Audiobooks by Francis Godwin

In 1638, in the first age of modern astronomy, as the starts opened up to us, the scientists of the time found themselves bound into fantastical visions based on their new knowledge. This was perhaps the first 'hard' sci fi, at least based on the cutting edge of knowledge from the time. Drawing on contemporary theories of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Gilbert, the inhabitants of the Moon in this story are a tall Christian people encountered by a roguish hero who must learn of their lands, and gains items that allow the control of light, heat, and gravity. Described by Edgar Allen Poe as “a singular and somewhat ingenious little book”, it was a direct influence on Jules Verne and HG Wells.

Francis Godwin (Author), Charles Featherstone (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Man in the Moone: The Strange Voyage and Adventures of Domingo Gonsales to the World in the Moon

The Man in the Moone, first published in 1638, is considered one of the first works of science fiction. The author was an Anglican bishop who became interested in astronomy following the circulation of the works of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo. Much of the current speculation about the moon was concerned with whether it was populated, and if so, by what race. In the story, Godwin’s protagonist, Gonsales, develops a flying machine that can be drawn by a flock of geese in harness, and uses it to escape capture in a sea battle. The geese mount higher and higher until they alight on the moon, which Gonsales discovers to be occupied by an advanced race called the Lunars. Later on, Gonsales returns to Earth and finds himself in China, where he establishes a favorable relationship with the court. The story ends with a discussion of his plans to return to Spain with the assistance of the local community of Jesuit priests.

Francis Godwin (Author), Gregory Sheridan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Gazing at the Moon: 1500 years of lunar exploration and encounters

Collected here are six tales that span nearly two thousand years, from a Roman citizen writing a satire of the ‘historical’ literature of his time in 182 AD to Edgar Allan Poe exploring the idea of a scientific ascent to the moon in 1835. Humanity changed vastly across that time, and yet the moon never lost its allure, its promise of mystery and magic. By the late nineteenth century, it was clear that the moon’s surface was barren, and a wave of moon-based stories inaugurated the expansion into space of fiction. Before we breached the atmosphere and sent men to our planet’s satellite, humanity spent countless millennia gazing up at the moon and wondering what might be there, telling stories by firelight of the mystery and magic of our constant and changing night-time companion.

Edgar Allan Poe, Francis Godwin, Louis Holberg, Lucian Of Samosata (Author), Charles Featherstone (Narrator)

Audiobook

Proto Sci Fi 182-1741AD: The very first speculative fiction tales, translated from the Latin, Dutch

This volume includes works that we would now recognize as science fantasy, with tropes such as exploring civilizations on the moon and strange devices with magical powers. It includes: A True Story, Lucian of Samosata, c. 182. Written partly as a response to the inventions in other ‘histories’ of the Roman era, which were often as much fantasy and rumor as fact, this story is the earliest known work to include space travel, aliens, liquid air, robots, interplanetary warfare, and worlds with different rules of physics. The Tale Of The Bamboo Cutter, Ozaki, c.939. From the oldest extant Japanese folk narrative, this work is also known and in film as “The Tale of Princess Kaguya’. In today’s terms, it is the first work of speculative fiction, concerned with encounters with beings of impossible power, and a princess whose home and people are on the Moon. Somnium, Johannes Kepler, 1609. A novel written by the astronomer whose name is still known today, described by Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov as one of the first works of science fiction. Describes a culture and civilization on the Moon. The Man In The Moone, Francis Godwin, 1638. Drawing on contemporary theories of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Gilbert, the inhabitants of the Moon in this story are a tall Christian people encountered by a roguish hero who must learn of their lands, and gains items that allow the control of light, heat, and gravity. Described by Edgar Allen Poe as “a singular and somewhat ingenious little book”, it was a direct influence on Jules Verne and HG Wells. Niels Klim's Journey Under The Ground, Louis Holberg, 1741. Originally written in Latin, this is the first book in the “hollow Earth” genre. It concerns a traveler who falls into orbit around the inner sun, and must learn the ways of a strange six-armed people that populate the inner surface of the Earth.

Francis Godwin, Iwaya Sazanami, Johannes Kepler, Louis Holberg, Lucian Of Samoa (Author), Chirag Patel (Narrator)

Audiobook