
JPod
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Narrated by:
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Marc Cashman
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By:
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Douglas Coupland
About this listen
Very evil...very funny.
A lethal joyride into today's new breed of technogeeks, Douglas Coupland's novel updates Microserfs for the age of Google.
Ethan Jarlewski and five coworkers are bureaucratically marooned in jPod. jPod is a no-escape architectural limbo on the fringes of a massive Vancouver game design company.
The six jPodders wage daily battle against the demands of a boneheaded marketing staff, who daily torture employees with idiotic changes to already idiotic games. Meanwhile, Ethan’s personal life is shaped (or twisted) by phenomena as disparate as Hollywood, marijuana grow-ops, people-smuggling, ballroom dancing, and the rise of China. jPod's universe is amoral and shameless - and dizzyingly fast-paced. The characters are products of their era even as they're creating it.
Everybody in Ethan's life inhabits a moral gray zone. Nobody is exempt, not even his seemingly straitlaced parents or Coupland himself.
Full of word games, visual jokes, and sideways jabs, this audiobook throws a sharp, pointed lawn dart into the heart of contemporary life. jPod is Douglas Coupland at the top of his game.
©2006 Douglas CouplandListeners also enjoyed...
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Microserfs
- By: Douglas Coupland
- Narrated by: Graham Rowat
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
They are Microserfs - six code-crunching computer whizzes who spend upward of 16 hours a day "coding" and eating "flat" foods as they fearfully scan company e-mail to learn whether the great Bill is going to "flame" one of them. But now there's a chance to become innovators instead of cogs in the gargantuan Microsoft machine. The intrepid Microserfs are striking out on their own-living together in a shared digital flophouse as they desperately try to cultivate well-rounded lives and find love amid the dislocated, subhuman whir and buzz of their computer-driven world.
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Great book, bad performance.
- By Erin Doyle on 09-21-20
By: Douglas Coupland
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Binge
- 60 Stories to Make Your Brain Feel Different
- By: Douglas Coupland
- Narrated by: Salvatore Antonio, Stephanie Belding, Victoria Carr, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Thirty years after Douglas Coupland broke the fiction mould and defined a generation with Generation X, he is back with Binge, 60 stories laced with his observational profundity about the way we live and his existential worry about how we should be living: the very things that have made him such an influential and bestselling writer. Not to mention that he can also be really funny.
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Doug continues to be under-rated
- By Christopher Patrick Taylor on 01-13-24
By: Douglas Coupland
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Miss Wyoming
- By: Douglas Coupland
- Narrated by: Sharon Williams, Aaron Fryc
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
She is a former child beauty-pageant contender. He is a hard-living movie producer. She walks away from a plane crash without so much as a scratch. He comes away from a near-death experience with a unique, vivid plan. Shedding their self-made identities, each sets out on an uncharted course across the Gap-clogged, strip-mall landscape of Los Angeles, searching for the one thing - love - that neither has ever really known.
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zen? Hollywood zen lite?
- By connie on 02-23-09
By: Douglas Coupland
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Bit Rot
- stories + essays
- By: Douglas Coupland
- Narrated by: Graham Rowat
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A thought-provoking, binge-worthy new collection of essays, stories, and musings from Douglas Coupland, Bit Rot explores the different ways in which 20th-century notions of the future are being shredded, and it is a literary gem of the digital age.
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I love this author but not this book.
- By Terry Hanson on 01-11-21
By: Douglas Coupland
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Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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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.
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Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
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The Kaiju Preservation Society
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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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.
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I'm listening with a permanent smile on my face
- By Lucy A. Pithecus on 03-15-22
By: John Scalzi
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Microserfs
- By: Douglas Coupland
- Narrated by: Graham Rowat
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They are Microserfs - six code-crunching computer whizzes who spend upward of 16 hours a day "coding" and eating "flat" foods as they fearfully scan company e-mail to learn whether the great Bill is going to "flame" one of them. But now there's a chance to become innovators instead of cogs in the gargantuan Microsoft machine. The intrepid Microserfs are striking out on their own-living together in a shared digital flophouse as they desperately try to cultivate well-rounded lives and find love amid the dislocated, subhuman whir and buzz of their computer-driven world.
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Great book, bad performance.
- By Erin Doyle on 09-21-20
By: Douglas Coupland
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Binge
- 60 Stories to Make Your Brain Feel Different
- By: Douglas Coupland
- Narrated by: Salvatore Antonio, Stephanie Belding, Victoria Carr, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty years after Douglas Coupland broke the fiction mould and defined a generation with Generation X, he is back with Binge, 60 stories laced with his observational profundity about the way we live and his existential worry about how we should be living: the very things that have made him such an influential and bestselling writer. Not to mention that he can also be really funny.
-
-
Doug continues to be under-rated
- By Christopher Patrick Taylor on 01-13-24
By: Douglas Coupland
-
Miss Wyoming
- By: Douglas Coupland
- Narrated by: Sharon Williams, Aaron Fryc
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
She is a former child beauty-pageant contender. He is a hard-living movie producer. She walks away from a plane crash without so much as a scratch. He comes away from a near-death experience with a unique, vivid plan. Shedding their self-made identities, each sets out on an uncharted course across the Gap-clogged, strip-mall landscape of Los Angeles, searching for the one thing - love - that neither has ever really known.
-
-
zen? Hollywood zen lite?
- By connie on 02-23-09
By: Douglas Coupland
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Bit Rot
- stories + essays
- By: Douglas Coupland
- Narrated by: Graham Rowat
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A thought-provoking, binge-worthy new collection of essays, stories, and musings from Douglas Coupland, Bit Rot explores the different ways in which 20th-century notions of the future are being shredded, and it is a literary gem of the digital age.
-
-
I love this author but not this book.
- By Terry Hanson on 01-11-21
By: Douglas Coupland
-
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
-
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.
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I'm listening with a permanent smile on my face
- By Lucy A. Pithecus on 03-15-22
By: John Scalzi
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Catch-22
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- Length: 19 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy - it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he's assigned, he'll be in violation of Catch-22.
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Stop randomly adding music
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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
- A Harry Potter Hogwarts Library Book
- By: J.K. Rowling, Newt Scamander
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An approved textbook at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry since its first publication, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is an indispensable guide to the magical beasts of the wizarding world. It showcases a menagerie of magical creatures, explained enchantingly by noted magizoologist, Newt Scamander, who you may remember from the film series of the same name.
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whoops
- By A. Bunnell on 04-19-17
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Cinema Speculation
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- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Quentin Tarantino
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with Cinema Speculation, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans—and all movie lovers—could have hoped for. Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining.
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A letdown I didn't see coming.
- By polycow on 11-03-22
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Cat's Cradle
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: Tony Roberts
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Cat's Cradle is Vonnegut's satirical commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocalyptic tale of this planet's ultimate fate, it features a little person as the protagonist; a complete, original theology created by a calypso singer; and a vision of the future that is at once blackly fatalistic and hilariously funny.
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KV at his best.
- By Robert on 06-22-12
By: Kurt Vonnegut
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Piranesi
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has. In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.
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Fascinating Social Study
- By Henry V on 02-26-21
By: Susanna Clarke
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The Land: Founding: A LitRPG Saga
- Chaos Seeds, Book 1
- By: Aleron Kong
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Tricked into a world of banished gods, demons, goblins, sprites and magic, Richter must learn to meet the perils of The Land and begin to forge his own kingdom. Actions have consequences across The Land, with powerful creatures and factions now hell-bent on Richter's destruction. Can Richter forge allegiances to survive this harsh and unforgiving world or will he fall to the dark denizens of this ancient and unforgiving realm? A tale to shake "The Land" itself, measuring 10/10 on the Richter scale, how will Richter's choices shape the future of The Land and all who reside in it?
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A bit cringy
- By Jeremy Schultz on 03-13-18
By: Aleron Kong
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Mr. Mercedes
- A Novel
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, hundreds of desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes. Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.
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King and Patton create a winning combo
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By: Stephen King
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Patriot Games
- By: Tom Clancy
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 22 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It is fall. CIA analyst Jack Ryan, historian and former Marine, is vacationing in London with his wife and young daughter. Suddenly, right before his eyes, a terrorist group launches its deadly attack. Instinctively, he dives forward to break it up, and is shot. It is not until he wakes up in the hospital that he learns whose lives he has saved - the Duke and Duchess of Kent.
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Oldie but Goodie!
- By K. Masheter Deal on 08-13-12
By: Tom Clancy
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Neuromancer
- By: William Gibson
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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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.
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Story? Classic. Narrator? Ugh.
- By Sage on 11-11-14
By: William Gibson
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Rendezvous with Rama
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim, Robert J. Sawyer - introduction
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is huge, weighing more than ten trillion tons. And it is hurtling through the solar system at inconceivable speed. Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is, incredibly, an interstellar spacecraft. Space explorers and planet-bound scientists alike prepare for mankind's first encounter with alien intelligence.
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Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto
- By Fredrik Pettersen on 08-03-09
By: Arthur C. Clarke
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Pandora's Star
- By: Peter F. Hamilton
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 37 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
The year is 2380. The Intersolar Commonwealth, a sphere of stars some 400 light-years in diameter, contains more than 600 worlds, interconnected by a web of transport "tunnels" known as wormholes. At the farthest edge of the Commonwealth, astronomer Dudley Bose observes the impossible: Over 1,000 light-years away, a star...vanishes. It does not go supernova. It does not collapse into a black hole. It simply disappears.
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Great Epic Scifi
- By Devin on 10-17-09
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Cloud Atlas (20th Anniversary Edition)
- A Novel
- By: David Mitchell, Gabrielle Zevin
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Cassandra Campbell, Kim Mai Guest, and others
- Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite.... Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter....
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thoroughly enjoyed
- By Elizabeth on 01-05-08
By: David Mitchell, and others
Critic reviews
"Coupland revisits the digital kingdom he so shrewdly depicted in Microserfs (1995) in a zeitgeist-trawling satire about 21st-century cyber obsession." (Booklist)
What listeners say about JPod
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Danny Warlegs
- 03-23-16
a little is lost
There's things lost in the audio book, that are easier read than heard. Like the 10 pages of RAMEN NOODLE ,or their number games they play,but so far a good listen
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Overall
- Michael
- 04-24-11
REQUIRED READING FOR GEEKS
JPod is my favorite book (and I've downloaded over 400 audiobooks). I first purchased this book in 2007 and have listened to it several dozen times since. On the surface, the book chronicles the hilarious and hapless adventures of Ethan, his family and pod mates, but I think there's so much more to it than the basic narrative. Let me put it this way: if you are a geek, into computers and the internet, and the kind of person who watches YouTube videos and Google's random questions, you will *LOVE* this audiobook. The negative reviews here are absolutely false.
This is also one of the most excellently read audiobooks on Audible. Marc Cashman has the pitch-perfect voice for the light-hearted comedy in this book. He also manages to give each character their own vocal idiosyncrasies so you are always aware of who is speaking, regardless of whether Coupland tells you.
There are a few books out there where you feel like the protagonist is "you". This is one of them. I hope you come to enjoy the book as much as I did.
-Michael
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Overall
- James Younger
- 08-28-06
A bit self-indulgent
I wouldn't say I'm a rabid Coupland fan, but I've enjoyed his works for a number of years, so I have a bit of perspective with regard to his writing. This book was a disappointment. I thoroughly enjoyed Microserfs, and given the comparisons that have been made between that book and this, I was looking forward to the listen.
It just seemed as though he was patting himself on the back the whole time, making references to himself in his own book, as though he is such a strong presence in the social consciousness. It reminded me of the really cheesy scene in Ocean's Twelve where Julia Roberts dressed up as 'herself' to help out with the heist. It's just not effective and comes off a bit smarmy.
And his way of writing random pages of words/characters/phrases in his books, which I don't mind, doesn't come across effectively in the audio version.
I'm giving it 3-stars because it did have a few redeeming qualities and comical aspects to the characters, but definitely not his best effort.
Should you get it? I don't know....there are better ones out there.
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2 people found this helpful
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- John Caboose
- 10-07-17
Very funny, recommended
I liked the book a lot as a software developer myself, however I don’t think its required to enjoy the book at all. The characters and events in the book are all hilarious!
Theres a point in the book where every single three letter word in the english language is read aloud, feel free to skip forward at that point as it is tedious and ultimately meaningless.
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- t. campbell
- 10-03-15
Canadian hicks do not sound like American hicks.
The story was good. Overall the performer portrayed the satire well and kept the esoteric bits moving.
I know Canada is a small, hapless nation but we have our own distinct hick voices (they are called hosers, btw) and they sound like someone who is just waking up from dental surgery and have been watching Rock em Sock em 4 all day.
One love.
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- Tom
- 08-17-16
Wonderfully done
Loved it, another one of Doug's greats. wonderful performance that kept me hooked until the end
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Overall
- Dustin
- 08-12-06
Geeks only please
This book truly is a "hugging machine" for appropriately aged internet geeks. I enjoyed it immensely and found it to be very refreshing. This is the first book, written or audio, that actually made me laugh (at the book and at myself).
My advice to you would be to listen to the sample and if you "get it" download this book and have a blast. Definitely dont buy this for your mother for christmas tho, she may actually ask you to call a little less often.
O yeah. do yourself a favor and when the list of 3 letter acceptable scrabble words begins skip about 9 minutes til its over. Dont skip the other lists tho. I found them to be the most fun parts of the novel. Enjoy.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 06-03-16
Fun book with minor issues
Good fun book, just slightly annoying that there is no good way of skipping the wordlists and spam mail.
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Overall
- William Michael
- 03-04-11
The Best Audio It Can Be
As one reviewer has pointed out, this is a somewhat difficult book to render (and listen to) as an audio edition. One example, page 212 of the print edition: "FUN FACT: any even number can be made by adding together two primes." This is followed by 16 1/2 pages filled with 11 columns of five-digit numbers (from 10007 to 99991) to prove the point. Keep in mind that the book is about a group of excentric computer game programmers. Now, I doubt that Coupland expected anyone to read those pages, so what to do if you're reading for the audio edition? It doesn't make sense to read such lists in their entirety. I would have to say that, overall, this book is far more accessible for those fortunate enough to have seen the far-too-short-lived "JPod" television series. Basically, the story itself is pretty far out and surreal. I love this book (as I do most of Coupland's books) for the odd humor and his observations on post-postmodern humanity. I'd like to see more of his books available at Audible.
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- Erica
- 04-05-12
How I Wish I Sounded While Trapped In My Office
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I would absolutely recommend this audiobook to a friend! The story is compelling -- it's funny and full of techno-humour, which I love, and little bit haunting in how well it portrays the weirdness of an office environment. When I just can't stand another meeting, I think of how characters in this story would handle it. Also, I cannot get enough of Marc Cashman's voice! I keep thinking that he doesn't sound like a traditional narrator, and I don't know how he got started in this career, but the way he voices a story somehow locks it in your memory. The combination of a great story and a phenomenal narration makes for a beyond wonderful audiobook!
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4 people found this helpful