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Aurora
- Narrated by: Ali Ahn
- Length: 16 hrs and 56 mins
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Publisher's summary
A major new novel from one of science fiction's most powerful voices, Aurora tells the incredible story of our first voyage beyond the solar system.
Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, it is the work of a writer at the height of his powers.
Our voyage from Earth began generations ago.
Now we approach our new home.
Aurora.
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"This ambitious hard SF epic shows Robinson at the top of his game... [A] poignant story, which admirably stretches the limits of human imagination."—Publishers Weekly
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Finally on Audible!! My favorite Hamilton series!
- By Patrick on 04-05-16
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A World Out of Time
- By: Larry Niven
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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After more than two hundred years as a corpsicle, Jaybee Corbell awoke in someone else’s body and under threat of instant annihilation if he made a wrong move while they were training him for a one-way mission to the stars. But Corbell bided his time and made his own move. Once he was outbound, where the society that ruled Earth could not reach him, he headed his starship toward the galactic core.
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Do you know how people get old?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-13-12
By: Larry Niven
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Lockstep
- By: Karl Schroeder
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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When 17-year-old Toby McGonigal finds himself lost in space, separated from his family, he expects his next drift into cold sleep to be his last. After all, the planet he' s orbiting is frozen and sunless, and the cities are dead. But when Toby wakes again, he' s surprised to discover a thriving planet, a strange and prosperous galaxy, and something stranger still - that he' s been asleep for 14,000 years. Welcome to the Lockstep Empire, where civilization is kept alive by careful hibernation. Here cold sleeps can last decades and waking moments mere weeks.
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A Great Idea, Poorly Served
- By D. M. ROBISON on 04-01-14
By: Karl Schroeder
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Marsbound
- By: Joe Haldeman
- Narrated by: Liza Kaplan
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Young Carmen Dula and her family are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime - they're going to Mars. Once on the Red Planet, however, Carmen realizes things are not so different from Earth. There are chores to do, lessons to learn, and oppressive authority figures to rebel against.
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Meh.
- By Wes Parker on 03-19-09
By: Joe Haldeman
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Expendable
- League of Peoples, Book 1
- By: James Alan Gardner
- Narrated by: Christine Marshall
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Under the benevolent leadership of the League of Peoples, there is no war, little crime, and life is sacred...unless you're an Explorer. The ugly, the flawed, the misfit, the deformed, they are the unwanted, flung to the farthest corners of the galaxy to investigate hostile planets and strange, vicious creatures. Out there, there are a thousand different - and terrible - ways to die.
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FU@@ING EXPLORERS
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 03-06-15
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Fear the Sky
- The Fear Saga, Book 1
- By: Stephen Moss
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 20 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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From the Audie-nominated narrator of The Martian. In eleven years' time, a million members of an alien race will arrive at Earth. Years before they enter orbit, their approach will be announced by the flare of a thousand flames in the sky, their ships' huge engines burning hard to slow them from the vast speeds needed to cross interstellar space. These foreboding lights will shine in our night sky like new stars, getting ever brighter until they outshine even the sun, casting ominous shadows and banishing the night until they suddenly blink out.
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Audible Where Are The Rest?!
- By ByEqualMeasure - julie on 09-14-15
By: Stephen Moss
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In the Ocean of Night
- Galactic Center, Book 1
- By: Gregory Benford
- Narrated by: Maxwell Caulfield
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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It is 2019. NASA astronaut Nigel Walmsley is sent on a mission to intercept a rogue asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Ordered to destroy it, he instead discovers that it is actually the shell of a derelict space probe - a wreck with just enough power to emit a single electronic signal….
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Like some Space with your Soaps?
- By Bradley on 05-15-12
By: Gregory Benford
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Distress
- By: Greg Egan
- Narrated by: Adam Epstein
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Investigative reporter Andrew Worth turns down a documentary on a mysterious new mental illness - "Distress," or acute clinical anxiety syndrome, for another assignment. He's on his way to the artificial island of Stateless, where the world's top physicists are gathering to decide on a new TOE, or Theory of Everything, to replace Einstein's outmoded legacy.
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A good book ruined by a poor (and strange) reading
- By David on 12-06-13
By: Greg Egan
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Robinson's best; Pinchot's usual excellence
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16 hours of nothing much happening
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Narrator ruins an otherwise interesting book.
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New York 2140
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Complex, believable, nuanced, riveting
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Good story, HORRENDOUS narration.
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A strange and similar world
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16 hours of nothing much happening
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Narrator ruins an otherwise interesting book.
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Quit listening about a third of the way in.
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Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, Red Mars is the first book in Kim Stanley Robinson's best-selling trilogy. Red Mars is praised by scientists for its detailed visions of future technology. It is also hailed by authors and critics for its vivid characters and dramatic conflicts.
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very long
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North America, 2047. For the small Pacific Coast community of San Onofre, life in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear attack is a matter of survival, a day-to-day struggle to stay alive. But young Hank Fletcher dreams of the world that might have been, that might yet be - and dreams of playing a crucial role in America's rebirth.
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Needs 6 stars
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New York 2140: Booktrack Edition
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New York 2140: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience! As the sea levels rose, every street became a canal. Every skyscraper an island. For the residents of one apartment building in Madison Square, however, New York in the year 2140 is far from a drowned city. There is the market trader, who finds opportunities where others find trouble. There is the detective, whose work will never disappear - along with the lawyers, of course. There is the internet star, beloved by millions for her airship adventures....
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Best audible production I’ve heard
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Aurora
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In Aurora, Illinois, Aubrey Wheeler is just trying to get by after her semi-criminal ex-husband split, leaving behind his unruly teenage son. Then the lights go out—not just in Aurora but across the globe. A solar storm has knocked out power almost everywhere. Suddenly, all problems are local, very local, and Aubrey must assume the mantle of fierce protector of her suburban neighborhood.
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The Best of Us
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By: David Koepp
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Forty Signs of Rain
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Its all
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The Ministry for the Future
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The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us - and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face.
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Great ideas, uneven narration
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Icehenge
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On the North Pole of Pluto there stands an enigma: a huge circle of standing blocks of ice, built on the pattern of Earth's Stonehenge - but 10 times the size, standing alone at the farthest reaches of the Solar System. What is it? Who came there to build it? The secret lies, perhaps, in the chaotic decades of the Martian Revolution, in the lost memories of those who have lived for centuries.
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An unusually realistic (& depressing) dystopia.
- By J. Billings on 04-15-18
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Generation Ship
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In 2108, Colony Ship Voyager departed Earth for the planet of Promissa with 18,000 of the world’s best and brightest on board. 250 years and 27 light years later, an arrival is imminent. But all is not well. The probes that they’ve sent ahead to gather the data needed to establish any kind of settlement aren’t responding, and the information they have received has presented more questions than answers. It’s a time when the entire crew should be coming together to solve the problem, but science officer Sheila Jackson can’t get people to listen.
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Little too much political shenanigans for me😬
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By: Michael Mammay
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The Quantum Thief
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Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist, and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy - from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of Mars. Now he’s confined inside the Dilemma Prison, where every day he has to get up and kill himself before his other self can kill him.
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Starts Confusing, Gets Exciting, Ends Awesome
- By Matthew on 10-21-11
By: Hannu Rajaniemi
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Starfish
- Rifters Trilogy Series, Book 1
- By: Peter Watts
- Narrated by: Gabriel Vaughan
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- Unabridged
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A huge international corporation has developed a facility along the Juan de Fuca Ridge at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to exploit geothermal power. They send a bio-engineered crew - people who have been altered to withstand the pressure and breathe the seawater - down to live and work in this weird, fertile undersea darkness.
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An excellent story, but only half of it
- By Casey on 02-12-20
By: Peter Watts
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The High Sierra
- A Love Story
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Kim Stanley Robinson first ventured into the Sierra Nevada mountains during the summer of 1973. He returned from that encounter a changed man, awed by a landscape that made him feel as if he were simultaneously strolling through an art museum and scrambling on a jungle gym like an energized child. He has returned to the mountains throughout his life—more than a hundred trips—and has gathered a vast store of knowledge about them. The High Sierra is his lavish celebration of this exceptional place.
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Disappointed in the judgmental tone
- By Amazon Customer on 08-18-22
What listeners say about Aurora
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- ewreirct
- 07-14-15
Beautiful
I'm a longtime fan of Robinson... and this is one of his best. It's not often I wish I could unhear a book just to have the pleasure of hearing it again. Aurora is a slow meditation on not only the physics, engineering and biology involved in space travel, but also on the psychology behind the desire to explore and escape. Really lovely writing and narration.
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70 people found this helpful
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- Eugene R. White
- 10-22-15
Tried to like this, but came away disappointed
I have enjoyed many of Kim Stanley Robinson's books in the past. Maybe I had different expectations regarding this generation ship story. I suppose it conflicted with my desire for some "happy ending" scenario. The science is very accurate, the Ship voice was excellent --- but the overall story was just depressing. The end -- maybe I missed the point -- was just disappointing. If you are looking for escapist SF -- it is not here. This is a VERY realistic look at how a generation ship journey may turn out.
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17 people found this helpful
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- Mark T
- 09-27-17
Never quite got the point
This is a long audible book, and I made it all the way to the end. But I never actually figured out why I was reading it, or what I was getting from it. I have to learn that a lot of the 2:1 deals on Audible are that way for a reason!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ryan
- 08-11-15
Desperately needs a storyeditor
First off, my compliments to Ali Ahn and the producers. I think "Aurora" has the best production value of any audiobook I've listened to yet.
This was my first exposure to KSR. I'm fine with fine-grained investigation of ecological collapse, the science of sustainability and long-distance space travel. These were selling points, not impediments to muscle my way through.
But I spent the majority of the book waiting for it to get going, waiting for the book to telegraph its main plot and give me characters I can sink into. It just never happened for me. Is the writing great? Absolutely! But with minor exceptional sequences, I found myself behind the eyes of unlikeable characters making weak choices that celebrate defeatism. Fledgling plot lines are given insufficient light and attention (look, a gardening metaphor!), minor characters fail to manifest in believable ways and the story simply limps on in search of dramatic conflict and I just couldn't care.
From other reviews, KSR merits another day in court, but I think I'll pay more attention to plot description and less attention to the hyperbolic adjectives like "masterful!" that sprinkled the cover. It's bad enough to be bored but when I'm chewing on a decision to abandon the story half-way through, it's tough to accept.
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1 person found this helpful
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- crashkicker
- 05-02-18
The first half is great. The second... blah.
Great story but it loses it's way halfway through. The Martian did a better job of "sciencing" and then the beach stuff at the end... I don't get it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ed
- 12-27-18
went long
the ideas of the book are great but excessive amounts of descriptions of things that dont move the story along
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- tracycali
- 01-08-20
Interesting twist on a somewhat tired trope
Broadly speaking the generation ship adventure genre has probably been beat to death at this point. Aurora provides an interesting perspective that is more evolutionary than revolutionary. it's an oft-told tale that in this case doesn't quite elicit much empathy with the characters. Their development and evolution seems strained and forced. In spite of all attempts to get the reader/listener engaged in the lives of the crew, the most interesting character in the narrative is "Ship". Nonetheless there are some interesting plot points and plot devices that kept me slogging through it. in summary, there's worse ways to burn a listening credit. Just don't expect much in the way of character development or post-listen satisfaction.
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- Steven Raymond
- 03-26-18
Technically intriguing; slow pacing
What did you love best about Aurora?
The technological hurdles were very thought provoking that brought out ideas and problems which had never occurred to me at all. I was glad that KSR was willing to submit & explore that the Religion of Science may not be able to invent a way around every problem and technical challenge. Or that such inventions are not sufficient to meet our every need.
What did you like best about this story?
I loved discussions about the technology- none of it seemed too over-the-top but reasonable approximations of what can be done now with just some tech progression you would expect. Honestly it seems like by 2545 tech would be even better, but not a big complaint.
What aspect of Ali Ahn’s performance would you have changed?
Every young man's voice sounded the same.
Any additional comments?
The pacing was too slow. 14hrs is kinda long for me, although I just finished Red Mars first and found Aurora a lot more engaging. The last 1/6th of the story could be trimmed to 15 minutes and not have lost much.
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- jfuentes7622
- 07-10-16
Very unpredictable and well written
I kept thinking I could predict what would happen next, though I failed over and over.
The ending is how I have seen some 70's movies with the earth is great and wonderful.
My regret is that the people left behind pretty much get dropped off, pretty much never heard from again. So there are gaps here and there.
Good book.
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- Dylan
- 08-30-15
Solid book, go for it
The narration was decent. The ship's voice was done very well, but the other characters lacked variety in voice. Additionally the dialogue felt stilted and forced. Though part of that was the writing. A great book with a few flaws, but definitely worth a read. The characterization of the ship is fantastic in its own right.
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