Normal Audiobook By Warren Ellis cover art

Normal

A Novel

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Normal

By: Warren Ellis
Narrated by: John Hodgman
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $16.00

Buy for $16.00

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

A smart, tight, provocative techno-thriller straight out of the very near future - by an iconic visionary writer.

Some people call it "abyss gaze". Gaze into the abyss all day and the abyss will gaze into you.

There are two types of people who think professionally about the future: Foresight strategists are civil futurists who think about geoengineering and smart cities and ways to evade Our Coming Doom; strategic forecasters are spook futurists, who think about geopolitical upheaval and drone warfare and ways to prepare clients for Our Coming Doom. The former are paid by nonprofits and charities, the latter by global security groups and corporate think tanks.

For both types, if you're good at it, and you spend your days and nights doing it, then it's something you can't do for long. Depression sets in. Mental illness festers. And if the abyss gaze takes hold there's only one place to recover: Normal Head, in the wilds of Oregon, within the secure perimeter of an experimental forest.

When Adam Dearden, a foresight strategist, arrives at Normal Head, he is desperate to unplug and be immersed in sylvan silence. But then a patient goes missing from his locked bedroom, leaving nothing but a pile of insects in his wake. A staff investigation ensues; surveillance becomes total. As the mystery of the disappeared man unravels in Warren Ellis's Normal, Adam uncovers a conspiracy that calls into question the core principles of how and why we think about the future - and the past, and the now.

©2016 Warren Ellis (P)2016 Macmillan Audio
Anthologies Fiction Technothrillers Thriller Mental Health Suspense
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Normal

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    102
  • 4 Stars
    61
  • 3 Stars
    30
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    120
  • 4 Stars
    39
  • 3 Stars
    17
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    90
  • 4 Stars
    58
  • 3 Stars
    21
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent and Disturbing

Normal is an outstanding new novel by Warren Ellis and a superb performance by John Hodgman. Wow. Listen to this now.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great listen

love Ellis! Had me hooked from the opening chapter! great book! I highly recommend it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Thank you, Warren Ellis...time to disconnect...

As always, his vision of the future is thought provoking, wry, horrific & possible.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Warren Ellis on apocalypsism? Yes please!

I could listen to Warren Ellis riff about End-of-the-World scenarios all day... and I'll take any narrative excuse at all to explore these Big Ideas. In true Ellis fashion, it's mind-boggingly smart and at once too short. Much to ponder. Also, often funny in that fucked up way.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

What's Normal

Entertaining/enjoyable read... Wry social commentary, clever humor, deft insights, and skillful writing make for a nice afternoon read... Great characters and appropriate narration... Mayhap a bit thick on the symbolism/allegory, some will appreciate more than others...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Short Story

Because it is a short story (did I realize that when I bought it?) There are two many characters for them to be well developed. It really felt like this was an outline for a longer story. Interesting premise. The characters had promise and then, it ended.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Warren, please write longer & more complex novels!

I don't think any novel Warren Ellis has written really qualifies as anything other than a novella. They're all surprisingly short. It's especially true here where I feel like the story ends abruptly at what should have been the halfway point where your expectations are turned around leading to you an even niftier ending. I don't regret buying and reading any of them but I know that the same man who wrote Planetary and Transmetropolitan can plot a more complex and involving story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Meh

This was a struggle and I really wanted to like it more. Nothing engaged me about the story. A collection of good ideas that never cultivated into anything.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Warren Ellis

"The only God I have is Danger Mouse". Best line in the whole book I say.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Fun and Interesting

The best thing about this book is the dialogue. Warren Ellis excels at this. The concept is wild, and the characters will take your mind for a spin. I generally have only good things to say, but I wish the book was a little longer. There were a lot of fun characters with different stories that caught my interest, and after the book ended, I felt a little shorted. This is definitely worth the read though (or listen, that is) because of the concept and dialogue alone. Also, if you're a fan of Warren Ellis in general, this book complements his style very well.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!