
Brightness Reef
The Uplift Trilogy, Book 1
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Narrated by:
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George Wilson
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By:
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David Brin
About this listen
Persecuted refugees from six separate alien races have migrated to the idyllic planet Jijo. And despite their incredible diversity, the inhabitants live together in blissful harmony. However, settlement on Jijo is illegal - and it's only a matter of time before the residents of this forbidden paradise are discovered by the galactic powers-that-be.
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Story
Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself. With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. But as he closes in on the secret, a killer closes in on him because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason.
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Defeated
- By Eoin on 07-15-12
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Kiln People
- By: David Brin
- Narrated by: Andy Caploe
- Length: 23 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In a perilous future where disposable duplicate bodies fulfill every legal and illicit whim of their decadent masters, life is cheap. No one knows that better than Albert Morris, a brash investigator with a knack for trouble, who has sent his own duplicates into deadly peril more times than he cares to remember. But when Morris takes on a ring of bootleggers making illegal copies of a famous actress, he stumbles upon a secret so explosive it has incited open warfare on the streets of Dittotown.
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Interesting Premise, Disappointing Execution
- By Michael on 07-25-13
By: David Brin
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Emilie and the Hollow World
- By: Martha Wells
- Narrated by: Channie Waites
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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While running away from home for reasons that are eminently defensible, Emilie’s plans to stow away on the steamship Merry Bell and reach her cousin in the big city go awry, landing her on the wrong ship and at the beginning of a fantastic adventure. Taken under the protection of Lady Marlende, Emilie learns that the crew hopes to use the aether currents and an experimental engine, and with the assistance of Lord Engal, journey to the interior of the planet in search of Marlende’s missing father.
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Ugh
- By Shelly Frey on 01-31-25
By: Martha Wells
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Century Rain
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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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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One of John Lee's best performances
- By DAVID on 07-24-10
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Colonization: Second Contact
- Colonization, Book 1
- By: Harry Turtledove
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 28 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In the extraordinary Worldwar tetralogy, set against the backdrop of World War II, Harry Turtledove, whom Publishers Weekly has called the "Hugo-winning master of alternate SF," wove an explosive saga of world powers locked in conflict against an enemy from the stars.
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A great title poorly presented
- By Magnus on 06-27-12
By: Harry Turtledove
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The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume One
- By: Neil Clarke - editor
- Narrated by: Amy Tallmadge, Jeremy Arthur
- Length: 28 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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The best science fiction scrutinizes our culture and politics, examines the limits of the human condition, and zooms across galaxies at faster-than-light speeds, moving from the very near future to the far-flung worlds of tomorrow in the space of a single sentence. Neil Clarke has selected the short science fiction (and only science fiction) best representing the previous year's writing, showcasing the talent, variety, and awesome "sensawunda" that the genre has to offer.
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Hit and Miss; Many more misses than hits
- By Terrence Feenstra on 09-15-16
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Dragon's Egg
- Cheela, Book 1
- By: Robert L. Forward
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In a moving story of sacrifice and triumph, human scientists establish a relationship with intelligent lifeforms - the cheela-living on Dragon's Egg, a neutron star where one Earth hour is equivalent to hundreds of their years. The cheela culturally evolve from savagery to the discovery of science, and for a brief time, men are their diligent teachers.
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Classic Hard Science Fiction
- By Daniel Cascaddan on 01-12-18
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The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Adventurers, scientists, artists, workers, and visionaries - these are the men and women you will encounter in the short fiction of Kim Stanley Robinson. In settings ranging from the sunken ruins of Venice to the upper reaches of the Himalayas to the terraformed surface of Mars itself, and through themes of environmental sustainability, social justice, personal responsibility, sports, adventure, and fun, Robinson's protagonists explore a world which stands in sharp contrast to many of the traditional locales and mores of science fiction, presenting instead a world in which Utopia rests within our grasp.
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A nice treat for Kim Stanley Robinson fans
- By Anonymous User on 06-13-14
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The Hole
- Hard Science Fiction
- By: Brandon Q. Morris
- Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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A mysterious object threatens to destroy our solar system. The survival of humankind is at risk, but nobody takes the warning of young astrophysicist Maribel Pedreira seriously. At the same time, an exiled crew of outcasts mines for rare minerals on a lone asteroid. When other scientists finally acknowledge Pedreira's alarming discovery, it becomes clear that these outcasts are the only ones who may be able to save our world, knowing that the Hole hurtles inexorably toward the sun.
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Just OK. Won't repeat it. Won't do more this auth.
- By R. Frazier on 07-02-20
except for one thing. the narration- while fantastic when played straight, is cringe inducing torture for 40-60% of the book when the reader attempts alien voices. the voices are, at best, overdone, silly, annoying accents and, at worst, slobbering mushmouth that literally leave me nauseous. I hate it. I hate it so much. I don't know if I can finish because it's SO bad and the level of writing is just not good enough to compel me to put myself through it
ruined by voices
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I am sorry to say I did not give this book a fair chance.
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Worthy Voice Acting
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Director/Sound Engineer is a real job
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Not for the novice sci-fi reader
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great story, slow reveal of larger purpose
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There's nothing wrong with slow fiction; the issue comes when there is very little to pull the reader through the slowness.
I think the primary sin of this book is that it doesn't generate a sense of anticipation. A slow story is tolerable (welcome, even) when it takes its time to increase anticipation and delicately unravel each moment in a journey.
Having read Startide Rising and The Uplift War, I was able to generate my own expectations and predictions about *why* any of the goings-on in Brightness Reef were remotely dramatic. The book sure didn't do it for me.
The lack of intense climax at the end is forgiven since it is the first in a trilogy.
The narration is ok, the alien accents are consistent but come at the expense of emotive intonation.
Slow can be good...
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Not really a fan of the narration
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Brightness Reef
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Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and feel it is a masterpiece in classic sci-fi form. David Brin knows how to sink the hook in and keep you guessing until the very end. He is a master at storybuilding from various alien perspectives, which may throw some people off because of the change in thought process/focus from one alien race to another, but I found it captivating and ingenious.
I recommend this series to anyone who enjoys Frank Herbert, Peter F. Hamilton, Larry Niven, Orson Scott Card and other masters.
However, one caution to casual sci-fi readers that prefer straight forward stories full of action and special effects: you will get action, you will be thrilled, you will be surprised, but you will not be satisfied unless you are a fan of classic sci-fi writing techniques. This is not a shallow, no-brainer entertainment for the masses. This is a thought provoking work with complex plots/sub-plots that provide surprising twists and turns that are hard to predict compared to a lot of other literature in the genre these days.
I hope you enjoy!
Hard Core Sci-Fi at it's best!
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