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The Fear Index
- Narrated by: Christian Rodska
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
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Publisher's summary
At the nexus of high finance and sophisticated computer programming, a terrifying future may be unfolding even now.
Dr. Alex Hoffmann’s name is carefully guarded from the general public, but within the secretive inner circles of the ultrarich, he is a legend. He has developed a revolutionary form of artificial intelligence that predicts movements in the financial markets with uncanny accuracy. His hedge fund, based in Geneva, makes billions. But one morning before dawn, a sinister intruder breaches the elaborate security of his lakeside mansion, and so begins a waking nightmare of paranoia and violence as Hoffmann attempts, with increasing desperation, to discover who is trying to destroy him.
Fiendishly smart and suspenseful, The Fear Index gives us a searing glimpse into an all-too-recognizable world of greed and panic. It is a novel that forces us to confront the question of what it means to be human—and it is Robert Harris’s most spellbinding and audacious novel to date.
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Villanelle (um codinome, é claro) é uma das assassinas mais habilidosas do mundo. Uma psicopata hedonista, que ama sua vida de luxo acima de quase qualquer coisa... menos a emoção da caçada. Especializada em matar as pessoas mais ricas e poderosas do mundo, Villanelle é encarregada de aniquilar um influente político russo, e acaba com uma inimiga determinada em seu encalço.
By: Luke Jennings
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The Bat
- The First Inspector Harry Hole Novel
- By: Jo Nesbø, Don Bartlett
- Narrated by: Joh Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In the electrifying first installment of the New York Times bestselling series, Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is dispatched to Sydney to observe a murder case. As he circles closer to the killer, Harry begins to fear that no one is safe, least of all those investigating the murder.
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Not as good as the others....
- By KP on 07-10-13
By: Jo Nesbø, and others
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Ragdoll
- A Novel
- By: Daniel Cole
- Narrated by: Alex Wyndham
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
William Fawkes, a controversial detective known as The Wolf, has just been reinstated to his post after he was suspended for assaulting a vindicated suspect. Still under psychological evaluation, Fawkes returns to the force eager for a big case. When his former partner and friend, detective Emily Baxter, calls him to a crime scene, he's sure this is it: the body is made of the dismembered parts of six victims, sewn together like a puppet - a corpse that becomes known as "The Ragdoll".
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Some Listen! Excellent.
- By Alex Wyndham on 04-29-17
By: Daniel Cole
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The Color of Night
- By: David Lindsey
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Harry Strand is living a quiet life as an art dealer in Houston. But until four years ago, he was an intelligence agent for the foreign service. His nemesis was Schrade, a ruthless international criminal who arranged the "accident" that killed Harry's wife. Now Harry has met a mysterious, beautiful woman who may have critical information about Schrade. And Harry begins to bait a trap for his enemy. The more Harry learns, however, the more he feels pulled into a much deeper conspiracy.
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Excellent and intriguing!
- By Gail Kisellus on 01-15-18
By: David Lindsey
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Money to Burn
- A Novel of Suspense
- By: James Grippando
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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At 31, Michael Cantella is a rising star at Wall Street’s premier investment bank, Saxton Silvers. Everything is going according to plan until Ivy Layton, the love of his life, vanishes on their honeymoon in the Bahamas. Fast-forward four years. It’s the eve of his 35th birthday, and Michael is still on track: successful career, beautiful new wife, piles of money.
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Fast paced 5 star entertainment
- By Chip Atkinson on 07-29-18
By: James Grippando
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Pattern Recognition
- By: William Gibson
- Narrated by: Shelly Frasier
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Cayce Pollard is a new kind of prophet - a world-renowned "coolhunter" who predicts the hottest trends. While in London to evaluate the redesign of a famous corporate logo, she's offered a different assignment: find the creator of the obscure, enigmatic video clips being uploaded to the Internet - footage that is generating massive underground buzz worldwide.
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Only gets better with age
- By Mika on 12-14-18
By: William Gibson
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The Risk Agent
- Risk Agent, Book 1
- By: Ridley Pearson
- Narrated by: Todd Haberkorn
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Grace Chu is an American-educated Chinese national now working as a forensic accountant after serving in the Chinese army as an intelligence officer. John Knox is an American who parlayed his military service during the first Iraqi war into a lucrative import/export business, which now provides him the official access he needs to work freelance undercover operations throughout the world. Both are highly skilled operatives capable of deft subterfuge or extreme violence, if circumstances require.
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Ridley is back, but he wasn't far away.
- By Dave Staats on 06-27-12
By: Ridley Pearson
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Library of the Dead
- Will Piper Series, Book 1
- By: Glenn Cooper
- Narrated by: Pete Bradbury
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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A murderer is on the loose on the streets of New York City: nicknamed the Doomsday Killer, he's claimed six victims in just two weeks, and the city is terrified. Even worse, the police are mystified: the victims have nothing in common, defying all profiling, and all that connects them is that each received a sick postcard in the mail before they died - a postcard that announced their date of death. In desperation, the FBI assigns the case to maverick agent Will Piper, once the most accomplished serial-killing expert in the bureau's history, now on a dissolute spiral to retirement.
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Ok towards the end
- By JoAnn on 05-23-23
By: Glenn Cooper
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The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam
- By: Chris Ewan
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Charlie Howard travels the globe writing suspense novels for a living. To supplement his income - and keep his hand in - Charlie has a small side business: stealing for a very discreet clientele on commission. When a mysterious American offers Charlie 20,000 euros to steal two small monkey figurines to match the one he already has, Charlie is suspicious; the job seems too good to be true, and of course, it is. He soon finds the American beaten nearly to death, while the third figurine has disappeared.
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A delightful surprise!
- By adrienne on 10-02-13
By: Chris Ewan
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I've loved Robert Harris' Books; but...
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Spændingsroman om englændernes arbejde i 1943 med at bryde den kode tyskerne anvender i u-bådskommunikationen. Menneskeliv er på spil, arbejdet foregår under tidspres og de involverede har mange hemmeligheder.
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Danish version!
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V2
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Rudi Graf is an engineer who always dreamed of sending rockets to the moon. But instead, he finds himself working alongside Wernher von Braun, launching V2 rockets at London for the Nazis from a bleak seaside town in occupied Holland. As the SS increases its scrutiny of the project, Graf, an engineer more than a soldier, has to muster all of his willpower to toe the party line. And when rumors of a defector circulate through the German ranks, Graf becomes a prime suspect.
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Ho-Hum
- By Pete Harrell on 11-30-20
By: Robert Harris
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Returning Light
- Thirty Years on the Island of Skellig Michael
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In 1987, Robert Harris happened upon an unusual job posting in the local paper—a new warden service was being set up on the island of Skellig Michael, and the deadline was imminent. Just weeks later he was on his way to set up camp in one of Ireland’s most remote locations, unaware that he would be making that same journey every May for the next 30 years.
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Beautiful!
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By: Robert L. Harris
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Fatherland
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- Unabridged
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Berlin, 1964. The Greater German Reich stretches from the Rhine to the Urals and keeps an uneasy peace with its nuclear rival, the United States. As the Fatherland prepares for a grand celebration honoring Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday and anticipates a conciliatory visit from US president Joseph Kennedy and ambassador Charles Lindbergh, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin's most prestigious suburb.
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1960's Nazi Germany comes alive
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The pope is dead. Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, 118 cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world's most secretive election. They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals. Over the next 72 hours, one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.
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Extraordinary
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By: Robert Harris
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Lustrum
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Stedet er Rom og tiden er år 63 f.Kr. Syv maend kaemper om magten i republikken: Cicero er konsul, Caesar hans ubarmhjertige unge rival, Pompey er republikkens maegtigste general, Crassus dens rigeste mand, Cato er politisk fanatiker, Catilina psykopaten og Clodius en ambitiøs playboy. Historierne om disse virkelige historiske figurer - deres alliancer og forraederi, deres grusomheder og forførelser, deres storslåethed og deres forbrydelser - det hele flettes sammen i denne farverige roman.
By: Robert Harris
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Conspirata
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On the eve of Marcus Cicero's inauguration as consul of Rome, the grisly death of a boy sends ripples of fear through a city already wracked by civil unrest, crime, and debauchery of every kind. Felled by a hammer, his throat slit and his organs removed, the young slave appears to have been offered as a human sacrifice, forbidden as an abomination in the Roman Republic.
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Interesting listening
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SS-GB
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It is 1941 and Germany has won the war. Britain is occupied, Churchill executed, and the King imprisoned in the Tower of London. At Scotland Yard, Detective Inspector Archer tries to do his job and keep his head down. But when a body is found in a Mayfair flat, what at first appears to be a routine murder investigation sends him into a world of espionage, deceit, and betrayal.
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The Best World War II Espionage Novel Ever!
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Henry V
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- Unabridged
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Henry V reigned over England for only nine years and four months and died at the age of just thirty-five, but he looms over the landscape of the late Middle Ages and beyond. The victor of Agincourt, he is remembered as the acme of kingship, a model to be closely imitated by his successors. William Shakespeare deployed Henry V as a study in youthful folly redirected to sober statesmanship. For one modern medievalist, Henry was, quite simply, “the greatest man who ever ruled England.”
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Dan jones is honestly the best
- By Joseph calpas on 10-10-24
By: Dan Jones
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The Spy and the Traitor
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- Unabridged
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If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6.
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John Lee is GREAT!
- By David on 09-21-18
By: Ben Macintyre
What listeners say about The Fear Index
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jason
- 08-20-13
Good listen but predictible
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Highly recommend audiobooks to anyone - especially for exercise such as running where it is good to have something to pass the time.
Would you recommend The Fear Index to your friends? Why or why not?
Probably not - after about 6/7 chapters in I figured I saw how it was going to turn out. But I hoped it was a distraction, the ending would hardly be that obvious?! Alas - it was...!
However the book has a good pace, interesting premise and naration is good - however some of the voices are not great.
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- Joshua Kim
- 05-01-12
"The Fear Index": Smart Tech Fiction
We are suffering under an acute shortage of technologically literate smart fiction. The Fear Index should be read up by everyone who works in and around computing. Not that the book will have much to teach technology folks, but more that technology folks will be hugely entertained by a book that is simultaneously smart about computers, character and plot.
Why don't we have more technology literate quality fiction? Is it because good writers don't tend to hang out in server rooms or with coders? Or maybe because software engineers seldom become novelists?
Robert Harris is not a technologist, but he is a terrific writer, (and the author of a two of my favorite books, Fatherland and Enigma). In The Fear Index, Harris has something to say about the financialization of the economy, the growth of unregulated and un-checked hedge funds, and the dangers of handing off our economic decisions to computers and algorithms.
The Fear Index reminds me a bit of Daniel Suarez's books Daemon and Freedom (Suarez was a technologist), but I think that Suarez would even admit that his writing is not in the same class as Harris. This is not to denigrate Suarez, or the work of other cyber-thriller authors, only to note how rare it is for a quality novelist to take on technology as a central theme.
I don't usually share and recommend fiction (although the new Elmore Leonard's new book Raylan is cracking good), as I like to review books that are somehow relevant to higher ed. However, when a book as good as The Fear Index comes along it seems prudent to drop everything else and start reading.
What technologically literate quality fiction can you recommend?
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7 people found this helpful
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- Tom Mahowald
- 02-10-12
Stayed Up All Night; It Was THAT Good!
The scary part is that what happens in this story is quite plausible, and has already made our financial markets unstable and ungovernable. The "smartest guys in the room" since the 1990's became Wall Street "quants" who wrote the algorithms that make scads of money getting in and out of stocks in seconds or less, while hedging their downside. Being right 55% of the time is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The mental illness plot twist made the book even more difficult to put down. Christian Rodska's narration was really good, including the accents and pace. The setting in Geneva sounds lovely. Great book, from beginning to end.
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- Carolyn
- 02-13-12
Pass on It
Was very sorry I bought this
Hard to get thru the whole thing
Cannot recommend it the narrator does not do it any good either
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- Ted
- 11-29-13
The Book Dan Brown Wished He Wrote
Have you read "Digital Fortress" Dan Brown's clanky stew of improbabilities? Pity, you should have read, and still should read "The Fear Index". I'm an economist with a specialty in finance. And I wondered throughout this book if Harris sat behind me in class, taking better notes? Or maybe he was off studying the art market? Or maybe he spent those study years in cyber studies… or…
A number of authors have played with the general theme of "The Fear Index"… none better than Harris does here. And Christian Rodska is so superb that he'd surely win some sort of Academy Award for excellence in the audio genre if only one existed (Does it? Why not?).
I'm giving copies of "The Fear Index" to friends this Christmas. When you do that, you're reputation for picking thrillers is on the line. I'll walk that line ho-ho-ho-ing with Harris in my Santa bag.
Treat yourself, listen to this one.
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18 people found this helpful
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- Assegai
- 05-04-15
Gripping hi tech thriller
Very good story however it left me somewhat disappointed in the end. But then, how else could it have concluded? Otherwise fast paced and exciting! Pay attention or you'll miss something important.
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- Shauna
- 02-08-12
Greed + ego = fear
The Fear Index is morality tale about two partners, Hugo and Alex, who manage a phenomenally successful hedge fund. The backdrop is Geneva, Switzerland, where money is the primary industry. The book is fast paced and provides insights into hedge fund operations and machine intelligence. One of the most interesting aspects was the author's use of Darwin's Origin of the Species to foreshadow events.
As the previous reviewer said, it's easy to discern the perpetrator of the fear and paranoia that consumes Alex, the protagonist. The author portrays Alex as a genius who lacks some important social skills. I would have given this book an additional star had I felt some sympathy for Alex.
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3 people found this helpful
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- cristina
- 02-07-12
Should be 3 1/2 stars
How can I say that a book was a disappointment when it kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish?...Well, there you go. I guess I was expecting more from the author of Ghost Writer -- which I thought was almost flawless. The Fear Index, while clever, had holes. One of the worst ones was that I figured out who the villain was way before the characters did -- so then you are just waiting for them to 'catch up.' Still, like I said, it kept me on the edge of my seat -- and the reader was excellent, so I would still recommend it.
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- Gabrielle
- 03-08-12
Fun and Interesting Book ---
I bought this audiobook after hearing an interview with the author on NPR. The world of finance is not something I am at all familiar with but I found the premise of the book interesting and it did not disappoint. Though I think the 'reveal' was obvious and there were a few lose ends that frustrated me (like the storyline with the Darwin book) I still loved this book. Found the setting, the characters, and the story line different and compelling. The performance was EXCELLENT! Overall just a fun and hard to 'put down' book. I was really sad when it ended!
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- Lonnell
- 09-02-13
The Fear Index Review
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Great concept. The story drags on a bit and doesn't end strong. It was good, but didn't live up the potential it had.
How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?
A little faster past and a stronger ending.
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