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Peter Cawdron

Galactic Exploration (First Contact) Paperback – July 2, 2012

by Mr Peter Cawdron (Author)

596 ratings

Part of: First Contact (20 books)

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FIRST CONTACT is a series of stand-alone novels that explore humanity's first interaction with extraterrestrial life.

Galactic Exploration looks at the Rare Earth hypothesis through the fictional adventures of three interstellar space craft exploring the galaxy, looking for evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life.This novel is the compilation of the stories:

Serengeti
Trixie & Me
Savannah
War

FIRST CONTACT is similar to BLACK MIRROR or THE TWILIGHT ZONE in that the series is based on a common theme rather than common characters. This allows these books to be read in any order. Technically, they're all first as they all deal with how we might initially respond to contact with aliens, exploring the social, political, religious, and scientific aspects of First Contact.

Print length

394 pages
Language

English
Publication date

July 2, 2012
Dimensions

6 x 0.89 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

147817577X
ISBN-13

978-1478175773
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Editorial Reviews

Review

I feel the series was intriguing, enjoyable and well written, I'm giving it 5 stars.I think some of the complaints I've seen in reviews [of the individual novellas] from others (and that includes myself) that there wasn't enough and they were left hanging will easily be resolved by reading the four novellas together as a whole in Galactic Exploration. Independent book review - TJ Hapney

From the Author

Galactic Exploration is a thoughtful look at the challenges mankind may face when exploring the Milky Way

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (July 2, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 394 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 147817577X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1478175773
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.16 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.89 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,003,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6,725 in Hard Science Fiction (Books)
- #30,571 in Science Fiction Adventures

Customer Reviews:
596 ratings

About the author

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Peter Cawdron

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Peter is an Australian science fiction writer, specialising in making hard science fiction easy to understand and thoroughly enjoyable.

His FIRST CONTACT series is topical rather than character-based, meaning each book stands alone. These novels can be read in any order, but they all focus on the same topic of First Contact with extraterrestrial lifeforms. In this regard, the series is akin to BLACK MIRROR or THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

Hard science fiction is a misnomer as far as categories of literature go, as it sounds harsh and difficult to understand, but that is far from reality. Hard science fiction is simply plausible science fiction, fiction that is written in such a way as it conforms to the known laws of science, and that makes it more interesting, as there's no magic wand the protagonist can wave to get out of trouble. Peter's forays into hard science fiction could best be described as informative science fiction or enjoyable science fiction.

Peter is a fan of such classic science fiction writers as Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke and Michael Crichton and their influence on his style and story lines is readily apparent. You can follow Peter on Facebook or Twitter or find him posting some interesting tibit on his blog http://thinkingscifi.wordpress.com/

Customer reviews

5 star		56%
4 star		28%
3 star		13%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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D. Vito

Solid Science Fiction

Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2019

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I enjoy Peter Cawdron’s books. He gives me the things I want from science fiction: a peek at the future, a good story, and there’s always plot twists to keep you guessing. I usually read his stories twice to see the “hints” for what’s really happening.
This one takes a look at how we can travel between the stars and what happens when we find aliens. The premise is that we’ve learned how to create replicants. They’re similar to clones but they have the previous replicants memories. When one person dies, they create a replicant and load their memories into the new one. It’s pretty cool.
The replicants are traveling through deep space looking for signs of intelligent life. They find it.
I’m not going to give any spoilers, but did I enjoy the book!

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Gordo

Another winner!

Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2019

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Peter Cawdron has become one of my favorite sci-fi authors. Every time I read one of his books, I think "this is his best yet". Galactic Exploration continues the trend. Four interrelated stories that could stand alone, but better when read together. All four stories are creative and well-written. I especially liked the second story, "Trixie & Me". I was so confused early in the story that I stopped and took a long walk to think about it, trying to figure out exactly what was happening, why Trixie and Berry were behaving the way they were. I figured it out on my own 5 or 6 pages before the end. As soon as I finished, I immediately returned to the beginning and read the first half again. What a clever story.

4 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Very interesting and suspenseful!

Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2016

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To start, Peter Cawdron quickly became one of my favorite authors when I used my kindle unlimited account to read his short story Free Fall, which was amazing and left me wanting the story to continue. His writing style kind of reminds me of Hugh Howey who is also an incredible author, I recently read his book Beacon 23, check it out, it's awesome. Galactic Exploration is another great piece of writing. Like all his other work, it makes you think and ponder, what if? What's out there? And makes you think, often his work addresses political, religious, and societal issues in a way you wouldn't expect. The story is broken up into different parts, each with its own story and direction, loosely tied together with broad purpose. Each part could be it's own novel(I really really wish he would!!). To summarize, earth creates a small number of ships to travel to a different parts of the galaxy traveling at near the speed of light.Galactic exploration tells the story of each ship and it is fascinating. You won't be disappointed reading this. I wasn't!

5 people found this helpful

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Big Game James

Epic Space Story with Down to Earth Characters and Plausible Science

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2015

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Without a doubt, Peter Cawdron's Galactic Exploration is one epic space story that will leave you thoroughly satisfied yet yearning for more. Not only does the story take you deep into interstellar space in search of intelligent life, but you'll find the characters very authentic and true to life. Even if they piss you off now and then.

In some ways, the starships of Galactic Exploration have the feel of the USS Enterprise. There's a starship commissioned to explore interstellar space, a bridge, a huge crew you hardly see, and interesting main characters that carry the show. Star Trek had their Captain Kirk, Spock, Doctor McKoy and Scotty and Galactic has Anderson, Diana, Berry and Trixie. There's even a type of love interest between Anderson and Diana and between Berry and Trixie although Berry and Trixie's relationship is complicated to say the least.

Yes, there are some similarities between Star Trek and Galactic Exploration, but don't worry, the storyline is completely different. And you won't find any transporters, phasers and cloaking devices on board the Galactic Exploration's Serengeti and Rift. Not even a photon torpedo. Not that photon torpedoes were ever very useful for Captain Kirk, of course. They certainly wouldn't be useful for Commander Anderson.

Given the time period, the science in Galactic Exploration seems entirely reasonable and plausible. In fact, this is the kind of stuff you can actually see happening sometime in the future. Even the most far-fetched part of the story, what happens to Trixie, is actually just as believable as the concept of the Big Bang and Evolution, if you really think it through.

This Peter Cawdron guy obviously knows how to write. I had never heard of him and had it not been for the glowing reviews of his Kindle Worlds Silo Saga piece (which I still haven't read), I would likely never have stumbled across this superb book. By the way, I had also never heard of Hugh Howey until hearing him on a marketing podcast talking about his success with something called Wool. It sounded like a weird title, but I decided to see what the fuss was about. After devouring, Wool, Shift and Dust I wanted more. And that, of course, is what led me to Peter Cawdron. Now I'm want more of Galactic Exploration. The Silos will have to wait...

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Preach

Thoroughly enjoyable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 3, 2020

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The author examines the Fermi paradox in a number of diverse stories. The book chops and changes pace throughout and some artistic license is used to drag the whole affair from the brink of the abyss.
The characters are caricatures and tropey.
Yet for all its imperfections it is a thoroughly engaging and imaginative piece of literature. This author continues to mature and is looking like he will move on from good books to great books as he resolves his style.

One person found this helpful

Chris N

Another great Story !

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 21, 2021

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I read 'Anomaly' and reviewed that as a 5 star and this plot line is equally innovative and again sideswipes the 'norm' for sci fi stories by dumping the usual clichés about first contact and how it might play put. This guy is the most exciting sci fi writer I've read in ages. Even when you think the story is going to head down a usual pathway he succeeds in twisting it in an interesting new direction and keeping the pace up.
Been hoping to find something this good for a while - it was worth the wait.

Kindle Customer

Credible and a great read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 13, 2020

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I have now read several of Peter's book and have enjoyed them all. He builds up his characters and story's well, with good depth but avoiding too much extraneous detail that I have found annoying with some other authors in this genre. There is credibility to his stories and I have been keen to find out what happens next so have sometimes read into the early hours! I would recommend his books to any scifi enthusiast.

One person found this helpful

Whittom

Good Sci-fi

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 23, 2013

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I like sci-fi movies, or on tv, but when it comes to books, no matter how much I want to like it, it somehow comes across as dull & rather heaving goind which always perplexes me because the subject matter is so very imaginative & new. Perhpas it's all the exlplanation of alien things that gets in the way? I don't enjoy the other extreme either - soap operas in space. Eastenders is depressing enough on earth!

Galactic Exploration however, is one of the few adult science fiction novels I've really enjoyed. A great blend of the personal & the known with the impersonal & alien environment of space. The central human story is maintained through centuries of space exploration by the very clever device of maintaining the same characters through their clones. Each has their own life & story while still being influence by their original history. The form of the book - written in three distinct parts - also keeps things fresh, while furthering the story & avoiding all the boring bits inbetween. The writing is very good & having three distinct settings allows the reader to really get into the each scene. I'll be looking out for more of Cawdron's exciting, innovative, unboring, unsoapy sci-fi!

5 people found this helpful

Chris Roberts

I have put this author on my go to list.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 10, 2013

Verified Purchase

I agree with the other positive reviews, the story and characters are very well written. As I finished the book I had in mind ideas for this review, then I read Peter's afterward and decided there was little point in re-writing his own descriptions of the four sections. One theme I saw which he did not mention was love, not Mills & Boon stuff, but a love of exploration, of the universe and what it means to be human. There is a passion running through this book and it comes through in the care with which the characters are brought to life and how they interact with each other and their environment.

This may not be the most inventive or surprising piece of science fiction I have read, however it was an absolute pleasure to read and I am looking forward to reading more of his work.

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