Dmitry
- 11
- reviews
- 10
- helpful votes
- 36
- ratings
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Lord Valentine's Castle
- By: Robert Silverberg
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 19 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 524
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 381
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 383
The planet Majipoor is shared by humans and several alien races, including four-armed Skandars, three-eyed Liiman, and the native, shape-shifting Metamorphs. All are watched over by the King of Dreams, the labyrinth-dwelling Pontifex, and the priestess of the Isle of Sleep, while the Coronal officially rules from atop Castle Mount.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Superb
- By C. Paget on 07-29-08
- Lord Valentine's Castle
- By: Robert Silverberg
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
A fine science fantasy adventure
Reviewed: 09-08-21
The story of a wandering amnesiac turned supreme ruler of the wonderful planet Majipoor.
The narration is excellent as always.
There's so little truly good science fantasy around, this is a breath of air. The closest I can think of is perhaps the much more serious Book if the New Sun, though anyone who like the pern books will also enjoy it.
One of the best credits I've spent. Well done Blackstone Audio!
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Final Days
- By: Gary Gibson
- Narrated by: Nigel Carrington
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 33
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story4 out of 5 stars 31
It's 2235 and through the advent of wormhole technology more than a dozen interstellar colonies have been linked to Earth; but this new mode of transportation comes at a price and there are risks. Saul Dumont knows this better than anyone. He's still trying to cope with the loss of the wormhole link to the Galileo system, which has stranded him on Earth far from his wife and child for the past several years.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Meh...
- By Ingwe on 04-03-13
- Final Days
- By: Gary Gibson
- Narrated by: Nigel Carrington
Stogy
Reviewed: 08-09-20
Solid three because the narrator clearly agrees with me there. It's mediocre space opera, and that's just because there's lots of characters. The time travel element implies everyone is moving through a separate timeline, making it difficult to understand what Gibson is trying to tell us.
There's a lot of unnecessary action as well, it just doesn't fit the characters. Those people should be thinking their way out of a bind.
I should say I never got past book one of his Shoal sequence or whatever. Sequence. Hmm. It was irritatingly imitative.
Same here.
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X Minus One: Complete
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Philip K. Dick
- Length: 51 hrs and 3 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
X Minus One was a half-hour science fiction radio series broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958, in various time slots on NBC. Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950-51), X Minus One is widely considered among the finest science fiction dramas ever produced for radio. The first 15 episodes were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great collection in SERIOUS need of chapter labels
- By Amazon Customer on 09-12-19
- X Minus One: Complete
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Philip K. Dick
Old time radio performances of classic SF
Reviewed: 07-18-20
I've listened to it before, it was great then - can't remember where it was - and it so remains.
Short stories from the anthology age, many by writers that are now legend. It's a treasure trove.
But why are the chapters labelled incorrectly? I thought maybe some episodes were missing but could find no correlation. Please correct them, so we can navigate inside this trove properly. Or show a listing in the blurb at least.
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4 people found this helpful
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Putin: Prisoner of Power
- An Audible Original
- By: Misha Glenny
- Narrated by: Misha Glenny
- Length: 2 hrs and 43 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 84
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 74
On New Year’s Eve 1999, a young Vladimir Putin appeared on Russian TV screens - awkward, self-conscious...and the new President. Two decades later, Putin is still in power, standing self-assured and at ease on the world stage. How did a once little known KGB bureaucrat become one of the most dominant figures of 21st-century politics? In this gripping narrative history, Misha Glenny, journalist and best-selling author of McMafia, tells the story of an unexpected and swift rise to power - one full of political intrigue, backroom deals, courtroom battles and war.
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1 out of 5 stars
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And to think I was waiting for this book ...
- By analyzethis on 09-27-19
- Putin: Prisoner of Power
- An Audible Original
- By: Misha Glenny
- Narrated by: Misha Glenny
Trite
Reviewed: 10-07-19
No insights to be had, no detail uncovered. I got through 40 minutes and gave up. He may be a journalist but he has no expose here.
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Fallen Dragon
- By: Peter F. Hamilton
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 26 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 142
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 133
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 131
Lawrence Newton always dreamed of adventure amongst the stars. Now the ultimate prize is within his grasp, but what will he risk to get it? Lawrence is the sergeant of a washed-out platoon taking part in the bungled invasion of yet another human colony world. The giant corporations call such campaigns 'asset realization', but in practice it's simple piracy. When he's on the ground, being shot at and firebombed by resistance forces, he recalls stories of the Temple of the Fallen Dragon. Its priests supposedly guard a treasure hoard large enough to buy lifelong happiness.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A coherent universe inhabited by believable people
- By Amar on 01-23-17
- Fallen Dragon
- By: Peter F. Hamilton
- Narrated by: John Lee
Not quite a sum of its parts
Reviewed: 06-17-18
All the elements of a PFH classic are there - soldiers, revolutionaries, captains of industry.
There's an interesting ftl mechanic in the "portal colony" idea.
But it doesn't quite gel into a perfect whole.
The rambling storyline and standalone world remind me of his Great North Road, which I rate similarly, mostly for the unstoppable space eating viral alien threat idea.
It's a good book, but not one of his best.
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Century Rain
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,279
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,081
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,076
Three hundred years from now, Earth has been rendered uninhabitable due to the technological catastrophe known as the Nanocaust. Archaeologist Verity Auger specializes in the exploration of its surviving landscape. Now, her expertise is required for a far greater purpose. Something astonishing has been discovered at the far end of a wormhole: mid-twentieth-century Earth, preserved like a fly in amber.
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5 out of 5 stars
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One of John Lee's best performances
- By DAVID on 07-24-10
- Century Rain
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
Doesn't need a sequel but I would lap it up
Reviewed: 06-01-18
Americans in Paris detective story wrapped up in intricate, post apocalyptic, giant object sci-fi featuring non Asimov compliant snake robots. Seems too much? Not for Reynolds gnarly imagination.
I read this when it appeared in paperback on a holiday, probably got it at the airport. I remember it was seriously good.
Lee is excellent as always for this sort of smart, dense fiction. A pleasure to hear his compassion for characters and situations.
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Hull Zero Three
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 236
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 168
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 171
A starship hurtles through the emptiness of space. Its destination - unknown. Its purpose - a mystery. Now, one man wakes up. Ripped from a dream of a new home - a new planet and the woman he was meant to love in his arms - he finds himself wet, naked, and freezing to death. The dark halls are full of monsters but trusting other survivors he meets might be the greater danger.
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5 out of 5 stars
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very good sci fi thriller
- By A. Alegria on 01-14-11
- Hull Zero Three
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
Sweet confusion
Reviewed: 02-11-18
A possibility unique interstellar arc story by a Greg Bear long overdue for a return to serious fiction. Dan John Miller performs at a suitably bewildered tempo that had me all ears pretty much straight through - best epic SciFi listen in six months, since Seveneves and Aurora.
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Remnant Population
- By: Elizabeth Moon
- Narrated by: Vanessa Hart
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 613
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 564
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 568
For forty years, Colony 3245.12 has been Ofelia’s home. On this planet far away in space and time from the world of her youth, she has lived and loved, weathered the death of her husband, raised her one surviving child, lovingly tended her garden, and grown placidly old. And it is here that she fully expects to finish out her days - until the shifting corporate fortunes of the Sims Bancorp Company dictates that Colony 3245.12 is to be disbanded, its residents shipped off, deep in cryo-sleep, to somewhere new and strange and not of their choosing.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Sci-Fi for the Red Hat Society
- By Tango on 03-20-13
- Remnant Population
- By: Elizabeth Moon
- Narrated by: Vanessa Hart
Alone with indigens
Reviewed: 08-28-17
Old hat colonist grandma's drunk on freedom, but is she a realistic choice for ambassador to a dangerous species?
If you're a sci-fi fan you should definitely listen to /read this, it's peripherally a colonist thing that's rare enough to enjoy for the novelty of the technological circumstances...
Hart's performance is lurid in places - it may make you laugh. Not how I imagine our heroine but what do I know.
Generic but worth it.
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The Skinner
- The Spatterjay Series: Book 1
- By: Neal Asher
- Narrated by: William Gaminara
- Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 328
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 250
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Story4 out of 5 stars 253
The savage ocean planet of Spatterjay draws visitors with very different agendas. Erlin is immortal and seeks a reason to keep living. Janer hosts a hive mind, which paid him to find this planet. And Keech is an agent of Earth who’s been dead for 700 years – but still hunts a notorious criminal. On Spatterjay’s vast waterscapes, only the Old Captains risk the native life forms and their voracious appetites. However, they are now barely human. And somewhere out there Keech’s target – the Skinner – runs wild.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Biology gone wild
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-12-12
- The Skinner
- The Spatterjay Series: Book 1
- By: Neal Asher
- Narrated by: William Gaminara
Deathworld on Sea
Reviewed: 08-11-17
Neal Asher at his best nitrates with gusto. Will be listening to the next two books.
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The Dreaming Void
- Void, Book 1
- By: Peter F. Hamilton
- Narrated by: Toby Longworth
- Length: 21 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 447
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 328
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 332
AD 3580. The Intersolar Commonwealth has spread through the galaxy to over a thousand star systems. It is a culture of rich diversity with a place for everyone. Even death itself has been overcome. But at the centre of the Commonwealth is a massive black hole. This Void is not a natural artefact. Inside there is a strange universe where the laws of physics are very different to those we know. It is slowly consuming the other stars of the galactic core - one day it will devour the entire galaxy.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A little confusing to start with.. and then...
- By Matthew on 08-04-08
- The Dreaming Void
- Void, Book 1
- By: Peter F. Hamilton
- Narrated by: Toby Longworth
John Lee or Peter Kenney should have read it
Reviewed: 06-26-17
The Commonwealth is going post physical. And it's thousand year old scions sound like pirates. Each and every one.
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1 person found this helpful