Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Forty Signs of Rain  By  cover art

Forty Signs of Rain

By: Kim Stanley Robinson
Narrated by: Peter Ganim, Kim Stanley Robinson
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.72

Buy for $20.72

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

The best-selling author of the classic Mars trilogy and The Years of Rice and Salt returns with a riveting new trilogy of cutting-edge science, international politics, and the real-life ramifications of global warming as they are played out in our nation's capital-and in the daily lives of those at the center of the action. Hauntingly realistic, here is a novel of the near future that is inspired by scientific facts already making headlines.

When the Arctic ice pack was first measured in the 1950s, it averaged 30 feet thick in midwinter. By the end of the century it was down to 15. One August the ice broke. The next year the breakup started in July. The third year it began in May. That was last year.

It's an increasingly steamy summer in the nation's capital as Senate environmental staffer Charlie Quibler cares for his young son and deals with the frustrating politics of global warming. Charlie must find a way to get a skeptical administration to act before it's too late-and his progeny find themselves living in Swamp World. But the political climate poses almost as great a challenge as the environmental crisis when it comes to putting the public good ahead of private gain.

While Charlie struggles to play politics, his wife, Anna, takes a more rational approach to the looming crisis in her work at the National Science Foundation. There a proposal has come in for a revolutionary process that could solve the problem of global warming-if it can be recognized in time. But when a race to control the budding technology begins, the stakes only get higher. As these everyday heroes fight to align the awesome forces of nature with the extraordinary march of modern science, they are unaware that fate is about to put an unusual twist on their work-one that will place them at the heart of an unavoidable storm.

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction by author Kim Stanley Robinson.

Listen to all of our Capital Trilogy titles.
©2005 Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"One of the most accomplished and popular writers working in science fiction today." ( Time)

What listeners say about Forty Signs of Rain

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    96
  • 4 Stars
    76
  • 3 Stars
    43
  • 2 Stars
    16
  • 1 Stars
    21
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    76
  • 4 Stars
    29
  • 3 Stars
    45
  • 2 Stars
    16
  • 1 Stars
    21
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    88
  • 4 Stars
    51
  • 3 Stars
    32
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    6

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Narrator must be an AI

I’m guessing this book is good, but simply could not get past narrator. Sounds monotone like an AI. Inflection incorrect. Returned after 10 minutes of listening and adjusting speed to see if that helped.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Interesting premise--Horrible narrator

The narrator of Forty Signs appears to have just learned to read. He spoils what might possibly be an interesting read. It was very hard to tell if I liked the book or not because of his odd pacing, his lack of inflection and his weird robotic pronouncing of certain words and sentences. I gave the book 2 stars more for the author's sake, because it's quite possible this is an interesting book. I can honestly say I would NOT recommend buying the audio version of it. If I read the sequels I'll buy the actual books.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

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

Narrator needs New line of work

Would you try another book from Kim Stanley Robinson and/or Peter Ganim and Kim Stanley Robinson ?

Not sure...Definitely NOT if the narrator is the same. Didn't make it through Chapter 2, and listened twice just to see if I could figure out what the story was even starting to be about. I have to assume the writing would be OK, but this narrator stopped at incorrect points in a sentence was mono toned, let whole paragraphs just lingering. almost sounded like making a 15 year old boy read War & Peace out loud while setting in a corner with a dunce cap on...That much thrill and emotion. This guy has no concept of what vocal inflection is.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Super Powereds: Year 1: Super Powereds, Book 1 by Drew Hayes

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Not sure...Definitely NOT if the narrator is the same. Didn't make it through Chapter 2, and listened twice just to see if I could figure out what the story was even starting to be about. I have to assume the writing would be OK, but this reader stopped at incorrect points in a sentence was mono toned, let whole paragraphs just lingering. almost sounded like making a 15 year old bot red War & Peace out loud while setting in a corner with a dunce cap on...That much thrill and emotion. This guy has no concept of what vocal inflection is.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Forty Signs of Rain?

I couldn't follow the story to see if the actual words made any kind of a story let alone try and make a suggestion

Any additional comments?

I want my credit back, and never place books in the store that uses this narrator with out a flashing sign that states "NEW READER - Narrator is awful" Run away from this title and get it for an e-reader or soft copy anywhere but from the mouth of this narrator.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Dissapointing, poor narration, slow story

I had high hopes of this book, the jacket sounded good and I like these kind of books. But... the narration is very monotone, no life in it. The story is boring, sorry it is. read the amazon reviews and they will tell you the same thing, wish i had read them first. It has some interestingt parts, but all in all not worth a credit!

I haven't had the pleasure of the Mars books yet, althouhg i have down loaded them. Hope they are better!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

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

Couldn't get past the Naration

Would you try another book from Kim Stanley Robinson and/or Peter Ganim and Kim Stanley Robinson ?

Peter Ganim does such a bad time reading the narration sections that it is too hard to listen too. I'm sure this is a good book. The story being slow is no surprise as that was Kim Stanley Robinson style with the Mars trilogy but the narrator just makes it too much to bare. Why can't audible get good readers for Kims Stanley Robinson books?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

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

Intolerably slow and boring

Don't waste your time. Nothing happens in the story, which unfolds with glacial speed. You will need to take anti-depressants after listening to the narrator for more than 10 minutes.

A huge let down after his brilliant Mars trilogy.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

bad bad <pause> bad

I am actually upset I gave a credit for this. This is the worst READER, yes, reader - NOT narrator, I have ever heard. I think most 6th graders could read better.

I don't even know if the actual book is any good because I could not get past how it was being orated.

NOT WORTH A CREDIT OR THE TIME TO LISTEN

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

21 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Very disappointing

The story line has little relationship to Sci-fi or fantasy. The writting style is entirely too verbose, with significant time spent in descriptive detail that has very little bearing on the story line. The real story is the middle age crisis that the main character is enduring, not global warming.
Narration is dry and plodding. The narrator rarely displays the real feeling that the scene should invoke.
I don't recommend that anyone spend their money or credits on this book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

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

Just Awful

I liked Ministry of the Future, and I don’t shy away from books that are more about ideas than plot or character.. This one, however, bored me to death. I kept trying for a whole hour- I just couldn’t take it. The characters are awful, pedantic-did I mention BORING?- everything that takes place in this novel is boring -science, politics, life. I enjoy science and don’t mind the characters discussing it, but after an hour they barely left the NSF and were still focused on one grant proposal. Somebody shoot me. The narrator, also, was awful. I had to speed him up three times before he spoke at a normal human pace and the only distinct voice he did was a president with a southern drawl. I’m so relieved I put this book down. KSR has a lot to do to convince me to ever try another of his works. Ugh!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Its all

Are you kidding me, this guy who read the book is so bad! He reads like he is reading it for the first time and sounds like a low-end AI voice in a low budget Sci-Fi B-movie.
If its a Kim Stanly Robinson book its a great book and the guy who read the Mars Trilogy was a fantastic reader, so i didn't even listen to the preview but i will not be downloading the other 2 books on this set if the same guy read them

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

34 people found this helpful