Listen free for 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Gone World cover art

The Gone World

Written by: Tom Sweterlitsch
Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $39.48

Buy Now for $39.48

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

Inception meets True Detective in this science-fiction thriller of spellbinding tension and staggering scope that follows a special agent into a savage murder case with grave implications for the fate of mankind....

“I promise you have never read a story like this.” (Blake Crouch, New York Times best-selling author of Dark Matter)

Shannon Moss is part of a clandestine division within the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In western Pennsylvania, 1997, she is assigned to solve the murder of a Navy SEAL's family - and to locate his vanished teenage daughter. Though she can't share the information with conventional law enforcement, Moss discovers that the missing SEAL was an astronaut aboard the spaceship USS Libra - a ship assumed lost to the currents of Deep Time. Moss knows firsthand the mental trauma of time travel and believes the SEAL's experience with the future has triggered this violence.

Determined to find the missing girl and driven by a troubling connection from her own past, Moss travels ahead in time to explore possible versions of the future, seeking evidence to crack the present-day case. To her horror, the future reveals that it's not only the fate of a family that hinges on her work, for what she witnesses rising over time's horizon and hurtling toward the present is the Terminus: the terrifying and cataclysmic end of humanity itself.

Luminous and unsettling, The Gone World bristles with world-shattering ideas yet remains at its heart an intensely human story.

©2017 Tom Sweterlitsch (P)2017 Penguin Audio

What the critics say

One of the A.V. Club's Top 10 Books of the Year 2018 

One of BookPage's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2018 

The Gone World has already created quite a stir. . . . The book probes questions about consciousness and crime that call to mind, among others, True Detective and 12 Monkeys.” (EW.com)  

"I like to be freaked out and mystified simultaneously. The Gone World, a gory time-travel thriller, does both in surprising ways....Inception meets True Detective, but it also contains elements of Solaris, Interstellar, Twin Peaks, Minority Report, and even Stargate. To all this, it adds some innovative time-travel shenanigans." (The New Yorker)  

What listeners say about The Gone World

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    62
  • 4 Stars
    41
  • 3 Stars
    11
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    84
  • 4 Stars
    23
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    60
  • 4 Stars
    34
  • 3 Stars
    14
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent story

If you love time travel stories this is the book for you. It's exciting, full of twists and turns. I was captivated right up until the end. Highly recommend this for all fans of science-fiction. #Audible1

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible!

This book is incredible! That being said please be aware of what you are about to read. kind of a mix between Silence of the Lambs & Minority Report. This book is kind of sci-fi horror and horror is not my thing at all but I still think this is seriously solid sci-fi (I didn't know it was so bloody when I downloaded it but the first chapter had me hooked!) I am looking forward to more from this author!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great time travel read

Loved the story and it felt very expanse and a new concept of time travel I haven’t experienced before, great concept and delivery.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

This book could have been a lot shorter.

Brittany Pressley does a great job with the narration and while the plot is far-fetched to say the least I didn't find that to be much of a problem. The problem is that the book goes on forever! I usually like longer audiobooks as they're better value but this one over did it. The dialogue is utilitarian at best, the characters aren't compelling or interesting and by the halfway point I didn't care if any lived or died I just wanted to get to the end of the book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

brilliant and riveting

I'm not a murder mystery fan. at least I wasn't until I listened to this book. Tom handles time travel in a unique way.. the macro plot and micro subplots mesh perfectly.. great world building and vivid prose make for a riveting read!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting Premise

Better than average take on time travel but some of the descriptive passages go on far too long. Could have benefited from a more rigorous editor.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Time travel!

Much like most other stories involving time travel, the problems and solutions is this novel all involve time travel. Very well read, but unfortunately obvious.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

It's been a long time since a book gave me chills

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, as well as the performance. I highly recommend it, but it might give you nightmares. :)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

questionable SciFi descriptions

quantum/relativistic word vomit to describe the time travel mechanisms but engaging story 🤷‍♀️. somewhat self aware

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

It makes me depressive

I will start with the fact that the book is well written and the author is able to summon emotions in me, what in my opinion is the trademark of good books. This review - like all of them - is highly subjective, I want to to make sure that you understand that I'm not saying the book is bad, it's just not for me. So here it comes: The narrator speaks with a voice that is pure unhappiness. Anything she says feels like the second book of Twilight. This is fitting to the novel though, which isn't making it better for me. I really enjoy dark literature (Stephen King etc.) but with this one I found excuses for things to do instead of listening to the book.

[slight spoiler: For the story itself, the idea is a novel interpretation of quantum physics. I don't like how it deals with uncertainties which are in my opinion quite rare so even if there are endless worlds they are not forking on every time someone draws the lottery. Also the immorality of creating a diverging timeline to solve murders, not to talk of the manpower needed seems a bit crass ]

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!