No Star's Land by Joseph Samachson -Vintage Science Fiction Short Story Audiobook human voice

The exploration spaceship was trapped between warring stars, like the famous WWI bird trapped in no man's land...but how could they fly away like a bird when the adversaries outclassed them to the nth degree?
Joseph Samachson (1906-1980) was a scientist with a Ph.d in Chemistry from Yale, who in addition to scientific papers, also wrote science fiction and comic books. His SF was published under the pseudonym William Morrison, and he has a long list of short stories and a few novels to this name.
While writing for DC comics, he created the character Martian Manhunter together with the artist Joe Certa, and also co-created the characters Tomahawk and Two-Gun Percy.
No background music, by popular demand. Only my voice, croaks, wheezes, and all. Enjoy!
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Stories of Futures Past presents a vintage science fiction short story, narrated by myself, Tom Trussel. An actual, real living human being, warts and all.
Any and all voices and effects are produced live during reading with my actual voice. No obnoxious after effects, synthetic voices or filters used.
English is not my first language. There will be inaccurate accents and the occasional strange pronunciation. No mockery is ever intended.
These stories are also good for English learners / ESL. The full text is right there on the screen in a big and easy to read font. Read along with me. It's great practice!
A note about channel donations:
At this point in my life I do not need nor ask for your money. I do this for the love of the short story and to help promote the enjoyment of science fiction and fantasy literature.
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Copyright notice:
The written text of this story is in the public domain, as determined by the researchers and transcribers at Project Gutenberg, or it has passed the 95-years-since-publication mark. The story is and should be free for anyone to enjoy.
Boilerplate license wording off the Gutenberg website:
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If you would like to read some of my own paltry writings, they can be found at tomtrussel.com

[@alantaylor353]

Thank you Tom.!! 👍 👍 👍

[@futurespast-42]

You are very welcome :)

[@serafina2k]

🎉🐙

[@futurespast-42]

:)

[@victorfinberg8595]

there is a poem i picked up from an sf book, i think written by poul anderson, in which "war birds" are mentioned. "... the yellow-footed fowl had much to feast on ..." "... wet with blood, the war-birds waded through the slaughter" this is from "the kraakamaal", the death song of ragnar hairly-breeks ragnar lothbrok is, of course, a real historical figure, and so is the epic poem "krakumal" i am guessing from your name and other things that you will be able to track this to the original sources easily

[@futurespast-42]

You are correct :) For Old Norse, with Norwegian and two different Danish translations: (a bit down the page, after a lengthy introduction) www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Norsk_dikting_etter_vikingtidi For English translation: skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1020 Krakumal means the "The Crow's speech", or "words spoken by the Crow". Åslaug/ Aaslaug, Ragnar's wife, was called "kråka" (the crow), and this is probably named after her. In modern Norway, calling someone a crow is something of a slur (it means they are unkempt, raggedy, noisy and/or unpleasant). I suspect this would be the case also a millennium ago. Fun fact: in modern Norwegian the expression "Kråkemål" means unintelligible use of fancy words, such as one often comes across in academia or offiicialese. The yellow-footed fowl refer most probably to Eagles. The letter Å å is pronounced like in the name Paul, or the word ball. Same goes for Aa, aa. If this is too much information, sorry. I could not help myself, I find stuff like this interesting.

[@victorfinberg8595]

@@futurespast-42 never too much information. i live for information. now, what exactly ARE the referenced birds? a) eagles. pro: yellow feet b) crows (or similar) pro: everything EXCEPT "yellow feet" scatter some stuff that MIGHT be food on the ground. often within seconds, a whole pack of crows arrives. no eagles. the image we get from the poem is a BUNCH of (small) birds that ALWAYS show up to battlefields. it just does not fit with the known behaviour of eagles, which are solitary, and quite rare.

[@futurespast-42]

ooh, I live for this stuff! I read this stanza of the poem slightly differently. Old Norse skaldic poems are full of imagery and metaphors, kennings and are very rarely to be taken literally. (I will use the linked English translation here): "We hewed with the sword. I was very young when we chopped up a breakfast for the greedy wolf east in the Øresund, and we provided a massive meal for the yellow-footed bird where tough swords sang on rivet-studded helmets. All the sea was troubled; the raven waded in corpse-blood. ’ so... "We chopped up a breakfast for the greedy wolf (...), and we provided a massive meal for the yellow footed bird (...)" I read this as "we were like these predatory kings of animals we mention" and then later "the raven waded in corpse-blood." is different, a prosaic way of saying they left many fallen enemy on the battlefield. No bunches of small birds here, though. but also, the English translation changes the words of the original. For example, the words that are translated as "chopped up a breakfast" -Skífðum undarn- are more accurately "fixed dinner" (technically "created mid-day meal", this noon meal usually being the main meal of the day in those times.

[@victorfinberg8595]

@@futurespast-42 ok, you asked for it !! so here is the full text of the poem, as rendered by Poul Anderson into modern English (*) enjoy ! Swords we were a-swinging! Sooth, was I a young one when east in sound of Ore, all the wolves got booty; and the yellow-footed fowl had much to feed on, where 'gainst high-nailed helmets hardened swords were singing; wet with blood, the war birds waded through the slaughter." "Swords we were a-swinging! Storm of darts struck shields and angry dead fell earthward as we in Northumber's morning had no need to urge the mustered men on, where the swords were whining while they sundered helmets- men did more than kissing maidens in the high seat "Swords we were a-swinging! Swart bit brands in shield rims when the spears were splitting; swords were raised to Valkyrs. England's isle remembers ages through, how kings went boldly into battle, blazing blades before them. ..." "Swords were a-swinging! One and fifty slaughters have I seen where hosts were hailed by word of arrow. Among all men I never found a one more valiant. (Young of years and early yare was I for battle.) Us now Aesir summon home, and I go death ward. "I wish now no waiting War maids sent by Odhinn from the halls of heaven homeward to him bid me. Ale I'll drink with Aesir eagerly in the high seat. Now my life has left me. Laughing gang I death ward!" (*) while i did remember the text of the poem, i had to look up the meta. it was indeed Anderson, in "the last viking". with it comes the "caption": "the death song of ragnar hairy breeks and all the old bold north". the occasion is the battle of stamford bridge. and as you can see, anderson has "massaged" the text to make it sound and read best in modern english, while still remaining true to the original words.

[@futurespast-42]

Thank you, I don't think I had read this version :) I really like this one. re-imagined, is that the word these days?