The Cosmic Computer
H. Beam Piper
Read by Mark Nelson
Conn Maxwell returns from Terra to his poverty-stricken home planet of Poictesme, "The Junkyard Planet", with news of the possible location of Merlin, a military super-computer rumored to have been abandoned there after the last war. The inhabitants hope to find Merlin, which they think will be their ticket to wealth and prosperity. But is Merlin real, or just an old rumor? And if they find it will it save them, or tear them apart? (by Mark Nelson) (7 hr 27 min)
Chapters
| Ch. 1-2 | 33:14 | Read by Mark Nelson |
| Ch. 3-4 | 38:56 | Read by Mark Nelson |
| Ch. 5-6 | 51:20 | Read by Mark Nelson |
| Ch. 7-8 | 35:44 | Read by Mark Nelson |
| Ch.9-10 | 47:48 | Read by Mark Nelson |
| Ch.11-12 | 35:54 | Read by Mark Nelson |
| Ch.13-14 | 49:11 | Read by Mark Nelson |
| Ch.15-16 | 41:56 | Read by Mark Nelson |
| Ch.17-18 | 40:57 | Read by Mark Nelson |
| Ch.19-20 | 36:28 | Read by Mark Nelson |
| Ch.21-22 | 36:03 | Read by Mark Nelson |
Reviews
enjoable
J. Williams
love the book, it is a good piper book. the reader is good too, I've listened to many of his readings and always enjoy them. only thing that is a little annoying is the intro to each chapter group, the music. it is much louder then the reading and can blast your ears if you are using headphones.
Very good story
mikezane
Conn is a young man trained to work on computers so he can find the ultimate computer in the universe. Along the way, he finds someone who knows about the computer, but will say nothing about it. Why? What is the big secret? Good story, kept me on my toes. Mark Nelson is a GREAT reader, I hope he is still reading for libravox.
Superb example of a good science fiction book
A LibriVox Listener
A little slow to start but maturely themed and very entertaining. Also nice and long. I'm a fan of longer stories with more developed characters.
The Cosmic Computer
Mr Mck
Fantastic story definitely my favourite H Beam Piper tale. Once again brilliantly read by Mark Nelson my favourite Libivox narrator. An excellent adventure with twists turns and great characters.
Cosmic!
Pop
Excellent reading, made it a pleasure to listen to. Expands on a short story, "Graveyard of Dreams", starting in an almost identical way then branching off into it's own story. Quaint but satisfying. Ends a little suddenly, but it's of it's time. I can imagine a B movie version doing much the same.
Love Piper and Mark Nelson
Nathan R
"In the future, computers will be ten thousand times bigger and hundreds of times more powerful!" so the old theory goes. a great tale by a man ahead of his time :)
Free Audio, Review
FNH
This is an old public domain story by H. Beam Piper and is read by Mark Nelson. It's a classic scifi adventure. I would go as far to say that its a "pulp" story well told. It starts small with family members interacting and quickly expands into a world wide adventure. Ray guns, space ships, nuclear explosions, could you want more? Well actually you could. You could want a fantastic reader and flawless audio production... your got it! Reading = 3/3 Production = 3/3 Story = 3/3 Overall = 9/9 read the rest of my reviews at http://freeaudioreview.blogspot.com
Enjoyable!
TwinkieToes
I enjoyed this story. It has a few different layers, which made it more fun than just a simple story. Belief/faith and how much one depends on oneself vs. sitting back and waiting for Superman (or Supercomputer) to save the day. I'm glad LibriVox doesn't allow musical/sound effect intros anymore. They annoyed me. :) But the story and reading itself was excellent!