The Year's Top-Ten Tales of Science Fiction 5

By: Andy Duncan, Gwyneth Jones, Paul McAuley, Linda Nagata, Hannu Rajaniemi, Robert Reed, Bud Sparhawk

Narrated by: Tom Dheere, Nancy Linari, Dara Rosenberg

An unabridged audio collection of the "best of the best" science fiction stories published in 2012 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster, as narrated by top voice talents. In "Invisible Men", by Christopher Barzak, a maid in an inn encounters the Invisible Man who makes her an offer to be more than she is in this quasi-retelling of H.G. Wells' famous story.

In this year's winner of the Nebula Award for best novelette, "Close Encounters", by Andy Duncan, an old man is hounded by reporters about the stories he used to tell of an alien who took him into space and the dog he brought back with him.

"Bricks, Sticks, Straw", by Gwyneth Jones, follows virtual scientists forced to survive within their remotes when a young science team on Earth loses remote contact with their telepresences on Jupiter's moons.

In "Arbeitskraft", by Nick Mamatas, Friedrich Engels strives to spread class revolution as a labor organizer for factory cyborg matchstick girls. "The Man", by Paul McAuley, is a Jackaroo tale about a solitary woman, living in a cabin on the planet Yanos, whose life is interupted by the sudden appearance of a naked man at her door. In "Nahiku West", by Linda Nagata, set in the author's Nanotech Succession sequence, officer Zeke Choy investigates an accident involving an illegal enhancement which was used to save a life.

"Tyche and the Ants", by Hannu Rajaniemi, showcases the plight of a young girl hidden on the moon by her parents, along with grags and Brain, as robotic ants have come from the Great Wrong Place to take her away. In "Katabasis", by Robert Reed, human adventurers on a journey in an inhospitable high-gravity region of the Great Ship must use porters, evolved for massive worlds, to aid them.

"The Contrary Gardener", by Christopher Rowe, tells of the tough decisions a talented gardener in a society which genetically grows some crops for ammunition must come to when she's recruited for the war effort. Finally, in "Scout", by Bud Sparhawk, a reconstructed marine is deployed to a planet occupied by the Shardies to reconnoiter by making use of his "turtle" enhancements to avoid detection.

©2012 Misc. Authors (P)2013 AudioText

Generally speaking there are no great stories

Close Encounters by Andy Duncan, the first story in the collection, likely to be the only exception. I found it well told and cleverly rounded.(4 stars). Somewhat above 3 stars I would place The Man from Paul McAuley and then followed by Nahiku West by Linda Nagata, Scout by Bud Sparkawk, Katabasis by Robert Reed and perhaps Tyche and the Ants by Hannu Rajaniemi. The other three stories not worthed much

Unexpected Adverts..............

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Quite honestly I had no idea that this Audiobook would contain Advertisments... I am pretty new to Audible.com , but assumed that if I pay for a book I won't get adverts inserted in it. How wrong I was.