Dragon's Egg: Cheela, Book 1
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Dragon's Egg: Cheela, Book 1 Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Robert L. Forward (Author), Todd McLaren (Narrator), Tantor Audio (Publisher)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,199 ratings
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In a moving story of sacrifice and triumph, human scientists establish a relationship with intelligent lifeforms - the cheela-living on Dragon's Egg, a neutron star where one Earth hour is equivalent to hundreds of their years. The cheela culturally evolve from savagery to the discovery of science, and for a brief time, men are their diligent teachers.

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  1. Listening Length
    11 hours and 47 minutes
  2. Author
    Robert L. Forward
  3. Narrator
    Todd McLaren
  4. Audible release date
    November 21, 2017
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Tantor Audio
  7. ASIN
    B077D2KP72
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 11 hours and 47 minutes
Author Robert L. Forward
Narrator Todd McLaren
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date November 21, 2017
Publisher Tantor Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B077D2KP72
Best Sellers Rank #129,358 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#572 in Hard Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#892 in First Contact Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#2,371 in Alien Invasion Science Fiction

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
2,199 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Robert P Gelms
5.0 out of 5 stars No omlete's on this one.
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2018
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Baby Dragon
By Bob Gelms
The most popular science fiction sub-genres are first contact and time travel stories. I know this must be serendipity because I have bumped into two of the best examples of both. I’m writing about first contact in this issue and time travel in the next issue.
In my little world, Dragon’s Egg by Robert L Forward is in competition with Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End as the best first contact novel off all time. It is delightfully surprising.
Dragon's Egg has NOTHING in common with Childhood’s End. In fact, it has nothing in common with any other first contact novel I have ever read. It is unique. It is also a prime example of a hard science story. All of the science is explained and there is some help at the end of the book in the form of essays explaining the science in the book. After reading the novel you will be conversant in everything relating to a neutron star. It’s fascinating.
500,000 years ago, in the constellation Draco, a star exploded, a supernova, clearly visible from Earth. After a while it cooled and was flung out into the Milky Way Galaxy. Eons go by and it finally reached the far outer edges of our solar system where it was detected by Earthlings. A science mission was sent out to study the little neutron star as it traversed our solar system. Because it originated in the constellation of Draco it was given the name Dragon’s Egg.
In a wildly happy coincidence, the Earth mission discovers sentient life living on the surface of Dragon’s Egg. This is completely unexpected. The gravity on a neutron star is utterly crushing, the surface temperature is about 8,000 degrees and the radiation could fry a human being from about 50 light years away.
Yet, there they were. They call themselves the Cheela. There is, however, one gargantuan monkey wrench thrown into the Cheela’s life on Dragon’s Egg. I’m not going to completely ruin the surprise but it’s a bombshell.
The Earth mission discovers that the Cheela are a civilization that has only progressed to a very savage and early state in their development. Earthlings are very advanced compared to the Cheela so we decide to help them along. (Whatever happened to the Prime Directive-do not interfere, LOL?)
The Cheela rapidly progress in their development and are unequivocally brilliant. As they draw equal to us in technological advancement, we stay in contact but we stop teaching them and, as a parting gift, we send them an encyclopedia.
The Cheela use the encyclopedia as an intellectual springboard to race far ahead of us both in the advancement of their civilization and in the dazzling state of their technology. They have kept this from us just as we did with them. However, they have come to a generous bequest. I am not giving away the denouement, but it’s a very special gift from one grateful race of sentient beings to another. Live long and prosper.
Dragon’s Egg by Robert L Forward is a great, great book. It’s everything science fiction reaches for. There are abundant ideas that will keep your head spinning, new ideas and ideas for the future. The huge problems in the novel are solved in extremely clever ways. The solutions do not take advantage of the other race. There are no wars, death from particle weapons, invasions, multi-generational starships, dastardly intentions, galaxy sized aggressive behaviors or zombies.
It is important to note that first contact with an extraterrestrial sentient race in Dragon’s Egg happens entirely by accident. We were not looking for it. As far as we were concerned, we were alone in the universe. SURPRISE! It turns out the Cheela were more stunned than we were.
A wise old science fiction writer once wrote, “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”
Del Rey Publishing has created a new imprint called Del Rey Impact. These are books that have slipped through the cracks for one reason or another and are being given a second chance to find an audience because they are important and should be widely read.
There are nine books on the Impact imprint and it just so happens that Dragon’s Egg is accompanied by none other than my favorite science fiction book of all time and the best first contact book ever, Childhood’s End by Arthur C Clarke.
Do yourself an enormous favor and discover or rediscover this timeless classic, Dragon’s Egg by Robert L Forward.
16 people found this helpful
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BigOrangeDave
4.0 out of 5 stars Challenging Read
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2017
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This book is a challenging read for a couple of reasons.

First, there is a lot of science, very detailed science, in the book. Gravity, the challenges of describing life as it might exist in a neutron star, time differentials as well as the difference in scale between humans and these amazing aliens. I won't pretend to understand most of it and It can make reading such dense material slow going. However the payoff is worth it!

Second, the sheer scale and scope of the story is staggering. We follow this alien race from its elementary beginnings to the point where it becomes the teacher. Both humans and the aliens are connected in Scientific, theological and philosophical ways. The author does such a magnificent job of telling the story that it is more than worth the challenge of reading it.
5 people found this helpful
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andrea
5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling read
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2015
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What a fantastic story! I go through phases where I don't pick up a book for a long time, then I jump online and do a bit of research and download a few and lately I've found myself wading through 'space opera' and not really enjoying the length or lack of pace in such books. As someone who gets bored of very lengthy books, this novel was a breathe of fresh air, I couldn't put it down. Very thought provoking and fast paced, almost too fast paced to be honest. I was so absorbed in it I didn't want it to end.

The story of the rise of the cheela civilisation was enthralling. I won't go in to the plot as many others have done but what I will say is this, if you like hard sci fi and are fascinated by how intelligent life would evolve under completely different conditions to us then this is a must read. The story is quite humorous in places and I particularly enjoyed how the rise in their technology was reflected in how they were named. As another reviewer has mentioned, when humans and cheela finally meet, it is indeed a blast and had me smiling.

As a few others have mentioned, the human characters are quite one dimensional however I didn't see that as a bad thing at all, there are plenty of other novels out there where the story is based around the human character development. In this case I think it was much better for the humans to take a back seat, trust me the cheela were far more interesting!!
18 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Manfred S
5.0 out of 5 stars Anspruchsvoll und mit visionärer Physik
Reviewed in Germany on February 11, 2022
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Leben und Intelligenz auf einem Neutronenstern auf Basis von Atomkernen nicht Atomen wie bei uns auf der Erde; utopisch und anregend. Im Anhang werden auch die Grundzüge der Physik eines Neutronen Sternes erläutert.
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Marcus Maia
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente
Reviewed in Brazil on October 4, 2020
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deveria ter uma continuação , com o povo chela explorando a galáxia junto comps humanos , não conhecia o autor até esse livro
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow. This was a wonderful adventure
Reviewed in India on December 31, 2017
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This book took through a very well imagined journey. I would compare it to Martian and interstellar. I would read it again to understand the science.
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RGW
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 23, 2018
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Really fascinating and enjoyable hard (and I do mean HARD) sci fi. I'm not an expert in any of the fields dealt with in this work so I don't know how plausible the science really is. But the author sure made it seem plausible.

The premise is very imaginative and the story of the development of the cheela civilization is really gripping. And the different speeds of human and cheela life gave the whole thing a bit of real poignancy.

All in all a very enjoyable and thought-provoking read.
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Phil FNQ
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Concepts
Reviewed in Australia on April 11, 2022
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Dragon's Egg lives up to the promise of mind bending concepts in a hard-science framework. It does so in an entertaining way with lots of short characterisations. I have not read anything like this before - thoroughly recommended.
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