The Complete Short Stories
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Narrated by:
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Ric Jerrrom
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William Gaminara
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Sean Barrett
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William Hope
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Jeff Harding
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By:
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J. G. Ballard
About this listen
A collection of 98 enthralling and pulse-quickening stories, spanning five decades, venerates the remarkable imagination of J. G. Ballard. With a body of work unparalleled in 20th-century literature, J. G. Ballard is recognized as one of the greatest and most prophetic writers in the world.
With the much-hailed release of The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard, listeners now have a means to celebrate the unmatched range and mesmerizing cadences of a literary genius. Whether writing about musical orchids, human cannibalism, or the secret history of World War III, Ballard's Complete Stories evokes the hallucinations of Kafka and Borges in its ability to render modern paranoia and fantastical creations on the page.
A Washington Post Best Book of 2009, Boston Globe Best Book, Los Angeles Times Favourite Book, and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book.
©2009 J. G. Ballard (P)2014 Audible StudiosListeners also enjoyed...
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Empire of the Sun
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Abridged
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Shanghai, 1941 -- a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos and corpses, a young British boy searches in vain for his parents. Imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp, he is witness to the fierce white flash of Nagasaki, as the bomb bellows the end of the war...and the dawn of a blighted world.
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Abridged version kind of ruins it.
- By John S on 06-12-14
By: J. G. Ballard
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Kingdom Come
- A Novel
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Andy Caploe
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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A violent novel filled with insidious twists, Kingdom Come follows the exploits of Richard Pearson, a rebellious, unemployed advertising executive, whose father is gunned down by a deranged mental patient in a vast shopping mall outside Heathrow Airport.
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who is making these narrator calls?
- By Christopher on 04-22-14
By: J. G. Ballard
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High-Rise
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Tom Hiddleston
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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When a class war erupts inside a luxurious apartment block, modern elevators become violent battlegrounds, and cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on "enemy" floors. In this visionary tale, human society slips into violent reverse as once-peaceful residents, driven by primal urges, re-create a world ruled by the laws of the jungle.
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TOM HIDDLESTON NEEDS TO READ EVERYTHING
- By Jeanette on 04-05-15
By: J. G. Ballard
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The Atrocity Exhibition
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: William Gaminara
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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A prophetic and experimental masterpiece by J. G. Ballard, the acclaimed author of ‘Crash’ and ‘Super-Cannes’. This edition features explanatory notes from the author. The irrational, all-pervading violence of the modern world is the subject of this extraordinary tour de force. The central character’s dreams are haunted by images of John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, dead astronauts and car-crash victims as he traverses the screaming wastes of nervous breakdown.
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Ballard's extreme experiment - bizarre & brilliant
- By Miriam on 08-30-14
By: J. G. Ballard
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The Drowned World
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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First published in 1962, J.G. Ballard’s mesmerizing and ferociously imaginative novel not only gained him widespread critical acclaim but also established his reputation as one of the finest writers of a generation. The Drowned World imagines a terrifying world in which global warming has melted the ice caps and primordial jungles have overrun a tropical London. Set during the year 2145, this novel follows biologist Dr. Robert Kearns and his team of scientists as they confront a cityscape in which nature is on the rampage and giant lizards, dragonflies, and insects fiercely compete for domination.
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EGO AGAINST ID
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-05-16
By: J. G. Ballard
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The Crystal World
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Through a 'leaking' of time, the West African jungle starts to crystallize. Trees are metamorphosed into enormous jewels. Crocodiles encased in second glittering skins lurch down the river. Pythons with huge blind gemstone eyes rear in heraldic poses. Fearing this transformation as a herald of the apocalypse, most flee the area in terror, afraid to face a catastrophe they cannot understand. But some, dazzled and strangely entranced, remain to drift through this dreamworld forest.
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Perfect narration for Ballard's descriptive prose
- By Miriam on 08-27-14
By: J. G. Ballard
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Empire of the Sun
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Abridged
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Shanghai, 1941 -- a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos and corpses, a young British boy searches in vain for his parents. Imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp, he is witness to the fierce white flash of Nagasaki, as the bomb bellows the end of the war...and the dawn of a blighted world.
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Abridged version kind of ruins it.
- By John S on 06-12-14
By: J. G. Ballard
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Kingdom Come
- A Novel
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Andy Caploe
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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A violent novel filled with insidious twists, Kingdom Come follows the exploits of Richard Pearson, a rebellious, unemployed advertising executive, whose father is gunned down by a deranged mental patient in a vast shopping mall outside Heathrow Airport.
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who is making these narrator calls?
- By Christopher on 04-22-14
By: J. G. Ballard
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High-Rise
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Tom Hiddleston
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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When a class war erupts inside a luxurious apartment block, modern elevators become violent battlegrounds, and cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on "enemy" floors. In this visionary tale, human society slips into violent reverse as once-peaceful residents, driven by primal urges, re-create a world ruled by the laws of the jungle.
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TOM HIDDLESTON NEEDS TO READ EVERYTHING
- By Jeanette on 04-05-15
By: J. G. Ballard
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The Concrete Island
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: William Gaminara
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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A chilling novel about our modern world, from the author of Empire of the Sun and Crash. An architect is driving home from his London offices when a blow-out sends his speeding Jaguar hurtling out of control. Smashing through a temporary barrier he finds himself, dazed and disorientated, on a traffic island below three converging motorways. But when he tries to climb the embankment or flag-down a passing car for help it proves impossible - and he finds himself marooned on the concrete island.
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Interesting. complelingly odd.
- By josh on 02-08-17
By: J. G. Ballard
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High-Rise
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Tom Hiddleston
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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From the author of the Sunday Times best seller Cocaine Nights comes an unnerving tale of life in a modern tower block running out of control. Within the concealing walls of an elegant 40-storey tower block, the affluent tenants are hell-bent on an orgy of destruction. Cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on 'enemy' floors, and the once-luxurious amenities become an arena for riots and technological mayhem.
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Dark and thought-provoking
- By Amazon Customer on 04-18-19
By: J. G. Ballard
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A User's Guide to the Millennium
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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A collection of the author's articles and reviews, giving an insight into some of the most important literary, artistic, and scientific movements and events of the last 30 years.
By: J. G. Ballard
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The Man Without Qualities
- By: Robert Musil
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 60 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1913, the Viennese aristocracy is gathering to celebrate the 17th jubilee of the accession of Emperor Franz Josef, even as the Austro-Hungarian Empire is collapsing and the rest of Vienna is showing signs of rebellion. At the centre of this social labyrinth is Ulrich: a veteran, a seducer and a scientist, yet also a man 'without qualities' and therefore a brilliant and detached observer of his changing world.
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An unmatched intellectual epic
- By Delano on 06-23-22
By: Robert Musil
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The Executioner's Song
- By: Norman Mailer
- Narrated by: Maxwell Hamilton
- Length: 42 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning and unforgettable classic about convicted killer Gary Gilmore now in audio. Arguably the greatest book from America's most heroically ambitious writer, The Executioner's Song follows the short, blighted life of Gary Gilmore who became famous after he robbed two men in 1976 and killed them in cold blood. After being tried and convicted, he immediately insisted on being executed for his crime. To do so, he fought a system that seemed intent on keeping him alive long after it had sentenced him to death.
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Pulitzer-winner spoiled by numskulled narration
- By W Perry Hall on 05-21-18
By: Norman Mailer
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The Kindness of Women
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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A must-listen for any J. G. Ballard fan, this “capstone to a magnificent career” (San Francisco Chronicle) is the essential sequel to Empire of the Sun. Published in 1991, this semiautobiographical novel is a daring masterpiece from “one of the most important and intelligent voices in contemporary fiction” (Susan Sontag). “Rueful the way Primo Levi’s work was” (New York Times Book Review), the novel follows 15-year-old Jim Graham as he leaves the ruins of postwar Shanghai, only to find that he cannot escape his own obsession with death.
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Trash
- By Cc on 09-21-23
By: J. G. Ballard
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High-Rise
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Eric Yves Garcia
- Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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When a class war erupts inside a luxurious apartment block, modern elevators become violent battlegrounds and cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on “enemy” floors. In this visionary tale, human society slips into violent reverse as once-peaceful residents, driven by primal urges, re-create a world ruled by the laws of the jungle.
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Ballard deserves a more competent narrator
- By Christopher on 04-21-14
By: J. G. Ballard
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Hello America
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: David Ledoux
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Following the energy crisis of the late 20th century, America has been abandoned. Now, a century later, a small group of European explorers returns to the now climatically mutated continent. But America is unrecognizable - the Bering Strait has been dammed and much of the country has become a desert, populated by isolated natives and the bizarre remnants of a disintegrated culture. The expedition sets off from Manhattan on a cross-country journey, through Holiday Inns and abandoned theme parks, to uncover a shocking new power in the heart of Las Vegas.
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If you like Ballard, don't buy this audibook!
- By the kid on 10-12-13
By: J. G. Ballard
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JR
- By: William Gaddis
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 37 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Absurdly logical, mercilessly real, gathering it's own tumultuous momentum for the ultimate brush with commodity training, JR captures the listener in the cacophony of voices that revolves around this young captive of his own myths. The disturbing clarity with which this finished writer captures the ways in which we deal, dissemble, and stumble through our words - through our lives - while the real plans are being made elsewhere makes JR the extraordinary novel that it is.
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Possibly superior as an audio book
- By Peregrine on 12-12-10
By: William Gaddis
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The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister, Ray Porter, Jonathan Davis
- Length: 51 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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From early work like "Rescue Party" and "The Lion of Comarre", through classic stories including "The Star", "Earthlight", "The Nine Billion Names of God", and "The Sentinel" (kernel of the later novel and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey), all the way to later work like "A Meeting with Medusa" and "The Hammer of God", this comprehensive short story collection encapsulates one of the great science fiction careers of all time.
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List of stories from
- By KW Charlie on 09-15-16
By: Arthur C. Clarke
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Naked Lunch
- The Restored Text
- By: William S. Burroughs
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Naked Lunch is one of the most important novels of the 20th century, a book that redefined not just literature but American culture. An unnerving tale of a narcotics addict unmoored in New York, Tangiers, and, ultimately, a nightmarish wasteland known as Interzone.
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Delightful rendition
- By csk on 10-11-12
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2666
- By: Roberto Bolaño
- Narrated by: John Lee, Armando Durán, G. Valmont Thomas, and others
- Length: 39 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Composed in the last years of Roberto Bolaño's life, 2666 was greeted across Europe and Latin America as his highest achievement, surpassing even his previous work in its strangeness, beauty, and scope. Its throng of unforgettable characters includes academics and convicts, an American sportswriter, an elusive German novelist, and a teenage student and her widowed, mentally unstable father. Their lives intersect in the urban sprawl of Santa Teresa - a fictional Juárez - on the U.S.-Mexico border.
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The Best Book I Read or Listened to in 2009
- By William on 01-05-10
By: Roberto Bolaño
What listeners say about The Complete Short Stories
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Mort Payne
- 07-23-24
Great Collection
Like all collections of stories, there is a wide variety in terms of quality here. Few, if any, fiction authors have ever been able to hit with every swing. That said, this collection is overwhelmingly good. Sure, some of the science is outdated, and some of the cultural context no longer rings true, but despite stories dating back a few to several decades, much of this still works well, and often provokes serious introspection. Ballard's cynicism will turn off a lot of readers, and as another reviewer pointed out, quite a few of these feel a bit like Twilight Zone episodes, but if you like sci fi shorts and don't mind, maybe even enjoy, a bleak fictional worldview, this collection will probably entertain you. 4 stars, which is high praise from me for a short story collection. Not all good, but intermittently brilliant, and, my favorite part, weird throughout.
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- Scott Brandon
- 05-31-20
love JGB novel's but his short stories are...bla
good performance, and I highly recommend JG Ballard novels such as cocaine night, crash, high-rise, the drowned world, etc.
not so much his chart stories. There's a few good ones but nothing that stands out to me that's great
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2 people found this helpful
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- RMS
- 02-26-17
Incredible collection but flawed by voice actors
This one actor, Jeff Harding, ruins the stories that he's read in this incredible collection. it's like listening to a badly trained news reporter rambling off the sentences with no concern for the story or for the gravity of Ballard's writing. In stark contrast, the rest of the performances are excellent. What a shame to have to skip over every story that Harding has flattened out.
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21 people found this helpful
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- O.
- 11-06-23
My Favorite Audiobook. A Lonely Lifework
Ballard had a chilling imagination and a brilliant prose style. He was the literary Twilight Zone, immortalizer of emptiness already long dead, but closer than we think. There are masterpieces here, and even when Ballard is full, he's the top of the heap. "Manhole 69" will forever change the way you look at sleep. Great narrators - including a Colonial Marine from ALIENS!
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- David
- 02-25-24
Why haven't I heard of this guy before?
Ran across this book on an Audible sale. Who is this guy? The stories were great - I've only gotten through 20 so far but I'm really impressed. The stories are all very original, not derivative and each one very different - no formula in the style. Great imagination. Like another reviewer I listen to a couple stories between other books - not to avoid burnout but make this 60 hour gem stretch for as long as I can. I'll probably try some of his novels also.
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- tracycali
- 05-20-24
Bravo! gimme more Vermillion Sands stories!
William Hope is the perfect performer for the Vermillion Sands Stories! Those were definitely the highlights of this collection. some of the "edgier" stories didnt age well, but this is a overall a solid effort with an all-star cast! It was dragged down a bit by too many lost-astronaut stories, along with the Kennedy story and the 2 list entries prevented a five star rating.
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- Ian Murphy
- 06-17-20
Ballard was a genius
I've loved Ballard since I discovered him in High School 20 years ago. He was WAAAAAY ahead of his time (predicting the internet/Zoom relationships/the weaponization of news for political purposes, etc), writing about topics his peers never dreamed of. He is even more timely in the 21st century as Capitalism crumbles around us. Yes, there are a lot of stories in this collection and Yes, not every single one of them is perfect, but for those of us living in this Distopia, now has never been a better time to (re?) discover this brilliant writer. If you're daunted by the length of this collection like I was, do what I did: Listen to a couple stories in between other books you listen to. This method took months to make my way through these stories, but kept me from burning out, and the stories served as "palate cleansers" in between longer novels. I rarely write reviews of books on here, so that right there speaks to how much I love this writer and how timeless and important these stories are. He knew Reagan would lead to Trumpism. If only folks had listened to him 40 years ago.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 10-16-20
Uneven Narration, Wish Sean Barrett Read All of It
One of the narrators actually sounds bored while reading a few of the short stories, which include some of the best that JG Ballard ever wrote. The material is often not properly respected in the reading. I recommend the print version instead of the audio.
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- Kevin
- 05-16-21
Story Title List
At 100 chapters, and 98 short stories, this audiobook really needs chapter titles, but sadly does not have them. Until Audible adds them, here is my attempt, I believe they are correct. Hope this helps.
1) Prima Belladonna
2) Escapement
3) The Concentration City
4) Venus Smiles
5) Manhole 69
6) Track 12
7) The Waiting Grounds
8) Now Zero
9) The Sound-Sweep
10) Zone of Terror
11) Chronopolis
12) The Voices of Time
13) The Last World of Mr. Goddard
14) Studio 5: The Stars
15) Deep End
16) The Overloaded Man
17) Mr. F is Mr. F
18) Billennium
19) The Gentle Assassin
20) The Insane Ones
21) The Garden of Time
22) The Thousand Dreams of Stella Vista
23) 13 to Centaurus
24) Passport to Eternity
25) The Cage of Sand
26) The Watch-Towers
27) The Singing Statues
28) The Man on the 99th Floor
29) The Subliminal Man
30) The Reptile Enclosure
31) A Question of Reentry
32) The Time Tombs
33) Now Wakes the Sea
34) The Venus Hunters
35) End Game
36) Minus One
37) The Sudden Afternoon
38) The Screen Game
39) Time of Passage
40) Prisoner of the Coral Deep
41) The Lost Leonardo
42) The Terminal Beach
43) The Illuminated Man
44) The Delta at Sunset
45) The Drowned Giant
46) The Gioconda of the Twilight Noon
47) The Volcano Dances
48) The Beach Murders
49) The Day of Forever
50) The Impossible Man
51) Storm-Bird, Storm-Dreamer
52) Tomorrow is a Million Years
53) The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race
54) Cry Hope, Cry Fury!
55) The Recognition
56) The Cloud Sculptors of Coral D
57) Why I want to Fuck Ronald Regan
58) The Dead Astronaut
59) The Comsat Angles
60) The Killing Ground
61) A Place and a Time to Die
62) Say Goodbye to the Wind
63) The Greatest Television Show on Earth
64) My Dream of Flying to Wake Island
65) The Air Disaster
66) Low-Flying Aircraft
67) The Life and Death of God
68) Notes Towards a Mental Breakdown
69) The 60 Minute Zoom
70) The Smile
71) The Ultimate City – Part 1
72) The Ultimate City – Part 2
73) The Dead Time
74) The Index
75) The Intensive Care Unit
76) Theatre of War
77) Having a Wonderful Time
78) One Afternoon at Utah Beach
79) Zodiac 2000
80) Motel Architecture
81) A Host of Furious Fancies
82) News from the Sun – Part 1
83) News from the Sun – Part 2
84) Memories of the Space Age
85) Myths of the Near Future
86) Report on an Unidentified Space Station
87) The Object of the Attack
88) Answers to a Questionnaire
89) The Man Who Walked on the Moon
90) The Secret History of World War 3
91) Love in a Colder Climate
92) The Enormous Space
93) The Largest Theme Park in the World
94) War Fever
95) Dream Cargoes
96) A Guide to Virtual Death
97) The Message from Mars
98) Report from an Obscure Planet
99) The Secret Autobiography of J.G.B.
100) The Dying Fall
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55 people found this helpful
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- David Gonsalves
- 05-24-22
Jeff Harding shouldn't narrate anything!
Pretty good overall, some stories I felt didn't go anywhere but on the whole enjoyable.
Now that said I'll just be another person complaining about Jeff Harding's terrible narration. Every single sentence is identical, and just doesn't sound good. It's like trying to listen to a bad local news reporter read a story with that annoying news reporter voice.
I have no idea how he gets hired.
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