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The First Machine Dynasty
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Narrated by:
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Christina Traister
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By:
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Madeline Ashby
About this listen
For the past five years, she has been grown slowly as part of a mixed organic/synthetic family. She knows very little about her android mother’s past, so when her grandmother arrives and attacks them, young Amy wastes no time: she eats her alive.
Now she’s on the run, carrying her malfunctioning granny as a partition on her memory drive. She’s growing quickly, and learning too. Like the fact that in her, and her alone, the failsafe that stops all robots from harming humans has stopped working… Which means that everyone wants a piece of her, some to use her as a weapon, others to destroy her.
©2012 Madeline Ashby (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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In the enchanted kingdom of Brooklyn, the fashionable people put on cute shoes, go to parties in warehouses, drink on rooftops at sunset, and tell themselves they've arrived. A whole lot of Brooklyn is like that now - but not Vassa's working-class neighborhood. In Vassa's neighborhood, where she lives with her stepmother and bickering stepsisters, one might stumble onto magic, but stumbling out again could become an issue.
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A Weird Whimsical Story
- By Doha on 12-16-16
By: Sarah Porter
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Gone
- Gone Series, Book 1
- By: Michael Grant
- Narrated by: Kyle McCarley
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In the blink of an eye, everyone disappears. Gone. Except for the young. There are teens, but not one single adult. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no Internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened. Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents - unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers - that grow stronger by the day. It's a terrifying new world.
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Please rerelease this book w new narration
- By Kim on 02-12-17
By: Michael Grant
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Dark Room Etiquette
- By: Robin Roe
- Narrated by: Andrew J. Andersen
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Sixteen-year-old Sayers Wayte has everything. Popularity, good looks, perfect grades—there's nothing Sayers' family money can't buy. Until he's kidnapped by a man who tells him the privileged life he's been living is based on a lie. Trapped in a windowless room, without knowing why he's been taken or how long the man plans to keep him shut away, Sayers faces a terrifying new reality. To survive, he must forget the world he once knew, and play the part his abductor has created for him.
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Absolutely brilliant
- By Shelley on 01-20-23
By: Robin Roe
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Superheroes
- By: Peter S. Beagle, Daryl Gregory, James Patrick Kelly, and others
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Joe Barrett, Christina Delaine, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Modern gods and goddesses, remote, revered - and like the pantheon of heroes and heroines of ancient myth - possessing great power tempered with flaws. Now, find within this anthology great tales by gifted and award-winning authors who move superheroes from the four-color panels of comic books to the fantastic pages of fiction, stories that will remind anyone who ever wanted to wear a cape or don a cowl of the extraordinary powers of the imagination!
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Pretentious tired old concepts
- By BookofJoy on 12-29-14
By: Peter S. Beagle, and others
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Dying for a Living
- By: Kory M. Shrum
- Narrated by: Hollie Jackson
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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On the morning before her 67th death, it is business as usual for Agent Jesse Sullivan: Meet with the mortician, counsel soon-to-be-dead clients, and have coffee while reading the latest in regeneration theory. Jesse dies for a living, literally. Because of a neurological disorder, she is one of the rare people who can serve as a death surrogate, dying so others don't have to. But when Jesse is murdered and becomes the sole suspect in a federal investigation, more than her freedom and sanity are at stake. She must catch the killer herself - or die trying.
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A Unique Paranormal Character
- By Carolyn Philpot on 06-06-22
By: Kory M. Shrum
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Real Vampires Don't Sparkle
- By: Amy Fecteau
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 17 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Matheus Taylor didn't ask to be murdered. To be fair, the percentage of people actually asking to be murdered is probably small enough to be safely ignored, but he felt it was worth stating regardless. His life might have been ordinary, but it was his life and he wasn't done with it yet. Quin didn't care. A 1,700-year-old Roman, Quintus Livius Saturnius had a different view of morality than most people. Killing Matheus and hijacking his undead existence seemed perfectly acceptable to him.
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Not sure if it's the narrator or just bad writing
- By MD on 06-20-17
By: Amy Fecteau
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On the Edge of Gone
- By: Corinne Duyvis
- Narrated by: Stephanie Willis
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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January 29, 2035. That's the day the comet is scheduled to hit - the big one. Denise and her mother and sister, Iris, have been assigned to a temporary shelter outside their hometown of Amsterdam to wait out the blast, but Iris is nowhere to be found, and at the rate Denise's drug-addicted mother is going, they'll never reach the shelter in time. A last-minute meeting leads them to something better than a temporary shelter - a generation ship scheduled to leave Earth behind to colonize new worlds after the comet hits.
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Couldn't get into it.
- By Maria on 07-04-16
By: Corinne Duyvis
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We Told Six Lies
- By: Victoria Scott
- Narrated by: Nick Mondelli
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Remember how many lies we told, Molly? It’s enough to make my head spin. You were wild when I met you, and I was mad for you. But then something happened. And now you’re gone. But don’t worry. I’ll find you. I just need to sift through the story of us to get to where you might be. I’ve got places to look and a list of names. The police have a list of names, too. See now? There’s another lie. There is only one person they’re really looking at, Molly. And that’s yours truly.
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great book from audible
- By Paula on 10-16-20
By: Victoria Scott
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Dangerous
- By: Shannon Hale
- Narrated by: Jessica Almasy
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Maisie Danger Brown just wanted to get away from home for a bit and see something new. She never intended to fall in love with a boy at space camp. And she certainly never intended to stumble into a frightening plot that just might destroy everything and everyone she cares about. But now there's no going back - Maisie's the only thing standing between danger and annihilation. She must become the hero the world needs before she loses her heart... and her life.
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Dangerous is Awful
- By Maelana on 02-24-15
By: Shannon Hale
What listeners say about vN
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- wQuant
- 07-25-21
Interesting Concepts
I was not turned off by the bizarre nature and behavior of the artificial people in this book. Some of those where fresh and original--even the primary event of the story that happens to the main character.
The characters are well written and loved the exploration of humanity between human characters and the artificial ones. I loved the artificial person's struggle with what is real feelings, emotions, and love and what is just part of the program.
But I didn't love the story. There where parts where I wondered if I was reading a dream sequence rather that was going to revert back to earlier parts of the story because of some things that transpired were frankly not very plausible. You know those parts in Blade Runner were you are confused if it is a dream or reality? Like that.
The ending was quite a surprise. That can be good and bad in that it presenting some interesting and original ideas, that reminded my of the original Ghost in the Shell work, but was so poorly stitched into the rest of the novel the conclusion could have been a short story on its own.
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- JTF
- 05-22-14
An Imaginative Novel of Robots, Control & Chaos
A few things to know about Ms. Ashby - she's a flippin' genius, a marvelous storyteller and she's willing to pursue her ideas and stories without reference to niceties. While I think it would be fair to say she's a liberal feminist, she's way not PC. She takes it all head-on, sensibilities be hanged. She reminds me of a liberal Ayn Rand with a few important differences besides ideology - she knows how to edit, if she explores the same or similar themes, she does so in interesting and new ways; Ms. Rand tended to rehash with slight variations. Also, her are subservient to the story, not the other way around. vN explores themes tied to sentient androids and their relations to humans other vN (she invokes something similar to Asimov's 3 laws of robotics), unique issues tied to self-replicating androids (hence the Von Neumann machine reference) and a world in which cataclysmic events have destabilized our world (does she have a thing against Seattle?). "An iteration is not a copy, it is simply the next version." Ashby, Madeline (2012-07-31). vN (First Machine Dynasty) (Kindle Location 3651). Osprey Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Prior to dipping my toes below the spoiler line, however, I also want to commend Christina Traister's narration. As I typically do, I went between the Kindle and Audible versions relying on Whispersync for Voice to keep me on track. I would think this book would be a bit of a challenge to narrate. Amy needs to be young whilst quickly becoming a full, somewhat jaded woman. Javier is a Hispanic-based model. Portia is wacked. The terminology is a bit eclectic, to wit "...but her spirit was as strong as the titanium sheathing her graphene coral bones, her personal integrity as impermeable as the silicone skin overlaying the polymerdoped memristors embedded there, her wit as quick as the carbon aerogel currents wafting through and shaping the musculature of her body." Say that fives times fast. Ms. Traister handles it all with aplomb. Her phrasing and pacing are spot on. Her characters are believable and the tone of her voice matches them and their context. She is easy to understand. Lovely work. Seriously good reads; I highly recommend both books (but start with vN).
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5 people found this helpful
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- Steven
- 10-30-23
Meh… Vore isn’t my thing.
I read lots of sci-fi, but this seems more like lots of interpersonal stuff, vore, and zombie-esk overtones. The main plot driver is a bunch of interpersonal stuff, but it all seems to be pushing a social agenda and just thinly veiled with very few “sci-fi” ideas.
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- Moranda Media
- 01-24-14
THIS IS IT.
Would you listen to vN again? Why?
no because i rember it. but maybe years after now
Who was your favorite character and why?
they all are good. amy is the main. good and crazy AI
Which scene was your favorite?
humm idk alot of them
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
yea but i had to sleeep eat and work and drive.
Any additional comments?
you will like this book. if you like sifi and ai stuff
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2 people found this helpful
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- cd
- 08-15-12
Not as good as I thought it could be
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
Not really - it was frustrating experience.
Would you be willing to try another book from Madeline Ashby? Why or why not?
Probably not. There were compelling ethical questions but no answers or hints that the author even knew what questions the book raised.
How could the performance have been better?
For some reason, the speaker pronounced Javier with a 'D'. Very odd and took you out of the narrative spell repeatedly.
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
Sure - Hollywood would turn it into a sci-fi action flick much like 'I, Robot'. It would be a fun way to pass the time with some popcorn.
Any additional comments?
I really wanted to like it - the description sounded right up my alley.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Bryan J. Schaefer
- 07-15-19
An exploration of sentience and AI emotions
vN is a great exploration of what AI existance could be like from the perspective of the AI. How docthey grow, interact with the world, humans, and other robots is given a unique take in the world this author builds.
in a genre repleat with recycled content, vN does a great job of being original, entertaining, and thought provoking. Gender, sexuality, and individuality are all explored in the midst of an action story.
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- SciFi Kindle
- 08-11-14
Pinocchio on the run
This debut novel by Madeline Ashby asks some interesting questions about what the motivations and desires of humanoid AIs would be, and the surprising answer is remarkably similar to what their human creators seek. Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of robo-happiness looks much the same as the familiar goals, with some cosmetic differences in the health & diet departments. Ashby’s von Neumann robots are lot like the vampires making the rounds in a lot of YA fiction these days: Super-powered, beautiful versions of people who happen to eat something unusual, but share all our emotions and dramas. Here, I was a bit disappointed, and saw potential for some wildly interesting outlook that superimposes inarguable machine logic on top of everyday life. The closest thing here was the universally in-built “failsafe” directive that the vN possess which compels them to obey and cherish humans, (their garlic/sunlight/stake/holy water Achilles’ heel). The central conflict of the story arrises from, naturally, the appearance of a vN who can willfully ignore her failsafe. Like many of those YA ‘paranormal romance’ stories, there is a blossoming romance in the works, and an authoritarian regime eager to snuff it all out. The first person perspective brought to mind Charles Stross’ “Saturn’s Children”, which also featured a female humanoid robot protagonist, and a parallel mechanism to the failsafe whereby robots are compelled to obey all humans completely and lovingly.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Derek
- 06-23-16
loved it. fascinating science fiction.
loved it. real SF with fun characters. i loved amy and javier. i also loved the layered ethical metaphors.
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- Katya A
- 03-04-13
Not your average 'Pinocchio' AI Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi genre is full of stories about self-aware artificial intelligence and their place in the human world. This book is off the beaten 'But I'm a real boy (girl)' path. Don't expect dwelling on AI vs Humans ethical questions, they are there but not as a centerpiece of the story, it never moralizes and makes you feel like you just sat through a Sunday school lesson about humanity.
vN is about evolution of artificial 'life', designed as help and entertainment, constrained by Asimov's Laws of Robotics and programmed limits to morality. They reproduce by iteration, which is as much of self-replicating as human children are replicas of their parents. Ultimately, that’s the moral of the story – we are more than we’re made to be and that restrictions, limitations and expectations will not in the end hold us back. The same goes for robots.
The writing is tight, the characters likable, and the story is compelling. The book is is fairly low on technobabble, and it’s character-driven as well as idea-driven.
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2 people found this helpful
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- josh
- 10-11-19
Sloppy fruit salad of ideas.
the story needs structure and reason. it wasn't horrible. just needlessly confusing.
the cool parts lack inspiration.
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1 person found this helpful