Ark

Forward collection

By: Veronica Roth

Narrated by: Evan Rachel Wood

Length: 1 hr and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Audible narration by Evan Rachel Wood (Westworld)

On the eve of Earth’s destruction, a young scientist discovers something too precious to lose, in a story of cataclysm and hope by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Divergent trilogy.

It’s only two weeks before an asteroid turns home to dust. Though most of Earth has already been evacuated, it’s Samantha’s job to catalog plant samples for the survivors’ unknowable journey beyond. Preparing to stay behind and watch the world end, she makes a final human connection.

As certain doom hurtles nearer, the unexpected and beautiful potential for the future begins to flower.

Veronica Roth’s Ark is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

©2019 Veronica Roth (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Narrator Evan Rachel Wood portrays Samantha in a soft, resigned tone that fits a story in which humanity has already been through the painful grieving process and has settled into a somber acceptance of its fate...it’s the gentle emphasis Wood gives to the connections between humans that makes this audiobook such a compelling listen." --AudioFile magazine

"…A sensational project...." --Spine Magazine

“This is exactly how I like my techno-anxiety.... Happy bingeing!” --Audible, an October Editors Pick

Beautiful

I loved this. Science and emotion delicately intertwined into a near futuristic story. A great performance too.

Slow and Steady

Title: Ark
Autho: Veronica Roth
Format: Audio
Narrator: Evan Rachel Wood
Genre: Science Fiction, End of World
Standalone: Yes
Part of a Series: Book 1 of the Forward series
POV: Samantha
Steam Level: Clean
3/5

Ark was a good novella focused on the last two weeks of the end of the world. Using this crunch time to discover and catalogue what flora to take when leaving the world explores what is "important" to yourself versus to others. While a slow read, it was a good background listen for when I was focusing of other things.

OK Story Thats Kinda Sad;Good but Couldve Be Great

Good story about a possible future but the characters and story seemed to be missing something?? I just didn't connect to them for some reason still trying to figure that out!

Kind of interesting...

A short story about a group of horticulturists gathering plants species for a space ark that's leaving Earth ahead of massive asteroid impact. The story was kind of interesting with people doing their jobs up to the end trying to save what things they can and then toward the end of the story it kind of entered this vaguely nostalgic introspective bit where the main character suddenly has a big change of heart which I really didn't buy.

Great Story

Without spoiling anything, the story centered around the people who had to work on the project and not the creatures. Nice take on an old subject. Makes you think about how you would behave under those circumstances.

slow burner

This short story didn’t feel very short at all; in my listen, it drudged on and I kept checking the minutes remaining.

As with most Roth stories, I felt something lackluster in the plot & character building. Same ol’ dystopian tropes & clichès. However, it wasn’t all bad, as it made me speculate about the possibilities of the future and felt like a love letter to Earth.

The narration by Evan Rachel Wood was superb, and the only thing keeping me hooked in the dragging narrative voice.

Poignant Piece

This piece was well thought from start to finish. The performance was not to my liking, however, it was a bit too slow and plodding. While I found some of the analogies a bit elementary, the overall body of the story was exquisite. I found the characters more and more intriguing as the work progressed, and in the end, I really felt for them and felt like I understood them. I would definitely recommend this one to a friend.

Good short

I’m just starting this series of Forward novellas if the rest are this good it will be a great adventure.
Narration was excellent by Evan Rachel Wood but that was expected.

Contemplating the end

Story: 3.5⭐️

A very quiet, subtle take on death, rebirth and how circumstances shape how (and if) we choose to live. "Ark" follows horticulturist, Samantha, as she and a volunteer group of scientists catalog flora for a storage spaceship (AKA Ark) bound for Terra (Earth 2.0) during the last 2 months before the planet-killer asteroid, Finis hits.

I was pleasantly surprised by the unexpected poignancy and beauty in some of Roth's words, particularly in regards to Samantha and her unusual acceptance of the inevitability of death. Since most people (consciously or not) fear death, it is uncommon for people to see death favorably in any way unless they or a loved one has been suffering from pain or illness for a while. Even then, most people see it as a necessary evil, but Samantha can see the wonder in it as well.

"It’s the story of this planet in reverse,” she said. “We were born out of—coalescing matter, chaos, here, all lava and earthquakes and thunder...It will be like . . . seeing the birth of the world. Can you imagine anything more beautiful, more worth witnessing, than that?”

Through a handful of characters, some the responses to grief, loss and uncertainty are shown, with Samantha being a unique avatar. As someone raised under the spectre of Finis, she has known for most of her life when the end was coming and the story explores how this shapes her and her expectations for a future, as well as the difference between truly living and simply surviving. How much should knowing the future effect how you live?

I was a bit sceptical at the start, especially with the SERIOUSLY unimaginative names making me question if the rest of the story would be so on the nose (this is carried through to the end and I honestly can't tell if this is a deliberate choice to buck sci-fi conventions, a stab at irony, or just plain laziness). However, if you can a) quiet your inner nerd - ("Is this an alternate Earth or far in the future that we have the tech for terraforming, space travel etc.? Speaking of, where is this new Earth; is it within our solar system given that it only takes a single generation to get there or a new exoplanet bc the closest potentially Earth-like one is 1400+ lys...-) and b) if you don't mind the calm, deliberate pacing and human mundanity of the setting in a situation usually depicted as global societal meltdown, then you may appreciate Ark.

Enjoyable

this whole series has been a pleasure.
this story brings one to thinking about what's important