-
Prelude to Ascension
- The Assemblies of the Living, Book 1
- Narrated by: Samuel Peery
- Length: 18 hrs and 34 mins
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Publisher's summary
John Riley is a physicist who achieves his lifelong dream of unraveling the mysteries of anti-gravity, but along the way, also unwittingly discovers the secret of interstellar communication. When he and a small group of coworkers attempt to respond to an unexpected message, believing it to have originated from somewhere on Earth, they find more than they anticipate. The message is from deep space.
Once contact is made, the Remotes, as they are called, will not be dissuaded. Humanity becomes an unwilling newcomer to a staggeringly ancient galactic collective, which regards the Earth as an "emerging world" that is subject to its oversight. As humanity slips further into the grip of the enigmatic consortium, the mysteries become deeper; there is more to Earth’s history than meets the eye, and even the galaxy itself is not what it seems.
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Performance
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When DARPA's billion-dollar program to create artificial superintelligence is sabotaged, US operative Cameron Carr is tasked with finding the culprit. He's been on high-stakes missions before, but this time the stakes are nothing less than the future of humanity. Because the race to evolve a superintelligent computer is on, and power players around the world will stop at nothing to get there first.
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Excellent ScoFi Mystery Thriller...
- By shelley on 08-14-17
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Pilot X
- Pilot X, Book 1
- By: Tom Merritt
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Pilot X is Ambassador of the Alendans, a race with the ability to move through space and time as guardians of the timeline. Locked in ongoing conflict with the Sensaurians, an organic hive mind that can send messages in thought throughout its own history, and the Progons, a machine race who can communicate backwards in time, Pilot X finally manages to create peace among the three races.
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Great Story - wish there was more
- By Howard on 03-29-17
By: Tom Merritt
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The Unincorporated Man
- By: Dani Kollin, Eytan Kollin
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 23 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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The Unincorporated Man is a provocative social/political/economic novel that takes place in the future, after civilization has fallen into complete economic collapse. This reborn civilization is one in which every individual is incorporated at birth and spends many years trying to attain control over his or her own life by getting a majority of his or her own shares. Life extension has made life very long indeed.
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Hmm
- By CB on 06-15-09
By: Dani Kollin, and others
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The Man Who Used the Universe
- By: Alan Dean Foster
- Narrated by: Paul Ansdell
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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No one knows the true motives of Kees vaan Loo-Macklin. He's a mastermind criminal who gave up his place at the head of the dark underworld to become a legitimate member of Evenwaith's cities. But soon he was reaching out to powerful enemies - the slimy aliens called the Nuel. Loo-Macklin negotiates an illusory peace agreement and gains precious alien secrets in the process. Is he after peace, power or pure evil? With enemy starships beginning to amass, we won't have to wait long to find out.
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Idolized this book in paper in the 80's
- By Tom on 09-06-24
By: Alan Dean Foster
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Mind's Eye
- By: Douglas E. Richards
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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When Nick Hall wakes up in a dumpster - bloodied, without a memory, and hearing voices in his head - he knows things are bad. But they're about to get far worse. Because he's being hunted by a team of relentless assassins. Soon Hall discovers that advanced electronics have been implanted in his brain, and he now has two astonishing abilities. He can surf the web using thoughts alone. And he can read minds. But who inserted the implants? And why? And why is someone so desperate to kill him?
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Great Premise - Started Great, Fizzled Out
- By Kindle Customer on 05-09-14
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Seveneves
- A Novel
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal, Will Damron
- Length: 31 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.
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Odd narrator choice
- By Josh Mitchell on 05-30-15
By: Neal Stephenson
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The Kid Sensation Series: Books 1-3
- By: Kevin Hardman
- Narrated by: Mikael Naramore
- Length: 20 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Get the first three books in the Kid Sensation series. Like millions of other kids, Jim grew up wanting to be a superhero. Unlike most of his contemporaries, however, Jim actually had the goods: a plethora of super powers that would have been the envy of any meta on the planet. But when his tryout with the Alpha League - the world's premiere group of supers - goes disastrously wrong, Jim basically becomes an outcast.
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Puberty and Superpowers
- By LITRPG Audiobook Reviews on 03-06-18
By: Kevin Hardman
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The Plantation
- Payne & Jones, Book 1
- By: Chris Kuzneski
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The first to disappear is a ski instructor in the secluded mountains of Colorado. Hours later, a pregnant woman is abducted from a crowded hospital. Two places, two incidents, a single motive. And so it begins....
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Incredible Story
- By Char on 07-11-09
By: Chris Kuzneski
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Man Plus
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Roger Torraway watched in horror as the monster lurched, toppled over and died. Project Man Plus had gone suddenly and drastically wrong. The race to colonize Mars was too important, too costly, and America was already too committed, for plans to be scrapped. They would have to make a new Martian. And Roger Torraway was it, candidate for the endless surgery, operation after painful operation, that would enable him to survive on that faraway planet.
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More timely now than ever
- By Sandy R on 06-28-10
By: Frederik Pohl
What listeners say about Prelude to Ascension
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- ckllp
- 04-08-22
Kept my interest
I enjoyed listening to this book but a couple things held me back on that last star. One was the dialogue. I find that really good dialogue is seldom found among science fiction writers, especially with personal banter. Don't know why. The main couple were so boring with each other. I appreciate that they were decent and conservative but still, they're young, who talks like that in this day and age, and I say that as a 64 year old.
Peery has a wonderful, smooth voice. He'd make a good therapist. He did accents well. He makes a great reader, but not an actor. Very little personality came through, the lines were merely read with just minor fluctuations in volume or speed depending on what was being read.
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1 person found this helpful
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- James
- 05-08-22
Interesting science but slow plot development
The best part of the book was “hard science”. It starts with the current understanding of communications technology and gravitation and provides interesting extrapolations. I also kind of liked the change of pace provided by socially conservative characters. No sex. No swearing. Two of the central characters get engaged but stay in separate hotel rooms!
The weakness was the very slow plot development. The other weakness was that the characters did not really capture my interest. They were ok but their personal issues never came alive for me.
Overall it was moderately entertaining and might be good for people who like hard science fiction.
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- Geoff
- 08-31-23
Sad that the second book isn't available
If they bring the second book out on audible I would gladly listen to it.
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- LV-426
- 04-14-19
Stay with it...if you can (*yawn*).
The summary description of this book made it sound right up my alley...lots of hard science mixed with plausible extra-terrestrial contact. I almost gave up on it quite a few times during the first third of it, however. The story is so slow to unravel that it made me wonder if I had perhaps purchased the wrong book. The author takes character development to a whole new level at such an excruciatingly slow pace that I began to suspect nothing would happen until the book's sequel. The narrator's monotone and at times hypnotic voice did not lend to the experience. I forced myself to keep listening, however, and sure enough my suffering was eventually rewarded with some interesting events. I honestly feel that the author could have left out about 5 or 6 hours worth of the tedious details without subtracting from the main story. The plot is intriguing, though, and despite the ridiculously abrupt ending I think it will be worth reading the sequel.
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13 people found this helpful
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- Right Quark
- 09-08-19
Slow To Build, But a Great Story
Because the characters are so important to the telling of the story, it takes a while for things to really get going. The story is fairly technical in nature, but the technical aspects don't drive thus take. I really enjoyed it.
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- Max Connors
- 01-13-23
Excellent and enjoyable First Contact
My only gripe is it’s a touch long-winded, especially in the beginning. However this does help connect the reader with characters. I’ve read/listened to a ton of sci-fi and first contact stories and enjoyed this more (forgive pun) down to earth tale. Looking forward to the next book in series.
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- G.Hughes
- 05-13-23
Well imagined and thought provoking!!
This is an enjoyable book! The ideas about a gravitational communication medium were quite novel, and I enjoyed how there were additional facets to the story involving Trial and the ruins on the moon. I’m looking forward to book 2.
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- Mercy Phalen
- 02-17-19
Great Book
A sci-fi story very well organized and very entertaining. This book is about scientific achievements, philosophy, human nature, and about possibilities. I really enjoyed it was better than expected. The narrator does a great job too. I fast forwarded the part about Sarah's drama but right after that was over the following chapters got better and better.
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4 people found this helpful
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- randall
- 04-13-19
Exciting and Original Book and Story Line
This is an exciting book and story line. Very original. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a bit of hard-sci-fi in their stories. Some of the lead-up components seem a bit slow. Over all, a great read and a great story developed from the lead-in plot.
I have one true criticism however. I don't know whether I should assign blame for this to the narrator or to the author--or perhaps both! So, I rated the narration a star less as a result, not having any other choice. To explain:
Much of the dialogue, AJ's seems to stand out more than others, was stilted and unnatural. I'm sure it was written in a way, as I find many novels to be, where dialogue is in some odd formalized format where the use of contractions are inexplicably avoided. (Sometimes novels also will use the full first and last name of the character every time they are mentioned or cited in the book!).
Our mind's narrator tends to translate these formal forms as we read so we "hear" a contraction or just the first name of the character. In audio books, I want to hear natural interpretation of dialogue.Use of it's, can't or won't, shouldn't or wouldn't, is the way people naturally speak. Will not, can not, it is not, we are, should not, for example, aren't examples of how people talk in natural, mundane, daily dialogue and conversation.
So, I think this narrator is almost excellent. If the narrator will learn to use a little oral-interpretation, dramatization of dialogue, or take a bit of creative license, then his story telling and dialogue would flow and captivate--and never be cause for distraction from the performance.
A narrator should discuss this with the author ahead of time to gain their approval to interpret the text. If this is not done, then shame on the narrator. If, on the other hand, the author directed his narrator to read the text strictly verbatim or didn't prep the narrator to make the characters sound natural...? then shame on that author!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-14-21
I can't wait for the sequel
Super good. I disagree with the other with the other reviewers about the lengthy character development. I think it was just perfect. I can't wait for the sequel
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