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Narrated by:
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Scott Aiello
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By:
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Robert J. Sawyer
About this listen
This is the story of Pierre Tradivel, a scientist, and his complex battle against deadly illness, and ex-Nazi war criminal still hiding in the U.S., a crooked insurance company, and a plot to make Pierre and his wife the victims of a bizarre genetic experiment. Frameshift is hard science fiction at its best, full of complications and neat surprises.
©1998 Robert J. Sawyer (P)2012 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Quantum Night
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- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
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Experimental psychologist Jim Marchuk has developed a flawless technique for identifying the previously undetected psychopaths lurking everywhere in society. But while being cross-examined about his breakthrough in court, Jim is shocked to discover that he has lost his memories of six months of his life from 20 years previously - a dark time during which he himself committed heinous acts.
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PHILOSOPHICAL ZOMBIE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 12-02-17
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Factoring Humanity
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In the near future, a signal is detected coming from the Alpha Centauri system. Mysterious, unintelligible data streams in for ten years. Heather Davis, a professor in the University of Toronto psychology department, has devoted her career to deciphering the message. Her estranged husband, Kyle, is working on the development of artificial intelligence systems and new computer technology utilizing quantum effects to produce a near-infinite number of calculations simultaneously.
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Novel alien first contact
- By Michael G Kurilla on 05-28-12
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Mindscan
- By: Robert J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Jake Sullivan has cheated death: he's discarded his doomed biological body and copied his consciousness into an android form. The new Jake soon finds love, something that eluded him when he was encased in flesh: he falls for the android version of Karen, a woman rediscovering all the joys of life now that she too is no longer constrained by a worn-out body. Karen's son sues her, claiming that by uploading into an immortal body, she has done him out of his inheritance.
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Entertaining, but not Sawyer's Best
- By John C. on 05-31-12
By: Robert J. Sawyer
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Rollback
- By: Robert J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Thirty-eight years ago, Dr. Sarah Halifax earned worldwide fame by deciphering a radio transmission from an unknown intelligence reaching out from deep space. Now 87, Sarah receives news that, at long last, a new signal has been received, and her services are desperately needed once again.
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Main plot - Tiresome; Subplot - Cool!
- By Ole Hippie on 04-29-11
By: Robert J. Sawyer
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The Oppenheimer Alternative
- By: Robert J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
While J. Robert Oppenheimer and his Manhattan Project team struggle to develop the A-bomb, Edward Teller wants something even more devastating: a weapon based on nuclear fusion - the mechanism that powers the sun. But Teller’s research leads to a terrifying discovery: by the year 2030, the sun will eject its outermost layer, destroying the entire inner solar system - including Earth. After the war ends, Oppenheimer’s physicists combine forces with Albert Einstein, computing pioneer John von Neumann, and rocket designer Wernher von Braun.
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Scratches head
- By miki on 09-14-20
By: Robert J. Sawyer
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Starplex
- By: Robert J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Twenty years after the discovery of artificial wormholes launches Earth space exploration to unforeseeable heights, Starplex Director Keith Lansing investigates a mysterious vessel that soon threatens the station with intergalactic war.
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Tribute to Arthur C. Clarke
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 06-23-12
By: Robert J. Sawyer
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Quantum Night
- By: Robert. J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Experimental psychologist Jim Marchuk has developed a flawless technique for identifying the previously undetected psychopaths lurking everywhere in society. But while being cross-examined about his breakthrough in court, Jim is shocked to discover that he has lost his memories of six months of his life from 20 years previously - a dark time during which he himself committed heinous acts.
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PHILOSOPHICAL ZOMBIE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 12-02-17
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Factoring Humanity
- By: Robert J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
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-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the near future, a signal is detected coming from the Alpha Centauri system. Mysterious, unintelligible data streams in for ten years. Heather Davis, a professor in the University of Toronto psychology department, has devoted her career to deciphering the message. Her estranged husband, Kyle, is working on the development of artificial intelligence systems and new computer technology utilizing quantum effects to produce a near-infinite number of calculations simultaneously.
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Novel alien first contact
- By Michael G Kurilla on 05-28-12
By: Robert J. Sawyer
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Mindscan
- By: Robert J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
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Jake Sullivan has cheated death: he's discarded his doomed biological body and copied his consciousness into an android form. The new Jake soon finds love, something that eluded him when he was encased in flesh: he falls for the android version of Karen, a woman rediscovering all the joys of life now that she too is no longer constrained by a worn-out body. Karen's son sues her, claiming that by uploading into an immortal body, she has done him out of his inheritance.
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Entertaining, but not Sawyer's Best
- By John C. on 05-31-12
By: Robert J. Sawyer
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Rollback
- By: Robert J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Thirty-eight years ago, Dr. Sarah Halifax earned worldwide fame by deciphering a radio transmission from an unknown intelligence reaching out from deep space. Now 87, Sarah receives news that, at long last, a new signal has been received, and her services are desperately needed once again.
-
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Main plot - Tiresome; Subplot - Cool!
- By Ole Hippie on 04-29-11
By: Robert J. Sawyer
-
The Oppenheimer Alternative
- By: Robert J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While J. Robert Oppenheimer and his Manhattan Project team struggle to develop the A-bomb, Edward Teller wants something even more devastating: a weapon based on nuclear fusion - the mechanism that powers the sun. But Teller’s research leads to a terrifying discovery: by the year 2030, the sun will eject its outermost layer, destroying the entire inner solar system - including Earth. After the war ends, Oppenheimer’s physicists combine forces with Albert Einstein, computing pioneer John von Neumann, and rocket designer Wernher von Braun.
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Scratches head
- By miki on 09-14-20
By: Robert J. Sawyer
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Starplex
- By: Robert J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Twenty years after the discovery of artificial wormholes launches Earth space exploration to unforeseeable heights, Starplex Director Keith Lansing investigates a mysterious vessel that soon threatens the station with intergalactic war.
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Tribute to Arthur C. Clarke
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 06-23-12
By: Robert J. Sawyer
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Skyward
- By: Brandon Sanderson
- Narrated by: Suzy Jackson
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From Brandon Sanderson, the number one New York Times best-selling author of the Reckoners series, Words of Radiance, and the internationally best-selling Mistborn series, comes the first book in an epic new series about a girl who dreams of becoming a pilot in a dangerous world at war for humanity's future.
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Has Sanderson been reading Craig Alanson???
- By Customer on 11-18-18
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Far-Seer
- The Quintaglio Ascension, Book 1
- By: Robert. J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Face of God is what every young saurian learns to call the immense, glowing object which fills the night sky on the far side of the world. Young Afsan is privileged, called to the distant Capital City to apprentice with Saleed the court astrologer. But when the time comes for Afsan to make his coming-of-age pilgrimage, to gaze upon the Face of God, his world is changed forever- for what he sees will test his faith...and may save his world from disaster!
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Definitely Original!
- By Simone on 08-30-16
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Calculating God
- By: Robert J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this Hugo-nominated novel, an alien walks into a museum and asks if he can see a paleontologist. But the arachnid ET hasn't come aboard a rowboat with the Pope and Stephen Hawking (although His Holiness does request an audience later). Landing at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the spacefarer, Hollus, asks to compare notes on mass extinctions with resident dino-scientist Thomas Jericho.
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Interesting book, very enjoyable narration
- By Ione on 05-07-10
By: Robert J. Sawyer
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WWW: Wake
- By: Robert J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Jessica Almasy, Jennifer Van Dyck, A. C. Fellner, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Caitlin Decter is young, pretty, feisty, a genius at math - and blind. Still, she can surf the net with the best of them, following its complex paths clearly in her mind. But Caitlin's brain long ago co-opted her primary visual cortex to help her navigate online. So when she receives an implant to restore her sight, instead of seeing reality, the landscape of the World Wide Web explodes into her consciousness, spreading out all around her in a riot of colors and shapes.
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A Great, if Incomplete, Concept
- By Seth H. Wilson on 04-14-09
By: Robert J. Sawyer
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Hominids
- The Neanderthal Parallax, Book 1
- By: Robert J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Neanderthals have developed a radically different civilization on a parallel Earth. A Neanderthal physicist, Ponter Boddit, accidentally passes from his universe into a Canadian underground research facility. Fortunately, a team of human scientists, including expert paleo-anthropologist Mary Vaughan, promptly identifies and warmly receives Ponter. Solving the language problem and much else is a mini-computer, called a Companion, implanted in the brain of every Neanderthal. But it can't help his fellow scientist back in his world, Adikor Huld, when the authorities charge Adikor with his murder.
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Scicen Fiction Can Be Literature
- By Scott on 08-10-09
By: Robert J. Sawyer
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End of an Era
- By: Robert J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Paleontologist Brandon Thackery and his rival, Miles "Klicks" Jordan, fulfill a dinosaur lover's dream with history's first time-travel jaunt to the late Mesozoic. Hoping to solve the extinction mystery, they find Earth's gravity is only half its 21st-century value and dinosaurs that behave very strangely. Could the slimy blue creatures from Mars have something to do with both?
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Fascinating!
- By Simone on 07-08-16
By: Robert J. Sawyer
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Illegal Alien
- By: Robert J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When a disabled spaceship enters Earth's atmosphere, seven members of the advanced Tosok race are welcomed by the world. Then a popular scientist is murdered, and all evidence points to one of the Tosoks. Now, an alien is tried in a court of law -and there may be far more at stake than accounting for one human life.
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This is It.
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 06-11-13
By: Robert J. Sawyer
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We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
- Bobiverse, Book 1
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
There's a reason We Are Legion was named Audible's Best Science Fiction Book of 2016: Its irresistibly irreverent wit! Bob Johansson has just sold his software company for a small fortune and is looking forward to a life of leisure. The first item on his to-do list: Spending his newfound windfall. On an urge to splurge, he signs up to have his head cryogenically preserved in case of death. Then he gets himself killed crossing the street. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself.
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Ignore the Publisher's Summary! This is Amazing!
- By PW on 04-12-17
By: Dennis E. Taylor
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Jurassic Park
- A Novel
- By: Michael Crichton
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them - for a price.
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CHAOS THEORY
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-30-16
By: Michael Crichton
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Below Us
- The Abyss, Book 1
- By: Nathan Hystad
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
After a rough break up, Wyatt moves to New York City, eager to prove himself while working on Wall Street. When he’s asked to visit the father of his ex-girlfriend, a billionaire tycoon, his fate is sealed. The revolutionary company, Nu-En, launches a radical innovation, an energy that will allow every person on the planet access to power. Only it doesn’t perform as anticipated. Harnessing the ocean has consequences, and highly dangerous creatures emerge from the depths. Soon, the Earth is fracturing, and the world will never be the same.
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Interesting story but..
- By Mike Fedotov on 09-28-23
By: Nathan Hystad
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Lock In (Narrated by Amber Benson)
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Amber Benson
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever, and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent - and nearly five million souls in the United States alone - the disease causes "Lock In": Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge.
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Love Amber's Narration
- By Anthony on 09-11-14
By: John Scalzi
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Blue Remembered Earth
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
- Length: 21 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Critically acclaimed author Alastair Reynolds holds a well-deserved place “among the leaders of the hard-science space opera renaissance." ( Publishers Weekly). In Blue Remembered Earth, Geoffrey Akinya wants nothing more than to study the elephants of the Amboseli basin. But when his space-explorer grandmother dies, secrets come to light and Geoffrey is dispatched to the Moon to protect the family name - and prevent an impending catastrophe.
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A surprising and staisfying departure for Reynolds
- By Michael G Kurilla on 07-21-12
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Red Planet Blues
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- By Jim "The Impatient" on 12-02-17
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Scratches head
- By miki on 09-14-20
By: Robert J. Sawyer
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Mindscan
- By: Robert J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Jake Sullivan has cheated death: he's discarded his doomed biological body and copied his consciousness into an android form. The new Jake soon finds love, something that eluded him when he was encased in flesh: he falls for the android version of Karen, a woman rediscovering all the joys of life now that she too is no longer constrained by a worn-out body. Karen's son sues her, claiming that by uploading into an immortal body, she has done him out of his inheritance.
-
-
Entertaining, but not Sawyer's Best
- By John C. on 05-31-12
By: Robert J. Sawyer
This book was also really good, but I don't think I've ever re-read it after one physical book read and one listen to this audiobook version. It's just too draining to read. The suffering the main character (Pierre Tardivel) goes through is very gripping. It's like what the main character suffers in FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON, but even worse in several ways -- Pierre has a wife and child, his affliction is something that real people go through, he will eventually die from his disorder, etc, I just can't deal with it. Eventually, though, I hope to be able to read this one again, not least because I now do bioinformatics and so a lot of the subject matter will probably be even more interesting to me now.
And I'm glad that I read it through in the first place, too. I highly recommend it to everybody interested in genetics, telepathy, insurance conspiracies, Neanderthals, Nazi hunting, and science fiction in general.
Great story, but very emotionally taxing
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Engaging and Thought Provoking
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Not my favorite Sawyer~
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The story has lots of genetics, Nazi's and opinions. The kind of stuff that Sawyer always has in his books and the kind of stuff I love. Sawyer is never afraid to let his opinion known and often takes lots of grief over it. In this book he gets pretty preachy. I like an author who takes a stand, even when I don't agree and sometimes he takes the less politically correct stand, which has probably hurt his book sales.
My favorite Sawyer is Illegal Alien, followed by The Terminal Experiment and then by Flash Forward. You may want to skip Red Planet Blues and W.W.W. Wake.
Storyshift
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What do you think the narrator could have done better?
Please. Please ! PLEASE redo the narrative with a Quebec French accent instead of the Parisian French accent !The narrator's portrayal of Montrealer, Pierre Tardivel, with a European French accent was distracting to the point of irritation.Any additional comments?
Otherwise, the story and its telling were both reasonably well done.This punch at hard sci-fi probably won't ring anyone's bell, but it feels like R.J. Sawyer is at least trying to go beyond the comfort zone he established with the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy.
Montreal NOT Paris
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Enjoyable, but a bit slow at times
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What did you love best about Frameshift?
As in more books of sawyer there is the critical note of a Canadian towards the USA. As European I do understand where he comes from. As part of the story, the US private health insurance system is under fire. Additionally there are some more story lines to make this listen really juicyWas there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The point where the parents figure out the origin of their daughter Amanda.Any additional comments?
If this does not make you think you have missed the pointShift gears
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This time however, I have a lot to complain about – but it’s not directed at Sawyer, it’s regarding the narration. Absolutely the WORST interpretation of a French Canadian accent I have ever heard. Hands down.
I live in Montreal, I do speak French, I am surrounded on a daily basis with French Canadians speaking English. This guy obviously never set foot in Quebec! His accent is so comically bad that it’s doing this otherwise compelling story a huge disservice. Really, it’s distractingly bad. (At the risk of being perceived as a lunatic, I even wrote to Robert Sawyer about it in case he has some sort of creative control over these things for future books).
French Canadians ‘tok da en-glish like diss’. I promise you ‘Zay do not zound lika zizz’ ... (if you will allow me a tangent, they don’t speak English, they talk English. They don’t make decisions, they take decisions. They don’t turn off the light, they close the light. But those details are not related to their accent, and I can understand how Sawyer would not want to include a lot of phraseology that only a small percentage of readers would understand)
If you aren’t Canadian or if you just don’t know what a Quebecois accent sounds like then you probably weren’t distracted. If like me, you are Quebecois – then you were annoyed and irritated the entire way through.
When a French Canadian speaks English, The = da. This = Diss. They drop Hs when they should be there, and add them where they shouldn’t be, for example:
I am happy to see you = “I am appy to see you”
How are you = “Ow are you”
It’s so hot outside = “It’s so ott hhoutside”
Happy Birthday = “Appy Birdday”
Can I ask you a question = “Can I hhask you a question”
That guy always thinks he’s right = “Dat guy hhalways tinks ee is right”
Is that her book over there = “is dat err book hhoe-verr derr”
I won’t even get into examples of how they put the emphasis on the wrong syllable, more towards the end of the word – naturally where it would be in French.
All this to say, the story was excellent but the narration disappointed me immensely.
Great Story / TERRIBLE narration!
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The actual sci-fi elements are rather sparse, limited mainly to an unusual frameshift mutation that allows for telepathic powers in a single individual which ends up being crucial for much of the plot. DNA based paternity / fraternity assessment was well established by this time and so was not even speculative at the time of its release. The recreation of a Neanderthal is a bit unrealistic as a full complement of intact chromosomes would be impossible. Even Jurassic Park fudged this detail with chimeras. Finally, the notion that a government would award custody of a child produced by an unethical, unauthorized science experiment to an institution because of DNA origin is a bit far fetched. More likely, the Tardevilles would have received one hefty settlement in exchange for silence. Lastly, security guards at an insurance company would not be shooting at the police or department of justice officials (why would they even be armed?). All that said, the plot is engaging, complex, and richly crafted to maintain suspense with a reasonable smattering of red herrings along the way to qualify as a respectable mystery thriller.
The narration is well done, especially given the necessity for a French accent by the main character.
Speculative fiction with a bit of sci-fi
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French vs. French-Canadian
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