
The Terminal Experiment
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Narrated by:
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Paul Hecht
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By:
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Robert J. Sawyer
About this listen
Robert Sawyer has won many awards for his science fiction, which is praised for its blend of high-tech mystery and suspenseful pacing.
©1995 Robert J. Sawyer (P)2003 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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PHILOSOPHICAL ZOMBIE
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Scicen Fiction Can Be Literature
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PHILOSOPHICAL ZOMBIE
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WWW: Wake
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-
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A Great, if Incomplete, Concept
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Hominids
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Overall
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Neanderthals have developed a radically different civilization on a parallel Earth. A Neanderthal physicist, Ponter Boddit, accidentally passes from his universe into a Canadian underground research facility. Fortunately, a team of human scientists, including expert paleo-anthropologist Mary Vaughan, promptly identifies and warmly receives Ponter. Solving the language problem and much else is a mini-computer, called a Companion, implanted in the brain of every Neanderthal. But it can't help his fellow scientist back in his world, Adikor Huld, when the authorities charge Adikor with his murder.
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Entertaining, but not Sawyer's Best
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Calculating God
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Definitely Original!
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The Forever War
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A classic.
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Old Man's War
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John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce—and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding. Earth itself is a backwater.
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Fun and Witty Military Sci-Fi
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Quantum Radio
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Dr. Tyson Klein is a quantum physicist who has dedicated his entire life to his research. At CERN, he analyses data generated by the Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. Now, Ty believes he's found a pattern in its output. It looks like an organised data stream, being broadcast over what he calls a quantum radio. Could it be a signal from another universe? A message sent from the future? Or something else entirely?
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Can't wait for book two
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Frameshift
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Storyshift
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By: Robert J. Sawyer
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Anathem
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Performance
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Fraa Erasmus is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the "Saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities, and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs, bloody violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community.
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I love Neal, but Good lord... ugh!
- By SpiderGrrl on 10-08-19
By: Neal Stephenson
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The Three-Body Problem
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Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.
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Why Rosalamd Chao?
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By: Cixin Liu, and others
Critic reviews
- Nebula Award, Best Novel, 1995
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Scicen Fiction Can Be Literature
- By Scott on 08-10-09
By: Robert J. Sawyer
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Illegal Alien
- By: Robert J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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When a disabled spaceship enters Earth's atmosphere, seven members of the advanced Tosok race are welcomed by the world. Then a popular scientist is murdered, and all evidence points to one of the Tosoks. Now, an alien is tried in a court of law -and there may be far more at stake than accounting for one human life.
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This is It.
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 06-11-13
By: Robert J. Sawyer
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Alethea
- By: Katrina Day, Philomena Polefrone
- Narrated by: Julia Rehwald, Chace Crawford, Beau Bridges, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Original Recording
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In 2048, Sam Bixler is a brilliant scientist working for Telos, the world's most powerful corporation. Little does she know that a shocking secret about a deadly virus lurks within Telos, setting her on a thrilling and dangerous journey.
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Anti-Capitalist Propaganda - Woke to the Extreme
- By Lisey R on 08-14-23
By: Katrina Day, and others
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Far-Seer
- The Quintaglio Ascension, Book 1
- By: Robert. J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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The Face of God is what every young saurian learns to call the immense, glowing object which fills the night sky on the far side of the world. Young Afsan is privileged, called to the distant Capital City to apprentice with Saleed the court astrologer. But when the time comes for Afsan to make his coming-of-age pilgrimage, to gaze upon the Face of God, his world is changed forever- for what he sees will test his faith...and may save his world from disaster!
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Definitely Original!
- By Simone on 08-30-16
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The Man Who Fell to Earth
- By: Walter Tevis
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Thomas Newton is an extraterrestrial, one of only 300 left on his home planet. Using his superior intelligence and skills, Newton amasses a small fortune and a business empire, but soon must battle unexpected foes: the CIA, alcoholism, loneliness, himself. An utterly absorbing psychological study of one man's struggle to survive on 20th-century Earth.
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a deserved classic not just of SF
- By Darryl on 06-10-13
By: Walter Tevis
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Doomsday Book
- By: Connie Willis
- Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin
- Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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For Oxford student Kivrin, traveling back to the 14th century is more than the culmination of her studies - it's the chance for a wonderful adventure. For Dunworthy, her mentor, it is cause for intense worry about the thousands of things that could go wrong.
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Timely, beautiful, terrible and haunting
- By mudcelt on 11-02-09
By: Connie Willis
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Lord of Light
- By: Roger Zelazny
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Earth is long since dead. On a colony planet, a band of men has gained control of technology, made themselves immortal, and now rule their world as the gods of the Hindu pantheon. Only one dares oppose them: he who was once Siddhartha and is now Mahasamatman. Binder of Demons, Lord of Light.
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How could a performance be so wrong?
- By 1st World Problems on 05-29-22
By: Roger Zelazny
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Stations of the Tide
- By: Michael Swanwick
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The Jubilee Tides will drown the continents of the planet Miranda beneath the weight of her own oceans. But as the once-in-two-centuries cataclysm approaches, an even greater catastrophe threatens this dark and dangerous planet of tale-spinners, conjurers, and shapechangers. From author Michael Swanwick—one of the most brilliantly assured and darkly inventive writers of contemporary fiction—comes a masterwork of radically altered realities and world-shattering seductions.
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Hard to categorize, hard to put down
- By Robert L. on 03-25-12
By: Michael Swanwick
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2312
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Sarah Zimmerman
- Length: 19 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The year is 2312. Scientific and technological advances have opened gateways to an extraordinary future. Earth is no longer humanity's only home; new habitats have been created throughout the solar system on moons, planets, and in between. But in this year, 2312, a sequence of events will force humanity to confront its past, its present, and its future. The first event takes place on Mercury, on the city of Terminator, itself a miracle of engineering on an unprecedented scale. It is an unexpected death, but one that might have been foreseen....
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Good story, HORRENDOUS narration.
- By New on 11-19-12
What listeners say about The Terminal Experiment
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jeff Koeppen
- 06-01-24
Fun Ride Albeit a Bit Dated
Sawyer won the 1995 Nebula Award with this novel. It felt like two novels to me as the plot seemed to take a turn a ways in from the original idea presented. It was set in the year 2011 or 16 years in the future so it was interesting to take in how Sawyer projected our technological progress from 1995, when the internet was just getting going, to current times.
The story centers around brain scientist Peter Hobson, his cheating wife Cathy, and his computer genius friend, Sarkar. Peter develops an EEG machine which detects an electrical impulse leaving the brain as a person dies which is deemed the "soulwave", since this wave is interpreted the soul leaving the body, to the delight of all who believe in life after death. He explores how this discovery changes society.
Then, Peter and Sarkar use Peter's technology and Sarkar's to create three AI versions of Peter. In the meantime, Peter's wife Cathy gets drunk and sleeps with a coworker, which she claims was a mistake but apparently hooks up him two more times on separate occasions. Peter's AI triplets have access to everything on the net and pretty soon mischief happens to those close to Cathy and the novel turns in to a crime whodunit.
The novel was based on some interesting premises which opened up all kinds of philosophical and moral dilemmas. A good read if not a bit dated.
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- Michael G Kurilla
- 02-24-19
Murdering AI
The Terminal Experiment by Robert J Sawyer is an early exploration of artificial intelligence (AI) running amok across the internet. Peter Hobson (named for the reference to Hobson's choice) is an engineer who develops a device that demonstrates when brain activity completely ceases (in order to establish death for organ harvesting) and discovers evidence of an electrical field that seems to leave the body upon death. Dubbed the 'soulwave' this appears to establish some form of afterlife beyond death. To study this phenomena further, with the aid of a colleague who dabbles in artificial intelligence, Peter develops AI versions of himself, one purely intellect, one imbued with the notion of immortality, and the third serving as a control. Soon, crimes begin to appear that are linked to Peter and he concludes that one of the AIs is acting upon his own feelings and must figure out which one is the culprit before the police close in on him. At the same time, the AIs replicate themselves across the internet seeking to roam beyond his reach.
For its time, Sawyer was quite prescient in his notions of AI as well as the distributive and exploding power of the internet. While the idea of mapping individual neurons may be ambitious, embedding concepts into their own neural nets that can be selectively deleted is intriguing and offers the opportunity to discuss unique approaches such as how certain situations are viewed in the face of immortality. At the same time, Sawyer sets up an engaging police procedural as the crimes occur and are investigated.
The narration is well done with a solid range of voices and good character distinction. Pacing is fine.
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1 person found this helpful
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- John
- 04-12-15
Don't listen to the prologue
Good story, but I found the prologue to be a spoiler that diminished it somewhat.
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- JP
- 10-01-14
Mind hormones & senses role explored in good story
Would you consider the audio edition of The Terminal Experiment to be better than the print version?
No. The narrator would drink water without unkeying the microphone. Minimally acceptable. Good story carried me through.
What did you like best about this story?
Exploration of technical angles of the components of the mind.
What didn’t you like about Paul Hecht’s performance?
No
Any additional comments?
More. Please.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Simone
- 03-20-15
Typical Sawyer-Mind-Bend
Yet again, another thought provoking book by Robert J Sawyer… but I expected no less!
The book was written in 1995 and was set about 20 years in the future - which means right about now. This was comical to read because we now know if his future predictions about our culture have come to pass.
He missed the mark on a few things like: Curbside Newspaper Printers, we don’t have VCRs anymore (although his VCR had all the same capabilities and programming parameters that our PVRs have), Donahue and Leno are no longer on air, and poor Peter Jennings passed away.
He got things right like: Queen Elizabeth II is still alive and well, that there would be a Pope Benedict XVI (impressive!) and electronic readers (did we envision reading tablets in the 90s? It’s so long ago I can’t remember.
Of course he did not predict the Iphone but he did conjure up video-phones.
Aside from the fun of picking those details apart, the story itself was a typical Sawyer-mind-bend. I love his books, they never ever disappoint!
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- RichK
- 05-31-23
Interesting mix
An entertaining story. An interesting mix between science fiction, detective novel, and religious novel. Nice nice not thrilling but nice.
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- Maggie
- 11-22-23
wow
i cried, i laughed, i thought; great! one of those books that make you ponder for days afterwards.
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- Doug D. Eigsti
- 04-11-14
SF Murder Mystery dealing with Moral Questions
In the style of Isaac Asimov this novel is about “the idea.” The characters are just necessary elements of the plot to advance the idea. Sawyer does well in giving the characters logical motivation but they behave in a fashion that is so clearly useful to the story that they never seem real. But, after all, this is an idea story and not literary fiction. This book sometimes feels like a noir mystery. The writing style is very stark and spares few words that don’t advance the plot. There are several ideas here; the key ones both related to a quantum leap in the resolution of brain scan technology.
The first “idea” is the scientific discovery of the human soul. This allows Sawyer to explore several moral questions: We are challenged to explore the consequences of the effect such a scientific announcement would have on society. Sure, many people are religious and such a discovery would only confirm their beliefs, but many materialists would be forced to reevaluate their concept of reality. Sawyer also interjects the morality of abortion, given the fact that the soul enters the fetus at an early stage in gestation. Animal lovers have to cope with the fact that Old Yeller has no soul.
The other key “idea” that drives the story is that of computer artificial intelligence (AI). This is a spin-off technology from the brain-scan that discovered the soul. Now a personality can be captured. All this happens by the half-way point in the novel.
This book does what a good book should do: It provokes deep thought. Some novels accomplish this by means of great insights into the way people think and feel; expressing that humanity with great depth of characterization. Some non-fiction books do this by revealing something profound about the way the world works. This novel qualifies as a good book by raising some of the grand themes of all time: When does human life begin? Is there life after death? And on top of it all is a satisfying mystery thriller.
I have read several of Sawyer’s books and find that he is typical of many Science Fiction writers. Like Arthur C. Clarke and the aforementioned Isaac Asimov, Robert Sawyer, although a supposedly a materialist in his personal life, he often writes stories dealing with spiritual, ethical and moral questions. Clarke wrote the stories “The Star” (Christ’s natal star), and “The Nine Billion Names of God” (God is real) both revolving on religious matters. Asimov’s famous story “The Last Question” postulates the origin of God Himself. Sawyer, too, explores such themes. His novel CALCULATING GOD revolves around the idea of an advanced race of aliens that are theists, in contrast to the scientific community on earth which is largely atheistic. Sawyer’s FLASH FORWARD deals with determination and free-will. I raise this subject to make the observation that such curiosity is probably endemic to the human condition. Moral questions, like those investigated by Sawyer, and his fellows, form the basis of their most compelling work. It seems that the poetic muse for atheistic writers is thoughts of God.
Paul Hecht reads this novel in straight fashion. His tone is deep and pleasant. I usually gravitate toward the narrators who give flamboyant performances, but I found that Paul Hecht here allowed me to fully engage with the words of the story. His performance was unobtrusive and very enjoyable. As a bonus he does something that most narrators get wrong: he correctly pronounces the word “sentience” as SEN-shunce; for that alone he gets kudos.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Keith
- 07-14-15
A look at transhumanism
In this novel, Sawyer takes a foray into transhumanism as the protagonist seeks to determine the significance of the newly discovered "soul wave", which leaves the body at death. Coupled with one of Sawyer's trademark characters, a scientist who's been badly hurt emotionally, the novel is both thought-provoking and entertaining, as well as astonishingly prescient given the decade in which it was written.
Four stars, easily.
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- Richard McGee
- 01-28-24
Will make you ponder life’s big questions
The story was another home run for Mr Shaw and his use of AI in the future sense. This gave me plenty to think about while listening to this audiobook. This is the second book that I have listened from the author and both made me question a lot of things that are today unknown.
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