
The Ophiuchi Hotline
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $17.47
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Gabra Zackman
-
By:
-
John Varley
About this listen
The remnants of humanity that survived relocated to the moon and other planets. But they are not alone in their struggle - someone or something, somewhere deep in space, is sending them advanced scientific data via the Ophiuchi Hotline. And by the 25th century, the technological gifts from the hotline - especially its biological and medical solutions - have created a world unlike any ever known or imagined.
©1977 John Varley (P)2008 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Steel Beach
- Eight Worlds, Book 2
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 23 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fleeing Earth after an alien invasion, the human race stands on the threshold of evolution. Their new home is Luna, a moon colony blessed with creature comforts, prolonged lifespans, digital memories, and instant sex changes. But the people of Luna are bored, restless, suicidal - and so is the computer that monitors their existence.
-
-
Top notch writing; Voice actor needs some work
- By Dale R. on 09-06-21
By: John Varley
-
Red Thunder
- The Thunder and Lightning Series, Book 1
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: Eddie Lopez
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Chinese and US spacecraft compete to be the first to land on Mars, a former astronaut, his cousin, and four teens from Florida decide to take matters into their own hands. If they can quickly build their own space-worthy ship using scrap metal, appliances, and power tools, they have a chance to come from behind - thanks to an inventive new power source that can propel them to the Red Planet within three days. No guts, no glory.
-
-
Highly Enjoyable
- By Barr Bauer on 09-11-21
By: John Varley
-
Nine Princes in Amber
- The Chronicles of Amber, Book 1
- By: Roger Zelazny
- Narrated by: Alessandro Juliani
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amber is the one real world, of which all others including our own Earth are but Shadows. Amber burns in Corwin's blood. Exiled on Shadow Earth for centuries, the prince is about to return to Amber to make a mad and desperate rush upon the throne.
-
-
Great book, lame deal!
- By Robert on 08-13-12
By: Roger Zelazny
-
The Shadow of the Torturer
- The Book of the New Sun, Book 1
- By: Gene Wolfe
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Shadow of the Torturer is the first volume in the four-volume epic, the tale of a young Severian, an apprentice to the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession - showing mercy towards his victim.
Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun" is one of speculative fiction's most-honored series. In a 1998 poll, Locus Magazine rated the series behind only "The Lord of the Rings" and The Hobbit as the greatest fantasy work of all time.
-
-
great writing, won't appeal to everyone
- By Ryan on 03-20-10
By: Gene Wolfe
-
The Forge of God
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On September 28th, a geologist working in Death Valley finds a mysterious new cinder cone in very well-mapped area. On October 1, the government of Australia announces the discovery of an enormous granite mountain. Like the cinder cone, it wasn't there six months ago.
Something is happening to planet Earth, and the truth is too terrifying to contemplate
-
-
Great Story, Wonderful Listening, But the Editor?
- By George Knight on 07-14-13
By: Greg Bear
-
Eon
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 17 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Perhaps it wasn't from our time, perhaps it wasn't even from our universe, but the arrival of the 300-kilometer long stone was the answer to humanity's desperate plea to end the threat of nuclear war. Inside the deep recesses of the stone lies Thistledown: the remnants of a human society, versed in English, Russian and Chinese. The artifacts of this familiar people foretell a great Death caused by the ravages of war, but the government and scientists are unable to decide how to use this knowledge.
-
-
Am Epic Original SciFi Read Worth Your Time...
- By Michael on 07-01-12
By: Greg Bear
-
Steel Beach
- Eight Worlds, Book 2
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 23 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fleeing Earth after an alien invasion, the human race stands on the threshold of evolution. Their new home is Luna, a moon colony blessed with creature comforts, prolonged lifespans, digital memories, and instant sex changes. But the people of Luna are bored, restless, suicidal - and so is the computer that monitors their existence.
-
-
Top notch writing; Voice actor needs some work
- By Dale R. on 09-06-21
By: John Varley
-
Red Thunder
- The Thunder and Lightning Series, Book 1
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: Eddie Lopez
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Chinese and US spacecraft compete to be the first to land on Mars, a former astronaut, his cousin, and four teens from Florida decide to take matters into their own hands. If they can quickly build their own space-worthy ship using scrap metal, appliances, and power tools, they have a chance to come from behind - thanks to an inventive new power source that can propel them to the Red Planet within three days. No guts, no glory.
-
-
Highly Enjoyable
- By Barr Bauer on 09-11-21
By: John Varley
-
Nine Princes in Amber
- The Chronicles of Amber, Book 1
- By: Roger Zelazny
- Narrated by: Alessandro Juliani
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amber is the one real world, of which all others including our own Earth are but Shadows. Amber burns in Corwin's blood. Exiled on Shadow Earth for centuries, the prince is about to return to Amber to make a mad and desperate rush upon the throne.
-
-
Great book, lame deal!
- By Robert on 08-13-12
By: Roger Zelazny
-
The Shadow of the Torturer
- The Book of the New Sun, Book 1
- By: Gene Wolfe
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Shadow of the Torturer is the first volume in the four-volume epic, the tale of a young Severian, an apprentice to the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession - showing mercy towards his victim.
Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun" is one of speculative fiction's most-honored series. In a 1998 poll, Locus Magazine rated the series behind only "The Lord of the Rings" and The Hobbit as the greatest fantasy work of all time.
-
-
great writing, won't appeal to everyone
- By Ryan on 03-20-10
By: Gene Wolfe
-
The Forge of God
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On September 28th, a geologist working in Death Valley finds a mysterious new cinder cone in very well-mapped area. On October 1, the government of Australia announces the discovery of an enormous granite mountain. Like the cinder cone, it wasn't there six months ago.
Something is happening to planet Earth, and the truth is too terrifying to contemplate
-
-
Great Story, Wonderful Listening, But the Editor?
- By George Knight on 07-14-13
By: Greg Bear
-
Eon
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 17 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Perhaps it wasn't from our time, perhaps it wasn't even from our universe, but the arrival of the 300-kilometer long stone was the answer to humanity's desperate plea to end the threat of nuclear war. Inside the deep recesses of the stone lies Thistledown: the remnants of a human society, versed in English, Russian and Chinese. The artifacts of this familiar people foretell a great Death caused by the ravages of war, but the government and scientists are unable to decide how to use this knowledge.
-
-
Am Epic Original SciFi Read Worth Your Time...
- By Michael on 07-01-12
By: Greg Bear
-
Methuselah's Children
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the fall of the American Ayatollahs as foretold in Stranger in a Strange Land and chronicled in Revolt in 2100, the United States of America at last fulfills the promise inherent in its first Revolution: for the first time in human history there is a nation with Liberty and Justice for All. No one may seize or harm the person or property of another, or invade his privacy, or force him to do his bidding. Americans are fiercely proud of their re-won liberties and the blood it cost them; nothing could make them forswear those truths they hold self-evident. Nothing except the promise of immortality…
-
-
A delight to revisit a science fiction classic
- By Anne on 02-16-13
-
Rendezvous with Rama
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim, Robert J. Sawyer - introduction
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is huge, weighing more than ten trillion tons. And it is hurtling through the solar system at inconceivable speed. Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is, incredibly, an interstellar spacecraft. Space explorers and planet-bound scientists alike prepare for mankind's first encounter with alien intelligence.
-
-
Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto
- By Fredrik Pettersen on 08-03-09
By: Arthur C. Clarke
-
A Fire Upon the Deep
- By: Vernor Vinge
- Narrated by: Peter Larkin
- Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function.
-
-
What a wild, wacky, awesome book!
- By Noah Smith on 06-20-10
By: Vernor Vinge
-
Man Plus
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
More timely now than ever
- By Sandy R on 06-28-10
By: Frederik Pohl
-
Grass
- By: Sheri S. Tepper
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 18 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What could be more commonplace than grass or a world covered over all its surface with a wind-whipped ocean of grass? But the planet Grass conceals horrifying secrets within its endless pastures. And as an incurable plague attacks all inhabited planets but this one, the prairie-like Grass begins to reveal these secrets - and nothing will ever be the same again.
-
-
Speculative & Creative, Yet well Paced and Unique
- By Zach Wilson on 04-17-17
By: Sheri S. Tepper
-
The Day of the Triffids
- By: John Wyndham
- Narrated by: Kingsley Ben-Adir
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bill Masen, bandages over his wounded eyes, misses the most spectacular meteorite shower England has ever seen. Removing his bandages the next morning, he finds masses of sightless people wandering the city. He soon meets Josella, another lucky person who has retained her sight, and together they leave the city, aware that the safe, familiar world they knew a mere 24 hours before is gone forever. But to survive in this post-apocalyptic world, one must survive the Triffids, strange plants that years before began appearing all over the world.
-
-
Good story but outstanding narration
- By NULL VOID on 07-29-23
By: John Wyndham
-
The Wandering Earth
- By: Cixin Liu
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin, Greg Chun
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
These 11 stories, including five Chinese Galaxy Award winners, are a blazingly original ode to planet Earth, its pasts, and its futures. Liu's fiction takes the listener to the edge of the universe and the end of time, to meet stranger fates than we could have ever imagined. With a melancholic and keen understanding of human nature, Liu's stories show humanity's attempts to reason, navigate, and above all, survive in a desolate cosmos.
-
-
Extraordinary book!
- By Yuanting Tao on 10-30-21
By: Cixin Liu
-
Between Planets
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Andrew Eiden
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Don Harvey is a citizen of the Interplanetary Federation - yet no single planet can claim him as its own. His mother was born on Venus and his father on Earth, and Don himself was born on a spaceship in trajectory between planets. When his parents abruptly summon him away from school on Earth to join them on Mars, he has no idea he's about to be plunged into deadly interplanetary intrigue. But the ship Don is traveling on is unexpectedly diverted to Venus, where the colony has launched a revolution against Earth's control.
-
-
Like a breath of fresh air
- By MikeFarr on 03-28-17
-
Children of Time
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
-
-
A very pleasant surprise
- By Simon on 06-17-17
-
Hyperion
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
-
-
The Shrike Awaits. Enter The Time Tombs...
- By Michael on 10-13-12
By: Dan Simmons
-
Midnight at the Well of Souls
- By: Jack L. Chalker
- Narrated by: Peter Macon
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the heart of a bizarre planet lay the goal of every being that had ever lived.… Below average in height and unprepossessing in appearance, Nathan Brazil is an unassuming if cynical starship owner, carrying passengers and cargo for a living - hardly the sort of person to hold the fate of the entire universe in his hands. But when Nathan detours from his route to answer a distress call, a hidden stargate hurls him and his passengers to the Well World, the master control planet for the cosmos. Billions of years ago, a godlike race unlocked all the secrets of space and time and remade the universe according to their grand design.
-
-
Step Through The Portal, And Be Changed Forever!
- By Michael on 05-02-13
By: Jack L. Chalker
-
Starfish
- Rifters Trilogy Series, Book 1
- By: Peter Watts
- Narrated by: Gabriel Vaughan
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A huge international corporation has developed a facility along the Juan de Fuca Ridge at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to exploit geothermal power. They send a bio-engineered crew - people who have been altered to withstand the pressure and breathe the seawater - down to live and work in this weird, fertile undersea darkness.
-
-
An excellent story, but only half of it
- By Casey on 02-12-20
By: Peter Watts
Critic reviews
"It is fast and complex, and it glitters most impressively." (Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels)
"This is a novel rich in societies, settings, and technological wizardry. It's a tough-minded, yet a playful book." (Ian Watson)
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Steel Beach
- Eight Worlds, Book 2
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 23 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fleeing Earth after an alien invasion, the human race stands on the threshold of evolution. Their new home is Luna, a moon colony blessed with creature comforts, prolonged lifespans, digital memories, and instant sex changes. But the people of Luna are bored, restless, suicidal - and so is the computer that monitors their existence.
-
-
Top notch writing; Voice actor needs some work
- By Dale R. on 09-06-21
By: John Varley
-
Titan
- Gaean Trilogy, Book 1
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Varley's monumental trilogy - Titan, Wizard, and Demon - has achieved cult status, hailed as a modern triumph of the imagination by critics and fans. It begins with humankind's exploration of a massive satellite orbiting Saturn. It culminates in a shocking discovery: the satellite is a giant alien being. Her name is Gaea. Her awesome interior is mind-boggling - because it is a mind. A mind that calls out to explorers...and transforms all who enter.
-
-
First of Varley's classic Gaean Trilogy
- By David on 05-30-09
By: John Varley
-
Red Thunder
- The Thunder and Lightning Series, Book 1
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: Eddie Lopez
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Chinese and US spacecraft compete to be the first to land on Mars, a former astronaut, his cousin, and four teens from Florida decide to take matters into their own hands. If they can quickly build their own space-worthy ship using scrap metal, appliances, and power tools, they have a chance to come from behind - thanks to an inventive new power source that can propel them to the Red Planet within three days. No guts, no glory.
-
-
Highly Enjoyable
- By Barr Bauer on 09-11-21
By: John Varley
-
The Persistence of Vision
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 2 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the surface, this Hugo and Nebula Award-winning classic is about a drifter who comes to stay in a New Mexico commune founded by a group of deaf-blind people. But beneath the story, author John Varley examines deep, universal issues. What is the nature of communication? What does an individual gain - or lose - by subsuming himself to the whole? Can an outsider ever truly "belong"?
-
-
Don't think you like Sci-Fi? Try this one!
- By Kindle Customer on 12-03-08
By: John Varley
-
The John Varley Reader
- Thirty Years of Short Fiction
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey, Paul Boehmer, Gabrielle de Cuir, and others
- Length: 26 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the moment John Varley burst onto the scene in 1974, his short fiction was like nothing anyone else was writing. His stories won every award the science fiction field had to offer, many times over. His first collection, The Persistence of Vision, published in 1978, was the most important collection of the decade and changed what fans would come to expect from science fiction.
-
-
3 Hugo & 2 Nebula awards. Great narrators.
- By Ed Pegg Jr on 12-29-21
By: John Varley
-
Press Enter
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Victor Apfel, a troubled war vet, gets an odd, pre-recorded phone message, instructing him to go inside the house next door. He opens the door to find his neighbor shot through the head. But is it suicide - or murder? And is it possible that a computer is to blame?
-
-
Good, but dated computer references
- By Amazon Customer on 09-26-08
By: John Varley
-
Steel Beach
- Eight Worlds, Book 2
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 23 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fleeing Earth after an alien invasion, the human race stands on the threshold of evolution. Their new home is Luna, a moon colony blessed with creature comforts, prolonged lifespans, digital memories, and instant sex changes. But the people of Luna are bored, restless, suicidal - and so is the computer that monitors their existence.
-
-
Top notch writing; Voice actor needs some work
- By Dale R. on 09-06-21
By: John Varley
-
Titan
- Gaean Trilogy, Book 1
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Varley's monumental trilogy - Titan, Wizard, and Demon - has achieved cult status, hailed as a modern triumph of the imagination by critics and fans. It begins with humankind's exploration of a massive satellite orbiting Saturn. It culminates in a shocking discovery: the satellite is a giant alien being. Her name is Gaea. Her awesome interior is mind-boggling - because it is a mind. A mind that calls out to explorers...and transforms all who enter.
-
-
First of Varley's classic Gaean Trilogy
- By David on 05-30-09
By: John Varley
-
Red Thunder
- The Thunder and Lightning Series, Book 1
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: Eddie Lopez
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Chinese and US spacecraft compete to be the first to land on Mars, a former astronaut, his cousin, and four teens from Florida decide to take matters into their own hands. If they can quickly build their own space-worthy ship using scrap metal, appliances, and power tools, they have a chance to come from behind - thanks to an inventive new power source that can propel them to the Red Planet within three days. No guts, no glory.
-
-
Highly Enjoyable
- By Barr Bauer on 09-11-21
By: John Varley
-
The Persistence of Vision
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 2 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the surface, this Hugo and Nebula Award-winning classic is about a drifter who comes to stay in a New Mexico commune founded by a group of deaf-blind people. But beneath the story, author John Varley examines deep, universal issues. What is the nature of communication? What does an individual gain - or lose - by subsuming himself to the whole? Can an outsider ever truly "belong"?
-
-
Don't think you like Sci-Fi? Try this one!
- By Kindle Customer on 12-03-08
By: John Varley
-
The John Varley Reader
- Thirty Years of Short Fiction
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey, Paul Boehmer, Gabrielle de Cuir, and others
- Length: 26 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the moment John Varley burst onto the scene in 1974, his short fiction was like nothing anyone else was writing. His stories won every award the science fiction field had to offer, many times over. His first collection, The Persistence of Vision, published in 1978, was the most important collection of the decade and changed what fans would come to expect from science fiction.
-
-
3 Hugo & 2 Nebula awards. Great narrators.
- By Ed Pegg Jr on 12-29-21
By: John Varley
-
Press Enter
- By: John Varley
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Victor Apfel, a troubled war vet, gets an odd, pre-recorded phone message, instructing him to go inside the house next door. He opens the door to find his neighbor shot through the head. But is it suicide - or murder? And is it possible that a computer is to blame?
-
-
Good, but dated computer references
- By Amazon Customer on 09-26-08
By: John Varley
What listeners say about The Ophiuchi Hotline
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Robert
- 11-01-09
really enjoyed this
There world of this novel is rich and plausible; I wish there were more stories set in this place. The mysteries of the hotline, the invaders, interesting exploration of culture, cloning (a wonderful twist on this theme), gender, biomechanics, ethics and more, made this a fun read. I'd definitely recommend this one.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- Ruth Ann Orlansky
- 10-21-10
What a romp of a story!
I have read this book over and over for about the last 20 years, and have enjoyed it each and every time. So imagine my delight when I discovered that Audible had it in an unabridged version. And what a version! I found the narrator's version of the story as delightful as my own silent reading of it. As to the story itself, I loved the believability of the characters and the descriptions of the various planetary environments. I felt myself living in each of these environments as the story about it was told. I really hated to have the story end. This book is for those who don't mind reading a novel in which all sorts of "improbable" things such as memory recordings, living on airless asteroids, searching for small black holes to sell, etc. seem quite achievable and believable. In other words, for those who are not literal-minded and want to stretch their minds and imaginations by reading something that is just plain FUN.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Selena
- 10-04-17
An odd one.
I have a really hard time explaining this book without giving things away. Let's just say it's a wild, crazy, and often confusing ride into the future, with accidental time travel. Also, whales are smarter than us.
But not in the satirical, Douglas Adams' dolphins' thanks-for-all-the-fish kind of way, but in a "I decided to do LCD, peote, bath salts, and a bottle of moonshine" kind of way.
It's just. Odd. Hence, I'm giving it a middle-ground rating. It had really good parts, and really makes one think about certain aspects of life and futility of society, but also...really really weird. Sort of in an Asminov, Bladerunner kind of way...except...not as approachable? I dunno. Like I said, this ones hard to pin down without spoiling a lot.
Also, lots of sex scenes. But involving people who have...experimented with their own anatomies. Not mutants though. Or at least, not mutants the way we usually think of them?
All I can say is if you don't have any other books you're excited over or pressing matters to attend to, this could be an interesting experimental listening. Otherwise, save it for when the mood for something completely unexpected but NOT the Spanish Inquisition strikes you.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marshall I. Cohen
- 10-14-11
I loved it
This was as good as the Titian series. It continues with the post invasion world line.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ocean State Prime
- 03-31-19
still pretty good after all these years
I remember liking this book when I read it as a new paperback. Forty years later it doesn't seem dated. However, I remembered the ending, which maybe took something away from it this time around. I felt the ending was deus ex invader and therefore a letdown. I could have done without the sex scenes too, which maybe in 1977 were edgy, but now were something I wanted to skip. Zackman did a fine job as the narrator.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- E. Woodford
- 05-03-16
Not one for the kids
Interesting story, but seems rushed at the end. Characters developed nicely, then it just ends.
Lots of sex in the story. So not one for listening to in the car with younger kids.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- HeadInTheSand
- 01-10-24
marginal
You woul think the narrator woukd at least have learned how to pronounce ophiuchi, right?
the usual Varley imaginative material, though.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael G Kurilla
- 09-04-21
Humanity as refugees within the solar system
John Varley's The Ophiuchi Hotline offers a novel perspective on humanity being forced off Earth. Invaders from gas giants have arrived and determined that humans are far down the scale of intelligence such that whales and dolphins can exist on Earth, while humans can eek out survival on the other worlds (except for Jupiter). Their survival is assisted by messages broadcast from the direction of the Ophiuchi constellation. This has led to biological modifications with cloning and memory transfer, but DNA modification remains strictly taboo. A convicted genetic engineer is saved from execution by the leader of a group dedicated to overthrowing the invaders and taking back Earth. She has multiple adventures through multiple clones, eventually learning the secret of the hotline and orchestrates the overthrow of the slave-like conditions of the insurgency.
Varley offers a unique perspective on alien lifeforms as well as the distinct views on what constitutes intelligence. Humanity has seemingly adjusted to its 3rd class status in their own solar system, but with lingering resentment. At the same time, there are hints at a larger universe of intelligences with galactic conflict that humanity is barely able to discern. Oddly, while humanity seems to have accepted cloning (including sex change) and memory transfer easily, the taboo against DNA modification seems arbitrary.
The narration is solidly performed with excellent character distinction. Pacing is brisk.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jason
- 12-22-24
Weird sex
I know most of the writers were ahead of their times and tried to be forward thinking about society and what the future may hold. That being said this author has a plethora of ideas and situations about sex that are completely unrelated to the story most times and it feels like he has to force them in. I love his stories but not a fan of the sex dropped in at almost every turn.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Kelli
- 08-25-10
Very good Sci-Fi
This book flowed really well and was easy to follow for something with such a complex plot that follows a single character in multiple settings and times. It isn't about the invasion of Earth by aliens, but what happens long after that invasion from the perspective of a woman who has several possible roles in the salvation of various parts of humanity. Most of the book takes place on various planets in our solar system and outer space, and it is very imaginatively described without too much detail or invention of unneeded new words that some authors have a tendency towards in this genre. It was fun to listen to, though the narrator is not my favorite. She often speaks statements with an inflection that makes them sound like questions and tries too hard on male voices, but I got used to it after a while and was glad I'd chosen to listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful