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.
Arctic Rising  By  cover art

Arctic Rising

By: Tobias S. Buckell
Narrated by: Carolyn Michelle Smith
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.95

Buy for $19.95

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

Global warming has transformed the Earth, and it's about to get even hotter. The Arctic Ice Cap has all but melted, and the international community is racing desperately to claim the massive amounts of oil beneath the newly accessible ocean.

Enter the Gaia Corporation. Its two founders have come up with a plan to roll back global warming. Thousands of tiny mirrors floating in the air can create a giant sunshade, capable of redirecting heat and cooling the earth's surface. They plan to terraform Earth to save it from itself—but in doing so, they have created a superweapon the likes of which the world has never seen.

Anika Duncan is an airship pilot for the underfunded United Nations Polar Guard. She’s intent on capturing a smuggled nuclear weapon that has made it into the Polar Circle and bringing the smugglers to justice. Anika finds herself caught up in a plot by a cabal of military agencies and corporations who want Gaia Corporation stopped.

But when Gaia Corp loses control of their superweapon, it will be Anika who has to decide the future of the world. The nuclear weapon she has risked her life to find is the only thing that can stop the floating sunshade after it falls into the wrong hands.

©2012 Tobias S. Buckell (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Buckell represents an important force behind the genre’s change. Buckell’s work deals with complex racial issues in a way worthy of the self-proclaimed ‘literature of ideas’: head-on, with no visible flinching, while still managing to give its readers a rollicking good time.” (The Seattle Times)

What listeners say about Arctic Rising

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    17
  • 4 Stars
    20
  • 3 Stars
    39
  • 2 Stars
    16
  • 1 Stars
    6
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    20
  • 4 Stars
    27
  • 3 Stars
    27
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    10
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    19
  • 4 Stars
    15
  • 3 Stars
    35
  • 2 Stars
    12
  • 1 Stars
    8

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

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

Plausible & interesting first 1/3; then falters

The premise and the setting were fascinating: UN Polar Guard airships over the now ice free areas above Canada. And the idea that there would still be smuggling and intrigue -of course, and with energy at the heart. But then both the technology and the plot went pretty far away from plausibility AND the characters felt like they were just speaking their lines. Couldn't finish it and didn't care too much how it ended. I DID like that the heroine is a Nigerian lesbian.

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

Near/medium future climate change winners/losers

Thrillers aren't generally my bag, though I found a lot more to like, sf-wise, in Arctic Rising than in Neal Stephenson's ???Reamde???, another "sf/thriller" hybrid of recent memory. (This isn't a fault necessarily of ???Reamde???, it is after all set in a future as near as next year.) For ???Arctic Rising???, I very much enjoyed Smith's narration, my first experience with her as a narrator. She handled African and Afro-Caribbean accents well enough, along with a clear mainline narration, though her Russian accents left a little more to the imagination. Story-wise, an interesting and sophisticated near/medium future of a climate change with winners and losers is marred only a little by the incredulous parade of near-deaths and escapes which drive Anika to and fro. 3.5 to 4 stars, somewhere in there.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

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

absolutely horrible, a waste of a credit

Any additional comments?

Not only is the book a GIANT propaganda rag, it is full of these weird utopian descriptions of the near future. Everyone uses airships ie blimps. Somehow there is this extremely rapid change in climate (not weather) that somehow makes everyone in the world live a better life because of ease of access to natural resoures and the use of an orbital mirror? As always I do NOT rate the narrarator. Its not the narrators fault the book is terrible and not the authors fault if the narrarator is poor. I knew up front, given the description that it would contain environmentalist wacko theme, BUT this includes weird economic theory mixed with a bizarre global political framework. Throw in a chase to find a nuclear warhead of course, because otherwise, this book has NO plot to speak of.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

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

Narrator issue

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

This narrator would be excellent for children's books. I think this may have been a better listening experience if a person could tell if it was a serious story,..........or a child's fantasy book. Except for the swear words.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

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

wouldn't recommend

Unfortunately had to give up listening after about hour in to the story, mostly due to narrators accent. She was constantly switching to some jamaican/south american pronunciations which was very hard to understand and more so was taking away from story, which seemed to be very plain.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

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

Good book

Where does Arctic Rising rank among all the audiobooks you???ve listened to so far?

among top 3 this is one of book.

What did you like best about this story?

Another view of showing the nature. e x c e l l e n t.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

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

Wonderful story

Would you consider the audio edition of Arctic Rising to be better than the print version?

Excellent Book. Amazing. Nice .

Who was your favorite character and why?

Excellent Book. Amazing. Nice .

Have you listened to any of Carolyn Michelle Smith???s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Excellent Book. Amazing. Nice .

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Excellent Book. Amazing. Nice .

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

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

It sounded promising ...

Would you try another book from Tobias S. Buckell and/or Carolyn Michelle Smith?

Not likely.

Would you ever listen to anything by Tobias S. Buckell again?

Only with a different narrator.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Carolyn Michelle Smith?

A tougher, more forceful voice to hopefully match the character better.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Arctic Rising?

Any of the non-necessary non-action scenes could go.

Any additional comments?

Sadly, did not live up to the descriptions I read ... save your credit.

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

Fiction concept was well thought out.

Buckell's story line holds your interest. The narration was not quite up to par. I would consider both author and narrator again.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

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

Fast moving and great characters

Good book for listening. Narrative is straight forward without multiple plot linesso focus stays on story. Main character is likable and interesting. Fast paced.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful