Dark Light Years

by Brian W. Aldiss, Liam Gerrard (Read by)

Overview

A strange alien species forces us to question our definition of civilization in this biting satire from the Grand Master of Science Fiction.

What would intelligent life-forms on another planet look like? Would they walk upright? Would they wear clothes? Or would they be hulking creatures on six legs that wallow in their own excrement? Upon first contact with the Utod—intelligent, pacifist beings who feel no pain—mankind instantly views these aliens as animals because of their unhygienic customs. This leads to the slaughter, capture, and dissection of the Utod. But when one explorer recognizes the intelligence behind their habits, he must reevaluate what it actually means to be "intelligent."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798228006140
Publisher:	Tantor
Publication date:	09/10/2024
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Brian W. Aldiss was born in Norfolk, England, in 1925. Over a long and distinguished writing career, he published award-winning science fiction (two Hugo Awards, a Nebula Award, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award); bestselling popular fiction, including the three-volume Horatio Stubbs saga and the four-volume the Squire Quartet; experimental fiction such as Report on Probability A and Barefoot in the Head; and many other iconic and pioneering works, including the Helliconia Trilogy. He edited many successful anthologies and published groundbreaking nonfiction, including a magisterial history of science fiction (Billion Year Spree, later revised and expanded as Trillion Year Spree). Among his many short stories, perhaps the most famous was "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long," which was adapted for film by Stanley Kubrick and produced and directed after Kubrick's death by Steven Spielberg as A. I. Artificial Intelligence. Brian W. Aldiss passed away in 2017 at the age of 92.

Liam Gerrard is an award-winning voice artist with over ten years of experience working in every field of the voice industry, as well as a highly acclaimed stage and screen actor. His animation Walter Tull-Britain's First Black Officer was nominated for a BAFTA in 2016, and he has been nominated for an Audie Award in 2017. He has narrated over thirty audiobooks in a wide range of genres and styles.

He comes from a large Irish family, although he was raised in Yorkshire before moving to the Middle East, where he went to school. He studied at Lancaster University and then as a classically trained actor at Mountview; he is currently the youngest actor to play the lead role of Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest in London's West End. He has worked for the most renowned theater companies, including the Royal Exchange Theatre (two Manchester theater award nominations), Edinburgh Lyceum Theatre (five Critics Choice nominations), Soho Theatre (MTN nomination), and most regional theaters throughout the U.K., including Alan Aykbourn's SJT, New Vic, Oldham Coliseum, Nottingham Playhouse, and Theatre by the Lake. His wide-ranging experience has also seen him perform Opera in Rigoletto.

He is an associate lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University in Broadcast Voice and is also a communication skills specialist and trainer. In addition, he is an examiner for the Royal College of Psychiatry, Royal College of Surgeons, Royal Scottish College of Surgery.

In his spare time Liam is also a musician who plays the violin, drums, piano, and percussion. He also enjoys spending time with Peg, his Springer Spaniel, out on the Peak District whenever he can get away from the studio!

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
While many science fiction novels written in the 1960s are still highly entertaining, there are few that are just as timely and profoundly moving today as they were when originally published. The Dark Light Years by British author Brian Aldiss is one of those rare literary gems.

Originally published in 1964, the story chronicles how space-traveling humans deal with an intelligent alien race that they discover on a remote planet. The utods are hippolike beings with six limbs and two heads that like to wallow in their own excrement. The process is a ceremonial one for the utods and has deep cultural and spiritual significance. The humans, upon seeing them, are repulsed; and when the utods rise to view their strange bipedal guests, the humans proceed to gun them down. The survivors are taken back to London, where they are placed in a zoo before eventually being butchered by curious scientists.

Aldiss said that he wrote this novel in anger after he found out scientists were conducting inhumane experiments on dolphins. That anger is evident in the insane actions of some the main human characters. This novel asks the big questions: What is intelligence? What does it mean to be civilized? What is the meaning of life? According to Aldiss, humans have a long, long way to go before we can call ourselves intelligent.

The Dark Light Years is an absolutely brilliant novel -- a must-read book with a chilling message, especially in these turbulent times when a little intelligence can go a long way. Paul Goat Allen

bn.com