The Quickening
Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth
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Narrated by:
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Helen Laser
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By:
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Elizabeth Rush
About this listen
An astonishing, vital book about Antarctica, climate change, and motherhood from the author of Rising, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction.
In 2019, fifty-seven scientists and crew set out onboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer. Their destination: Thwaites Glacier. Their goal: to learn as much as possible about this mysterious place, never before visited by humans, and believed to be both rapidly deteriorating and capable of making a catastrophic impact on global sea-level rise.
In The Quickening, Elizabeth Rush documents their voyage, offering the sublime—seeing an iceberg for the first time; the staggering waves of the Drake Passage; the torqued, unfamiliar contours of Thwaites—alongside the workaday moments of this groundbreaking expedition. A ping-pong tournament at sea. Long hours in the lab. All the effort that goes into caring for and protecting human life in a place that is inhospitable to it. Along the way, she takes readers on a personal journey around a more intimate question: What does it mean to bring a child into the world at this time of radical change?
What emerges is a new kind of Antarctica story, one preoccupied not with flag planting but with the collective and challenging work of imagining a better future. With understanding the language of a continent where humans have only been present for two centuries. With the contributions and concerns of women, who were largely excluded from voyages until the last few decades, and of crew members of color, whose labor has often gone unrecognized. The Quickening teems with their voices—with the colorful stories and personalities of Rush’s shipmates—in a thrilling chorus.
Urgent and brave, absorbing and vulnerable, The Quickening is another essential book from Elizabeth Rush.
©2023 Elizabeth Rush (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Helen Laser narrates with a thoughtful style, a smart cadence, and an empathetic tone.… Laser emulates the author's probing journalistic style when she interviews her shipmates on their experiences and captures Rush's personal struggle as she contemplates bringing a child into our environmentally compromised world. Laser vividly delivers Rush's thoughts and experiences, including an account of giving birth the year after she returned.”—AudioFile Magazine
“Award-winning narrator Helen Laser offers a smooth, rich performance, ably communicating scientific data while bringing out the human side of this impressive venture. Laser conveys the lyricism of Rush's writing, which verges on poetic, even when describing the small details of taking samples and analyzing measurements. An elegantly narrated, fully fleshed account of a singular trip to an imperiled place. Listeners and readers of Margaret Lowman's The Arbornaut or Naira de Gracia's The Last Cold Place will love this.”—Library Journal
“The fascinating inside story of climate science at the edge of Antarctica [. . .] In this follow-up to Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, Rush shows us how data collection happens, capturing the intriguing details of climate science in the field [. . .] The scientists are not the only heroes of Rush’s book, which emphasizes above all the collaborative and interdependent nature of such voyages, where so much depends on the staff and crew. In addition to her own poetic voice, the author incorporates the voices of everyone on the ship, highlighting women and racial and ethnic minorities, who have been overlooked in the canon of Antarctic literature.”—Kirkus Reviews
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By: Joe Haldeman
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Mira's Return: The Complete Series: A Mermaid Fantasy Adventure & Prequel to the Elemental Origins Series
- By: A.L. Knorr
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Mira is a mermaid on a mission. It’s time to leave the ocean. Mira Belshaw has been at sea for...well, she doesn’t know how many years. It’s hard to keep track of time when you live in the ocean. But after enough time, the salt water triggers the desire to procreate, and her time is up. Finding a mate is the most important thing to her right now, and to do that, she has to return to the place where she was last human - the coastal city of Saltford.
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Mermaid Mira
- By Shoe Monger on 04-10-20
By: A.L. Knorr
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Forty Signs of Rain
- Science in the Capital, Book 1
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim, Kim Stanley Robinson
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The best-selling author of the classic Mars trilogy and The Years of Rice and Salt returns with a riveting new trilogy of cutting-edge science, international politics, and the real-life ramifications of global warming as they are played out in our nation's capital - and in the daily lives of those at the center of the action. Hauntingly realistic, here is a novel of the near future that is inspired by scientific facts already making headlines. BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction by author Kim Stanley Robinson.
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Its all
- By steve on 01-07-09
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Fluke
- Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings
- By: Christopher Moore
- Narrated by: Bill Irwin
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Just why do humpback whales sing? That's the question that has marine behavioral biologist Nate Quinn and his crew poking, charting, recording, and photographing very big, wet, gray marine mammals - until the extraordinary day when a whale lifts its tail into the air to display a cryptic message spelled out in foot-high letters: Bite Me.
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Best way to ruin a good book.
- By colleen on 02-18-08
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In Search of the Canary Tree
- The Story of a Scientist, a Cypress, and a Changing World
- By: Lauren E. Oakes
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Several years ago, ecologist Lauren E. Oakes set out from California for Alaska's old-growth forests to hunt for a dying tree: the yellow-cedar. With climate change as the culprit, the death of this species meant loss for many Alaskans. Oakes and her research team wanted to chronicle how plants and people could cope with their rapidly changing world. Amidst the standing dead, she discovered the resiliency of forgotten forests, flourishing again in the wake of destruction, and a diverse community of people who persevered to create new relationships with the emerging environment.
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Moving and inspiring
- By Catherine A Gould on 05-26-19
By: Lauren E. Oakes
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Time Bandit
- Two Brothers, the Bering Sea, and One of the World's Deadliest Jobs
- By: Andy Hillstrand, Johnathan Hillstrand, Malcolm MacPherson
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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The Time Bandit is the fishing vessel that Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand use to hook the "deadliest catch", Alaskan king crabs and opilio crabs, in the Bering Sea, a dangerous body of water that can steal years from a fisherman's life. In pursuit of their daily catch, the brothers brave ice floes and heaving 60-foot waves, gusting winds of 80 miles per hour, unwieldy and unpredictable half-ton steel crab traps, and an injury rate of almost 100-percent.
There are fewer than 400 fishermen of this kind in the U.S., and early death is a common fate. But the Hillstrand brothers are drawn to the drama and adventure of life on the high seas - this is their world.
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Much Better Then I Had Expected
- By Andrew H. Hochheimer on 09-04-08
By: Andy Hillstrand, and others
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Lassoing the Sun
- A Year in America's National Parks
- By: Mark Woods
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Many childhood summers, Mark Woods piled into a station wagon with his parents and two sisters and headed to America's national parks. Mark's most vivid childhood memories are set against a backdrop of mountains, woods, and fireflies in places like Redwood, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon national parks. On the eve of turning 50, and a little burned out, Mark decided to reconnect with the great outdoors. He'd spend a year visiting the national parks.
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great narrator, lackluster story, wonderful themes
- By MT on 08-21-18
By: Mark Woods
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Deep Creek
- Finding Hope in the High Country
- By: Pam Houston
- Narrated by: Pam Houston
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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On her 120-acre homestead high in the Colorado Rockies, beloved writer Pam Houston learns what it means to care for a piece of land and the creatures on it. Elk calves and bluebirds mark the changing seasons, winter temperatures drop to 35 below, and lightning sparks a 110,000-acre wildfire, threatening her century-old barn and all its inhabitants. Through her travels from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska, she explores what ties her to the Earth, the ranch most of all.
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The most beautiful book I’ve ever read
- By KFratt on 04-26-19
By: Pam Houston
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Black Wave
- A Family's Adventure at Sea and the Disaster That Saved Them
- By: John Silverwood, Jean Silverwood
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie, Joe Barrett
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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When John and Jean Silverwood, both experienced sailors, decided to give their four children a taste of life on the high seas, they hoped the trip would offer important learning experiences - not only about the natural world but about the beauty of human life stripped down to its essence, far from civilization. But the adventure that awaited them would surpass anything they could have imagined.
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What Wave
- By James on 09-03-08
By: John Silverwood, and others
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Explorer Academy: The Nebula Secret
- By: Trudi Trueit
- Narrated by: Ramon De Ocampo
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Cruz Coronado leaves his tranquil home in Hawaii to join 23 talented kids from around the globe to train at the Explorer Academy with the world's leading scientists to become the next generation of great explorers. But for Cruz, there's more at stake. No sooner has he arrived at the Academy than he discovers that his family has a mysterious past with the organization that could jeopardize his future. In the midst of codebreaking and cool classes, new friends, and augmented reality expeditions, Cruz must tackle the biggest question of all: Who is out to get him, and why?
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Narration/ performance: 6 stars.
- By Anonymous User on 10-16-24
By: Trudi Trueit
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Love with a Chance of Drowning
- A Memoir
- By: Torre DeRoche
- Narrated by: Candice Moll
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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City girl Torre DeRoche isn’t looking for love, but a chance encounter in a San Francisco bar sparks an instant connection with a soulful Argentinean man who unexpectedly sweeps her off her feet. The problem? He’s just about to cast the dock lines and voyage around the world on his small sailboat, and Torre is terrified of deep water. However, lovesick Torre determines that to keep the man of her dreams, she must embark on the voyage of her nightmares, so she waves good-bye to dry land and braces for a life-changing journey that’s as exhilarating as it is terrifying.
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True Adventure and Romance--I Loved It!!
- By Kathy in CA on 09-08-15
By: Torre DeRoche
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Blind Lake
- By: Robert Charles Wilson
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert Charles Wilson, says The New York Times, "writes superior science fiction thrillers." His Darwinia won Canada's Aurora Award; his most recent novel, The Chronoliths, won the prestigious John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Now he tells a gripping tale of alien contact and human love in a mysterious but hopeful universe.
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DIMINISHED EXPECTATIONS
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 06-22-15
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Light from Other Stars
- A Novel
- By: Erika Swyler
- Narrated by: Kyla Garcia
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Eleven-year-old Nedda Papas is obsessed with becoming an astronaut. In 1986 in Easter, a small Florida Space Coast town, her dreams seem almost within reach - if she can just grow up fast enough. Theo, the scientist father she idolizes, is consumed by his own obsessions. Laid off from his job at NASA and still reeling from the loss of Nedda's newborn brother several years before, Theo turns to the dangerous dream of extending his living daughter's childhood just a little longer. The result is an invention that alters the fabric of time.
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How does she do it?
- By BLF on 07-30-19
By: Erika Swyler
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We Are Unprepared
- By: Meg Little Reilly
- Narrated by: Zach Villa
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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We Are Unprepared is a novel about the next big storm, the one that changes our relationship to nature and each other...the superstorm that threatens to destroy a marriage, a rural Vermont town, and the Eastern Seaboard when it hits. But the destruction begins months earlier, when fear infects people's lives and spreads like a plague.
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A Sociological Almost Post-Apocalyptic Thriller
- By Brian on 12-25-16
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Vacationland
- By: Sarah Stonich
- Narrated by: Amanda Ronconi
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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On a lake in northernmost Minnesota, you might find Naledi Lodge - only two cabins still standing, its pathways now trodden mostly by memories. And there you might meet Meg, or the ghost of the girl she was, growing up under her grandfather’s care in a world apart and a lifetime ago. Now an artist, Meg paints images "reflected across the mirrors of memory and water", much as the linked stories of Vacationland cast shimmering spells across distance and time.
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Reminded me of home
- By jill on 06-02-13
By: Sarah Stonich
What listeners say about The Quickening
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Danielle Shihabi
- 09-25-23
Something I’ve always wanted to do
As a female scientist I’ve always wanted to go to Antarctica. I really enjoyed the thorough interviews and the humanity that brought to the lives of the scientists who work tirelessly and sacrifice their time, our most precious gift, to bring truth to those who wonder. I hope we never see the end of Thwaites but I am grateful it’s being recorded. I also could relate to the internal monologue of being a scientist and contemplating having a child. Representation matters!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Michelle Murphy
- 10-01-23
Too much talk of a baby
I really wanted to hear what it was like traveling to and visiting Antarctica. I just couldn’t get past the constant and never ending. Talk about the authors interest and whether to have a baby or not.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 01-09-24
Great story but hard to follow
The Quickening is a unique story and a vital one for our generation.
I find the audiobook difficult to follow because of the style of character dialogue the author uses, which consists of long monologues initiated only by the announcing of the character’s name i.e “Jake: [Jake’s monologue] Anna: [Anna’s monologue] with little to no break or interruption from the narrator. It’s often hard to keep track of which character is speaking. It’s sometimes unclear whether the character dialogue has ended/when the text shifts back to the narrator’s persecutive. Throw in a decent helping of scientific language and I believe this would be a book best digested in print.
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- Sherri Godsey
- 06-12-24
Connection
This book was a great connection to the people directly involved in and committed to our environment and to addressing the issues of climate change. It definitely provided a clear image of scientists as just being people like everyone else, although they are people more focused on their goals than others are often capable of. Without their tenacity and passion a great deal of knowledge would never be achieved.
The only fault I find is with the format, and that is strictly in terms of how it presents in audio form. When you’re actually reading words, you pick up on changes occurring but if you’re listening to those words, any minor distraction or momentary straying of attention can throw you off. The format of this book, which involved a constant switching of points of view, occasionally threw me for a loop. If I missed the name of whoever was speaking (and a number of times there were a lot of quick changes) I would get confused as to WHO was speaking when I refocused. I would think, oh, the author is gay. No. That was someone else speaking. The author is pregnant…no, that’s another person. I had a lot of those small confusions throughout. I loved the descriptions, the intent, the stories of the individuals, and the obvious passion expressed for the health of our world, but the format was difficult in audio form. Still, this an excellent book and I’m glad I listened.
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- Jarrod
- 07-30-24
Worth the read for sure!
An engaging story that, like its subtitle, covers community, life, death, grief, climate change and creation at the edge of the world. It was beautifully written and the narrator did a great job. I enjoyed the interviews and perspectives of the crew as well. There is so much substance to this book. I really enjoyed it.
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- Bee
- 03-19-24
Terrible narration
The narrator has an incredibly affected way of speaking, intoning every single sentence as if she were making some utterly grave and serious pronouncement. She often ends sentences with an unnatural middle intonation that leaves it hanging. It was so bizarre and unpleasant that it made me dread listening to the book. Eventually I tried pausing the recording and repeating sentences like a normal person, and I realized that it was not the book but the narration that was driving me crazy. Strongly recommend getting a hard copy of this one if you're interested in reading it.
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- EL
- 04-23-24
Do not expect to learn much about glaciers
I bought this book under the mistaken assumption that I would learn something about the data the scientific expedition was after. Chapter one tells you the expedition's purpose is to investigate Thwaites, a large Antarctic glacier whose accelerated melting is not well understood and who could be responsible for a dramatic rise in sea level worldwide. By the end of the book you don't know much more than that.
The book's ambition is not without merit: to present the ruminations of a scientist who wants to be a mother but is concerned about bringing children into an ecologically compromised world. In practice, I found most of her arguments to be self-indulgent and unconvincing (and I'm not antikid). A lot of the imagery falls flat or is incongruous: "the sky turned the color of reptile stew" (??) and her attempts to draw parallels between human birth and glacial calving become tedious after a while.
One thing the book does well is present the inner workings of a scientific expedition in Antarctica. I wish there was more of it, and some data to buttress the book. I suppose it was written soon after her return so she had no data to contribute.
If you are not interested in someone's detailed pregnancy journey and their qualms at birthing new life in a changing climate, this is not the book for you.
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