Listen free for 30 days
-
Downbelow Station (1 of 2) (Dramatized)
- Alliance-Union Universe: The Company Wars, Book 1
- Narrated by: Holly Adams, James Konicek, James Lewis, Karen Novack, Marni Penning, Peter Holdway, Zeke Alton, Robb Moreira, Triya Leong, Daniel Llacal, JJ Johnson
- Series: Alliance-Union Universe: The Company Wars, Book 1
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Performance
- Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £19.29
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Downbelow Station (2 of 2) [Dramatized Adaptation]
- Alliance-Union Universe - The Company Wars, Book 1
- By: C.J. Cherryh
- Narrated by: Holly Adams, James J. Johnson, James Konicek, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Beyond started with the Stations orbiting the stars nearest Earth. The Great Circle the interstellar freighters traveled was long, but not unmanageable, and the early Stations were emotionally and politically dependent on Mother Earth. The Earth Company which ran this immense operation reaped incalculable profits and influenced the affairs of nations.
-
-
wonderful
- By Paul Ahmed on 15-06-22
-
Merchanter's Luck (Dramatized Adaptation)
- Alliance-Union Universe: The Company Wars, Book 2
- By: C.J. Cherryh
- Narrated by: Christopher Walker, Holly Adams, Karen Novack, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fateful meeting between the owner of a tramp star-freighter that flies the Union planets under false papers and fake names and a proud but junior member of a powerful starship-owning family leads to a record-breaking race to Downbelow Station - and a terrifying showdown at a deadly destination off the cosmic charts.
-
-
Great story, poorly realised.
- By Peter on 27-04-22
-
Rimrunners (Dramatized Adaptation)
- Alliance-Union Universe (The Company Wars, Book 3)
- By: C.J. Cherryh
- Narrated by: Karen Novack, Kenyatta Rogers, Lise Bruneau, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Loki - mercenary spy ship and bounty hunter. It's the legal arm of the Merchanters' Alliance; but once enlisted, no crew member leaves Loki alive. Bet Yeager - a killer elite Earth Company Marine whose side lost. Now she's forced to escape aboard Loki, surrounded by enemies and hunting her old comrades. Yeager has nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. A single wrong word can give her away. And the fighting skills she must use to survive may be her death warrant.
-
-
The Future of Audiobooks is Arrived.
- By C. van Dohrn on 02-05-22
-
Serpent's Reach
- By: C. J. Cherryh
- Narrated by: Romy Nordlinger
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The constellation of Hydri, also called the Serpent, became an undesirable destination during the era of humanity's most prolific interstellar colonization. For Hydri was under strict quarantine because it harbored an intelligent and dangerous alien race, the insectoid majat. Yet human colonies predating the quarantine did exist in this sector of space, which they called Serpent's Reach. Cut off from others of their own kind, they had their own inbred culture and special relationships with the alien majat.
-
-
Great read
- By joyce on 31-07-16
-
Downbelow Station
- By: C. J. Cherryh
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 19 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pell's Station, orbiting the alien world simply called Downbelow, had always managed to remain neutral in the ever escalating conflict between The Company, whose fleets from Earth had colonized space, and its increasingly independent and rebellious colony worlds. But Pell's location - - on the outer edge of Earth's defensive perimeter - makes her the focal point in the titanic battle of colony worlds fighting for independence.
-
-
Well worth persevering with
- By Christie on 21-09-12
-
The Pride of Chanur
- Chanur, Book 1
- By: C. J. Cherryh
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one at Meetpoint Station had ever seen a creature like the Outsider. Naked-hided, blunt toothed and blunt-fingered, Tully was the sole surviving member of his company -- a communicative, spacefaring species hitherto unknown -- and he was a prisoner of his discoverer/captors the sadistic, treacherous kif, until his escape onto the hani ship The Pride of Chanur.
-
-
Cats in space! (not a spoiler)
- By Gareth Parsons on 03-09-18
-
Downbelow Station (2 of 2) [Dramatized Adaptation]
- Alliance-Union Universe - The Company Wars, Book 1
- By: C.J. Cherryh
- Narrated by: Holly Adams, James J. Johnson, James Konicek, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Beyond started with the Stations orbiting the stars nearest Earth. The Great Circle the interstellar freighters traveled was long, but not unmanageable, and the early Stations were emotionally and politically dependent on Mother Earth. The Earth Company which ran this immense operation reaped incalculable profits and influenced the affairs of nations.
-
-
wonderful
- By Paul Ahmed on 15-06-22
-
Merchanter's Luck (Dramatized Adaptation)
- Alliance-Union Universe: The Company Wars, Book 2
- By: C.J. Cherryh
- Narrated by: Christopher Walker, Holly Adams, Karen Novack, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fateful meeting between the owner of a tramp star-freighter that flies the Union planets under false papers and fake names and a proud but junior member of a powerful starship-owning family leads to a record-breaking race to Downbelow Station - and a terrifying showdown at a deadly destination off the cosmic charts.
-
-
Great story, poorly realised.
- By Peter on 27-04-22
-
Rimrunners (Dramatized Adaptation)
- Alliance-Union Universe (The Company Wars, Book 3)
- By: C.J. Cherryh
- Narrated by: Karen Novack, Kenyatta Rogers, Lise Bruneau, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Loki - mercenary spy ship and bounty hunter. It's the legal arm of the Merchanters' Alliance; but once enlisted, no crew member leaves Loki alive. Bet Yeager - a killer elite Earth Company Marine whose side lost. Now she's forced to escape aboard Loki, surrounded by enemies and hunting her old comrades. Yeager has nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. A single wrong word can give her away. And the fighting skills she must use to survive may be her death warrant.
-
-
The Future of Audiobooks is Arrived.
- By C. van Dohrn on 02-05-22
-
Serpent's Reach
- By: C. J. Cherryh
- Narrated by: Romy Nordlinger
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The constellation of Hydri, also called the Serpent, became an undesirable destination during the era of humanity's most prolific interstellar colonization. For Hydri was under strict quarantine because it harbored an intelligent and dangerous alien race, the insectoid majat. Yet human colonies predating the quarantine did exist in this sector of space, which they called Serpent's Reach. Cut off from others of their own kind, they had their own inbred culture and special relationships with the alien majat.
-
-
Great read
- By joyce on 31-07-16
-
Downbelow Station
- By: C. J. Cherryh
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 19 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pell's Station, orbiting the alien world simply called Downbelow, had always managed to remain neutral in the ever escalating conflict between The Company, whose fleets from Earth had colonized space, and its increasingly independent and rebellious colony worlds. But Pell's location - - on the outer edge of Earth's defensive perimeter - makes her the focal point in the titanic battle of colony worlds fighting for independence.
-
-
Well worth persevering with
- By Christie on 21-09-12
-
The Pride of Chanur
- Chanur, Book 1
- By: C. J. Cherryh
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one at Meetpoint Station had ever seen a creature like the Outsider. Naked-hided, blunt toothed and blunt-fingered, Tully was the sole surviving member of his company -- a communicative, spacefaring species hitherto unknown -- and he was a prisoner of his discoverer/captors the sadistic, treacherous kif, until his escape onto the hani ship The Pride of Chanur.
-
-
Cats in space! (not a spoiler)
- By Gareth Parsons on 03-09-18
-
Cyteen
- Cyteen, Books 1-3
- By: C. J. Cherryh
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman, Jonathan Davis
- Length: 36 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The saga of two young friends trapped in an endless nightmare of suspicion and surveillance, of cyber-programmed servants and a ruling class with century-long lives – and the enigmatic woman who dominates them all.
-
-
Good listen, but not for everyone
- By Pongo Narrates on 22-04-20
-
Norse Mythology
- A BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Dramatisation
- By: Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: full cast, Diana Rigg, Derek Jacobi, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet the trickster god Loki and his astonishing children – the giant wolf Fenrir, Jormungundr the snake that encircles the world and Hel, the little girl who grows up to be Queen of the dead. Here, too, is Odin the all-father, who sacrificed his eye to see the future, Thor the thunderer, who defends Asgard with his fearsome strength and mighty hammer and Freya the understandably angry, most beautiful of the gods and always being gambled for by unwanted suitors.
-
-
Fabulous!
- By J. Tomasevic on 22-02-19
-
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Secondary Phase (Dramatised)
- By: Douglas Adams
- Narrated by: Peter Jones, Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stranded on Prehistoric Earth since the end of the first series, Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect are once again trying to hitch their way off the planet. Zaphod finds his visit to the offices of the Guide rudely interrupted by Frogstar fighters, who further threaten to feed him to the Total Perspective Vortex. Eventually reunited, the three fetch up on the planet Brontitall and discover the indigenous species in something of a flap. Arthur meets Lintilla (several of her), Marvin gets to be a hero once again, and there is a meeting with the Man in the Shack who apparently runs the Universe....
-
-
Science meets philosophy - and laughs
- By Alexander Macallister on 02-02-14
-
Partners of Peril (The Shadow)
- By: Maxwell Grant
- Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto, Kevin Pariseau, Jonathan Davis, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this full-cast production of the classic pulp novel, The Shadow investigates as, one by one, the partners in a chemical company die mysterious deaths. The plot of Partners of Peril and much of the action is almost identical to "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate", the very first Batman story in Detective Comics #27, which appeared some years later.
-
On Basilisk Station
- Honor Harrington, Book 1
- By: David Weber
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Having made a superior look a fool, Honor Harrington has been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin. Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship's humiliating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station. The aborigines of the system's only habitable planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens.
-
-
A very good production of a good Space Opera
- By Jernau Gurgeh on 15-05-09
-
World Engines
- A post climate change high concept science fiction odyssey
- By: Stephen Baxter
- Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins, Christopher Ragland, Damian Lynch, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trapped on an alternate Earth, the combined crews of a crashed Russian spaceship, a British expeditionary force and a group of strays from the future must work together to survive, escape and discover what led them to this point. All are from parallel universes where small changes in history led to different realities, and the tensions between the groups are rising.
-
-
It's a bit deja vu
- By Mr. Chris Woollard on 12-09-20
Summary
The Beyond started with the Stations orbiting the stars nearest Earth. The Great Circle the interstellar freighters traveled was long, but not unmanageable, and the early Stations were emotionally and politically dependent on Mother Earth. The Earth Company that ran this immense operation reaped incalculable profits and influenced the affairs of nations.
Then came Pell, the first station centered around a newly discovered living planet. The discovery of Pell's World forever altered the power balance of the Beyond. Earth was no longer the anchor that kept this vast empire from coming adrift, the one living mote in a sterile universe.
But Pell was just the first living planet. Then came Cyteen, and later others, and a new and frighteningly different society grew in the farther reaches of space. The importance of Earth faded and the Company reaped ever smaller profits as the economic focus of space turned outward. But the powerful Earth Fleet was still a presence in the Beyond, and Pell Station was to become the last stronghold in a titanic struggle between the vast, dynamic forces of the rebel Union and those who defended Earth's last, desperate grasp for the stars.
Performed by Karen Novack, Zeke Alton, Robb Moreira, James Konicek, Holly Adams, James Lewis, Peter Holdway, Daniel Llaca, JJ Johnson, Triya Leong, Marni Penning, Keith Richards, Chris Davenport, John Kielty, Rob McFadyen, Joe Mallon, Nanette Savard, Anthony Palmini, Jason Keller, Brandon Burton, Yasmin Tuazon, Wyn Delano, Tanja Milojevic, Debi Tinsley, Jacob Yeh, Terence Aselford, Niusha Nawab, Eric Messner, Steve Wannall, Nora Achrati, Alejandro Ruiz, Colleen Delany, Michael John Casey, Bradley Foster Smith, and Ken Jackson.
What listeners say about Downbelow Station (1 of 2) (Dramatized)
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- James Baxter
- 13-03-22
Fantastic adaption
Really one of the best adaptions I've ever listened to. Graphic Audio is really top notch.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Gentle Reader Jill
- 03-09-21
Stunningly Magnificent Performance/Production
Wow. This utterly magnificent Graphic Audio production clearly and vividly delivers Part 1 of two parts of C.J. Cherryh's masterpiece Downbelow Station.
By the way, they chose a good place for the break, minimizing the painful-cliffhanger effect. Also, I think bits were cut out but the whole story is essentially there. Instead of seeming abridged or distorted, they seem to be telling the whole story and telling it well. The events, settings, and technologies are clear and plausible, with all their interconnections. The many strong personalities, human and alien, are distinct, memorable, and believable, so we react to the characters as individuals, whether they're warmly engaging or coldly detestable.
The production's clarity lets Cherryh's brilliant writing shine through. It made me appreciate how meticulously crafted her universe is, and how deftly she weaves together world-building, character development, and plot advancement. Also, the way she shows us not just small individual details such as smells (okay, some of the smells are overwhelming so "small" is not an adequate word), but also enormous cumulative phenomena such as the emotional, social, and economic drain of an achingly-prolonged interstellar war.
Sorry if this review is a bit incoherent, but I started listening to Downbelow Station at midnight, having set the sleep timer so I could fall asleep to it. Ha! I listened to it all night, repeatedly extending the sleep timer, until it finished around 7:00 this morning. And it was worth it.
This is a wonderful production of a great book.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- lettielikesbooks
- 09-03-22
Not great
I was excited about this production, but ultimately disappointed with the dramatization of Downbelow. As a big fan of the novel and original recording, I have to say this one feels abridged. Lacking the “he said/she said” words… it almost clips along too fast. There is not pause enough for me to feel the emotions that the characters must be feeling.
Also where is the prologue? The opening that sets the tone of the War and explains the Union/Company/Earth conflict? If I hadn’t read Downbelow before, I’d be completely lost.
The line delivery is stiff, like the voice actors are reading their lines cold and don’t quite understand the context of their own conversations. Especially Elene. Every line is read like a teenage brat… not a devastated young Merchanter. The Hisa sound silly, almost offensively silly…
The music is fine and the ambiance is cool. I like the crackle of the radios, coms, and breather masks. It’s just the voice acting that I couldn’t get through. Listened for 2 hours. Couldn’t take it anymore.
Love the book itself. Cherryh is one of the Greats. Love Brian Troxell’s recording of Downbelow Station. If you want an audio version that does this Hugo winner justice, I’d recommend passing this dramatization by and going with Troxell.