Omnilingual
H. Beam Piper
Read by Mark Nelson
An expedition to Mars discovers the remains of an advanced civilization, which died out many thousands of years ago. They recovered books and documents left behind, and are puzzled by their contents. Would the team find their “Rosetta Stone” that would allow them to unlock the Martian language, and learn the secrets of this long-dead race? (Summary by Mark Nelson) (1 hr 56 min)
Chapters
| Part 1 | 42:00 | Read by Mark Nelson |
| Part 2 | 29:10 | Read by Mark Nelson |
| Part 3 | 16:01 | Read by Mark Nelson |
| Part 4 | 11:57 | Read by Mark Nelson |
| Part 5 | 17:42 | Read by Mark Nelson |
Reviews
Great content, abrupt ending
Dave
Excellent reading of some really interesting stuff. unfortunately, it was only some, and not a lot, of interesting stuff. I'm not complaining about the length, it's clearly shown as under 2 hours, so you can't expect a huge story. Even so, I felt the ending was very abrupt. Some questions are built up by the narrative as if they're going to be resolved, and then the book ends and you're left wondering what the answers might have been if the story had continued. Leaves the listener with something to think about, at least.
like the story but
A LibriVox Listener
all of this story has a sudden ending. Leaving you wanting more. It is well done and does and where you could expect it. Would have liked a part 2 to it but as with all Piper's work it is good. Mark Nelson of course is excellent as always
Finding the Rosetta Stone
Peter Emmrich
Great high-concept SciFi - H. Beam Piper assembles an interesting and diverse crew of scientists to unearth the mysteries of a lost Martian civilisation. This is a short book, but it explores it's central idea very well and I wouldn't agree about it feeling incomplete.
great story
Bobocela
enjoyed this story and wish there was a sequel. I feel like the author started on a story line and then abandoned it or didn't have time to finish it. 😢. our loss.
one for the language nerds
Mark Burchard
It may be bit "pat on the head" but a woman is the hero of this story. She takes a lot of crap from everybody but keeps going in that chipper 50's way until she solves the puzzle that will make her famous around the Galaxy. And then her jerk crewmates, both male and female get to eat a heaping pile of crow. It's a pretty satisfying story for readers of any gender :) Among Piper's best. His writing and dialogue definitely hail from the 50's, but he manages to make it come out less stilted and awkward then so many of his contemporaries.
Tara Li
One of the great stories of the Golden Age of science fiction, and a brilliant example of how all science works together to create a tapestry of understanding. Yes, it suffers from the humano-centric view, with aliens that use months, a decimal positional notation for mathematics, etc. But it illustrates that there are universal constants that give us hope of communicating with aliens, should we ever encounter them. We lost H. Beam Piper all too soon.
Not one of Piper's best in my opinion
tellmeatale
Good tale well narrated by Mark Nelson. I also feel like this tale came to a very sudden stop rather than a ending. But overall is worth lending a ear to as this is Mark Nelson's genre it seems and he brings out the best in all the tales he reads. Thanks to LibriVox and Mark for a enjoyable tale.
Good story, disappointing ending.
dsuden
As always, Mark Nelson does a fantastic job. The story is fascinating, and I was really disappointed when it suddenly ended. I guess I’m a way, things had resolved themselves, but it just felt like there were so much more that could have been told. Kind of felt like it fell off the end of the world when suddenly the book was done