Lost in Space

by Joan D. Vinge

As Lost in Space, starring William Hurt and Gary Oldman, gets ready to blast off into movie blockbusterdom, Hugo Award-winning author Joan D. Vinge offer fans this action-packed audiobook based on the movie's exciting storyline.Capturing the Twists and Turns of Intergalactic fate, this exciting audio tells how the Robinsons came to be castaways -- the parents' plans for space travel and planet colonization, their children's mixed reactions to leaving Earth, and Dr. Smith's treachery that backfires when he's trapped aboard the lost ship. As their ship careens blindly through space, they encounter a mysterious, technologically advanced, but abandoned, space station, where the adventures escalate and their role in the fate of the entire universe becomes clear.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Joan D. Vinge (born Joan Carol Dennison) is an American science fiction author. She is known for such works as her Hugo Award-winning novel The Snow Queen and its sequels, her series about the telepath named Cat, and her Heaven's Chronicles books.

Reviews

[Jhaydun Dinan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Regrettably, I'm writing this review after already watching the recent Lost in Space remake that came out not long ago and I know they are SIGNIFICANTLY different. But I will not be allowing myself to compare the two of them, because a review should not be about that. It should be about the content of the product you're reviewing.

Now, the first thing I have to say... Is the ACTION! Wow, does this story get action packed into it, or what?

The story starts off fast with Don West and Jeb (Jebediah) 'last name' and then moves slowly while it focuses on the main characters' lives back on earth.

Between the betrayal, action, horror, love, friendship, intelligence, and bonds, this story has everything a person could ask for. Witty banter, fun conversations, firefights, near-death experiences, original concepts, and even an alien planet.

And if that wasn't enough... There's a really intriguing, thought-provoking concept of time travel that leaves you wanting to read on.

Although the ending wasn't all I thought it could be, it was enough to leave me satisfied with the book. All in all, Lost in Space by Joan D. Vince is a nice, light science fiction read for anyone looking to experience a little sci-fi during a long night or lonesome weekend.

[Igor Neox · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lesson on how to save an arguably bad movie: write a novelization! It’s so much better than the movie it was adapted from (not the other way around as usual), letting the readers create their own visuals instead of watching the bad 90’s CGI graphics ✨

[Mars Dorian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good novelization of a fun sci-fi flick from the late 90s. The story has the typical space opera cliches but goes down like cool Coca-Cola on a hot summer day.

Smart science family travels hyperspeed to explore a distant planet for colonization. Lots of things go wrong during the journey, surprise surprise, featuring technospiders, evil scientist villains, and space portal phenomena.

At around 200 pages, it's basically a novella that can be devoured in one read-through. I probably should rate this 3 stars but I have to admit, I BLASTED THROUGH THE BOOK and never wanted to put it down, which is a feat few books achieve nowadays.

[Zachary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw the movie when I was eight or so, and so I vaguely recalled a number of the scenes. "Lost in Space" is good, light reading, but it definitely falls short in terms of character development - especially in the complete malevolence of Dr. Smith who, despite his attempt to justify his narcissistic behavior by appealing to Nihilism, fails to make the reader even begin to believe him. The father-son struggles were touching, but the novelization's author tried too hard to get the point across; it would have been much more effective had she stuck less to editorializing about "finally getting the attention he'd always wanted," and let the natural tension of the scene do the talking. Overall, not bad; and a couple of hours borrowed from my childhood memories.

[Nicolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I love this move (and novelizations in general), this was a pretty lackluster adaptation. I expected more from a Hugo winning author, but I don't feel like it added much depth to the story. It focused too much on a setup and not enough on story.

We discuss this further in this episode of the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/ep...

[Ari · Rating 1 out of 5]

Childish, full of sci-fi clichés... totally unnecessary piece of "literature".

The novel is based on a movie script and it shows, badly. Even a good writer can't save a story which is totally stupid to start with. And this really is. Joan D. Vinge is innocent - or she is to be blamed on accepting the job of writing this nonsense.

This is actually a children's book and the story is like a modern action movie "for all audiences", full of special effects and lacking everything else. Waste of paper and time. Parental advice is needed in the form of "stay away from this rubbish".

The only level-headed content in the story was the human ability to spoil and destroy everything. The novel (by mistake) tells once again why we should not ever leave planet Earth because it would just mean destruction also elsewhere in the space. Mankind should live and perish here; the mistakes of evolution should not be spread anywhere.

Suomalaisille lukijoille (jos todellakin aiot lukea tämän). Käännös on kömpelö ja kääntäjän kielitaidossa on parantamisen varaa. Esim. Godspeed on käännetty muotoon "Jumalan nopeus" ja ilmaisuja kuten "Poistui oven kautta paikalta" on riittävästi.
Toki on sanottava, ettei tätä teosta olisi kannattanut kääntää lainkaan.

Lost in Space - Matkalla avaruuteen
Otava 1998

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to re-read this book because there is tv-series in Netflix which is based on Lost in space movie (and book). I have to say that this isn't well written book because Lost in space was movie first and then they made the book from the movie. I also didn't like "aliens" in this story because they were unbelievable and too creepy for me. I also rolled my eyes couple times to other things and I needed to remind myself that this was movie and that's why some things are over the top.

Why do I still like this story? This story is entertaining, fast paced and full of plots twists. This is also to the first books which introduced me to space traveling. After this book, I have read so many more space traveling books because I love space traveling so much. I also like most of the characters in this story and I enjoyed seeing the family dynamics between the characters.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read these to get details and
character insight.
I was a lot of word for word
but did give a few hints about
the people. For example, in the movie
they dont give any hint that Dr Robinson
had any kind of military training or interest in
the outdoors.
The book tells us differently and explains that his father
wasn't as cold and distant at the movie implies.

[Janelle]

Dnf. Annoying audio narration

[Henri Muurimaa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up the this book at a whim for very cheap somewhere, and it's very memorable for me because of the absolutely atrocious Finnish translation.

[Ana-Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this story during a cold winter day, with some hot cocoa and my pets around. All these reading clichees were the perfect background for the standard SF adventure that I could wish for:
- the perfect family of scientists, were every member is specialized in a specific field
- the hero pilot
- the villan
- the dangerous ETs
- the robot with a heart
- the gates through time and space
- all kinds of explosions ( planets, starships etc).
Overall impression: it was like seeing a children's Sunday morning movie, nice, relaxing, engaging, pleasant.
This is a story that is there to give a good time to the reader, and it does so completely.

[Gerold Whittaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novel based on the "Lost in Space" series from about 1965. The book appears to be written for younger readers.
The Robinson family leave Earth in a space ship, intending to colonise a new planet. It's a 10-year flight whilst they are in a cryogenic hibernation state. The flight is sabotaged though and they end up getting lost, landing on a planet which is breaking up. A time warp on the planet leads them to see things they could never have believed, rewriting science as they knew it!!

[Babete · Rating 3 out of 5]

( Perdidos No Espaço )

[Michaela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book for nostalgia reasons. I love the cheesy movie, and I enjoyed the cheesy novel as well. 2 stars for quality. 5 stars for something that made me smile.

[Chani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, but I had already seen the movie so there weren't really any surprises.