An Earthman On Venus (Version 2)

Ralph Milne Farley

Read by Daryl Hanson

(4 stars; 30 reviews)

"An Earthman On Venus" was first published as a serial under the title "The Radio Man" in 1924. It is the first book in a science fiction series imaginatively written in the vein of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The main character is Myles Cabot, an earthman who finds himself accidentally transported to the planet Venus. He is naked and unarmed in a world filled with man-eating plants and giant insects. He soon discovers the planet is ruled by enormous ant-men, who have subjugated the Cupians, a more human-like race of inhabitants, to use as their slaves. Myles is immediately captured and must learn to communicate with the Formians, his six-foot tall ant-like masters. But how can one hope to converse with creatures which seem to be completely deaf and dumb? While Myles is in their grasp, he meets and becomes enthralled with Lilla, a beautiful Cupian maiden who has been kidnaped from her own people and enslaved by the giant monsters. Though more human-like in appearance, she, too, seems totally without the power of hearing or speech. Using all his wits, Cabot must devise a way to escape from his captors in order to help Lilla and the Cupians end their long slavery to their Formian masters. Other books in the series include "The Radio Beasts" (1925) and "The Radio Planet" (1926). (Summary by Daryl Hanson)
(6 hr 7 min)