• Flight

  • A Quantum Fiction Novel
  • By: Vanna Bonta
  • Narrated by: Vanna Bonta
  • Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins
  • 2.9 out of 5 stars (44 ratings)

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Flight  By  cover art

Flight

By: Vanna Bonta
Narrated by: Vanna Bonta
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Publisher's summary

The novel that introduced quantum fiction to literature shelves was called "a fable for our times" and extends the stage of human drama to the subatomic realm and entire cosmos.

Mendle Orion is a writer who lives at the intersection of fiction and reality. He idealizes love and cynically rails against a world that wastes his dreams. The man's life is forever changed the day he meets a mysterious young woman with intense blue eyes and total amnesia who looks at urban life as though she's seeing it for the first time.

Mendle names her Aira Flight, after the light being superhero of the latest book he's writing. As he falls in love with the soulful stranger, he discovers the she has no navel, and the novel he's writing is bizarrely unfolding as real coinciding events in his life.

A novel within a novel are masterfully intertwined as mysteries unfold to a conclusion where even theoretical physics confirm the thin line between fairy tale and cold reality.

The story is read by the author, Vanna Bonta, who brings experience as a voice actress for major films and television to the narration. "Whatever 'quantum fiction' is, we need more of it." (Publishers Weekly) "An auspicious genre-bending parable ... An inspiring romantic adventure ... refreshing..." (Booklist, American Library Association)

©2007 Vanna Bonta (P)2007 Meridian House Audio

Critic reviews

"Vanna Bonta reads her own work and is a refreshing and engaging narrator. She occasionally uses vocal effects but never to excess. This is a book with much to say." ( AudioFile Magazine)
"Bonta's reading is clear and provides a satisfying atmosphere for this tale. Recommended for larger collections." ( Library Journal)
" ... her (Bonta's) performance is brilliant. I was hooked on this story, the tale is ingenious." ( Audiogeist)

What listeners say about Flight

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Flight

I always loved this story and hearing it takes it to a whole new level, the voice is so soothing and calming. I felt like the characters were right there, like I was watching a movie.
I suggest for everyone to buy this book on audio and lay in a comfortable place and listen to an amazing story that will take you out of this world!

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Up There With Great Forever Books

If you could sum up Flight in three words, what would they be?

radical original phenomenon

Have you listened to any of Vanna Bonta’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No this was my first time listening to any of Vanna Bonta's performances, but it was definitely a great work of art and I will Listen to another in the near future.

Any additional comments?


It's radical. It's original. Bonta weilds the pen worthy of any poet and author titan. And the book is a phenomenon of the quantum age.

George Bernard Shaw said if you tell the truth you better make them laugh or theyll kill you. Well, Vanna Bonta tells the truth AND makes you laugh but between knuckleheads stuck in Newton's idea of science fiction and crazy cults that fear her, Bonta has raised some hackles. I love her for it. I love the writer for her command of the English language, for her fearless innovation and originality.

The story is about a writer who rebels against reality and our violence-infested world. He writes a novel about an interdimensaionl being. At a science ficiton convention he finds a woman who looks exactly like the superheroine in his book. The woman has total amnesia. He gives her the name of his superheroine. The mystery and a riot of a love story unfolds from there.

The book is a masterwork that constructs an allegory of the dangers of mind control, the importance of free-thinking and creativity, the very nature of reality, and it dares to address things like infinity and death.

I follow Bonta on Twitter and even her tweets are quotable (and loved the ep of Wilfred that starts with her quote).

This book is up there with the books that will never die. Even if you don't like it, it's a highly respected and respectable work. I can understand why some wish they had written it.

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21 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Master Storytelling

Flight was a very fun experience for me. The story is original and keeps the mind satisfied with two fascinating plots that are both about life beneath the plastic surface of smiling faces and ho-hum superficial existence.

Bonta ranks as a great writer due to extraordinary prose, depth of ideas, masterful plot but any worthwhile novelist is first a poet, which Bonta is, and her ability to be either verbose or succint and ultimately insightful is poetry. Seriously, there are sentences in this book that are just --- beautiful. It's obvious when a writer loves words and books. There is playfulness with words in Flight. Bonta has a knack of packing megaton wisdom into one sentence. Again, obviously her poetry background.

The narrative tone of Flight is 3rd person parable-type style, done for effect, as if written by a visitor to Earth telling a story for the ages, but Bonta gets local vernacular and different dialogues of characters down perfectly -- such as "mall-speak" and "cool-speak" as a couple of examples. Highly entertaining.

So I wanted to hear the audio, too, which the author narrates herself. Vanna Bonta's voiceover I could listen to all day. In the audiobook narration she effortlessly delivers the spectrum of characters and dialogues she created. She is a professional and inspired actress who is credited on Disney movies. major feature films and television. The audiobook is a double-gem because we get Bonta's diamond talent of spoken word. She's a genuine artist. Her voice has excellent, natural and pleasant diction and seamless emotion.

Naturally I had to own a copy of the paper book because it's too famous a book. I didn't realize what a history this book has until I read about it on Wikipedia. I didn't know a real rocket ship was named after Aira Flight's fictional spaceship (Lauryad).

Flight is populated with characters I found myself caring about. I know Mendle Orion, Aira Flight and Onx, and that cagey vixen Sandra. They live with all the beloved characters who have moved me to better knowledge of myself. Interesting, I saw a bit of myself in every character's imperfect but perfectr humanity. Each character stands for an aspect of human existence. Aira Flight --- the girl with amensia and no navel is a brilliant icon for the duality of human nature ....walking around in biological body but where did she (we?) (awaresness?) really come from.

Bonta is a master writer and enchanting storyteller.

Movie? Thinking Johnny Depp, Jim Carrey, Tim Burton, Megan Fox (Sandra) an unknown for Aira Flight, like Scarlett Johnassen? Or younger cooler people will be hip.

The ride of this amazing, strange, bizarre story is nothing compared to reality. A line from the book is true: "Reality is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to be believable." (Flight quantum fiction, by Vanna Bonta)

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Where science and fiction collide! Awesome!

Wow!!!! this is a story unlike any I have heard. Never have I found a story which both engages me in a fantastic fictional adventure as well as satisfies my scientific side. The author is calling this style "Quantum Fiction" which is, I agree, an excellent way to describe it. There is so much in the popular media these days about "The Secret" and other quantum physics lines of thinking... It is about time that we have a fictional story which also elaborates on and embraces that concept. 17 hours seemed a little daunting at first... but once I got into the rhythm of the story... all I can say is... congratulations on a job well done... riveting through and through! Can we have more????

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent story, Quanta Bonta is quantastic

Any additional comments?

Every time I see Bonta rattle her pen like a saber and shake the stars I want to cheer. Her poetry was a top selection to go to Mars on the NASA mission MAVEN. Her poetry rose to the top of TV malaise to emerge on a shining show, Wilfred. And in Flight she wrote arguably the definitive book about human quintessence in the quantum age.

Flight, a Quantum Fiction novel is a tour de force. It took the world almost two decades to catch up to. It's not a science book but stands as the poster book for the Albert Einstein quote "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

In Flight Bonta predicted that for every quasar there's a black hole (published 1995 and astronomers are recently announcing the discovery), and started us thinking about The Cure For Death (that now 2 decades later Google is funding). I didn't know what I would think of this book but it is worthy of every praise including the first Publishers Weekly review that launched a genre and called for more.

Since everyone is a writer these days, let's talk shop. The novel is a smorgasbord of literary devices from allegory to zoetic innovations applied to the writing craft.

And I hear TOR (an editor there is rumored to have led a lynching rally of buddies against Bonta for years when Flight was published) is partnering on a Quantum Flash Fiction contest --- 18 years late. ah well better late than never.

How unfair is it that writers and artists like this have to endure head-scratching jerk
who try to knock them down? Writers, we all need to beware the huffy "expert" attacking new ideas and the power to move people. Better they be hilarious than lethal. When the bashers so-called "reviews" write like soggy noodles, then... woops.

I think the Flight audiobook should be released with the works of sound effects and music. I enjoyed Bonta's piano-playing in it but there was too little of it. No praise of her voice does it justice. Truth be told I enjoy the print edition best because of the graphics and design are incorporated to tell the story. Just listening to audio alone without that can be confusing to someone isn't familiar, there's so much there. With the book, the chapters move and are illustrated with clocks like Time, the ingenious subplot is printed on a computer screen, a lot of cool visual like that that enhances and ingenuously tells the story too.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A story to recharge the weary soul

I happened upon Flight by chance, or did I ? The universe plays all kinds of cosmic tricks. What I found in this story was a character who was very much like me. Weary from a long time of being misunderstood and ridiculed for thinking the impossible possible. With each page I became more and more drawn into this delicate balance between science and fiction.

Metaphors for life, and lessons that have taken mankind thousands of years to learn, spill out of this book and into the reader's mind like water to a thirsty imagination. My favorite point of all is love and how powerful it is as a force for creation and connection in the Universe.

This book is on the top of the list of novels I regularly recommend to my friends. Especially those struggling with their existence in the physical world.

Now, on top of having read the book, I can hear the inflections and drama of the author herself reading this story. I couldn't imagine much better than if she were sitting next to me in my car reading this story aloud.

I really appreciate this story and feel lucky to have experienced it both in print and voice. Thank you Vanna for changing my life and recharging my creative vision! Keep up the good work!!!!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Quantum fiction & alternate reality

Bonta has created two incredibly unique main characters - Mendel and Aira. Mendle J. Orian is a science fiction writer who is pulled deeply into his books. Aira's character in Mendle's novel is a "light being", able to change forms at will, using thoughts rather than words to convey thoughts and influence others. When Mendle and Aira's storylines merge, we begin to find unusual coincidences between life and the written word. These "coincidences" lead us to many questions: Is Aira really Mendle's character, or is she just an amnesiac who happens to have no bellybutton? Which came first, Aira or Mendel's writing? What is reality? Are there other dimensions? Are coincidences "just" coincidences? In quantum physics, thoughts affect answers, and you can become like Mendle, "surrounded by his own imagination come to life".

Vanna Bonta is both a writer and a voice-over actor, and her skills are well utilized in this work. Bonta gives each character a unique tone, bringing an extra depth to all of them as she pulls us into her world. While using a third person narrative, Bonta is able to delve into the thoughts of each character, helping the listener or reader get invested in the world that she has created. The combination of the sound effects of typing and Bonta's voice keep each character completely unique, a challenge in many audiobooks. As the story continues, Bonta interweaves scientific terms and jargon, which makes the book feel all the more "real".

Vanna Bonta's voice is entrancing - quickly making an engrossing connection between the listener and the characters; her versatility as a voice actor brings a very realistic feel to the book. Flight is amazingly positive, life-affirming book, filled with beauty. The combination of the characters, storyline, and Bonta's voice make the audio book an intense and memorable experience. Flight will exert a magnetic pull on you, and you'll be stuck on it, waiting for the sequel to be released!

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

bad

Vanna Bonta is not a good writer in my opinion. Most of the positive reviews you will find on Amazon or elsewhere are praising the concepts preached in the story… and that’s one problem I had.. it really seemed to me that I was being preached too. Several times in the story the two main characters go off on long conversations that don’t move the plot in any way. I won’t go into detail on the concepts and ideas presented that people seem to like so much. For me they were far too lightweight to justify the drudge of reading the novel.

One Big issue that made it difficult to impossible to enjoy was at least one writing habit the author could not control. It seems that no one in other reviews I read bothered to assess the authors writing style. I kept wondering if she had gone to and “adverb and adjective sale” before writing this book. If you have any understanding of the concept “don’t use two words where one will do,” this book will drive you insane at moments. Worse yet, some of the “big” words she used weren’t a good fit; the simpler option would have been much more precise.

Here are a few quotes: .

”… her craft was obliterated into disintegration.”
“Then, a silent howl rose from here, mutely shrieking of a wound she could not comprehend. Beseeching, imploring for someone to….”
“… somehow evicting the terrible torment….”

Obliterated where? What kind of torment?

Probably most significant: The story line didn’t grab me at all.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Time to feel and enjoy quantum love

The audio version of Flight enhances the enjoyment, it's an effective presentation of this masterpiece. I believe Flight is destined to be a classic, not only for the literary fantasy story and writing, but as fusing modern science to our thought process and feelings about the perception of reality.

The novel is well ahead of its time. I am sure audiences with backgrounds in modern physics will enjoy it and be thrilled. This novel is an inspiration to the advancement of modern physics and its applications to our perception process. It is not a complete fiction but a very enjoyable analysis of our perception of life process.

As a physicist of many decades, I can say that Flight is one of the most thrilling, inspiring novels I've experienced. I hope it appears on big screen soon.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Interestingly different...

Vanna Bonta’s Flight is definitely in a class – and genre – of its own. Falling under the category of what Bonta calls “quantum fiction”, the story that unravels is both science fiction and fantasy. The discussion of particles, alternate realities and the like is so prominent in the text that it almost feels like an entertaining lesson in quantum physics.

The book follows two characters intertwined by what could be called fate or a collision of two worlds – the truth much remains to be seen. Our first main character, Mendle Orian, is a science-fiction writer whose real life has been swept up by his obsession with his profession.

His two worlds collide when a naked woman with amnesia winds up in his hotel room during a science fiction conference. He names her Aira, the same moniker of the heroine of his latest book. In a fashion that seems to have been adopted by the Disney hit Kyle XY, Aira does not have belly button and Mendle soon begins to notice a number of similarities between Aira, his character and Aira, the mystery guest.

As the story unfolds, Aira begins to remember her past and, oddly enough, it mirrors that of the earlier pages in Mendle’s book. Even more intriguing is the superhuman powers and intelligence that Aira displays as time progresses. All of this begins to beg the question of whether Mendle created Aira or if Aira came first and just appeared due to Mendle’s faith in her? Is Mendle now in Aira’s dimension or is it vice versa? The imaginable possibilities are endless in this tale of cosmic love.

In the audiobook format, the third-person prose coupled with Bonta’s soft, slow read and almost ethereal-like voice makes the journey through Flight even more thought-provoking and awe-inspiring. When reading the pages of the text, one notices that Bonta writes in a very sophisticated manner; which most readers will find quite refreshing.

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