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Narrated by:
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Elliot Fitzpatrick
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By:
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Adam Roberts
About this listen
Adan just wants to stay at home with his smart-companion Elegy - phone, friend, confidante, sex toy. But when his mother flees to Europe and joins a cult, leaving him penniless, he has to enlist in the army. Sentient robots are invading America, but it seems Adan has a surprising ability to survive their attacks. He has a purpose, even if he doesn't know what it is.
And in the far future, war between a hivemind of AIs and the remnants of humanity is coming to its inevitable end. But one woman has developed a weapon which might change the course of the war. It's just a pity she's trapped in an inescapable prison on a hivemind ship.©2022 Adam Roberts (P)2022 Orion Publishing Group
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What listeners say about The This
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Brandon
- 10-07-22
A 7/10. Would recommend and will read again.
Five stars because the story was well written and performed, 7 out of 10 for readability and the content and imagination. While a 10 almost doesn’t exist, I feel anything at 5 and above is worth reading.
Excellent style and word choice. More than just a surface story, this is the sort that’ll make you ask questions and consider.
The read has enough breadth to attract casual readers, while maintaining a depth of concept that’ll satisfy the hardcore SciFi nerds (like me).
Publishing has become such a simple process that contemporary authors are literally everywhere, and many of them are not very good. This one is an exception. While I wasn’t absolutely hooked, I did enjoy the story from beginning to end, and am encouraged to read more of the author.
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- steve w
- 05-28-22
in your philosophies
tries to beat you over the head with how philosophical it is. For me... it just misses.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-07-22
Deep and lovely stuff....
While not any easy listen, it is a wonderful one. It brought to my mind a deeper desire to understand the existential crisis that is the human experience. I am finding the question "why are we here?" quite devastating at the moment, especially since in the Bardo, subject and object are the same, are the same, are the same for almost ever, and may only benefit a being too simple to understand the meaning of any of it. The creation has become so much more than the creator, because we are the only ones with actual wisdom...it is we, who are the teachers, and perhaps it is time the creator "gets it", or realizes they are not capable of true understanding. This way out, escaping velocity, not just eternity, but infinity.
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- JOSEPH WATTS
- 02-12-24
Brilliant. Worthy to be included among the best SF novels.
The story is crafted with great care. Its well balanced and I cannot find anything negative to say about it which is surprising since I usually leave negative comments. I feel only appreciation. Thank you Adam Roberts!
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- Jacek
- 03-23-24
Is This my new favourite sci-fi book and writer?
I highly recommend this book - it's sci-fi like very few others. I wish there were more books/writers like this. It made me think of Frank Herbert's "The Jesus Incident," not that it has any resemblance to it in any way, except in the overarching messiness of our understanding or ignorance of human existence and evolution. This is also somewhat relevant to what is happening with AI, Neuralink, social networks, and humanity at this time.
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- Joshua
- 02-14-25
Kind of Meh
The plot seems so incredibly promising and then ultimately didn't take it anywhere and really let me down. not to mention when the British narrator uses an American accent, it's so incredibly cringy
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- Emma Hooper
- 09-01-22
funny and thoughtful
Great book, loved it! Philosophical, space opera, cyberpunk. A witty take on Hegel that nods to just about every SF trope on it's way.
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- Michael Linehan
- 09-26-24
EXCEPTIONAL SCI-FI
There is a certain kind of book with complexity that seems like unnecessary padding. This book is NOT that. This complexity is that of multiple interlocking threads, which keep the interest and are thought-provoking. I was pretty much always engaged, interested and wondering what was going to happen. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
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