The Minotaur

First Contact

By: Peter Cawdron

Narrated by: Tim Fannon

Life has been found beneath the icy shell of the moon of a gas giant orbiting a red dwarf at a distance of 11 light-years from Earth.

When the crew of the original exploration mission crashes on the alien moon, a rescue ship is launched. Arriving decades later, the crew of the Kelvin finds a colony of survivors living in the labyrinth of caves beneath the surface of the moon. When people start dying, they realize they need to unravel the secrets of this alien world and the mystery of the minotaur.

The Minotaur is a tribute to the 1961 classic Solaris, written by Stanislaw Lem, and considers the psychological impact of examining an exotic alien life form unlike anything ever encountered on Earth.

First Contact is a series of standalone novels that explore humanity's first interaction with extraterrestrial life. This series is similar to Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone in that the series is based on a common theme rather than common characters. These books can be listened to in any order. Technically, they're all first as they all deal with how we might initially respond to contact with aliens, exploring the social, political, religious, and scientific aspects of First Contact.

Includes a special note from the author.

©2025 Peter Cawdron (P)2025 Podium Audio

imagination

I have listened to all the books in this series and have never reviewed any of the thousands of books I have bought, read and listened to and has to be as exciting as any book series or story I have enjoyed. I hope you will give it a try but only in the hopes that you enjoy them as I did.

Exceptional hard science fiction

A unique store with outstanding narration. This is a gem in the hard science-fiction genre.

Alright Concept, Bad Pacing (And the ship is on its side)

I’m sad because I really wanted to like this. I love First Contact stories, but this one just didn’t land for me.

The good? I think it ended well. The alien life form was interesting and the implications well considered.

The meh? A lot of the policies presented within the book felt needlessly contradictory. I found the whole married couples only thing odd since a lot of the conflict (or lack there of) was due to the married couples. It’s possible that I just didn’t get it though, so I wouldn’t say it was bad. Just a weird choice.

The bad? Pacing. I understand the need for introspection but it was over halfway through the book for almost anything to happen. And it felt like the author did not trust me to remember anything that happened even when nothing was really happening. There are only so many times I can be told the orientation of the ship in the same exact phrasing before I go crazy, and this book surpassed that number in a single chapter. It’s literally the thing about the book that I talked to my spouse about. It’s a joke now. The ship is, against all odds, still on its side.

Overall, I probably could have DNFed this and been fine.