Sci-Fi for Your Summer: EARTHLIGHT Gets the Full-cast Audiobook Treatment

“This high-stakes military sci-fi audio original features exciting music, immersive sound effects, and a fantastic full-cast performance… The music and sound effects build an intensifying pace, keeping listeners on edge.”—AudioFile

In Earthlight, a new audiobook original from award-winning author and screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski, listeners will be treated to a science-fiction adventure from a master of the art. The premise? A not-too-distant future, in which international tension is rising as the Russian military forms an Eastern Alliance to create a new age of Russian supremacy, and the rest of the world scrambles for a united response. Enter Project Earthlight, a NATO operation under U.S. command based in the ultimate military high ground: space. As the Earthlight pilots train, they are plunged into a high-stakes life-and-death mission, with everything at risk.

Straczynski has been a part of writing teams for films including World War Z (2013), Underworld: Awakening (2012), and Thor (2011). Among his numerous TV credits, he served as writer and showrunner for the beloved five-season space-opera series Babylon 5 (1994–1998) and its spinoff series Crusade (1999). Beyond the big and small screens, he spent several years writing for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, leading and contributing to runs for Spider-Man, Superman, Thor, Wonder Woman, and more. 

“As a lover of audio drama, Earthlight has been an absolute treat to write and, with Penguin Random House Audio, produce,” Straczynski said. “The audiobook arena has grown in complexity and production values, so moving directly into audio dramas is the next logical step, and I’m very happy to be a part of that.  It’s a fun story, with terrific action and characters, and PRHA gave me a ton of latitude to tell this story the way it needed to be told.  If you’re looking for a cross between The Right Stuff and Top Gun, this is the story for you.” 

With a diverse cast of characters, heart-stopping aerial-combat sequences, a meticulously crafted near-future world on the brink of chaos, and a gripping narrative that explores themes of trust, camaraderie, and sacrifice in the face of global turmoil, Earthlight is the audio blockbuster of the summer, and will keep listeners on the edge of their seats from start to finish. 

Earthlight features the voice talents of Erik Braa with Pete Bradbury, Jonathan Davis, William DeMeritt, Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes, Robert Fass, Jeff Gurner, Ryan Haugen, David Lee Huynh, Mars Lipowski, Saskia Maarleveld, Kathleen McInerney, Brandon McInnis, Stefan Rudnicki, Salli Saffioti, Kristen Sieh, Christopher Smith, Marc Thompson, and Will Watt.