Autonomous
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.24
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Jennifer Ikeda
-
By:
-
Annalee Newitz
About this listen
From award winning tech-journalist and io9 founder Annalee Newitz comes a highly anticipated science fiction debut!
Autonomous will pull listeners into a dark and dirty world that feels, at times, a bit too familiar.
Earth, 2144. Jack is an anti-patent scientist turned drug pirate, traversing the world in a submarine as a pharmaceutical Robin Hood, fabricating cheap scrips for poor people who can't otherwise afford them. But her latest drug hack has left a trail of lethal overdoses as people become addicted to their work, doing repetitive tasks until they become unsafe or insane.
Hot on her trail, an unlikely pair: Eliasz, a brooding military agent, and his robotic partner, Paladin. As they race to stop information about the sinister origins of Jack's drug from getting out, they begin to form an uncommonly close bond that neither of them fully understand.
And underlying it all is one fundamental question: Is freedom possible in a culture where everything, even people, can be owned?
©2017 Annalee Newitz (P)2017 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Four Lost Cities
- A Secret History of the Urban Age
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes listeners on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii in Italy, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today.
-
-
What really happened to four "lost" cities
- By Elisabeth Carey on 04-12-21
By: Annalee Newitz
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
Scatter, Adapt, and Remember
- How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In its 4.5 billion–year history, life on Earth has been almost erased at least half a dozen times: shattered by asteroid impacts, entombed in ice, smothered by methane, and torn apart by unfathomably powerful megavolcanoes. And we know that another global disaster is eventually headed our way. Can we survive it? How?
As a species, Homo sapiens is at a crossroads. Study of our planet’s turbulent past suggests that we are overdue for a catastrophic disaster, whether caused by nature or by human interference.
It’s a frightening prospect, as each of the Earth’s past major disasters—from meteor strikes to bombardment by cosmic radiation—resulted in a mass extinction, where more than 75 percent of the planet’s species died out. But in Scatter, Adapt, and Remember, Annalee Newitz, science journalist and editor of the science Web site io9.com explains that although global disaster is all but inevitable, our chances of long-term species survival are better than ever. Life on Earth has come close to annihilation—humans have, more than once, narrowly avoided extinction just
during the last million years—but every single time a few creatures survived, evolving to adapt to the harshest of conditions.
This brilliantly speculative work of popular science focuses on humanity’s long history of dodging the bullet, as well as on new threats that we may face in years to come. Most important, it explores how scientific breakthroughs today will help us avoid disasters tomorrow. From simulating tsunamis to studying central Turkey’s ancient underground cities; from cultivating cyanobacteria for “living cities” to designing space elevators to make space colonies cost-effective; from using math to stop pandemics to studying the remarkable survival strategies of gray whales, scientists and researchers the world over are discovering the keys to long-term resilience and learning how humans can choose life over death.
Newitz’s remarkable and fascinating journey through the science of mass extinctions is a powerful argument about human ingenuity and our ability to change. In a world populated by doomsday preppers and media commentators obsessively forecasting our demise, Scatter, Adapt, and Remember is a compelling voice of hope. It leads us away from apocalyptic thinking into a future where we live to build a better world—on this planet and perhaps on others. Readers of this book will be equipped scientifically, intellectually, and emotionally to face whatever the future holds.
-
-
This is how we'll do it...
- By Bryant on 06-24-15
By: Annalee Newitz
-
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
- Monk & Robot, Book 1
- By: Becky Chambers
- Narrated by: Em Grosland
- Length: 4 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.
-
-
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
- By Daniel Cascaddan on 07-15-21
By: Becky Chambers
-
New Arcadia: Stage One
- By: Eric Jason Martin
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin, Matthew Mercer, Erika Ishii, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a not-so-distant future, a deadly pandemic has forced the world into social isolation. Confined to their homes, millions now survive off drone-delivered food packages and online-only interactions. It’s an especially lonely life for John Chambers, a drone shipment coordinator for the monolithic Chum Corporation. Trapped in his dead-end job and having just turned 40, John’s started spending more time grinding in virtual reality MMORPGs than he does grinding for his real-world job--and that hasn’t gone unnoticed by human resources!
-
-
Derivative
- By T. Bailey on 03-03-21
-
The Kaiju Preservation Society
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food-delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization”. Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on. What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at at least. In an alternate dimension, dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world.
-
-
I'm listening with a permanent smile on my face
- By Lucy A. Pithecus on 03-15-22
By: John Scalzi
-
Four Lost Cities
- A Secret History of the Urban Age
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes listeners on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii in Italy, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today.
-
-
What really happened to four "lost" cities
- By Elisabeth Carey on 04-12-21
By: Annalee Newitz
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
Scatter, Adapt, and Remember
- How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In its 4.5 billion–year history, life on Earth has been almost erased at least half a dozen times: shattered by asteroid impacts, entombed in ice, smothered by methane, and torn apart by unfathomably powerful megavolcanoes. And we know that another global disaster is eventually headed our way. Can we survive it? How?
As a species, Homo sapiens is at a crossroads. Study of our planet’s turbulent past suggests that we are overdue for a catastrophic disaster, whether caused by nature or by human interference.
It’s a frightening prospect, as each of the Earth’s past major disasters—from meteor strikes to bombardment by cosmic radiation—resulted in a mass extinction, where more than 75 percent of the planet’s species died out. But in Scatter, Adapt, and Remember, Annalee Newitz, science journalist and editor of the science Web site io9.com explains that although global disaster is all but inevitable, our chances of long-term species survival are better than ever. Life on Earth has come close to annihilation—humans have, more than once, narrowly avoided extinction just
during the last million years—but every single time a few creatures survived, evolving to adapt to the harshest of conditions.
This brilliantly speculative work of popular science focuses on humanity’s long history of dodging the bullet, as well as on new threats that we may face in years to come. Most important, it explores how scientific breakthroughs today will help us avoid disasters tomorrow. From simulating tsunamis to studying central Turkey’s ancient underground cities; from cultivating cyanobacteria for “living cities” to designing space elevators to make space colonies cost-effective; from using math to stop pandemics to studying the remarkable survival strategies of gray whales, scientists and researchers the world over are discovering the keys to long-term resilience and learning how humans can choose life over death.
Newitz’s remarkable and fascinating journey through the science of mass extinctions is a powerful argument about human ingenuity and our ability to change. In a world populated by doomsday preppers and media commentators obsessively forecasting our demise, Scatter, Adapt, and Remember is a compelling voice of hope. It leads us away from apocalyptic thinking into a future where we live to build a better world—on this planet and perhaps on others. Readers of this book will be equipped scientifically, intellectually, and emotionally to face whatever the future holds.
-
-
This is how we'll do it...
- By Bryant on 06-24-15
By: Annalee Newitz
-
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
- Monk & Robot, Book 1
- By: Becky Chambers
- Narrated by: Em Grosland
- Length: 4 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.
-
-
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
- By Daniel Cascaddan on 07-15-21
By: Becky Chambers
-
New Arcadia: Stage One
- By: Eric Jason Martin
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin, Matthew Mercer, Erika Ishii, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a not-so-distant future, a deadly pandemic has forced the world into social isolation. Confined to their homes, millions now survive off drone-delivered food packages and online-only interactions. It’s an especially lonely life for John Chambers, a drone shipment coordinator for the monolithic Chum Corporation. Trapped in his dead-end job and having just turned 40, John’s started spending more time grinding in virtual reality MMORPGs than he does grinding for his real-world job--and that hasn’t gone unnoticed by human resources!
-
-
Derivative
- By T. Bailey on 03-03-21
-
The Kaiju Preservation Society
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food-delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization”. Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on. What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at at least. In an alternate dimension, dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world.
-
-
I'm listening with a permanent smile on my face
- By Lucy A. Pithecus on 03-15-22
By: John Scalzi
-
Sea of Rust
- A Novel
- By: C. Robert Cargill
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
This Book has Magic
- By Kurt Schwoppe on 06-15-18
-
Translation State
- By: Ann Leckie
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Enae's grandmaman passes away, Enae inherits something unexpected: a diplomatic assignment to track down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. No one actually expects Enae to succeed; it's an empty assignment meant to keep hir occupied. But Enae has never had a true purpose—no one ever expected hir to do more than care for grandmaman—so sie is determined to accomplish this task to the best of her ability.
-
-
Single themed and not on par with the series
- By Andrew Pollack on 07-01-23
By: Ann Leckie
-
Level Five
- Killday, Book 1
- By: William Ledbetter
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Level Five, the debut near-future thriller by Nebula Award winner William Ledbetter, AIs battle for dominance, and nanotechnology is on the loose. And all that stands in the way of the coming apocalypse is a starry-eyed inventor who dreams of building a revolutionary new spacecraft and an intelligence agency desk jockey faced with the impossible choice of saving her daughter - or saving the world.
-
-
Techno thriller? Or hard science fiction? Either way, it’s excellent!
- By Martin L. Shoemaker on 07-22-18
-
Nexus
- Nexus, Book 1
- By: Ramez Naam
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the near future, the nano-drug Nexus can link mind to mind. There are some who want to improve it. There are some who want to eradicate it. And there are others who just want to exploit it. When a young scientist is caught improving Nexus, he’s thrust over his head into a world of danger and international espionage, with far more at stake than anyone realizes.
-
-
This guy might be great one day
- By Daniel on 05-14-14
By: Ramez Naam
-
To Be Taught, If Fortunate
- By: Becky Chambers
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the turn of the 22nd century, scientists make a breakthrough in human spaceflight. Through a revolutionary method known as somaforming, astronauts can survive in hostile environments off Earth using synthetic biological supplementations. With the fragility of the body no longer a limiting factor, human beings are at last able to journey to neighboring exoplanets long known to harbor life. A team of these explorers, Ariadne O’Neill and her three crewmates, are hard at work in a planetary system 15 light-years from Sol, on a mission to ecologically survey four habitable worlds.
-
-
"Gay & Lesbian"?!? This is solid Sci-Fi
- By Jennifer on 09-16-19
By: Becky Chambers
-
Neuromancer
- By: William Gibson
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer didn't just explode onto the science fiction scene - it permeated into the collective consciousness, culture, science, and technology.Today, there is only one science fiction masterpiece to thank for the term "cyberpunk," for easing the way into the information age and Internet society.
-
-
Story? Classic. Narrator? Ugh.
- By Sage on 11-11-14
By: William Gibson
-
Machinehood
- By: S.B. Divya
- Narrated by: Inés del Castillo, Deepti Gupta
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welga Ramirez, executive bodyguard and ex-special forces, is about to retire early when her client is killed in front of her. It’s, 2095 and people don’t usually die from violence. Humanity is entirely dependent on pills that not only help them stay alive but allow them to compete with artificial intelligence in an increasingly competitive gig economy. Daily doses protect against designer diseases, flow enhances focus, zips and buffs enhance physical strength and speed, and juvers speed the healing process.
-
-
Great
- By Lu on 07-06-21
By: S.B. Divya
-
New York 2140
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren, Robin Miles, Peter Ganim, and others
- Length: 22 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author Kim Stanley Robinson returns with a bold and brilliant vision of New York City in the next century. 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.
-
-
Complex, believable, nuanced, riveting
- By Lois on 04-07-17
-
Relic
- By: Alan Dean Foster
- Narrated by: Marc Thompson
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once Homo sapiens reigned supreme, spreading from star system to star system in an empire that encountered no alien life and thus knew no enemy.... save itself. As had happened many times before, the most primal human instincts rose up, only this time armed with the advanced scientific knowledge to create a genetically engineered smart virus that quickly wiped out humanity to the last man. That man is Ruslan, the sole known surviving human being in the universe.
-
-
Really fun story!
- By APLang on 08-16-18
By: Alan Dean Foster
-
Sorrowland
- A Novel
- By: Rivers Solomon
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vern - seven months pregnant and desperate to escape the strict religious compound where she was raised - flees for the shelter of the woods. There, she gives birth to twins, and plans to raise them far from the influence of the outside world. But even in the forest, Vern is a hunted woman. Forced to fight back against the community that refuses to let her go, she unleashes incredible brutality far beyond what a person should be capable of, her body wracked by inexplicable and uncanny changes.
-
-
This Book Was Written For Me
- By Legend F on 06-23-21
By: Rivers Solomon
-
The Forever War
- By: Joe Haldeman
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
William Mandella is a soldier in Earth's elite brigade. As the war against the Taurans sends him from galaxy to galaxy, he learns to use protective body shells and sophisticated weapons. He adapts to the cultures and terrains of distant outposts. But with each month in space, years are passing on Earth. Where will he call home when (and if) the Forever War ends?
-
-
A classic.
- By John on 09-24-08
By: Joe Haldeman
-
The Tangled Lands
- By: Paolo Bacigalupi, Tobias S. Buckell
- Narrated by: Kate Reading, Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Khaim, The Blue City, is the last remaining city in a crumbled empire that overly relied upon magic until it became toxic. It is run by a tyrant known as The Jolly Mayor and his devious right hand, the last archmage in the world. Together they try to collect all the magic for themselves so they can control the citizens of the city. But when their decadence reaches new heights and begins to destroy the environment, the people stage an uprising to stop them.
-
-
Repeat of Alchemist with Unsatisfying Additions
- By Orwell on 02-28-18
By: Paolo Bacigalupi, and others
Editorial reviews
Editors Select, September 2017
A debut novel about artificial intelligence and drug pirates from Annalee Newitz, the founder of io9? I was on board before I even downloaded this book - and turns out I was safe to judge it by its cover. Newitz has created a richly imagined and morally corrupt future in which both life-saving and mind-altering drugs are heavily controlled by big pharma patents, and where both humans and robots live side by side - some indentured, some having gained “autonomy”. Autonomous is as addictive as it is thought-provoking, and I can’t wait to see what comes next for Newitz. Jennifer Ikeda was also a new narrator for me, and I was impressed by her range and ability to convey characters both young and mature, human and nonhuman. —Sam, Audible Editor
Critic reviews
"The uncertainty, fear, rage, despair, and, ultimately, hope that the robots experience are all perfectly voiced by Ikeda. A thrilling examination of intellectual property rights and personal identity." (AudioFile)
Related to this topic
-
The Year's Top Short SF Novels 5
- By: Cory Doctorow, Ken Liu, John P Murphy, and others
- Narrated by: Tom Dheere, Nancy Linari
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Short novels are movie-length narratives that may well be the perfect length for science fiction stories. This audio collection presents the best-of-the-best short science fiction novels published in 2014 by current and emerging masters of this vibrant form of storytelling.
-
-
Narrator sounds like Tony Danza
- By Sean on 03-05-16
By: Cory Doctorow, and others
-
Up Against It
- By: M. J. Locke
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Geoff and his friends live in Phocaea, a distant asteroid colony on the Solar System's frontier. They're your basic high-spirited young adults, enjoying such pastimes as hacking matter compilers to produce dancing skeletons that prance through the low-gee communal areas, using their rocket-bikes to salvage methane ice shrapnel that flies away when the colony brings in a big (and vital) rock of the stuff, and figuring out how to avoid the ubiquitous surveillance motes.
-
-
Very old school SF, in ways good and bad
- By A reader on 06-19-12
By: M. J. Locke
-
Robot Uprisings
- By: Daniel H. Wilson, John Joseph Adams - editor
- Narrated by: Emily Beresford, Tamara Marston, A.T. Chandler, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Humans beware. As the robotic revolution continues to creep into our lives, it brings with it an impending sense of doom. What horrifying scenarios might unfold if our technology were to go awry? From self-aware robotic toys to intelligent machines violently malfunctioning, this anthology brings to life the half-formed questions and fears we all have about the increasing presence of robots in our lives.
-
-
Has some bright spots
- By ChrisM. on 10-22-15
By: Daniel H. Wilson, and others
-
METAtropolis
- By: Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, and others
- Narrated by: Michael Hogan, Scott Brick, Kandyse McClure, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Armed camps of eco-survivalists battle purveyors of technology in this exclusive, original production featuring five sci-fi masters and five all-star narrators.
-
-
Not a wasted credit
- By james on 10-27-08
By: Jay Lake, and others
-
Nexus
- Nexus, Book 1
- By: Ramez Naam
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the near future, the nano-drug Nexus can link mind to mind. There are some who want to improve it. There are some who want to eradicate it. And there are others who just want to exploit it. When a young scientist is caught improving Nexus, he’s thrust over his head into a world of danger and international espionage, with far more at stake than anyone realizes.
-
-
This guy might be great one day
- By Daniel on 05-14-14
By: Ramez Naam
-
Code Breakers: Prequel
- By: Colin F. Barnes
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 2 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rogue hackers Petal and Gabriel are low on food and water. Their reputation precedes them and they are no longer able to hustle the crime community for supplies. With survival becoming harder, they’re left with no other choice but to accept a risky job from a dangerous individual. The two will have to negotiate with the Tinker - a woman whose reputation for psychotic behaviour is known across the nuclear-blasted Abandoned Lands; infiltrate a town overrun with killers; and recover a cache of exceptionally rare information.
-
-
Good action and plot - terrible world building
- By J. S. Bowers on 12-08-18
By: Colin F. Barnes
-
The Year's Top Short SF Novels 5
- By: Cory Doctorow, Ken Liu, John P Murphy, and others
- Narrated by: Tom Dheere, Nancy Linari
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Short novels are movie-length narratives that may well be the perfect length for science fiction stories. This audio collection presents the best-of-the-best short science fiction novels published in 2014 by current and emerging masters of this vibrant form of storytelling.
-
-
Narrator sounds like Tony Danza
- By Sean on 03-05-16
By: Cory Doctorow, and others
-
Up Against It
- By: M. J. Locke
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Geoff and his friends live in Phocaea, a distant asteroid colony on the Solar System's frontier. They're your basic high-spirited young adults, enjoying such pastimes as hacking matter compilers to produce dancing skeletons that prance through the low-gee communal areas, using their rocket-bikes to salvage methane ice shrapnel that flies away when the colony brings in a big (and vital) rock of the stuff, and figuring out how to avoid the ubiquitous surveillance motes.
-
-
Very old school SF, in ways good and bad
- By A reader on 06-19-12
By: M. J. Locke
-
Robot Uprisings
- By: Daniel H. Wilson, John Joseph Adams - editor
- Narrated by: Emily Beresford, Tamara Marston, A.T. Chandler, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Humans beware. As the robotic revolution continues to creep into our lives, it brings with it an impending sense of doom. What horrifying scenarios might unfold if our technology were to go awry? From self-aware robotic toys to intelligent machines violently malfunctioning, this anthology brings to life the half-formed questions and fears we all have about the increasing presence of robots in our lives.
-
-
Has some bright spots
- By ChrisM. on 10-22-15
By: Daniel H. Wilson, and others
-
METAtropolis
- By: Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, and others
- Narrated by: Michael Hogan, Scott Brick, Kandyse McClure, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Armed camps of eco-survivalists battle purveyors of technology in this exclusive, original production featuring five sci-fi masters and five all-star narrators.
-
-
Not a wasted credit
- By james on 10-27-08
By: Jay Lake, and others
-
Nexus
- Nexus, Book 1
- By: Ramez Naam
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the near future, the nano-drug Nexus can link mind to mind. There are some who want to improve it. There are some who want to eradicate it. And there are others who just want to exploit it. When a young scientist is caught improving Nexus, he’s thrust over his head into a world of danger and international espionage, with far more at stake than anyone realizes.
-
-
This guy might be great one day
- By Daniel on 05-14-14
By: Ramez Naam
-
Code Breakers: Prequel
- By: Colin F. Barnes
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 2 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rogue hackers Petal and Gabriel are low on food and water. Their reputation precedes them and they are no longer able to hustle the crime community for supplies. With survival becoming harder, they’re left with no other choice but to accept a risky job from a dangerous individual. The two will have to negotiate with the Tinker - a woman whose reputation for psychotic behaviour is known across the nuclear-blasted Abandoned Lands; infiltrate a town overrun with killers; and recover a cache of exceptionally rare information.
-
-
Good action and plot - terrible world building
- By J. S. Bowers on 12-08-18
By: Colin F. Barnes
-
Children of the Deterrent
- Halfhero, Book 1
- By: Ian W. Sainsbury
- Narrated by: Sam Phillips, Jaimi Barbakoff
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The new novel by the author of the best-selling The World Walker series. 'My name is Daniel Harbin, and I'm a child of The Deterrent.' What if a superhuman turned out not to be so super...or even human? Britain's superhero, The Deterrent, was unveiled to the world in 1979 and disappeared two years later. The truth about his origins has never been revealed. The rumours about his children - those that survived - and their mysterious abilities have never been confirmed. Until now....
-
-
Everything Backstory Until Last Few Chapters
- By Sailfish on 06-30-20
By: Ian W. Sainsbury
-
Camouflage
- By: Joe Haldeman
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The artifact is found seven miles below the surface of the sea and beneath 40 more feet of sand. The Navy's efforts to raise a wrecked submarine uncover it - and set in motion a scientific race to retrieve it, to discover just what it is and where it came from. Denser than any substance known to man, it has broken every drill bit they've tried on it and will not budge an inch. It resists every effort to breach it - or communicate with it.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Nathan Caroland on 09-21-08
By: Joe Haldeman
-
Immortality
- By: Kevin Bohacz
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 26 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Without warning, something has gone terribly awry. In the remote and unnoticed places of the world, small pockets of death begin occurring. As the initially isolated extinctions spread, the world's eyes focus on this unimaginable horror and chaos. Out of the ecological imbalance, something new and extraordinary is evolving and surviving to fill the voids left by these extinctions. Evolution is operating in ways no one could have expected, and environmental damage may be the catalyst.
-
-
Good End of World Thriller
- By John S on 11-04-14
By: Kevin Bohacz
-
Necropolis
- By: Michael Dempsey
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
NYPD detective Paul Donner and his wife Elise were killed in a hold-up gone wrong. Fifty years later, Donner is back: revived courtesy of the Shift. Supposedly the unintended side-effect of a botched biological terrorist attack and carried by a ubiquitous retrovirus, the Shift jump-starts dead DNA and throws the life cycle into reverse, so reborns like Donner must cope with the fact that they are not only slowly youthing toward a new childhood, but have become New York's most hated minority.
-
-
'Necropolis' Rocked My World
- By HEIDI on 01-19-12
By: Michael Dempsey
-
The Punch Escrow
- By: Tal M. Klein
- Narrated by: Matthew Mercer
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joel Byram is an everyday 22nd century guy. He spends his days training artificial-intelligence engines to act more human, jamming out to 1980s new wave - an extremely obscure genre - and trying to salvage his deteriorating marriage. Joel is pretty much an everyday guy with everyday problems - until he's accidentally duplicated while teleporting. Now Joel must outsmart the shadowy organization that controls teleportation, outrun the religious sect out to destroy it, and find a way to get back to the woman he loves.
-
-
Great Premise, terrible execution
- By Perfect Tommy on 09-25-17
By: Tal M. Klein
-
Altered Carbon
- By: Richard K. Morgan
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 17 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 25th century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself. Now, assuming one can afford the expensive procedure, a person's consciousness can be stored in a cortical stack at the base of the brain and easily downloaded into a new body (or "sleeve") making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen.
-
-
Altered Carbon
- By Jake Williams on 09-22-07
-
Accelerando
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Hardest of hard SF...
- By DLee on 11-24-14
By: Charles Stross
-
The God Wave
- A Novel
- By: Patrick Hemstreet
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For decades scientists have speculated about the untapped potential of the human brain. Now, neuroscientist Chuck Brenton has made an astonishing breakthrough. He has discovered the key - the crucial combination of practice and conditioning - to access the incredible power dormant in 90 percent of our brains. Applying his methods to test subjects, he has stimulated abilities that elevate brain function to seemingly godlike levels.
-
-
it lost its way at the end, but I liked it
- By Leo on 09-25-16
-
2113
- Stories Inspired by the Music of Rush
- By: John McFetridge - editor, Kevin J. Anderson - editor
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The music of Rush, one of the most successful bands in music history, is filled with fantastic stories, evocative images, thought-provoking futures and pasts. In this anthology, notable, best-selling, and award-winning writers each chose a Rush song as the spark for a new story, drawing inspiration from the visionary trio Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart.
-
-
I'm a RUSH fan, but ...no..not this book
- By NBP on 07-15-17
By: John McFetridge - editor, and others
-
Bluescreen
- A Mirador Novel
- By: Dan Wells
- Narrated by: Roxanne Hernandez
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Dan Wells, author of the New York Times best-selling Partials Sequence, comes the first book in a new sci-fi-noir series. Los Angeles in 2050 is a city of open doors, as long as you have the right connections. That connection is a djinni - a smart device implanted right in a person's head. In a world where virtually everyone is online 24 hours a day, this connection is like oxygen - and a world like that presents plenty of opportunities for someone who knows how to manipulate it.
-
-
not bad, but difficult narrator
- By Dennis Bingham on 05-02-16
By: Dan Wells
-
Metrophage
- By: Richard Kadrey
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to Los Angeles - where anger, hunger and disease run rampant. Jonny is a black-market dealer in drugs that heal the body and cool the mind. All he cares about is his own survival. Until a strange new plague turns L.A. into a city of death, and Jonny is forced to put everything on the line to find the cure... if it can be found on Earth.
-
-
This is how Cyberpunk should be done!
- By Cliff on 09-09-13
By: Richard Kadrey
-
Libriomancer
- Magic ex Libris, Book 1
- By: Jim C. Hines
- Narrated by: David DeVries
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Isaac Vainio is a Libriomancer, a member of the secret organization founded five centuries ago by Johannes Gutenberg. Libriomancers are gifted with the ability to magically reach into books and draw forth objects. When Isaac is attacked by vampires that leaked from the pages of books into our world, he barely manages to escape. To his horror he discovers that vampires have been attacking other magic-users as well, and Gutenberg has been kidnapped.
-
-
A reasonable start
- By Simon on 04-08-13
By: Jim C. Hines
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Terraformers
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Emily Lawrence
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Destry's life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the Environmental Rescue Team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning eco-systems as her parents and their parents did before her. But the bright, clean future they're building comes under threat when Destry discovers a city full of people that shouldn’t exist, hidden inside a massive volcano. As she uncovers more about their past, Destry begins to question the mission she's devoted her life to, and must make a choice that will reverberate through Sask-E's future for generations to come.
-
-
No no no no no
- By Jeff Reynolds on 03-12-23
By: Annalee Newitz
-
Change Agent
- By: Daniel Suarez
- Narrated by: Jeff Gurner
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author Daniel Suarez delivers an exhilarating sci-fi thriller exploring a potential future where CRISPR genetic editing allows the human species to control evolution itself. On a crowded train platform, Interpol agent Kenneth Durand feels the sting of a needle - and his transformation begins....
-
-
Still wrapping my head around it...
- By Christopher on 04-23-17
By: Daniel Suarez
-
The Quantum Thief
- By: Hannu Rajaniemi
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Starts Confusing, Gets Exciting, Ends Awesome
- By Matthew on 10-21-11
By: Hannu Rajaniemi
-
Robopocalypse
- A Novel
- By: Daniel H. Wilson
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication.
-
-
Run….Forest….Run!!!
- By James on 06-10-11
By: Daniel H. Wilson
-
Stories Are Weapons
- Psychological Warfare and the American Mind
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Alexandra Cohler
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Annalee Newitz traces the way disinformation, propaganda, and violent threats have evolved from military weapons deployed against foreign adversaries into tools in domestic culture wars. Newitz delves into America's deep-rooted history with psychological operations, beginning with Benjamin Franklin's Revolutionary War-era fake newspaper and nineteenth-century wars on Indigenous nations, and reaching its apotheosis with the Cold War and twenty-first-century influence campaigns online.
-
-
A solid read.
- By Michael D. Kilman on 11-19-24
By: Annalee Newitz
-
Void Star
- By: Zachary Mason
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Tristan Morris, Sean Pratt, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Not far in the future, the seas have risen, and the central latitudes are emptying. But it's still a good time to be rich in San Francisco, where weapons drones patrol the skies to keep out the multitudinous poor.
-
-
if you're That Guy
- By Zachary on 06-18-17
By: Zachary Mason
-
The Terraformers
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Emily Lawrence
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Destry's life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the Environmental Rescue Team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning eco-systems as her parents and their parents did before her. But the bright, clean future they're building comes under threat when Destry discovers a city full of people that shouldn’t exist, hidden inside a massive volcano. As she uncovers more about their past, Destry begins to question the mission she's devoted her life to, and must make a choice that will reverberate through Sask-E's future for generations to come.
-
-
No no no no no
- By Jeff Reynolds on 03-12-23
By: Annalee Newitz
-
Change Agent
- By: Daniel Suarez
- Narrated by: Jeff Gurner
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author Daniel Suarez delivers an exhilarating sci-fi thriller exploring a potential future where CRISPR genetic editing allows the human species to control evolution itself. On a crowded train platform, Interpol agent Kenneth Durand feels the sting of a needle - and his transformation begins....
-
-
Still wrapping my head around it...
- By Christopher on 04-23-17
By: Daniel Suarez
-
The Quantum Thief
- By: Hannu Rajaniemi
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Starts Confusing, Gets Exciting, Ends Awesome
- By Matthew on 10-21-11
By: Hannu Rajaniemi
-
Robopocalypse
- A Novel
- By: Daniel H. Wilson
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication.
-
-
Run….Forest….Run!!!
- By James on 06-10-11
By: Daniel H. Wilson
-
Stories Are Weapons
- Psychological Warfare and the American Mind
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Alexandra Cohler
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Annalee Newitz traces the way disinformation, propaganda, and violent threats have evolved from military weapons deployed against foreign adversaries into tools in domestic culture wars. Newitz delves into America's deep-rooted history with psychological operations, beginning with Benjamin Franklin's Revolutionary War-era fake newspaper and nineteenth-century wars on Indigenous nations, and reaching its apotheosis with the Cold War and twenty-first-century influence campaigns online.
-
-
A solid read.
- By Michael D. Kilman on 11-19-24
By: Annalee Newitz
-
Void Star
- By: Zachary Mason
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Tristan Morris, Sean Pratt, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Not far in the future, the seas have risen, and the central latitudes are emptying. But it's still a good time to be rich in San Francisco, where weapons drones patrol the skies to keep out the multitudinous poor.
-
-
if you're That Guy
- By Zachary on 06-18-17
By: Zachary Mason
-
The Future of Another Timeline
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Laura Nichol
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1992: After a confrontation at a riot grrl concert, 17-year-old Beth finds herself in a car with her friend's abusive boyfriend dead in the backseat, agreeing to help her friends hide the body. This murder sets Beth and her friends on a path of escalating violence and vengeance as they realize many other young women in the world need protecting too. 2022: Determined to use time travel to create a safer future, Tess has dedicated her life to visiting key moments in history and fighting for change. But rewriting the timeline isn’t as simple as editing one person or event.
-
-
Not for me
- By mix579 on 11-02-19
By: Annalee Newitz
-
Autonomous
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Alessandra De Luca
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Terra, 2144. Judith "Jack" Chen è una vera e propria scienziata-pirata: la sua base operativa è un sottomarino, la sua missione piratare costosi farmaci e produrne delle alternative a basso costo, accessibili a tutti. Una sorta di Robin Hood in un mondo dominato dalle case farmaceutiche. Eppure, qualcosa è andato storto con la sua ultima partita di Zacuity: coloro che ne hanno fatto uso, sono andati incontro a effetti collaterali imprevisti, ridotti a veri e propri automi costretti ad azioni meccaniche e ripetitive che conducono la mente alla follia.
By: Annalee Newitz
-
Four Lost Cities
- A Secret History of the Urban Age
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes listeners on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii in Italy, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today.
-
-
What really happened to four "lost" cities
- By Elisabeth Carey on 04-12-21
By: Annalee Newitz
-
Machinehood
- By: S.B. Divya
- Narrated by: Inés del Castillo, Deepti Gupta
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welga Ramirez, executive bodyguard and ex-special forces, is about to retire early when her client is killed in front of her. It’s, 2095 and people don’t usually die from violence. Humanity is entirely dependent on pills that not only help them stay alive but allow them to compete with artificial intelligence in an increasingly competitive gig economy. Daily doses protect against designer diseases, flow enhances focus, zips and buffs enhance physical strength and speed, and juvers speed the healing process.
-
-
Great
- By Lu on 07-06-21
By: S.B. Divya
-
The Warehouse
- A Novel
- By: Rob Hart
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Jason Culp, Karissa Vacker
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paxton never thought he’d be working for Cloud, the giant tech company that’s eaten much of the American economy. Much less that he’d be moving into one of the company’s sprawling live-work facilities. But compared to what’s left outside, Cloud’s bland chainstore life of gleaming entertainment halls, open-plan offices, and vast warehouses...well, it doesn’t seem so bad. It’s more than anyone else is offering.
-
-
Soylent Green meets a Sam Walton Biography
- By RD on 09-01-19
By: Rob Hart
-
Nexus
- Nexus, Book 1
- By: Ramez Naam
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the near future, the nano-drug Nexus can link mind to mind. There are some who want to improve it. There are some who want to eradicate it. And there are others who just want to exploit it. When a young scientist is caught improving Nexus, he’s thrust over his head into a world of danger and international espionage, with far more at stake than anyone realizes.
-
-
This guy might be great one day
- By Daniel on 05-14-14
By: Ramez Naam
-
Diaspora
- By: Greg Egan
- Narrated by: Adam Epstein
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Behold the orphan. Born into a world that is not a world. A digital being grown from a mind seed, a genderless cybernetic citizen in a vast network of probes, satellites, and servers knitting the Solar System into one scape, from the outer planets to the fiery surface of the Sun. Since the Introdus in the 21st century, humanity has reconfigured itself drastically. Most chose immortality, joining the polises to become conscious software.
-
-
Fabulous Story, Disappointing Performance
- By Ben on 12-08-13
By: Greg Egan
-
Scatter, Adapt, and Remember
- How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In its 4.5 billion–year history, life on Earth has been almost erased at least half a dozen times: shattered by asteroid impacts, entombed in ice, smothered by methane, and torn apart by unfathomably powerful megavolcanoes. And we know that another global disaster is eventually headed our way. Can we survive it? How?
As a species, Homo sapiens is at a crossroads. Study of our planet’s turbulent past suggests that we are overdue for a catastrophic disaster, whether caused by nature or by human interference.
It’s a frightening prospect, as each of the Earth’s past major disasters—from meteor strikes to bombardment by cosmic radiation—resulted in a mass extinction, where more than 75 percent of the planet’s species died out. But in Scatter, Adapt, and Remember, Annalee Newitz, science journalist and editor of the science Web site io9.com explains that although global disaster is all but inevitable, our chances of long-term species survival are better than ever. Life on Earth has come close to annihilation—humans have, more than once, narrowly avoided extinction just
during the last million years—but every single time a few creatures survived, evolving to adapt to the harshest of conditions.
This brilliantly speculative work of popular science focuses on humanity’s long history of dodging the bullet, as well as on new threats that we may face in years to come. Most important, it explores how scientific breakthroughs today will help us avoid disasters tomorrow. From simulating tsunamis to studying central Turkey’s ancient underground cities; from cultivating cyanobacteria for “living cities” to designing space elevators to make space colonies cost-effective; from using math to stop pandemics to studying the remarkable survival strategies of gray whales, scientists and researchers the world over are discovering the keys to long-term resilience and learning how humans can choose life over death.
Newitz’s remarkable and fascinating journey through the science of mass extinctions is a powerful argument about human ingenuity and our ability to change. In a world populated by doomsday preppers and media commentators obsessively forecasting our demise, Scatter, Adapt, and Remember is a compelling voice of hope. It leads us away from apocalyptic thinking into a future where we live to build a better world—on this planet and perhaps on others. Readers of this book will be equipped scientifically, intellectually, and emotionally to face whatever the future holds.
-
-
This is how we'll do it...
- By Bryant on 06-24-15
By: Annalee Newitz
-
Sea of Rust
- A Novel
- By: C. Robert Cargill
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
This Book has Magic
- By Kurt Schwoppe on 06-15-18
-
Daemon
- By: Daniel Suarez
- Narrated by: Jeff Gurner
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the obituary of legendary computer game architect Matthew Sobol appears online, a previously dormant daemon activates, initiating a chain of events that begins to unravel our interconnected world. This daemon reads news headlines, recruits human followers, and orders assassinations. With Sobol’s secrets buried with him, and as new layers of his daemon are unleashed, it’s up to Detective Peter Sebeck to stop a self-replicating virtual killer before it achieves its ultimate purpose - one that goes far beyond anything Sebeck could have imagined.
-
-
Possibly The Best Techno-thriller Ever
- By Erica on 01-22-09
By: Daniel Suarez
-
Doomsday Book
- By: Connie Willis
- Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin
- Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Oxford student Kivrin, traveling back to the 14th century is more than the culmination of her studies - it's the chance for a wonderful adventure. For Dunworthy, her mentor, it is cause for intense worry about the thousands of things that could go wrong.
-
-
Timely, beautiful, terrible and haunting
- By mudcelt on 11-02-09
By: Connie Willis
-
A Cyberpunk Saga: Box Set, Books 1-3
- By: Matthew A. Goodwin
- Narrated by: Zachary Johnson
- Length: 18 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Orphaned and alone, Moss is happy to have found a place in the world. But his humdrum working routines take a terrifying turn when a mysterious woman breaks into his apartment and hands him a data chip from his dead parents. Suddenly hearing messages revealing his benevolent employer has a far darker side, he braves the dangerous megacity streets in search of the truth. Surrounded by outcasts and criminals and running on instinct, Moss stumbles onto a rebel group intent on exposing their corrupt oppressors.
-
-
Good value, fun story, a few gripes.
- By David on 09-26-22
What listeners say about Autonomous
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael G Kurilla
- 10-15-17
Drug lord Robin Hood with robotic romance
Autonomous by Annalee Newitz starts with a simple premise, a woman with a drug manufacturing capability who produces counterfeit expensive drugs to support her passion for making other life-saving drugs for poor people. At the same time, law enforcement partners, one who happens to be a robot are tracking Ms Robin Hood who has reverse engineered a new drug that happens to have some serious side effects such as killing people.
The main story is set a bit over 100 years into the future with occasional flashbacks about 25 years earlier. The main sci-fi elements amount to sophisticated drug development and manufacturing capabilities as well as advanced robots. Unfortunately, the basic premise of intellectual property, i.e. patents as the source of the problems of the day is a bit overdone and suggest someone with little background in this area. If the world were as described, then somehow in the intervening years, patents were changed to have infinite lifetimes and somehow, the world has allowed itself to fall under a single set of patent laws.
Law enforcement is also a bit loose with official investigators murdering any and all witnesses they question and staging suicide scenes. Also, pharma companies don't need to worry about bad drugs as "rich" people who can afford their drug can also afford medical care, but why they wouldn't just sue the pants off big pharma seems ignored. Also, if a single woman in a submarine can manufacture enough drugs to save small, poor countries from health care disasters, it begs the question why poor countries can't establish their own manufacturing facilities in submarines. Another bizarre aspect to this society is that at some point, intelligent robots were emancipated or could be become "autonomous", but at the same time, in some wired way it made sense that if robots could be autonomous, then humans could also become indentured as slaves to be bought and sold. This creates situations where humans are bought and sold for cheap labor, while robots can earn PhDs. Lastly, a lack of inside knowledge on the drug development process produces a situation where the mechanism of action of a dangerous drug is studied, an antidote is fashioned, tested on one mouse, and then the formula uploaded for doctors in hospitals to use in only five days.
Between the questionable ethics of making drugs for recreational abuse to support making life-saving drugs and robots struggling with gender identity issues and romantic feelings, the tale feels like an artificial world that doesn't quite make enough sense to exist. There is no attempt to offer how this transition occurred.
The narration is reasonably good, but with barely adequate character, especially gender discrimination making following conversations difficult at times.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- D.A.
- 05-31-18
Lovely Out-There Scifi Exploration
This book is pretty out-there. It hits so many of the major scifi themes: personhood, identity, what it is to be human, dystopia, Corporatocracy, intellectual property/ownership. It even goes a step further and explores sexual identity/sexuality between human and non-human sentience. It reminds me of a Neal Stephenson novel if it was ghost-written by a person who was actually good at characterization. And more concise. I love Stephenson's work, and this is just as "hard" a scifi, but Newitz makes much more *real* characters.
Jennifer Ikeda does a fine job narrating, and I'm pleased with her performance.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Aron Wilburn
- 01-07-19
Non-synthetic, gritty Futurism at its best.
Being a huge sci-fi and cyberpunk genre fan, I was pleasantly surprised but this wasn't yet another recycled attempt at world-building. the authors knowledge of Biotech, military technology, and basic programming theory kept the story fresh without bogging down in the minutiae. You can invest yourself in the characters quickly, and easily imagine yourself in this not so distant world where everything is for sale, even your soul, but the only real winners are those with privilege. Race, human-trafficking, intellectual property, identity and free-will are just a few of the themes expertly crafted by this talented writer. I look forward to seeing more work by this author.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Aaron K. Clark
- 01-03-19
This should have won the Nebula Award!
This book was a nebula-award nominee for 2018. It should have won!! The characters and story and environment all add up to the most compelling debut novel in years.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- John & Nadine
- 01-18-18
Smart, Crisp, Vivid Sci-Fi
Neal Stephenson & William Gibson recommend this book. That may be all you need to know.
I only found out after finishing it that this is Annalee Newitz's first novel - & I really hope there are more to come! A crackling, full-colour future is built before your eyes that propels a fascinating story, full of memorable characters. Jennifer Ikeda's narration is excellent, and very much immersed me in the story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- B. Bozeman
- 02-01-22
Annalee Newitz - Favorite new author
CYBERPUNK - check Sci-Fi - check - A trip through a near future with a great new female character taking on the corporate 'Big Pharma' and their gene enhanced and robotic enforcers. This one is great fun.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Elektra Hammond
- 09-18-22
Inventive and original
Remarkable. Complex. Intriguing characters. Fantastic worldbuilding. Intense look at human and non-human relationships. Highly Recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Strephon
- 10-16-17
Soon to be a Major Motion Picture
Fast-paced and smart without losing depth or miring the listener in an inaccessible discourse of artificial intelligence, big pharma, or IT.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Thammy M.
- 07-02-18
Too romantic
The idea about biotech is interesting, however the plot is a bit cheesy, making the story a bit monotone.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kate M.
- 10-16-19
Interesting but odd.
I loved a lot of the ideas and creativity in this book. It's downfall seems to me to be that it tries to do too much in a limited amount of time, and some of the narrative loses its impact as a result.
Jack was a little too one-dimensional for my taste, seeing as how she is one of the main characters. She's not nearly as interesting as Med or Threezed, and I would've liked a lot more of the story told from their perspectives.
Paladin and Elias are certainly...interesting. I will admit I had a lot of trouble with the romantic portions of this story, particularly where these two were concerned. I just can't imagine a romance between a man and a robot, regardless of "gender." The conflict that Paladin feels on whether it is "male" or "female" is academically interesting, but I just didn't buy the instant attraction/love of these two characters. Not to mention that Paladin isn't even remotely human-shaped.
All in all, I'm not sorry I read this. It has some interesting (and scary) ideas about the future, particularly with regard to Big Pharma. But the story it tries to use to carry those ideas seems to fall short, just because there is so much going on that it can't keep up. Plus the robot thing.
2.5 stars, rounded up.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!