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Anathem
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Tavia Gilbert, William Dufris, Neal Stephenson
- Length: 32 hrs and 25 mins
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Seveneves
- A Novel
- Written by: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal, Will Damron
- Length: 31 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.
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Great novel, only somewhat held back by narration
- By Ryan Love on 2019-02-27
Written by: Neal Stephenson
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Reamde
- Written by: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 38 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Neal Stephenson is continually rocking the literary world with his brazen and brilliant fictional creations - whether he’s reimagining the past (The Baroque Cycle), inventing the future (Snow Crash), or both (Cryptonomicon).
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Stick with it!
- By Rgjenks on 2020-03-21
Written by: Neal Stephenson
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Cryptonomicon
- Written by: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 42 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse - mathematical genius and young Captain in the US Navy - is assigned to detachment 2702. It is an outfit so secret that only a handful of people know it exists, and some of those people have names like Churchill and Roosevelt. The mission of Watrehouse and Detachment 2702 - commanded by Marine Raider Bobby Shaftoe - is to keep the Nazis ignorant of the fact that Allied Intelligence has cracked the enemy's fabled Enigma code. In the present, Waterhouse's crypto-hacker grandson, Randy, is attempting to create a "data haven" in Southeast Asia....
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All over the place
- By Justin on 2020-03-02
Written by: Neal Stephenson
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Snow Crash
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- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Neal Stephenson is a blazing new force on the sci-fi scene. With the groundbreaking cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, he has "vaulted onto the literary stage." It weaves virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility - in short, it is the gigathriller of the information age.
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Rambling and incoherent
- By Jeff on 2019-06-06
Written by: Neal Stephenson
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Web of Eyes
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- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
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When a piece of the crown prince's soul is stolen by a traitorous warlock, disgraced knight Torsten Unger makes it his sworn duty to get it back and save the last hope for the kingdom. But he can't do it alone. Self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Thief" Whitney Fierstown sits in the castle dungeon, destined for the gallows until Torsten offers this choice: rot and die in a dank cell or join him on a dangerous expedition to put his skills to good use and earn his freedom.
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Excellent start to a series
- By Paul on 2018-12-01
Written by: Rhett C. Bruno, and others
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House of Suns
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Six million years ago, at the very dawn of the starfaring era, Abigail Gentian fractured herself into a thousand male and female clones: the shatterlings. Sent out into the galaxy, these shatterlings have stood aloof as they document the rise and fall of countless human empires. They meet every 200,000 years to exchange news and memories of their travels with their siblings.
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Enrichment of Mind and Imagination
- By Georgie on 2022-10-08
Written by: Alastair Reynolds
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Seveneves
- A Novel
- Written by: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal, Will Damron
- Length: 31 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.
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Great novel, only somewhat held back by narration
- By Ryan Love on 2019-02-27
Written by: Neal Stephenson
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Reamde
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- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 38 hrs and 29 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Neal Stephenson is continually rocking the literary world with his brazen and brilliant fictional creations - whether he’s reimagining the past (The Baroque Cycle), inventing the future (Snow Crash), or both (Cryptonomicon).
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Stick with it!
- By Rgjenks on 2020-03-21
Written by: Neal Stephenson
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Cryptonomicon
- Written by: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 42 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse - mathematical genius and young Captain in the US Navy - is assigned to detachment 2702. It is an outfit so secret that only a handful of people know it exists, and some of those people have names like Churchill and Roosevelt. The mission of Watrehouse and Detachment 2702 - commanded by Marine Raider Bobby Shaftoe - is to keep the Nazis ignorant of the fact that Allied Intelligence has cracked the enemy's fabled Enigma code. In the present, Waterhouse's crypto-hacker grandson, Randy, is attempting to create a "data haven" in Southeast Asia....
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All over the place
- By Justin on 2020-03-02
Written by: Neal Stephenson
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Snow Crash
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- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
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Neal Stephenson is a blazing new force on the sci-fi scene. With the groundbreaking cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, he has "vaulted onto the literary stage." It weaves virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility - in short, it is the gigathriller of the information age.
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Rambling and incoherent
- By Jeff on 2019-06-06
Written by: Neal Stephenson
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Web of Eyes
- Written by: Rhett C. Bruno, Jaime Castle
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
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When a piece of the crown prince's soul is stolen by a traitorous warlock, disgraced knight Torsten Unger makes it his sworn duty to get it back and save the last hope for the kingdom. But he can't do it alone. Self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Thief" Whitney Fierstown sits in the castle dungeon, destined for the gallows until Torsten offers this choice: rot and die in a dank cell or join him on a dangerous expedition to put his skills to good use and earn his freedom.
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Excellent start to a series
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Written by: Rhett C. Bruno, and others
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House of Suns
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- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Six million years ago, at the very dawn of the starfaring era, Abigail Gentian fractured herself into a thousand male and female clones: the shatterlings. Sent out into the galaxy, these shatterlings have stood aloof as they document the rise and fall of countless human empires. They meet every 200,000 years to exchange news and memories of their travels with their siblings.
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Enrichment of Mind and Imagination
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Written by: Alastair Reynolds
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The Diamond Age
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Neal Stephenson, "the hottest science fiction writer in America", takes science fiction to dazzling new levels. The Diamond Age is a stunning tale; set in 21st-century Shanghai, it is the story of what happens what a state-of-the-art interactive device falls into the hands of a street urchin named Nell. Her life, and the entire future of humanity, is about to be decoded and reprogrammed.
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this amazing book must be re-recorded
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more than meets the eye? nope
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One of the most extraordinary, imaginative and ambitious novels of the century: a history of the evolution of humankind over the next 2 billion years. Among all science fiction writers Olaf Stapledon stands alone for the sheer scope and ambition of his work. First published in 1930, Last and First Men is full of pioneering speculations about evolution, terraforming, genetic engineering and many other subjects.
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Nothing like it
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2057. Humanity has raised exploiting the solar system to an art form. Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. And they're good at it. The Rockhopper is nearing the end of its current mission cycle, and everyone is desperate for some much-needed R & R, when startling news arrives from Saturn: Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, has inexplicably left its natural orbit and is now heading out of the solar system at high speed.
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Breathtaking view of a possible contact
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Quicksilver
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In which Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and courageous Puritan, pursues knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe -- in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight.
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I don't get it
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From best-selling author Neal Stephenson and critically acclaimed historical and contemporary commercial novelist Nicole Galland comes a captivating and complex near-future thriller combining history, science, magic, mystery, intrigue, and adventure that questions the very foundations of the modern world.
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Interesting idea, really too long execution
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Gates of Fire puts you at the side of valiant Spartan warriors in 480 BC for the bloody, climactic battle at Thermopylae. There, a few hundred of Sparta’s finest sacrificed their lives to hold back the invading Persian millions. The time they bought enabled the Greeks to rally - saving, according to ancient historian Herodotus, “Western democracy and freedom from perishing in the cradle.” How did the Spartans accomplish this superhuman feat? This is what the King of Persia hopes to learn from the sole Spartan survivor.
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one of my favs
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A Canticle for Leibowitz
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Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and widely considered one of the most accomplished, powerful, and enduring classics of modern speculative fiction, Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a true landmark of 20th-century literature—a chilling and still-provocative look at a postapocalyptic future.
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Vivid and Dynamic
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A beautifully performed story for younger readers.
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With this stunning series opener, Django Wexler leaps to the upper echelon of today’s best fantasy authors. The Thousand Names opens his Shadow Campaigns series with a tale of bloody rebellion that will reshape an empire -- and a world. Captain Marcus d’Ivoire and Winter Ihernglass see their fortunes rise under the command of military genius Janus bet Vhalnich. But Janus’ obsession with the supernatural portends a dire fate for the realm.
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Good Start to a Fantasy Series!
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Only one thing could make it better
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The Robber Bride
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Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride is inspired by "The Robber Bridegroom", a wonderfully grisly tale from the Brothers Grimm in which an evil groom lures three maidens into his lair and devours them, one by one. But in her version, Atwood brilliantly recasts the monster as Zenia, a villainess of demonic proportions, and sets her loose in the lives of three friends.
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Complex story of deception by a "Jezebel".
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Written by: Margaret Atwood
Publisher's Summary
Fraa Erasmus is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the "Saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals.
Over the centuries, cities, and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs, bloody violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community. Yet always the avout have managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe, becoming out of necessity more austere and less dependent on technology and material things. Erasmus, however, has no fear of the outside - the Extramuros - for the last of the terrible times was long, long ago.
Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fras and suurs prepare to venture outside the concent's gates - opening them wide at the same time to welcome the curious "extras" in.
During his first Apert as a fra, Erasmus eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected". But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the perilous brink of cataclysmic change.
Powerful unforeseen forces threaten the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros - a threat that only an unsteady alliance of Saecular and avout can oppose - as, one by one, Raz's colleagues, teachers, and friends are all called forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster.
Suddenly burdened with a worlds-shattering responsibility, Erasmus finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of everything - as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of an unfamiliar planet...and far beyond.
Featured Article: 20 Best Sci-Fi Audiobooks for Exploring New Worlds
There is no genre that lends itself better to audio narrative than Science Fiction does. There is a magic that transports listeners to new worlds of wonder and mystery that is heightened by expert voice actors and narrators. A great writer can create an imaginative new world or dystopian civilisation, but it is up to the narrator to bring this world to life around you. We’ve gathered together 20 of the top science fiction audiobooks ranked not only for their stories but for the emotive and compelling narrative performances. Let these award winning tales and voices carry you away to worlds unknown.
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What listeners say about Anathem
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Robert
- 2018-04-21
Only for elite hard sci fi lovers
I had to re-listen to the start of this novel ten times to get into the narrative. It's about a 6,000 year old academic/clerical community that has been kept isolated from the surrounding world the whole time. Naturally, such a community will develop philosophical, scientific and critical Ideas in their conversation. This is where the value of this Novel of Ideas lies, in the philosophical, scientific and critical Ideas that drop from time to time out of the narrative. It's 32 hours of challenging hard listening, if you're into hard listening. 32 hours is pretty good value for the money.
9 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 2018-09-13
Interesting ideas...
What if we put all the scientists and mathematicians into monasteries, and only took them out, dusted them off, and used their brains when crises hit? "They have an alien spaceship and nukes - we have a protractor." "OK, I'll go get a ruler and a piece of string." The quantum mechanics is a bit dodgy, but the story is a lot of fun!
3 people found this helpful
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- Michael Newton
- 2019-01-03
Occasionally interesting dialogue... I guess...
The author has built worlds, and with them, quite a few new terms/words, which can initially be a bit tough to navigate, and, although you come to incorporate them into your vocabulary, many of them never reveal themselves to have been necessary (or even useful) for anything more than world building.
Anathem finds its characters in near constant philosophical dialogue, which can occasionally be interesting... Or present glimmers of hope that there would be some memorable twists. But no.. overall, the story is fairly boring, and the protagonist's actions inconsequential. Leaves me unsatisfied.
2 people found this helpful
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- Eli
- 2018-03-21
Drivel
Usually I'm a huge fan of Stephenson, but this is just complete garbage. Lots of words strung together, going on and on without any purpose or meaning. Like finding a teenage diary or a stream of consciousness blog of a monk
2 people found this helpful
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- Peter
- 2022-01-06
slow burn, searing mark
The work of a master at full stride, this story is a water powered clockwork of time-space dialating imagination.
1 person found this helpful
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- M. Urban
- 2021-10-31
Hmmm…
Very…very… very…dry. Very…very…very…slow. Storyline had so much potential but didn’t deliver.
1 person found this helpful
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- The Lichmeister
- 2018-08-07
Another insightful epic
Neal Stephenson crafts another thought provoking and witty epic. It constantly amazes me how his insights often become prophetic. 5 stars for story!
William Dufris and company excellently narrate this tale. I bought this novel when it first came out in paperback and loved it so much that the audiobook was purchased so I could enjoy it during chore time 😀. All the narrators we excellent, but Dufris stood out, for me, as an excellent voice for Stephenson's style. 5 stars for the performance.
The one thing that would be an improvement would be a PDF of the diagrams and supplementary material for the math geeks like me. 4 stars, overall, since I was not able to reference their diagrams and appendixes (appendices?) without digging out my old paperback from a box in my attic.
1 person found this helpful
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- Axl T
- 2022-11-18
Complex, deep. thoughtful yet still has a good pace
I’ve listened twice now and will probably do a couple more. GREAT bedtime read, derails that hamster wheel pronto.
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- Jonathan Alexiou
- 2022-03-08
Great Concepts Narrative was ok
Some really interesting concepts are presented in this book, I really enjoy the deep dialogue, but the action parts were just ok. I really liked the story up untill the climax, it started to seem very contrived and just had a totally different tone then the rest of the book. The end was satisfying though and I am still rolling those concepts around my mind weeks later. If your a fan of deep contemplative and cerebral dialog, I would recommend this forsure.
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- Anonymous User
- 2021-12-31
More of a philosophy debate…
Seemed to be a debate on made-up philosophies with a bit of a story mixed in to give the debates purpose. An extremely slow and dry book with an interesting premise and a good narrator.
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- K. F.
- 2020-07-02
Unbearable
I think I'm about 45 minutes into the book. The narration so far has consisted almost entirely of fetishistically detailed descriptions of labyrinthine architecture, occasionally interspersed by technobabble that is mostly composed of made-up words and is mostly incomprehensible. There are also occasional excerpts from a fantasy dictionary, read by a different guy who has no business recording anything. I assume that some sort of plot develops at some point but don't think I can force myself to stick it out that long.
78 people found this helpful
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- SpiderGrrl
- 2019-10-08
I love Neal, but Good lord... ugh!
I love Neal Stephenson... Snow Crash, Necronomicron, Diamond Age, The Fall, Reamde, etc...
But getting through the first hour of this thing was a labor of love...and like pulling teeth.
The completely ridiculous "other earth" lexicon slathered all over the entry text...?
The *constant* descriptive extrapolations in every dang sentence (see above: weaving in of intentionally 'obscure' world refs... But oh wait!! Lol, there's literally an intro that tries to insult you into overlooking that -- "if you don't like to figure things out for yourself, let me explain all the terms and the world they are extracted from... it's not Earth..." yada yada yada.
Seriously.. there's an into saying that.
Wtf Neal, seriously.
55 people found this helpful
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- Cory
- 2018-01-26
Probably My Favorite Book
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, but with reservations. I had already read Anathem in paperback form years ago and wanted to revisit it as a performance. The audiobook is well done, but it is a very, very complicated book (Stephenson basically invents his own language, along with 7,000 years of fictional history). The physical book itself has a dictionary for reference, and a clear timeline of the world's history, which are invaluable resources while making sense of everything. The audiobook makes it more difficult in that regard.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Anathem?
I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say: the dialog.
Which scene was your favorite?
Messel. Intense speculative analysis.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
This book literally changed my ideas about the nature of consciousness and cosmology.
Any additional comments?
This is one of the best speculative fiction novels ever written. The only real choice you have is whether you want the audiobook or the paperback. Or both. I own both and I don't regret either purchase.
43 people found this helpful
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- JG
- 2019-11-14
Are the high ratings a viral prank?!
Gave this a good effort, but found it impenetrable - at least in audio. The worst part was the language creation/use and being lost for a reasonably large percentage of many sentences. Might have been different if being read, but I'm not going to give this any more time. Indeed, it felt soooooo good when I quit. Thank You Audible for accepting the return.
The high ratings are baffling. At one point I thought those must be some kind of viral prank/hoax - perhaps intending to lure others in as a joke!
Sometimes a great narrator can save a story- not here, since narration is flat, at best, and with hard-to-describe annoying inflections driving the last nail into this literary coffin.
30 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 2020-07-28
Pretentious failure to bring on the intended state imho
This book has no serious issues. It is well written, nicely narated albeit a bit to slow gor my taste. However it is not your usual epic sci-fi story with lots of tech and or otherworldly species. It tries to bring on the “feel” of a different type of civilization by twisting words and their meaning enough to be different but not as is required to be familiar, thus creating an effect of “differenceness”. Additionally it mixes various dialectics which apparently in that world caused earth shattering conflicts and shaped civizations. The problem with this, is that these specific dialectics do not carry such power, for even the casual reader of true philosophy, This brings me to the last thing about this book: It tries to present a number of worldviews and systems of thought and philosophies in a very naive and shallow way. If I wanted to learn philosophy I ‘d read Aristotle and Kant and if I wanted a basic science instruction I’d pick up a science book, if I wanted to etymologize and do wordplay, I’d get a book on those things. I wanted sci-fi and so I picked this up, but the “dose” was not strong enough it had all those other things in there. In the end I do not think that presenting a mosaic of philosophy using slightly twisted words and imaginary dialectics brings on the intended state. Instead I was left wondering if the author was simply trying to present us with a display of how many words he knows well enough to manipulate and how many philosophical concepts he can encompass into a narration. In the end, the means of this work has obliterated the goal.
22 people found this helpful
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- Yehuda Gilead
- 2020-04-21
A literary Masterpiece with an Amazing production!
This one is a book for intellectuals with flexible minds. It is so intimate with the reader it tingles. I drew an additional portion of fun having read other Stephenson’s books before. This way, you — dear reader — will have more insight and deeper connection with the genius author.
Recommend!
17 people found this helpful
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- jeremiah
- 2020-02-18
Hard Audiobook to read
I’ve got over 200 audiobooks and this is one of 3 that I never finished... until now, years later. The story and narration was so bland and hard to get into via the audio format. So, I borrowed a paper copy from a friend after he praised it (and reviews were good) and followed along the audio reading with reading the pages.. and finally the book took on a clarity that was lacking with only audio.. some of the concepts of the book just came out cleaner with visual aid of the words... so enough of that; Excellent book, great world... some vagueness and a rushed ending it seemed a whole additional book could be written of equal length to summarize the outcome of the convex and ————- of Saint Orolo. Maybe 700 years later ;-).
-Good like writing a sequel Neal!!
16 people found this helpful
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- FLY1NGSQU1RR3L
- 2019-05-31
Avoid if you like books. Or fun.
This was terrible. I had read it was odd, but not unreadable or unlistenable. Well, it is. Thank you Amazon for a fuss free return. I’ve never had to return an audiobook before, but this one deserved it.
It’s almost like they were testing to see if people are paying attention.
9 people found this helpful
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- Lori
- 2019-07-19
Tedious!
Might be good in a movie, but I did not enjoy how slow moving it was.
7 people found this helpful
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- Jude
- 2020-06-20
Could not stop until the end
A very imaginative description of the truth. Well written and narrated. Perfect balance of logistic science and spirituality.
6 people found this helpful