
The Departure
The Owner, Book 1
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Narrated by:
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Steve West
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John Mawson
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By:
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Neal Asher
About this listen
The Argus Space Station looks down on a nightmarish Earth. And from this safe distance, the Committee enforces its despotic rule. There are too many people and too few resources, and they need 12 billion to die before Earth can be stabilised. So corruption is rife, people starve, and the poor are policed by mechanised overseers and identity-reader guns. Citizens already fear the brutal Inspectorate with its pain inducers. But to reach its goals, the Committee will unleash satellite laser weaponry, taking carnage to a new level.
This is the world Alan Saul wakes to, travelling in a crate destined for the Calais incinerator. How he got there he doesn't know, but he remembers pain and his tormentor's face. He also has company: Janus, a rogue intelligence inhabiting forbidden hardware in his skull. As Janus shows Saul an Earth stripped of hope, he resolves to annihilate the Committee and their regime... once he's discovered who he was, and killed his interrogator.
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Dystopian in the extreme, The Departure chronicles one man's brave attempt to save Earth from an oppressive bureaucracy bent on a catastrophic plan to winnow the planet’s population. Chilling and remote, this listen is best for fans of hard sci-fi who like plenty of action alongside detailed description of plot points, and political digressions of the Ayn Rand variety. Performers Steve West and John Mawson bring a cool, precise feeling to the story, which is well-suited to the author’s dark and harrowing vision.
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Chain of Command
- By: Frank Chadwick
- Narrated by: Graham Rowat
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Lieutenant Sam Bitka, US Naval Reserve, is getting used to civilian life when he is called back to active duty. Tensions between Earth and the alien Varoki are on the rise, and Sam is assigned as tactical officer aboard the deep space destroyer USS Puebla. Dispatched to the distant world of K'tok to protect human colonists, he wants nothing more than to serve out his active duty time and get back to his civilian life. But when the Varoki launch a crippling surprise attack against the Earth coalition fleet, Sam finds himself suddenly in command of the USS Puebla.
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Not well written and terrible narration
- By Deanne Morgan on 02-03-20
By: Frank Chadwick
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Valor's Choice
- By: Tanya Huff
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In the distant future, humans and several other races have been granted membership in the Confederation - at a price. They must act as soldier/protectors of the far more civilized races who have long since turned away from war.
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Military Future Past
- By Dave H on 04-21-13
By: Tanya Huff
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Star Soldiers
- By: Andre Norton
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Only as interstellar mercenaries can humans go to the stars; the aliens who already dominate the galaxy allow no other recourse. But when Swordsman Third Class Kana Karr and his comrades-in-arms are betrayed and abandoned on a hostile world by their alien masters, the warriors from Earth begin a desperate but glorious march across a planet whose every sword is against them. Their actions may doom humanity's future...or lead the way to an empire of their own!
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Star Guard, and Star Rangers/Last Planet
- By Signalshifter on 04-17-21
By: Andre Norton
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Trading in Danger
- Vatta's War, Book 1
- By: Elizabeth Moon
- Narrated by: Cynthia Holloway
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The first of the acclaimed Vatta's War books, the exciting military science fiction series that features a swashbuckling spaceship-captain heroine who mixes commerce with combat.
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Highly Recommend
- By L'Aura on 11-28-09
By: Elizabeth Moon
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The Heirs of Earth
- Children of Earthrise Series, Book 1
- By: Daniel Arenson
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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We hide in shadows. Our planet is lost. We are the last humans, and we must go home. Two thousand years ago, aliens destroyed Earth. Our fleets shattered. Billions died. The last humans fled a burning planet, heading to the stars. Today we are still refugees. Hungry. Afraid. Our enemies hunt us everywhere. So we hide. On distant asteroids. In rundown space stations. In deep caves on frozen worlds. And we dream. Of green hills. Blue skies. Golden fields. We dream of Earth. And for the first time, we have hope.
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Don't waste your credits.
- By Wesley on 07-11-18
By: Daniel Arenson
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Sleeping Gods Boxed Set
- Books 1-2
- By: Ralph Kern
- Narrated by: Shaun Grindell, Jeffrey Kafer, Michael Kramer
- Length: 29 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Includes books one and two in the Sleeping Gods series: Endeavor and Erebus.
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As a set, it was so so
- By Sarah Bellew on 08-30-21
By: Ralph Kern
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Echoes of Extinction
- Echoes of Extinction, Book 1
- By: D. Ward Cornell
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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When Kyle Wimberly, the hands-on president of Full Cycle Solar, Inc., investigates a unit failure, he finds an alien shuttle has crashed into it. The shuttle's captain is grievously injured, his crew dead. Then, to Kyle's surprise, the captain asks for help, speaking perfect English. Kyle and colleague Alexandra Reyes carry the captain to the shuttle's medical bay for treatment by its auto-doc. This simple act of compassion launches the two down a path that will change their lives and the world forever.
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A well performed well told captivating story
- By Maryann Lewis on 09-01-24
By: D. Ward Cornell
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The Last Watch
- The Divide Series, Book 1
- By: J. S. Dewes
- Narrated by: Andrew Eiden, Nicol Zanzarella
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The Divide. It’s the edge of the universe. Now, it’s collapsing - and taking everyone and everything with it. The only ones who can stop it are the Sentinels - the recruits, exiles, and court-martialed dregs of the military. At the Divide, Adequin Rake commands the Argus. She has no resources, no comms - nothing, except for the soldiers that no one wanted.
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Good story but the F-bomb got really old.
- By Carr Harvey on 06-29-21
By: J. S. Dewes
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The Cruel Stars
- By: John Birmingham
- Narrated by: Morgan Hallett
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The galaxy was once terrorized by the Sturm, a group of “species purists” intent on destroying any human with genetic or cybernetic enhancements. Fashioning themselves as the one true “Human Republic,” the Sturm cut a bloody swath across the stars, killing billions before finally being defeated and driven into the far reaches of Dark Space. Centuries of peace bred complacency. Everyone believed the Sturm had died out in the Dark. They were wrong.
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A barrage of action & comedy 💥🤣
- By Joey De La Torre on 11-01-22
By: John Birmingham
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The Silent Champions: Publisher's Pack
- The Silent Champions, Books 1& 2
- By: Andy Peloquin
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 39 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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As the son of a famous general, Aravon is proud to captain his own company against his people's enemy. But the experienced veteran’s march toward glory dissolves into pain as ruthless barbarians massacre every last one of his soldiers. Burning for vengeance, he leaps at the chance to spearhead a specially trained company and pay back his tragic defeat with blood.
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Such modern, so politics, wow
- By D. Neill on 04-18-21
By: Andy Peloquin
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Boundless
- The Lost Fleet: Outlands, Book 1
- By: Jack Campbell
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Geary believed in the Alliance. Even when he uncovered overwhelming evidence that the highest echelons of the government and fleet command were involved in secret programs and prison camps, he believed it was worth saving. He believed his duty was to see that justice was served even though some factions feared that revealing the truth would cause the Alliance to crumble. But after narrowly surviving two assassination attempts when he brings evidence of the misdeeds to the capital star system, Geary realizes that some want to get rid of him.
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It was just so COMFORTABLE to be back on Dauntless
- By Mikey72 on 06-18-21
By: Jack Campbell
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Dauntless
- Lost Fleet, Book 1
- By: Jack Campbell
- Narrated by: Jack Campbell, Christian Rummel
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The Alliance has been fighting the Syndics for a century—and losing badly. Now its fleet is crippled and stranded in enemy territory. Their only hope is a man who’s emerged from a century-long hibernation to find he has been heroically idealized beyond belief… Captain John “Black Jack” Geary’s legendary exploits are known to every schoolchild. Revered for his heroic “last stand” in the early days of the war, he was presumed dead. But a century later, Geary miraculously returns from survival hibernation.
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Straightforward Action Based Science Fiction
- By David A on 07-07-22
By: Jack Campbell
Finally to my great satisfaction this showed up in my search results.
This is a revenge story where the Earth itself shakes at one man's fury. I can't really say much else about the plot without spoilers.
You'll notice the book has two narrators. Don't fret though, one of them only reads the intro's to each chapter in a documentary style diction. The other brings the story to life.
I think the worst part of this book is knowing you're going to have to wait for the rest of the series.
Neal Asher Delivers Again
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I don’t know if he writes better far future, Earth-less, SF; or if he just does better in the novella format, but there was just a lot missing here.
There is an over-blown, over the top, totalitarian world government, that is just asking to be rebelled against. I suppose it is one possible future of what happens when the government passes the tipping point from viewing the people it governs as more than just an ignorant subclass, to overtly viewing them as sacrificial cogs in the machine that empower government.
While this is an extreme view of the future of a world government, I can’t say it is entirely illogical, given the attitude of the American, European, and Chinese governments are lately taking to their people since WWII, so I can’t dismiss Asher’s postulate as ridiculous.
But then we have the characters… The protagonist is excused from having a personality, because his memories were erased, except for those that weren’t. He has plenty of internal dialog, but over all is alien enough that I can’t relate. I can’t even support his goals, since his goals seem to mostly be survive and get revenge, and a few incidental side quests like removing the government, which come up along the way and he reluctantly takes on.
And his girlfriend/touchstone for humanity, is a constitutionally week 65 year old woman, with the emotional development of a 20 year old liberal college student, but apparently is smart and canny enough to make herself an indispensable scientist to the government, and devious enough to turn the main character and others into revolutionaries by her direct and indirect actions. Not really a character that makes a whole lot of sense to me.
I can’t even pull for the villains, since except for the accumulation of personal power, we never get any real idea what drives any of them.
Lastly, the way the first half of this is written—jumping back and forth through time—is off-putting, with no clarity when transitions happen. Unlike some reviewers, I didn’t have a problem when the point of view would change abruptly—I’ve seen authors do this before, and while I don’t love it as a story telling style, it’s far from rare, and you can usually pick up pretty fast that someone else is now doing the thinking. But the jumping through time without warning thing did throw me.
Okay, but hard to care about
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Asher's 2011 "The Departure" is the first of a trilogy that features a near-future society where nobody really owns anything and those "Zero-Asset" (ZA) members of the population exist on the gov't dole and at the pleasure of increasingly disconnected elites and their "Committees."
Constant gov't surveillance and authoritarianism abound, coupled with scarce resources and food riots. What's a forward thinking oppressive gov't to do? Why, kill a few billion ZAs to stabilize things for the betters' continued survival.
From this comes Alan Saul, with little memory of his life beyond that past 2 years who VERY quickly decides/gets roped in? to trying to bring the whole system down. So we've got resistant groups, orbital stations, and lots and lots of action.
The 1984-esque worldbuilding is far more satisfying than the characters and once bullets start flying, the book loses a lot of its appeal. But as a reasonably prescient look at who credentialed "elites" can run a society into the ground, "The Departure" ain't bad.
Decent world building
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The sci-fi elements are pure Asher with the primitive beginnings of artificial intelligence (AI) beginning to emerge and assert itself. There is much in the way of human machine interface that telegraphs Asher's long term perspective on the AI ascendancy. While the space elements are futuristic (a Mars colony, a massive orbital space station, military style laser satellites, etc.), there is nothing overly remarkable or imaginative about their design or utilization. At its heart, this is a tale of prophecy of the potential perils and pitfalls of civilization's expectations for a risk-less and careful future by turning over personal responsibilities to machines and a select group of fallible humans.
The narration is superb with an excellent range of voices, solid pacing, and a tone that perfectly aligns with the delicate, yet tense nature of the action.
Realistic, frightening dystopic vision
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A Definite recommendation from me
Incredible!
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The story and narration were good, if a little bit dry and technical at times. I felt like the narration closely matched the writing style and the mood of the plot.
Not a casual listen
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Amazing science fiction saga
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hard choices for a harder world.
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as you know it gets monotonous, but not here, and oh boy is the story relatable to current geopolitical situation.
If you want a book about a bioborg in the middle of a bureaucracy caused apocalypse this is the book for you!
!!!!possible spoilers ahead!!!!
first chapter is wild, and there is a big time skip of about a year, the next following chapters are just amazing, and just Ludacris enough to be exciting, but not enough to be absurd in my opinion!
but okay if I do think back there is a literal feed them to the "laser" sharks, moments, of course the villain had to leave is the main character alive in a torture booth, because they wanted their bio enhancements,
but then I come back defending it with, you know they do set up that specific character to be just arrogant and power-hungry enough to be like that, so it's good it works, and it's exciting cuz you know holy m0ly he actually came close to dying, and only writing this do I go to myself relax it's just a book,
This is how much I liked this book!
Bioborg in the middle of a bureaucracy apocalypse!
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all in all this book delivered a good yarn and I'll read the other two.
a bit bloated but started very strong
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