Falling Free
Miles Vorsokigan, Book 4
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Narrated by:
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Grover Gardner
About this listen
Leo Graf was just your average highly efficient engineer: mind your own business, fix what's wrong, and move on to the next job. But all that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat, where a group of humanoids had been secretly, commercially bioengineered for working in free fall.
Could he just stand there and allow the exploitation of hundreds of helpless children merely to enhance the bottom line of a heartless mega-corporation?
He hadn't anticipated a situation where the right thing to do was neither safe, nor in the rules. Leo adopted a thousand quaddies. Now all he had to do was teach them to be free.
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Critic reviews
Nebula Award Finalist, Best Novel, 1988
"Superb....Read, or you will be missing something extraordinary." (Chicago Sun-Times)
"Bujold's best work in my opinion." (Science Fiction Chronicle)
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The U.S.S. Merrimack was the finest battleship class spaceship in Earth's fleet, able to stand up against the best the Palatine Empire could throw at them, even able to attack and kill swarms of the seemingly unstoppable Hive. But nothing could have prepared the captain and crew of the Merrimack to face the Myriad - three colonized worlds in the midst of a globular cluster that the Hive had somehow overlooked.
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Great performance. Great read.
- By fistandantilus8u on 07-15-17
By: R.M. Meluch
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Orbital Decay
- By: Allen Steele
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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The award-winning, bestselling author's first novel. The beamjacks work in zero-gravity constructing satellites in the vacuum of deepest space. And they're not going to let the military control them anymore.
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Hard to follow
- By Don on 12-27-16
By: Allen Steele
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Hecate
- Serengeti Series, Book 0
- By: J. B. Rockwell
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Black Ops - the intelligence arm of the Meridian Alliance Fleet came calling with an offer Henricksen couldn't refuse: a ship - an entire squadron of ships, actually - and crew to command. A chance to get back to the stars. Too bad he didn't ask more questions before accepting the assignment. Too bad no one told him just how dangerous this particular skunkworks project was. They call the ship the RV-N: Reconnaissance Vessel-Non-combat, Raven for short. A stealth ship - fast, and maneuverable, and brutal as hell.
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A Prequel
- By Jean on 12-03-17
By: J. B. Rockwell
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Last Command
- Fallen Empire, Book 0
- By: Lindsay Buroker
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 2 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In the final days of the empire, Cyborg Corps Colonel Leonidas Adler plans to die in a manner befitting of an imperial officer. He will fight until his last breath, giving his life to defend Emperor Markus, as it was meant to be. But when the emperor himself summons him for a final special mission, how can he refuse?
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Pretty good teaser for lighter space opera
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 10-15-21
By: Lindsay Buroker
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Excelsior
- By: Jasper T. Scott
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The year is AD 2790. With space elevators and giant orbital fleets hovering over Earth, open war looks inevitable, and people are anxious to get away. The lines are drawn, with the Confederacy in the East and the First World Alliance in the West. In hopes of finding a refuge from the looming war, the Alliance is sending Captain Alexander de Leon to explore an Earth-type planet, code-named Wonderland, but at the last minute before launch, a Confederate fleet leaves orbit on a trajectory that threatens both the mission and Alliance sovereignty.
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This is not military sci-fi
- By ACC on 06-24-16
By: Jasper T. Scott
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The Ark
- Children of a Dead Earth, Book 1
- By: Patrick S. Tomlinson
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Humankind has escaped a dying Earth and set out to find a new home among the stars aboard an immense generation ship affectionately named the Ark. Bryan Benson is the Ark's greatest living sports hero, enjoying retirement working as a detective in Avalon, his home module. The hours are good, the work is easy, and the perks can't be beat. But when a crew member goes missing, Bryan is thrust into the center of an ever-expanding web of deception, secrets, and violence.
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Nearly there
- By Michaela on 05-11-16
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Passage at Arms
- By: Glen Cook
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Passage at Arms tells the intimate, detailed and harrowing story of a climber crew and its captain during a critical juncture of the war. Cook combines speculative technology with a canny and realistic portrait of men at war and the stresses they face in combat. Passage at Arms is one of the classic novels of military science fiction.
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One Long Running Space Battle ….
- By DocJim on 09-29-14
By: Glen Cook
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The Reality Dysfunction
- Night's Dawn Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Peter F. Hamilton
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 41 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In AD 2600, the human race is finally beginning to realize its full potential. Hundreds of colonized planets scattered across the galaxy host a multitude of prosperous and wildly diverse cultures. Genetic engineering has pushed evolution far beyond nature's boundaries, defeating disease and producing extraordinary spaceborn creatures. Huge fleets of sentient trader starships thrive on the wealth created by the industrialization of entire star systems, and throughout inhabited space the Confederation Navy keeps the peace.
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Finally on Audible!! My favorite Hamilton series!
- By Patrick on 04-05-16
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The Calculating Stars
- A Lady Astronaut Novel
- By: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the East Coast of the US, including Washington, DC. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the Earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space and requires a much-larger share of humanity to take part in the process. Elma York’s drive to become the first lady astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.
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Never achieves lift off
- By Richard Bruno on 10-01-18
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Starfire
- By: B.V. Larson
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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On June 30, 1908, an object fell from the sky, releasing more energy than a thousand Hiroshima bombs. A Siberian forest was flattened, but the strike left no significant crater. The anomaly came to be known as the Tunguska Event, and scientists have never agreed whether it was the largest meteor strike in recorded history - or something else. Alien artifacts have been uncovered since the 1908 event, and a new star drive is discovered.
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Het
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-09-17
By: B.V. Larson
What listeners say about Falling Free
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 01-29-11
A novel that has implications for TODAY!
I am a huge Fan of Lois McMaster Bujold. This EXCELLENT novel shows how the idea of Human Cloning might be treated from a social and legal standpoint. When is a person NOT a person? Is an artificially designed and genetically altered living artifact really a "person"? Or are they "property"? If they are, what "rights" do they have if any? when is slavery NOT slavery? Who owns a person that has been designed and manufactured?
Then what happens to these "manufactured human artifacts" when technology bypasses them and makes them OBSOLETE? what then? Who will maintain the very expensive habitat that they require for survival when it becomes no longer financially feasible ? And most importantly, are PEOPLE, even manufactured ones, more important than money? what is the obligation of the corporation toward their "artifacts"? Dispose of them? Sterilize them and place them in institutions downside, where they will live short and painful lives as cripples? and what happens when these "artifacts" begin to form emotional bonds in defiance of the designers plans?
I continue to be fascinated by Lois Bujold's examination of social implications of a universe where people can be "gene cleaned", or redesigned, or even their sex changed, at will! Is a Woman who becomes a Man still a woman? (Civil Campaign) or can She/he take the place of a man? Is an 8 ft tall, female "super Soldier" with fangs, still a woman? or a thing? Is a planet full of MEN only who fear women as terrors beyond imagining who will control your mind with a glance from her evil eye...still PEOPLE. Or some sort of perverse wart on the universe that is best shoved aside?
BEST of all, it is FASCINATING reading! (and listening!) from a very good story teller! Wow COOL, GOOD BOOK. I have read it and listened to it SEVERAL times!
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26 people found this helpful
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- T. Herron
- 09-14-18
Terrific and thrilling story!
Beautifully performed, this thrilling story has many important aspects that mirror and inform issues in our world today.
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- E. Smakman
- 11-13-14
Separate story in the Vorkosiverse
To start, this book is part of the Vorkosigan Saga series, but does not have any direct relation to the other books as the story is set 200 years ahead of the other books. The story explains the origin of the Quaddies, a strange race of four-armed (extra arms for legs) humans which we encounter also in the Miles books, particularly in Diplomatic Immunity.
Events and places in that book can be better understood if you have read Falling Free, but it is absolutely not necessary to do so. This book can be read on its own without the others, or the others without this one.
I give this book 4 stars because - even though the story is more simple than later novels, and things go a bit too easy (comparatively) - Lois McMaster Bujold once again mixes SF with moral questions and dilemmas in a pleasant way. What to do with a bio engineered race that their creators own, but are conscious. Being humans, it might be easy, but what if they are stranger still? What if they potentially form a threat to the human race? These questions are not answered, but cause different reactions in the various actors in the story.
Particularly interesting it becomes if the morality shifts or people overstep a moral boundary. What would you do?
Grover Gardner is one of the best readers and shows it here once more.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-30-20
A great story!
Grover Gardner is just so excellent I love his narration. This is a great stand alone prequel story set in the Vorkosigan universe and well worth a listen. Bujold never fails with her character development and intriguing world building.
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- gunnerThrax
- 08-17-16
Couldn't pause!
Falling Free is enjoyable & thrilling. Good story. Grover Gardner's unhurried reading flawless. His voice does justice to Bujold's masterful writing.
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- Karl Hombaker
- 01-02-19
Who needs feet?
Once again Lois drags me into another world, and surrounds me with marvelous characcters! This story is another example of why she is one of my favorite authors.
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- Andrew Reid
- 08-25-17
fun, slightly old fashioned.
Likely the best account of Zero-G welding techniques you'll read this year. extra words needed.
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- Dan
- 02-18-18
I love Lois
Lois McMaster Bujold is one of my favorite authors. She's right up there with people like Stephen King and David Weber. Her books are unique, a little off beat and filled with flawed and highly unlikely heroes. "Falling Free" is not an exception to this MO.
The protagonist is an partly burned out engineer by the name of Leo Graf ,who is known to be a good project manager and a good teacher of engineering. He normally moves into a project, trouble shoots it and fixes it and moves on. This time however, he runs into a habitat filled with bio-engineered humans, who have been genetically modified to live in space. They have four arms and no legs. Also, they are being treated as if they were not human, but assets, owned by a giant and heartless mega-corporation. Also, most of them are still basically children, very young and kept from any knowledge of the universe other than their own habitat.
Leo turns out to be much more than just an engineer. He is a hero. And Lois McMaster Bujold once again crafts a story about hope and heart; about overcoming huge odds; about love and sacrifice. I love this author and I'm sure you will too. And I'm just as sure you will love "Falling Free".
Grover Gardner does an excellent narration, capturing the feel of the book as well as the characters.
Ten stars for this book.
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- George
- 06-07-23
Brilliant
Wonderful underdog story to begin a long series!!! I’m listening to the series in recommended (chronological) order. The stage is set now with a principled and approachable protagonist (Leo), and the world building is well underway. Narration is great in my opinion. Can’t wait to start the next book!!!
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- Octavian
- 04-22-24
Space opera on extent biological legal ownership
In the age of space exploration, as humanity spreads ever further in the stars. A seasoned aerospace engineer working in the private sector receives a new assignment, to teach biological beings who legally are no more than tools the science of his craft. As rumors of a technological breakthrough that would make his new assignment obsolete spreads, having found himself in a moral conundrum what will Leo, the MC aerospace engineer, decide.
In the universe of Vorkosigan Saga (VS) chronologically this is the first book. Without any prior knowledge of VS I picked it up and I was not disappointed. Falling Free is a standalone peace that takes place, as I recall, 300 years prior to the main VS book series. Falling Free is a great standalone book as well as expands the universe of VS for interested readers. The quaddies legal issue and general state of affairs as biological/genetic property serves as a great and realistic, often hushed, topic (e.g. Monsanto).
The question about portrayal of young in biological age humanoid beings engaging in unwilling or not fully comprehended intimacy could be made. But this is a book, and not one advocating for moral degeneracy.
Conclusion: 4/5. Listened on Audible included in plus catalogue. Narrated by: Grover Gardner. Adventure story in science fiction setting, with middle aged protagonist and uncomfortable topic of red lines on private property and enforcing legal compliance in space. Bad value for the length of the book - 1.52 $/hour ( 13.22 $ / 08 hrs 44 mins ).
Values:
Terrible: >1.66 $/hour
Bad: 1 - 1.66 $/hour
Good: <1 $/hour
Dream: 0.4 - 0.27 $/hour
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