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  • The Outside

  • Written by: Ada Hoffmann
  • Narrated by: Nancy Wu
  • Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (17 ratings)

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The Outside cover art

The Outside

Written by: Ada Hoffmann
Narrated by: Nancy Wu
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Publisher's Summary

Humanity's super-intelligent AI gods brutally punish breaches in reality, as one young scientist discovers, in this intense and brilliant space opera.

Autistic scientist Yasira Shien has developed a radical new energy drive that could change the future of humanity. But when she activates it, reality warps, destroying the space station and everyone aboard. The AI gods who rule the galaxy declare her work heretical, and Yasira is abducted by their agents. Instead of simply executing her, they offer mercy - if she'll help them hunt down a bigger target: her own mysterious, vanished mentor. 

With her homeworld's fate in the balance, Yasira must choose who to trust: the gods and their ruthless post-human angels, or the rebel scientist whose unorthodox mathematics could turn her world inside out.

©2019 Ada Hoffmann (P)2019 Recorded Books

What the critics say

"Hoffmann confidently layers morality and disability rights into a breezily told adventure that bursts with sheer fun.... This beautifully smart, uncynical space opera will charm fans of Charles Stross and Lois McMaster Bujold." (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about The Outside

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    4 out of 5 stars

Terrible writing

The idea behind this story is attractive. It follows an autistic scientist who gets mixed up in some other worldly, Lovecraftian like "the universe is much bigger than us" shit and the world is changed because of it. Set in a space faring future where humans follows gods/angels (theres more to this than just that line), the entire gottcha idea is really quite something that could be incredibly interesting.

But the writing leaves this thing dead.

It's a world where the most expressive terms for emotion end up being "mad" and "sad", a world where the narrator spells out every detail of what's happening and what every present character is thinking in a deadpan, mind numbing, needless drawl... everything ends up being not even skin deep. It's shallow. It's empty. It's reading lines out of technical manual to your kids as a bedtime story (without being smart).
I can't ever push myself to ever delve into a follow up because of how this is written. Maybe someone will take the half decent idea and do something with it in another medium that can toss the writing aspect.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing first book that I've read from this author

you'll have to make time for this book as you're unlikely to put it down once started!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A rich, submersive story

In a world of artificial-intelligences-turned-gods vs. the mortals they "protect", a world of heresy and the queasy unknown, a world of lies and buried truths, Yasira has to learn to unravel it all. The complex narrative and array of characters made this a book I did not want to put down.

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  • M
  • 2019-09-17

Fantastic!

Big fan! Hope to hear more from this author! Reminded me a bit of Raven Strategem.

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