-
Dancing with Bears
- A Darger and Surplus Novel
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
![Prime logo](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/Audible/Homestead/Prime_Logo_RGB.png)
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Stations of the Tide
- By: Michael Swanwick
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Jubilee Tides will drown the continents of the planet Miranda beneath the weight of her own oceans. But as the once-in-two-centuries cataclysm approaches, an even greater catastrophe threatens this dark and dangerous planet of tale-spinners, conjurers, and shapechangers. From author Michael Swanwick—one of the most brilliantly assured and darkly inventive writers of contemporary fiction—comes a masterwork of radically altered realities and world-shattering seductions.
-
-
Hard to categorize, hard to put down
- By Robert L. on 03-25-12
By: Michael Swanwick
-
Bones of the Earth
- By: Michael Swanwick
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
World-renowned paleontologist Richard Leyster's universe changed forever the day a stranger named Griffin walked into his office with a remarkable job offer... and an ice cooler containing the head of a freshly killed Stegosaurus. For Leyster and a select group of scientific colleagues, an impossible fantasy has come true: the ability to study dinosaurs up close, in their own era and milieu. But tampering with time and paradox can have disastrous effects on the future and the past alike.
-
-
Revels in paleontology and paradoxes
- By Katherine on 04-22-12
By: Michael Swanwick
-
The Iron Dragon's Daughter
- By: Michael Swanwick
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Named a New York Times notable book of 1994, The Iron Dragon's Daughter tells the heartrending story of a changeling child who is kidnapped to a realm of malls and machines and enslaved in a vast, infernal factory. Ultimately, she escapes and attempts to educate herself about this alien world, while being tormented by visions of the life she was denied.
-
-
Inconsistent story and makes for a poor experience
- By Martin Smith on 07-10-15
By: Michael Swanwick
-
The House of the Stag
- By: Kage Baker
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before the Riders came to their remote valley, the Yendri led a tranquil, pastoral life. When the Riders conquered and enslaved them, only a few escaped to the forests. Rebellion wasn't the Yendri way; they hid, or passively resisted, taking consolation in the prophecies of their spiritual leader. Only one possessed the necessary rage to fight back: Gard the foundling, half-demon, who began a one-man guerrilla war against the Riders.
-
-
Delightfully humorous
- By Katherine on 09-09-11
By: Kage Baker
-
Galactic Pot-Healer
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sometimes even gods need help. In Galactic Pot-Healer that god is an alien creature known as the Glimmung, which looks alternately like a flaming wheel, a teenage girl, and a swirling mass of ocean life. In order to raise a sunken city, he summons beings from across the galaxy to Plowman’s Planet. Joe Fernwright is one of those summoned, needed for his skills at pot-healing - repairing broken ceramics. But from the moment Joe arrives on Plowman’s Planet, things start to go awry. Is the Glimmung good or evil?
-
-
If You Like your Pottery & Gods Fractured & Funky
- By Darwin8u on 03-29-16
By: Philip K. Dick
-
Mortal Engines
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
These fourteen science fiction stories reveal Lem’s fascination with artificial intelligence and demonstrate just how surprisingly human sentient machines can be.
-
-
who can listen too this?
- By Amazon Customer on 07-19-17
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
Stations of the Tide
- By: Michael Swanwick
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Jubilee Tides will drown the continents of the planet Miranda beneath the weight of her own oceans. But as the once-in-two-centuries cataclysm approaches, an even greater catastrophe threatens this dark and dangerous planet of tale-spinners, conjurers, and shapechangers. From author Michael Swanwick—one of the most brilliantly assured and darkly inventive writers of contemporary fiction—comes a masterwork of radically altered realities and world-shattering seductions.
-
-
Hard to categorize, hard to put down
- By Robert L. on 03-25-12
By: Michael Swanwick
-
Bones of the Earth
- By: Michael Swanwick
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
World-renowned paleontologist Richard Leyster's universe changed forever the day a stranger named Griffin walked into his office with a remarkable job offer... and an ice cooler containing the head of a freshly killed Stegosaurus. For Leyster and a select group of scientific colleagues, an impossible fantasy has come true: the ability to study dinosaurs up close, in their own era and milieu. But tampering with time and paradox can have disastrous effects on the future and the past alike.
-
-
Revels in paleontology and paradoxes
- By Katherine on 04-22-12
By: Michael Swanwick
-
The Iron Dragon's Daughter
- By: Michael Swanwick
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Named a New York Times notable book of 1994, The Iron Dragon's Daughter tells the heartrending story of a changeling child who is kidnapped to a realm of malls and machines and enslaved in a vast, infernal factory. Ultimately, she escapes and attempts to educate herself about this alien world, while being tormented by visions of the life she was denied.
-
-
Inconsistent story and makes for a poor experience
- By Martin Smith on 07-10-15
By: Michael Swanwick
-
The House of the Stag
- By: Kage Baker
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before the Riders came to their remote valley, the Yendri led a tranquil, pastoral life. When the Riders conquered and enslaved them, only a few escaped to the forests. Rebellion wasn't the Yendri way; they hid, or passively resisted, taking consolation in the prophecies of their spiritual leader. Only one possessed the necessary rage to fight back: Gard the foundling, half-demon, who began a one-man guerrilla war against the Riders.
-
-
Delightfully humorous
- By Katherine on 09-09-11
By: Kage Baker
-
Galactic Pot-Healer
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sometimes even gods need help. In Galactic Pot-Healer that god is an alien creature known as the Glimmung, which looks alternately like a flaming wheel, a teenage girl, and a swirling mass of ocean life. In order to raise a sunken city, he summons beings from across the galaxy to Plowman’s Planet. Joe Fernwright is one of those summoned, needed for his skills at pot-healing - repairing broken ceramics. But from the moment Joe arrives on Plowman’s Planet, things start to go awry. Is the Glimmung good or evil?
-
-
If You Like your Pottery & Gods Fractured & Funky
- By Darwin8u on 03-29-16
By: Philip K. Dick
-
Mortal Engines
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
These fourteen science fiction stories reveal Lem’s fascination with artificial intelligence and demonstrate just how surprisingly human sentient machines can be.
-
-
who can listen too this?
- By Amazon Customer on 07-19-17
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
Nine Princes in Amber
- The Chronicles of Amber, Book 1
- By: Roger Zelazny
- Narrated by: Alessandro Juliani
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amber is the one real world, of which all others including our own Earth are but Shadows. Amber burns in Corwin's blood. Exiled on Shadow Earth for centuries, the prince is about to return to Amber to make a mad and desperate rush upon the throne.
-
-
Great book, lame deal!
- By Robert on 08-13-12
By: Roger Zelazny
-
This Immortal
- By: Roger Zelazny
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Conrad Nomikos has a long, rich personal history that he'd rather not talk about. And, as Arts Commissioner, he's been given a job he'd rather not do. Escorting an alien grandee on a guided tour of the shattered remains of Earth is not something he relishes—especially when it is apparent that this places him at the center of high-level intrigue that has some bearing on the future of Earth itself!
-
-
UGH...and I can't return it
- By Katakismet on 01-08-24
By: Roger Zelazny
-
The Star King
- The Demon Princes Series, Book 1
- By: Jack Vance
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Five intergalactic criminal masterminds raid the tranquil world of Mount Pleasant, leaving behind only ruin and slaughter - and the orphaned child Kirth Gersen, who comes to manhood swearing to take bloody revenge. Now Gersen roams the galaxy, bringing vengeance to the Demon Princes one by one, in Jack Vance's classic series of hardboiled space opera.
-
-
A longtime favorite, perfectly narrated
- By Gan on 03-05-22
By: Jack Vance
-
The Best of Cordwainer Smith
- By: Cordwainer Smith
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With an introduction by J. J. Pierce, this volume features the 12 most important stories by Cordwainer Smith, a unique writer who has fused wonder and poetry into imaginative tales that transcend both science and fiction.
-
-
Great Science Fiction
- By Amazon Customer on 12-06-16
By: Cordwainer Smith
-
Neuromancer
- By: William Gibson
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer didn't just explode onto the science fiction scene - it permeated into the collective consciousness, culture, science, and technology.Today, there is only one science fiction masterpiece to thank for the term "cyberpunk," for easing the way into the information age and Internet society.
-
-
Story? Classic. Narrator? Ugh.
- By Sage on 11-11-14
By: William Gibson
-
The Mote in God's Eye
- By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
- Narrated by: L J Ganser
- Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mote In God's Eye is their acknowledged masterpiece, an epic novel of mankind's first encounter with alien life that transcends the genre. No lesser an authority than Robert A. Heinlein called it "possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read".
-
-
A great read!
- By J. Rhoderick on 02-12-10
By: Larry Niven, and others
-
Deus Irae
- By: Roger Zelazny, Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two masters of science fiction collaborate on one wild post-apocalyptic story. After World War III, the Servants of Wrath cult deified the mysterious Carlton Lufteufel, creator of the doomsday weapon that wiped out much of humanity. But to worship the man, they need an image of him as a god, and no one has ever seen him. So the high priests send a limbless master painter named Tibor McMasters into the wilderness on a mission to find Lufteufel and capture his likeness.
-
-
Satirical apocalypse or apocalyptic satire?
- By Jacob on 06-30-17
By: Roger Zelazny, and others
-
Who Fears Death
- By: Nnedi Okorafor
- Narrated by: Yetide Badaki
- Length: 16 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a post-apocalyptic Africa, the world has changed in many ways; yet in one region genocide between tribes still bloodies the land. A woman who has survived the annihilation of her village and a terrible rape by an enemy general wanders into the desert, hoping to die. Instead, she gives birth to an angry baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand. Gripped by the certainty that her daughter is different—special—she names her Onyesonwu, which means "Who fears death?" in an ancient language.
-
-
The Ending Wasn’t Satisfying
- By Yasmine Debnam on 11-16-23
By: Nnedi Okorafor
-
The Eleventh Gate
- By: Nancy Kress
- Narrated by: Braden Wright
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Despite economic and territorial tensions, no one wants the city-states of the Eight Worlds to repeat the Terran Collapse by going to war. But when war accidentally happens, everyone seeks ways to exploit it for gain. The Landry and Peregoy ruling dynasties see opportunities to grab territory, increase profits, and settle old scores. Exploited underclasses use war to fuel rebellion. Ambitious heirs can finally topple their elders’ regimes - or try to.
-
-
Best book I've listened to all year.
- By William L. on 05-15-20
By: Nancy Kress
-
Jack Faust
- By: Michael Swanwick
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jack Faust is a breathtaking and masterful new spin on Goethe's story of a scholar who sells his soul to the Devil for the gift of unlimited knowledge. But unlike the classic Mephistopheles, the seductive demon who approaches Swanwick's Johannes Faust is not the devil as we know him, but rather a representative of a mysterious race that seeks nothing less than the extermination of the hated human animal.
-
-
excellent
- By kellen balen on 01-28-20
By: Michael Swanwick
-
A Night in the Lonesome October
- By: Roger Zelazny
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Loyally accompanying a mysterious knife-wielding gentleman named Jack on his midnight rounds through the murky streets of London, good dog Snuff is busy helping his master collect the grisly ingredients needed for an unearthly rite that will take place not long after the death of the moon. But Snuff and his master are not alone. All manner of participants, both human and not, are gathering with their ancient tools and their animal familiars in preparation for the dread night.
-
-
So happy this is finally on Audible!
- By Shannon GC on 08-23-22
By: Roger Zelazny
-
The Peripheral
- By: William Gibson
- Narrated by: Lorelei King
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Where Flynne and her brother, Burton, live, jobs outside the drug business are rare. Fortunately, Burton has his veteran's benefits, for neural damage he suffered from implants during his time in the USMC's elite Haptic Recon force. Then one night Burton has to go out, but there's a job he's supposed to do - a job Flynne didn't know he had. Beta-testing part of a new game, he tells her.
-
-
Worst Narration Ever
- By Tristan G R Wall on 05-29-15
By: William Gibson
Publisher's summary
Dancing With Bears follows the adventures of notorious con-men Darger and Surplus: They''ve lied and cheated their way onto the caravan that is delivering a priceless gift from the Caliph of Baghdad to the Duke of Muscovy. The only thing harder than the journey to Muscovy is their arrival in Muscovy. An audience with the Duke seems impossible to obtain, and Darger and Surplus quickly become entangled in a morass of deceit and revolution. The only thing more dangerous than the convoluted political web surrounding Darger and Surplus is the gift itself, the Pearls of Byzantium, and Zoesophia, the governess sworn to protect their virtue.
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
Project Hail Mary
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
-
-
Bazinga
- By Davidgonzalezsr on 05-04-21
By: Andy Weir
-
George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
-
-
A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
-
Halfway
- By: Michael Honnah, Imeldha Eloni
- Narrated by: Patricia Allison, Lenny Henry, Arinzé Kene, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 26 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leading the field of artificial intelligence, Halfway, a subsidiary of Soul-Tech, provides customers with the opportunity to digitally upload their minds so that in the eventuality of their death, loved ones will be able to communicate with an AI simulation and gain closure. But at what cost?A year after her brother Mark’s death, Florence is still consumed by grief. And though her parents encourage her not to dwell on the past, Florence decides to visit Halfway and speak to the simulation of Mark that was created not long before his passing.
-
-
Edge of my seat
- By ChidiA on 06-09-24
By: Michael Honnah, and others
-
The Martian
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.
-
-
I love Wil Wheaton but why not R. C. Bray?
- By L. Newman on 01-11-20
By: Andy Weir
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
Artemis
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Rosario Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.
-
-
A ferrari with no motor
- By will on 11-18-17
By: Andy Weir
-
Project Hail Mary
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
-
-
Bazinga
- By Davidgonzalezsr on 05-04-21
By: Andy Weir
-
George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
-
-
A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
-
Halfway
- By: Michael Honnah, Imeldha Eloni
- Narrated by: Patricia Allison, Lenny Henry, Arinzé Kene, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 26 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leading the field of artificial intelligence, Halfway, a subsidiary of Soul-Tech, provides customers with the opportunity to digitally upload their minds so that in the eventuality of their death, loved ones will be able to communicate with an AI simulation and gain closure. But at what cost?A year after her brother Mark’s death, Florence is still consumed by grief. And though her parents encourage her not to dwell on the past, Florence decides to visit Halfway and speak to the simulation of Mark that was created not long before his passing.
-
-
Edge of my seat
- By ChidiA on 06-09-24
By: Michael Honnah, and others
-
The Martian
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.
-
-
I love Wil Wheaton but why not R. C. Bray?
- By L. Newman on 01-11-20
By: Andy Weir
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
Artemis
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Rosario Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.
-
-
A ferrari with no motor
- By will on 11-18-17
By: Andy Weir
What listeners say about Dancing with Bears
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Christopher Farmer
- 07-11-12
A great setup, a wandering middle, a cluttered end
What did you like best about Dancing with Bears? What did you like least?
Darger and Sir Plus (previously seen in the short stories The Dog Said Bow-Wow, The Cat Laughed to See Such Sport and Boys and Girls, Come Out to Play) are back from their previous adventures and as erudite and scheming as ever, with perfect dialogue and actions that befit a pair of confidence tricksters in a strange, dystopian Russia. The adjoining cast of characters, though numerous, manage to hold onto their own personalities and quirks and stretch the scope of the story to to barest limit of patience. Rudnicki's performance ensures that each character has their own verbal tics and quirks, so that you immediately understand who's speaking and with what emotions. That said, the multiple plots running in concert barely manage to meet each other at the end of the story with satisfying conclusions. A lot of neat ideas, some very arresting scenes, but all with a - frankly - sputtering payoff that serves little more than to tie things off for the sake of doing so. Rushed, perhaps, is the best way to describe the ending.
Would you be willing to try another book from Michael Swanwick? Why or why not?
Swanwick's brand of sci-fi/fantasy has long been my favorite and I will always be ready to consume his next work. When I read The Iron Dragon's Daughter many years ago, I found it the antidote to the sci-fi/fantasy market saturated with the likes of Lord of the Rings knockoffs and penny-by-the-pound Dragonlance novels, and I've been hooked on him since. Nobody does it like Swanwick.
Would you listen to another book narrated by Stefan Rudnicki?
Mr. Rudnicki is a god made flesh with a voice of rich tobacco, warm gold, and fatherly love. Has he tried singing yet?
Do you think Dancing with Bears needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
I'll always be ready for yet another Darger and Sir Plus adventure - especially considering the target country of their next plot mentioned at the very end of the story. Hopefully, if that story is written, it will be much more focused and tight.
Any additional comments?
This is NOT the best book to get started on reading/listening to Swanwick. If you can, I recommend reading/listening to his earlier works: The Iron Dragon's Daughter, Bones of the Earth, and Jack Faust. His anthologies The Dog Said Bow-Wow and Tales of Old Earth are spectacular and great for lunch hour reading, and you'll even get in some of his Hugo winners.
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
-
Performance
-
Story
- Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
- 07-21-15
Locke Lamora meets Dostoevsky after the apocalypse
It's a shame there are so few reviews of this audiobook, as this really was pretty fantastic. It's like: Scott Lynch's Locke Lamora meets Dostoevsky in the post-apocalypse. And as always Rudnicki is great, this one he gets to show off a range of Russian accents, cyber wolves, giants, genetically engineered bear-men and Neanderthals, and a fascinating, hilarious pair of con artists in Darger (British, what ho) and Surplus (a genetically uplifted dog, from Vermont, yeah I said it, Vermont). Really, really enjoyed it.
So, the events. Something like this, prior to the book: In the future, we create AI, and have a utopia for a time (some dispute whether this utopia reached, say, Russia or not, and for how long); the AI... yeah it grew to hate humanity. Hate hate hate. War. Destruction. Some AI is eventually exiled to the Internet/virtual world, others are physically cut off. (For example, chiefly in this story, the Russian spaceport of Baikonur. Which hates you, people. HATES you. Biding its time. Hating you.)
And then, unto this comes Darger and Surplus, somehow before the story starts having gotten themselves into the caravan of the ambassador of Byzantium heading to the Duke of Moscovy with a priceless gift. Crossing into Russia. Where Baikonur's cyberwolves have just started their own journey.
So many cons. Great world-building in Moscow, which has its own spiraling, interconnected, double-triple-quadruple-crossing schemes. In this "post-utopian" time we have some gene-splicing, and automatic weapons, and really, really, really, REALLY crazy new drugs, but horse and carriage transport.
"In Russia, there are no facts. Only competing conspiracy theories." (Paraphrase from memory one of MANY great one-liners liberally sprinkled in here on everything from politics to religion.) Just... highly recommended. Fun, smart, colorful, engaging. I really hope the forthcoming sequel (Chasing the Phoenix) comes to audio as well.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful