Implied Spaces

By: Walter Jon Williams

Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly

Aristide, a semi-retired computer scientist turned swordsman, is a scholar of the implied spaces, seeking meaning amid the accidents of architecture in a universe where reality itself has been sculpted and designed by superhuman machine intelligence. While exploring the pre-technological world Midgarth, one of four dozen pocket universes created within a series of vast, orbital matrioshka computer arrays, Aristide uncovers a fiendish plot threatening to set off a nightmare scenario, perhaps even bringing about the ultimate existential crisis: the end of civilization itself.

Traveling the pocket universes with his wormhole-edged sword Tecmessa in hand and talking cat Bitsy, avatar of the planet-sized computer Endora, at his side, Aristide must find a way to save the multiverse from subversion, sabotage, and certain destruction.

©2019 Walter Jon Williams (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Walter Jon Williams really knows how to play power chords in the 'key of wonder' and in Implied Spaces he’s gone to town on the guitar solo!” (Charles Stross)

I (eventually) loved this story

There was a point reading this mediocre fantasy novel that I realized that I had been tricked. It was a much bigger and more beautiful novel that I had imagined. Between the beginning and ending, there were many exquisite and tantalizing unintentional finds that provoked new ideas... the Implied Spaces, if you will. I claim no more that the usual amount of imagination -- and mine was tickled in new and delightful ways.

Big Concepts! Big Thrills

This book is nothing like I expected in a good way. It surpassed my expectations and almost every way.

by the end I was getting some expanse vibes, But in some ways it's a bit Sandersonesque.

either way I very much enjoyed the prose and storytelling, And I thought the reader had the perfect voice for this book.

I've read it 9 times now

I would read it 9 more it is so good. Intelligent and comical while covering serious existential questions

An opportunity learn something

This book is definitely worth the trouble of wrapping your head around the story. the main theme can be hard to follow but the implied spaces if you look in between you can definitely find an eye-opening experience.

A grand adventure!

I’d never heard of this author and am thankful Audible brought him to my attention. The ideas in this book are magnificent - big science fiction ideas burst from the onset and combine in new ways. Loved the narration as well - very evocative and emotional.

Bad cover art hides decent book

Nothing ground shattering here but it’s a decent story. Reminds me a bit of science fiction short stories in both the story beats and the world building. A nice palate cleanser if you find yourself going back to the same audiobooks over and over again and want something to break the rut. Don’t expect anything amazing.

Cover art is awful though. Makes it look like a edgy violent young adult paperback rather than a competently written space opera in the classical style.

Great story with lots of twists

The story is somewhat similar to another story I listened to a week or so ago so the references they talked about were fresh in my mind which was fun, but oddly I kept finding myself thinking about the other book. One of the big components of this story is nanotechnology aka nanites, so if you’ve read / listened do a nanite story recently this might be a great easy listen or maybe put a book or two between the sci-fi books 😉

Precise diction and good accents

Great performance and great novel. I liked William’s Metropolitan and sequel City On Fire more though.

enjoyable story with a good narrator

this book has a reasonably good story base and a moderately likable lead character. there are some... quirks in the book. The narrator does a fine job. the characters are distinct and the internal monologs are sometime distinguished from the spoken lines. overall an enjoyable listen.

good, hard sci-fi

The story had some concepts that were hard to wrap my head around, and I'm an engineer. many sci-fi books make some postulations that stand out as glaringly obvious ways to make their paradigm seem feasable. I don't recall any absurdities frced into the story. There is some interesting psychology and social science implications in the story. If you like sci-fi it's a good read. The implied spaces weren't really a very critical part of the story but did stimulate some interesting speculations that I'll watch for in real life.