the two main characters didn't make a lot of sense. They met briefly, once, and began a (very) long distance personal relationship via space e-mail. Not impossible, but the basis for it is never satisfactorily explained.
      -The paranoia of the Sinese makes no sense at all. Why are they so determined to start a global war? How did what amounts to inmates at a home for delusional sociopaths come to dominate the nation? Yes, I know it sometimes seems like the world is dominated by maladjusted six-year-olds, but these guys are loony.
      -And then there's the prose. It seems, well, clunky, unpolished, sometimes verbose. Here's an example (from page 304) that kind of made me cringe: "The only explanation he could come up with for their explanation was that the hexagons below had projected some form of energy in a hexagonal field, but that field had spread slightly and manifested itself as a circle in whatever effect it had upon the substance of the hull." I think that sentence could use a bit of work.
      -There are typos, especially in the snippets of space e-mail. I'm not sure if these are intentional to make them appear more realistic or if the editor just missed them.

      The story bogs down in places and sometimes requires a bit of effort to get the meaning from the prose, but the protagonists are likable folks doing admirable work. Their story is a good one.