AstrophelThe first extraterrestrial dialogue By Stephen Beam

I mistakenly thought this would be a standard sci-fi plot driven book; a crew going three parsecs to planet in another solar system. I was expecting aliens to attack and the crew to endure. Well, not so. This is a beautifully written piece that grabs you and holds you through the voyage, the stay on the planet, and the return. Mr. Beam truly has the amazing gift of making wild, almost psychedelic imaginings seem believable.

I don't want to give away the twist of the story, but will say that the ship's crew goes though an incredible journey - finding a planet full of wonder, dizzying differences and self-discovery. Though I wanted to go, too, I was rather glad my feet were firmly on planet Earth!

Where'd I learn of this book? Funny, that.... It was mentioned in Food Truck at World's end. Small world, hmmmm? 166

Free read AstrophelThe first extraterrestrial dialogue

Jake's wife, Stella, has been missing for eight years. He raises his son, Josh, alone. Though declared legally dead, Stella's disappearance remains a painful mystery that offers Jake a dim ray of hope; he takes that painful hope and turns it into an obsession to reach the stars.

Our solar system has been fully explored and found to be lifeless but for Earth. Jake works at Space Cruiser Inc., where they have refined the fringe-matrix-capacitor technology and made instantaneous space travel a reality. Humankind can now leave the cradle of our solar system and explore distant stars.

Jake and his special crew will be the first to pilot the prototype speedglobe beyond our solar system to a planet three parsecs away, a planet especially picked for its likelihood of harboring life.

This epochal voyage leads to an alien encounter unlike anything ever imagined before, a bizarre dialogue that reaches into the most intimate levels of each crew member's life. AstrophelThe first extraterrestrial dialogue