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serialnumber55

Alaska | Member Since 2012

HELPFUL VOTES

9 reviews
20 ratings
85 titles in library
13 purchased in 2013

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Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears

UNABRIDGED
- by William Hertling
- Narrated by Rob Granniss
Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears

UNABRIDGED (6 hrs and 43 mins)

By William Hertling

Narrated By Rob Granniss

Whispersync for Voice-ready

Overall
(32)
Performance
(27)
Story
(28)

David Ryan is the designer of ELOPe, an email language optimization program, that if successful, will make his career. But when the project is suddenly in danger of being canceled, David embeds a hidden directive in the software accidentally creating a runaway artificial intelligence. David and his team are initially thrilled when the project is allocated extra servers and programmers.
G. Ribaudo says: "Loving it all over again!"
"Ho-Hum"

Overall
Performance
Story

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The plot is contrived, and the twists and turns are predictable. Not a great contribution to the "super computer takes over the world" genre.

Would you ever listen to anything by William Hertling again?

Probably not.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful
Existence

UNABRIDGED
- by David Brin
- Narrated by Kevin T. Collins , Robin Miles , L. J. Ganser
Existence

UNABRIDGED (32 hrs and 30 mins)

By David Brin

Narrated By Kevin T. Collins, Robin Miles, L. J. Ganser

Whispersync for Voice-ready

Overall
(211)
Performance
(188)
Story
(186)

Gerald Livingston is an orbital garbage collector. For a hundred years, people have been abandoning things in space, and someone has to clean it up. But there’s something spinning a little bit higher than he expects, something that isn’t on the decades’ old orbital maps. An hour after he grabs it and brings it in, rumors fill Earth’s infomesh about an "alien artifact".
A. Massey says: "Big ideas, good science fiction, frustrating style"
"It actually is a part of the uplift series!"

Overall
Performance
Story

Any additional comments?

It took a while for me to get into this novel, but I got hooked and am happy I did so. It is a prequel to the uplift series, something I didn't realize. Brin has some interestingly unusual ideas about AI and its proliferation. Recommended.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful
1Q84

UNABRIDGED
- by Haruki Murakami , Jay Rubin (translator) , Philip Gabriel (translator)
- Narrated by Allison Hiroto , Marc Vietor , Mark Boyett
1Q84

UNABRIDGED (46 hrs and 50 mins)

By Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin (translator), Philip Gabriel (translator)

Narrated By Allison Hiroto, Marc Vietor, Mark Boyett

Overall
(2989)
Performance
(2583)
Story
(2551)

The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.
A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver's enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 - "Q" is for "question mark". A world that bears a question....
Howard says: "Worth the investment."
"Murakami Masterpiece"

Overall
Performance
Story

Any additional comments?

This was the first Murakami I ever listened to. Since then, I have bought all of his novels. This was a mixture of American music, Philip K. Dick, Japanese mythology, Orwell, a bit of Lovecraft, and far more than I can expound upon. A superb novel for those whose taste runs into the bizarre.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Zoe's Tale

UNABRIDGED
- by John Scalzi
- Narrated by Tavia Gilbert
Zoe's Tale

UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 2 mins)

By John Scalzi

Narrated By Tavia Gilbert

Whispersync for Voice-ready

Overall
(449)
Performance
(246)
Story
(251)

"I'm Zoe Boutin Perry: A colonist stranded on a deadly pioneer world. Holy icon to a race of aliens. A player in a interstellar chess match to save humanity. Seventeen years old. Everyone on Earth knows the tale I am part of. But you don't know my tale: I'm going to tell it to you now, the only way I know how: not straight but true, the whole thing, to try make you feel what I felt: the joy and terror and uncertainty, panic and wonder, despair and hope."
Ryan says: "Read the previous books first."
"Another Scalzi Winner"

Overall
Performance
Story

Any additional comments?

OK, Scalzi writes readable (listenable) science fiction, stuff that is happily attended to while walking or sitting. And you, know, most series get really old. "Zoe's Tale" is not destined to be a classic, but it holds up well in his future history. I will always listen to another Scalzi. Not because it is great, but because it is fun.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful
The Frozen Sky

UNABRIDGED
- by Jeff Carlson
- Narrated by Amy H. Sturgis
The Frozen Sky

UNABRIDGED (11 hrs)

By Jeff Carlson

Narrated By Amy H. Sturgis

Whispersync for Voice-ready

Overall
(40)
Performance
(33)
Story
(34)

Something is alive inside Jupiter's ice moon Europa. Robot probes find an ancient tunnel beneath the surface, its walls carved with strange hieroglyphics. Led by elite engineer Alexis Vonderach, a team of scientists descends into the dark...where they confront a savage race older than mankind....
Trip Williams says: "GREAT story of first contact!"
"Hard Core Science Fiction on a Frozen Moon"

Overall
Performance
Story

Any additional comments?

Good science fiction does not bend the laws of the universe to make stories work (except of course for that pesky light speed barrier, which does not bear on the book). This is a solid work of fiction that dealt with the ethical dilemma facing the main character in regard to a newly discovered species. Interplanetary travel, aliens, nano-tech - who could ask for more? Recommended.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Soft Apocalypse

UNABRIDGED
- by Will McIntosh
- Narrated by Erik Davies
Soft Apocalypse

UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 55 mins)

By Will McIntosh

Narrated By Erik Davies

Overall
(44)
Performance
(36)
Story
(35)

What happens when resources become scarce and society starts to crumble? Soft Apocalypse follows the journey across the Southeast of a tribe of formerly middle-class Americans as they struggle to find a place for themselves and their children in a new, dangerous world that still carries the ghostly echoes of their previous lives.
A User says: "Not what I expected"
"If only the bamboo were edible!"

Overall
Performance
Story

Any additional comments?

The end of the world, according to this novel, is not a whimper, but a long series of whimpers punctuated with occasional hope and a final resigned leap. As the ordinary expectations of life slowly drain away into drawn-out misery, revolutionary geniuses construct a scenario that may not be much better. Highly recommended.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Life as We Knew It: A Novel

UNABRIDGED
- by Susan Beth Pfeffer
- Narrated by Emily Bauer
Life as We Knew It: A Novel

UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 2 mins)

By Susan Beth Pfeffer

Narrated By Emily Bauer

Whispersync for Voice-ready

Overall
(177)
Performance
(86)
Story
(84)

Miranda's disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the Moon closer to the Earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun?
Kelly F. Solheim says: "Almost gave up"
"Issues"

Overall
Performance
Story

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

If you want a post-apocalyptic YA novel, this may be one to try. The science is wrong (an asteroid pushes the moon into a close orbit) and the social science is wrong (the fact that an asteroid was going to hit the moon was greeted with a rather muted response, no doomsayers or predictions of disaster), but much of the narrative is a fairly realistic depiction of adjusting to a world that is not the same.

Would you ever listen to anything by Susan Beth Pfeffer again?

Sure.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful
77 Days in September

UNABRIDGED
- by Ray Gorham
- Narrated by Joseph Morton
77 Days in September

UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 29 mins)

By Ray Gorham

Narrated By Joseph Morton

Overall
(99)
Performance
(91)
Story
(91)

On a Friday afternoon before Labor Day, Americans are getting ready for the holiday weekend, completely unaware of a long-planned terrorist plot about to be launched against the country. Kyle Tait is settling in for his flight home to Montana when a single nuclear bomb is detonated 300 miles above the heart of America.
Dennis says: "The Disney version of an EMP attack"
"Preachy - but an interesting hike"

Overall
Performance
Story

Would you try another book from Ray Gorham and/or Joseph Morton?

No.

Has 77 Days in September turned you off from other books in this genre?

No.

Any additional comments?

The overall scenario was intriguing - an EMP blast took out U.S. power, communication, and transportation, and a man has to hike from Texas to Montana to get to his wife and kids. But the occasional preaching and political bias made me want to scream at times.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful
The Dog Stars

UNABRIDGED
- by Peter Heller
- Narrated by Mark Deakins
The Dog Stars

UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 41 mins)

By Peter Heller

Narrated By Mark Deakins

Whispersync for Voice-ready

Overall
(589)
Performance
(518)
Story
(519)

Hig survived the flu that killed everyone he knows. His wife is gone, his friends are dead, he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, his only neighbor a gun-toting misanthrope. In his 1956 Cessna, Hig flies the perimeter of the airfield or sneaks off to the mountains to fish and to pretend that things are the way they used to be. But when a random transmission somehow beams through his radio, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life exists beyond the airport.
Craig says: "The End is Merely a Beginning"
"Brutal, Poetic, Erotic"

Overall
Performance
Story

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I was surprised. At the beginning, the brutality made me ready to quit. But the poetic description of trout fishing, the continual reflection, the slow progression of the protagonit's thoughts - all kept me listening.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful