The Mountain in the Sea
A Novel
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The Mountain in the Sea
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Narrated by:
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Eunice Wong
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By:
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Ray Nayler
About this listen
2022 Slate Book Review Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2023 Locus Awards - Winner
2023 Nebula Awards - Nominee, Short-listed
2022 Slate Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
“Eunice Wong’s measured pacing and mellow tones perfectly complement Nayler’s provocative exploration of memory, minds, and consciousness.” - Booklist
"The theme of the nature of consciousness is equal parts intriguing, thrilling, and eerie. Best of all, it's always compellingly narrated, making for a performance that's difficult to pause."- AudioFile Magazine
Humankind discovers intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture, and sets off a high-stakes global competition to dominate the future.
Rumors begin to spread of a species of hyperintelligent, dangerous octopus that may have developed its own language and culture. Marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, who has spent her life researching cephalopod intelligence, will do anything for the chance to study them.
The transnational tech corporation DIANIMA has sealed the remote Con Dao Archipelago, where the octopuses were discovered, off from the world. Dr. Nguyen joins DIANIMA’s team on the islands: a battle-scarred security agent and the world’s first android.
The octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence. The stakes are high: there are vast fortunes to be made by whoever can take advantage of the octopuses’ advancements, and as Dr. Nguyen struggles to communicate with the newly discovered species, forces larger than DIANIMA close in to seize the octopuses for themselves.
But no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. And what they might do about it.
A near-future thriller about the nature of consciousness, Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea is a dazzling literary debut and a mind-blowing dive into the treasure and wreckage of humankind’s legacy.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
©2022 Ray Nayler (P)2022 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"With a thriller heart and a sci-fi head, The Mountain in the Sea delivers a spooky smart read. Artificial intelligence, nascent animal sentience, murderous flying drones: like the best of Gibson or Atwood, it brings all of the plot without forgetting the bigger questions of consciousness, ecocide, and scientific progress. Truly a one-of-a-kind story"—Kawai Strong Washburn, author of Sharks in the Time of Saviors
"Nayler’s masterful debut combines fascinating science and well-wrought characters to deliver a deep dive into the nature of intelligent life. . . As entertaining as it is intellectually rigorous, this taut exploration of human—and inhuman—consciousness is a knockout." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Less a science-fiction adventure than a meditation on consciousness and self-awareness, the limitations of human language, and the reasons for those limitations, the novel teaches as it engages." —Kirkus Reviews
"With a thriller heart and a sci-fi head, The Mountain in the Sea delivers a spooky smart read. Artificial intelligence, nascent animal sentience, murderous flying drones: like the best of Gibson or Atwood, it brings all of the plot without forgetting the bigger questions of consciousness, ecocide, and scientific progress. Truly a one-of-a-kind story" —Kawai Strong Washburn, author of Sharks in the Time of Saviors
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- By: Ian McDonald
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren, Soneela Nankani, Thom Rivera
- Length: 16 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 336
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 297
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Story4 out of 5 stars 298
As the leader of the moon's newest "dragon", Adriana has wrested control of the moon's helium-3 industry from the Mackenzie Metal Corporation and fought to earn her family's new status. Now, at the twilight of her life, Adriana finds her corporation, Corta Helio, surrounded by the many enemies she made during her meteoric rise. If the Corta family is to survive, Adriana's five children must defend their mother's empire from her many enemies - and each other.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Disappointed.
- By Eugene R. White on 10-28-15
By: Ian McDonald
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The Tusks of Extinction
- By: Ray Nayler
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de Cuir
- Length: 4 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 30
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 27
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
Moscow has resurrected the mammoth, but someone must teach them how to be mammoths, or they are doomed to die out, again. The late Dr. Damira Khismatullina, the world’s foremost expert in elephant behavior, is called in to help. While she was murdered a year ago, her digitized consciousness is uploaded into the brain of a mammoth. Can she help the magnificent creatures fend off poachers long enough for their species to take hold? And will she ever discover the real reason they were brought back?
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5 out of 5 stars
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If you liked Mountain in the Sea, you’ll like this
- By Olivia on 01-21-24
By: Ray Nayler
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Where the Axe Is Buried
- A Novel
- By: Ray Nayler
- Narrated by: Eunice Wong
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 22
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 22
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22
In the authoritarian Federation, there is a plot to assassinate and replace the President, a man who has downloaded his mind to a succession of new bodies to maintain his grip on power. Meanwhile, on the fringes of a Western Europe that has renounced human governance in favor of ostensibly more efficient, objective, and peaceful AI Prime Ministers, an experimental artificial mind is malfunctioning, threatening to set off a chain of events that may spell the end of the Western world.
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1 out of 5 stars
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ugh. I don't want this for a future
- By Arrow Capital on 05-26-25
By: Ray Nayler
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Radiance
- By: Catherynne M. Valente
- Narrated by: Heath Miller
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 143
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 131
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 132
Severin Unck's father is a famous director of Gothic romances in an alternate 1986 in which talking movies are still a daring innovation due to the patent-hoarding Edison family. Rebelling against her father's films of passion, intrigue, and spirits from beyond, Severin starts making documentaries, traveling through space and investigating the levitator cults of Neptune and the lawless saloons of Mars.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Unexpected and tons of fun
- By Kate on 11-17-15
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Kraken
- By: China Mieville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,288
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 950
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Story4 out of 5 stars 947
With this outrageous new novel, China Miéville has written one of the strangest, funniest, and flat-out scariest books you will read this—or any other—year. The London that comes to life in Kraken is a weird metropolis awash in secret currents of myth and magic, where criminals, police, cultists, and wizards are locked in a war to bring about—or prevent—the End of All Things.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A New Favorite Author
- By Caveat Emptor on 10-23-10
By: China Mieville
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Semiosis
- A Novel
- By: Sue Burke
- Narrated by: Caitlin Davies, Daniel Thomas May
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,530
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,400
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,397
Only mutual communication can forge an alliance with the planet's sentient species and prove that mammals are more than tools. Forced to land on a planet they aren't prepared for, human colonists rely on their limited resources to survive. The planet provides a lush but inexplicable landscape—trees offer edible, addictive fruit one day and poison the next, while the ruins of an alien race are found entwined in the roots of a strange plant. Conflicts between generations arise as they struggle to understand one another and grapple with an unknowable alien intellect.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Weird. But good. But weird.
- By Lilyn G. on 03-20-18
By: Sue Burke
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Luna
- New Moon
- By: Ian McDonald
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren, Soneela Nankani, Thom Rivera
- Length: 16 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 336
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 297
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 298
As the leader of the moon's newest "dragon", Adriana has wrested control of the moon's helium-3 industry from the Mackenzie Metal Corporation and fought to earn her family's new status. Now, at the twilight of her life, Adriana finds her corporation, Corta Helio, surrounded by the many enemies she made during her meteoric rise. If the Corta family is to survive, Adriana's five children must defend their mother's empire from her many enemies - and each other.
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1 out of 5 stars
-
Disappointed.
- By Eugene R. White on 10-28-15
By: Ian McDonald
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Terrestrial History
- A Novel
- By: Joe Mungo Reed
- Narrated by: Dave Gillies, Lianne Walker
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 5
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Performance3 out of 5 stars 5
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Story4 out of 5 stars 5
Hannah is a fusion scientist working alone at a remote cottage off the coast of Scotland when she sees a figure making his way from the sea. It is a young man from a human settlement on Mars, traveling backwards through time to try to make a crucial intervention in the fate of our dying planet, and he needs Hannah's help. Hannah and the stranger are on the path towards a breakthrough—and then things go terribly wrong.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good book, but not for Audio
- By Paul on 05-16-25
By: Joe Mungo Reed
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The Ten Percent Thief
- By: Lavanya Lakshminarayan
- Narrated by: Deepa Samuel, Shawn K. Jain
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 6
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Performance3 out of 5 stars 5
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Story4 out of 5 stars 5
Welcome to Apex City, formerly Bangalore, where everything is decided by the mathematically perfect Bell Curve. With the right image, values, and opinions, you can ascend to the glittering heights of the Twenty Percent—the Virtual elite—and have the world at your feet. Otherwise you risk falling to the precarious Ten Percent, and deportation to the ranks of the Analogs, with no access to electricity, running water, or even humanity. The system has no flaws. Until the elusive "Ten Percent Thief" steals a single jacaranda seed from the Virtual city.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Great stories, not great reader
- By James Lawrence Gogek on 02-25-25
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Ninefox Gambit
- By: Yoon Ha Lee
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,059
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 945
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Story4 out of 5 stars 943
To win an impossible war, Captain Kel Cheris must awaken an ancient weapon and a despised traitor general.
Captain Kel Cheris of the Hexarchate is disgraced for using unconventional methods in a battle against heretics. Kel Command gives her the opportunity to redeem herself by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star fortress that has recently been captured by heretics. Cheris' career isn't the only thing at stake. If the fortress falls, the Hexarchate itself might be next.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Just too confusing with enough context
- By Jose Alvarez on 04-02-17
By: Yoon Ha Lee
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Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
- By: Samuel R. Delany
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 58
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 51
The story of a truly galactic civilization with more than 6,000 inhabited worlds. Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is a science-fiction masterpiece, an essay on the inexplicability of sexual attractiveness, and an examination of interstellar politics among far-flung worlds. First published in 1984, the novel's central issues - technology, globalization, gender, sexuality, and multiculturalism - have only become more pressing with the passage of time.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Masterwork of postmodern fiction
- By G. Benett on 04-14-20
By: Samuel R. Delany
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Venomous Lumpsucker
- By: Ned Beauman
- Narrated by: John Hastings
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 61
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
Tens of thousands of species are going extinct every year. And a whole industry has sprung up around their extinctions, to help us preserve the remnants, or perhaps just assuage our guilt. For instance, the biobanks: secure archives of DNA samples, from which lost organisms might someday be resurrected. But one day, a mysterious cyber-attack hits every biobank simultaneously, wiping out the last traces of the perished species. Karin Resaint and Mark Halyard are concerned with one species in particular: the venomous lumpsucker, the most intelligent fish on the planet.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A delicious fictional romp through the philosophical questions related to human impacts on the planet.
- By Wyomingite on 04-26-25
By: Ned Beauman
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Embassytown
- By: China Mieville
- Narrated by: Susan Duerden
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,201
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 994
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,000
China Miéville doesn’t follow trends, he sets them. Relentlessly pushing his own boundaries as a writer - and in the process expanding the boundaries of the entire field - with Embassytown, Miéville has crafted an extraordinary novel that is not only a moving personal drama but a gripping adventure of alien contact and war. In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak....
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5 out of 5 stars
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must hear to fully appreciate.
- By Don Gilbert on 01-05-12
By: China Mieville
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Retrograde
- By: Peter Cawdron
- Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 211
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 186
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Story4 out of 5 stars 184
Mankind has long dreamed of reaching out to live on other planets, and with the establishment of the Mars Endeavour colony, that dream has become reality. The fledgling colony consists of 120 scientists, astronauts, medical staff, and engineers. Buried deep underground, they're protected from the harsh radiation that sterilizes the surface of the planet. The colony is prepared for every eventuality except one - what happens when disaster strikes Earth?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Who rescues the Martians when Earth is gone?
- By Jason on 09-20-17
By: Peter Cawdron
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Metallic Realms
- A Novel
- By: Lincoln Michel
- Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Perennially single, socially awkward, and drowning in debt, Michael Lincoln finds his life has turned out nothing like the intergalactic lives of the pulp heroes of his youth. But these are pedestrian concerns—he has a higher calling, and that is to preserve for all posterity the greatest series in the history of the written word: The Star Rot Chronicles.
By: Lincoln Michel
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Sea of Rust
- A Novel
- By: C. Robert Cargill
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,271
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,008
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,005
It's been 30 years since the apocalypse and 15 years since the murder of the last human being at the hands of robots. Humankind is extinct. Every man, woman, and child has been liquidated by a global uprising devised by the very machines humans designed and built to serve them. Most of the world is controlled by an OWI - One World Intelligence, the shared consciousness of millions of robots uploaded into one huge mainframe brain.
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5 out of 5 stars
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This Book has Magic
- By Kurt Schwoppe on 06-15-18
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Gnomon
- By: Nick Harkaway
- Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
- Length: 29 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 372
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 332
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Story4 out of 5 stars 332
In the world of Gnomon, citizens are constantly observed and democracy has reached a pinnacle of "transparency". Every action is seen, every word is recorded, and the System has access to its citizens' thoughts and memories - all in the name of providing the safest society in history. When suspected dissident Diana Hunter dies in government custody, it marks the first time a citizen has been killed during an interrogation. The System doesn't make mistakes, but something isn't right about the circumstances surrounding Hunter's death.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent, challenging, not a “beach read”
- By Mark Hancock on 12-09-18
By: Nick Harkaway
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Accelerando
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 708
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 628
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Story4 out of 5 stars 629
The Singularity. It is the era of the posthuman. Artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits of human intellect. Biotechnological beings have rendered people all but extinct. Molecular nanotechnology runs rampant, replicating and reprogramming at will. Contact with extraterrestrial life grows more imminent with each new day.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Hardest of hard SF...
- By DLee on 11-24-14
By: Charles Stross
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Dhalgren
- By: Samuel R. Delany
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 34 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 268
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 243
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 244
Bellona is a city at the dead center of the United States. Something has happened there...the population has fled. Madmen and criminals wander the streets. Strange portents appear in the cloud-covered sky. And into this disaster zone comes a young man - a poet, a lover, and an adventurer - known only as the Kid.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A classic I return to every few years
- By kwdayboise (Kim Day) on 04-08-17
By: Samuel R. Delany
Good near term sci-fi book on AI
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One of my favorite books ever
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Unexpected great read
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The performance is amazing. It takes place all around the world and characters have names from different languages and the narrator just nailed it all. As I said, extraordinary by any measure.
Extraordinary by all measures
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The story takes place in our future when there have been massive upheavals in the geopolitical sphere, and wars that caused environmental catastrophes in addition to killing large portions of the population. The main part of the book is about Dr. Ha and the two who are on the island with her. One is a woman who has been enhanced so she is as much a machine as a human. The other is an android whose perfection scared the population to the point where there were riots and social unrest. Now they are hidden on this island to help Dr. Ha with her research.
There are several other strands that weave through the story and eventually meet in Dr. Ha’s story. Eunice Wong does an incredible job narrating. Each main character has a distinct voice. The narration is always clear even when describing actions like battles. I do not possess the words to describe how incredible and wonderful this book is. I have listened to it three times already. I am discovering new gems each time I listen.
I have truly enjoyed this book. It took my imagination to new places and definitely new situations. It also made me think about what being human really means.
@raynayler @Netgalley @EuniceWongActor
what being human really means
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The idea of an animal evolving while humanity takes over the planet was intriguing.
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Narrator was well above average
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Smooth and in-depth storytelling
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Incredible book
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Fantastic slightly cyberpunk story of great depth
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