The Dark Design
Riverworld Saga, Book 3
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Narrated by:
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Paul Hecht
About this listen
Years have passed on Riverworld. Entire nations have risen, and savage wars have been fought—all since the dead of Earth found themselves resurrected in their magnificent new homeworld. Yet, the truth about the Ethicals, the powerful engineers of this mysterious "afterlife," remains unknown. But a curious cross-section of humanity is determined to change that situation…at any cost.
Intrepid explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton leads the most remarkable voyage of discovery he has ever undertaken. Hot on his heels are Samuel Clemens, King John of England, and Cyrano de Bergerac. Spurred by the promise of ultimate answers, they chart a course across the vast polar sea—and toward the awesome tower that looms above it. But getting there will be more than half the battle. For death on Riverworld has become chillingly final....
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Pulp Perfection!
- By Jim N on 08-31-12
By: Paul Malmont
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Inferno
- By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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After being thrown out of the window of his luxury apartment, science-fiction writer Allen Carpentier wakes to find himself at the gates of Hell. Feeling he's landed in a great opportunity for a book, he attempts to follow Dante's road map. Determined to meet Satan himself, Carpentier treks through the nine circles of Hell, led by Benito Mussolini, and encounters countless mental and physical tortures.
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Dante done in the 70's
- By R. Reed on 04-09-09
By: Larry Niven, and others
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The Red Wolf Conspiracy
- By: Robert V. S. Redick
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 19 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The Imperial Merchant Ship Chathrand is the last of her kind. Six hundred years old, the secrets of her construction long forgotten, the massive vessel dwarfs every other sailing craft in the world. It is a palace with sails, a floating outpost of the Empire of Arqual. And it is on its most vital mission yet: to deliver a young woman whose marriage will seal the peace between Arqual and its mortal enemy, the secretive Mzithrin Empire.
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Not Bad, not great.
- By Aerindel on 10-15-09
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To the Stars
- By: L. Ron Hubbard
- Narrated by: Robert Caso, Jim Meskimen, R.F. Daley, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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How far is too far? Alan Corday is about to find out. Corday is shanghaied aboard a craft bound for the stars...on a journey at the speed of light, the world he leaves behind fast vanishing into the past. And nothing in the dark, forbidding reaches of space can prepare him for the astounding discovery he will make upon his return from the stars.
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To the Stars
- By John on 12-01-04
By: L. Ron Hubbard
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Hawke: Three Black Ops
- Alex Hawke Series
- By: Ted Bell
- Narrated by: John Shea
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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This set includes Crash Dive, What Comes Around, and White Death, three Alex Hawke novellas never available before on audio. In Crash Dive, Alex Hawke is on a highly covert mission to enter another nation’s airspace undetected and find a way to avert a global war. In What Comes Around, two CIA officers are found dead. Hawke discovers that the victims are connected through one man: Spider Payne, a rogue intelligence officer. In White Death, M16 suspects a bizarre conspiracy when two bankers are found dead, and vast sums are plundered from the Queen of England’s accounts.
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Scam
- By Anonymous User on 10-10-18
By: Ted Bell
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A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters
- By: Julian Barnes
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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This is one of the defining novels of English writer Julian Barnes. An entertaining melange of stories starting with a contemporary account of the launch of Noah's Ark takes us into unexpected areas of human foibles, activities, and tendencies.
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Not what I Expected
- By Mark on 02-20-08
By: Julian Barnes
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The Plover
- By: Brian Doyle
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Declan O Donnell has sailed out of Oregon and deep into the vast, wild ocean, having had just finally enough of other people and their problems. He will go it alone, he will be his own country, he will be beholden to and beloved of no one. No man is an island, my butt, he thinks. I am that very man.... But the galaxy soon presents him with a string of odd, entertaining, and dangerous passengers, who become companions of every sort and stripe. The Plover is the story of their adventures and misadventures in the immense blue country one of their company calls Pacifica.
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Poetry, the sea and finally story
- By WA islander on 09-12-15
By: Brian Doyle
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Geomancer
- By: Ian Irvine
- Narrated by: Grant Cartwright
- Length: 23 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Two hundred years after the Forbidding was broken, Santhenar is locked in war with the lyrinx - intelligent, winged predators who will do anything to gain their own world. Despite the development of battle clankers and mastery of the crystals that power them, humanity is losing. Tiaan, a lonely crystal worker in a clanker manufactory, is experimenting with an entirely new kind of crystal when she begins to have extraordinary visions.
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About As Satisfying as Coitus Interruptus
- By Craig G. Clark on 07-26-13
By: Ian Irvine
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The Compleat Crow
- By: Brian Lumley
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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To many thousands of listeners world-wide, Titus Crow is the psychic sleuth - the cosmic voyager and investigator - of Brian Lumley's Cthulhu Mythos novels, from The Burrowers Beneath to Elysia. But before The Burrowers and Crow's transition, his exploits were chronicled in a series of short stories and novellas uncollected in the USA, except in limited editions.
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Pulpy, Punchy Tales of the Occult Hero, Titus Crow
- By Troy on 07-16-16
By: Brian Lumley
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The Monstrumologist
- By: Rick Yancey
- Narrated by: Steven Boyer
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Dr. Warthrop is a scientist who tracks and studies real-life monsters. Assisted by his 12-year-old apprentice, Will Henry, Dr. Warthrop discovers a pod of Anthropophagi and launches a hunt to destroy the foul beasts.
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Reader Be Warned
- By Eddie on 01-25-15
By: Rick Yancey
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Into the Storm
- Destroyermen, Book 1
- By: Taylor Anderson
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Pressed into service when World War II breaks out in the Pacific, the USS Walker---a Great-War vintage "four-stacker" destroyer---finds itself in full retreat from pursuit by Japanese battleships. Its captain, Lieutenant Commander Matthew Patrick Reddy, knows that he and his crew are in dire straits. In desperation, he heads Walker into a squall, hoping it will give them cover---and emerges somewhere else.
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It just never grabbed me.
- By Lore on 05-01-12
By: Taylor Anderson
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The Sword-Edged Blonde
- By: Alex Bledsoe
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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It should have been a case like any other: a missing princess, a king willing to pay in gold for her return. But before he realizes it, private investigator Eddie LaCrosse, a slightly shopworn sword jockey with a talent for discretion and detection, is swept up in a web of mystery and deceit involving a brutally murdered royal heir, a queen accused of an unspeakable crime, and the tragic past he thought he'd left behind.
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No Redeeming Qualities
- By MightyMite68 on 09-27-20
By: Alex Bledsoe
What listeners say about The Dark Design
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ben M.
- 07-28-23
Pick a Unit of Measurement, Please.
I want to start by clearly saying, the narration was top-notch, and I will be looking for more books read by Paul Hecht. My criticism is solely about the writing.
The book feels like it drags more than the previous books. I wasn't sure why until I walked 20 feet, or 6.096 meters, to my kitchen to put away the gallon, or 3.79 liters, of juice I had purchased earlier in the day. The constant translation of feet to meters and meters to feet was maddening. Please pick a unit of measurement and stick with it. I'll do the math and convert it myself if I feel that I must know or if it impacts the story at all.
At this point in the story, it feels like the basic premise is starting to wear a little thin (even without the measurements). At first, it sounds like a great idea. What if you could pick your favorite person from history and have him or her meet another favorite person from history? And it absolutely is fun, until it happens over and over again. It's like we need to meet every named person from the 36 billion resurrected on this world. Thankfully there seems to be a core set of characters we can try to lock onto, but it feels like we are constantly being introduced to new characters just to introduce new characters.
It's book three, and I've started book four today. I'm invested in the story, and I want to see how it ends, but it's such a slog some days. Hopefully, book four picks up the pace.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Karen
- 02-04-24
This is a great series of books!
Out of the three so far, this one seems to be one of the toughest to get through. But it does start to draw all the players together.
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- Kindle Customer
- 04-13-23
chapters don't match
The chapters in the book and the audio chapters don't match.
Book chapters start in the middle of audio chapters or go straight though from one audio chapter to another
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1 person found this helpful
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- A User
- 02-23-24
Too much meandering
It just wasn't all that good. Too many characters too much hard to follow. Not enough clarity
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ramon B. Cano
- 06-13-16
Riverworld - the story continues
Any additional comments?
If you have enjoyed the books thus far, then you will probably enjoy this one as well. Personally, I am not sure the story is actually going anywhere any more. I love the world he has built but am waiting for the over-arching story to actually go somewhere. If you are expecting to get some more insight into that aspect of the story - this book is sure to disappoint. If you just love the world the author has created - then keep reading - I expect there is plenty more where that came from.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Mr. D
- 09-27-17
great series
Wonderfully read book, of an amazing world crated by the ever talented and gifted Philip Jose Farmer.
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Overall
- Michael G Kurilla
- 03-23-11
Probably 3X as long as it needed to be
Dark Desgin is the 3rd book of 5 in Farmer's Riverworld series. Bearing in mind, that the reviewer read the first 2 books over 30 years ago, book 3 was eagerly anticipated. Compared to the first 2, this is definitely the weakest of the three. In brief, Riverworld is a terraformed planet with a single river, along whose banks all of humanity has been resurrected. Exactly why is still unclear and forms the basis for much of the plot. The author has considerable license to draw from any historical figure for the storytelling and does so liberally. While the 1st book set the stage and the basic crew, the 2nd had Mark Twain buildng a riverboat to get to the headwaters. In the 3rd installment, a dirigible is the latest mode of transportation. Also building, appears to be disagreements among the aliens that are supposedly responsible for all of this. In all, this could be a compact story advancing towards some resolution and more detail regardnig the dark tower at the river's headwaters, but Farmer injects too much introspective meanderings with extensive details that either are unrelated to the plot or simply border on flower child / hippie musings.
Another consideration is that the book was originally written in the 70's. As such, in this world alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, and even an LSD-like substance play a major role. In addition, feminist views are prominent, but seem out of place as if harrassment today were met with bra burnings. In short, Farmer was a captive of his era in which the writing took place and the story doesn't translate as well today.
Finally, there is a bit of a disconnect in that the environment is lacking in many resources, but an errant meteorite seems to not only provide a source of iron, but also the means to develop lasers and X-ray machines. Most of the characters also appear clueless with many of the inconsistencies that point to a more sinister state of affairs, such as cut-off dates.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Chris
- 10-16-16
Better than the Second Book
While the writing style stays much the same, there is more action in book 3 and more details offered regarding the mysteries of the Riverworld.I thought this book better than book 2 The Fabulous Riverboat.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Chase
- 08-12-21
Love Psychoanalysis
As a Psych/Neuroscience major, I love the brain. The main critiques of the story are the parts I love. The Psychoanalysis is what makes the book for me. Being the third in the series, the author has every right to dive into the nitty-gritty details that would’ve turned people off in early books. Another Farmer masterpiece.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Clifford K.
- 08-08-21
Very difficult read
A complex read you really have to know the historical references to enjoy it I think Most young readers would never have known the characters outlined in the book including mincluding many of the writers mentioned
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