• The Consciousness Plague

  • By: Paul Levinson
  • Narrated by: Mark Shanahan
  • Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
  • 3.3 out of 5 stars (102 ratings)

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The Consciousness Plague  By  cover art

The Consciousness Plague

By: Paul Levinson
Narrated by: Mark Shanahan
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Publisher's summary

From of the author of The Silk Code, winner of the 1999 Locus Award for Best First Novel, comes another intriguing blend of science fiction and hard-boiled police-procedural mystery.

The Consciousness Plague is about memory, more particularly, how the loss of memory, in slivers of time deducted from a growing number of individuals, can subtly undermine and play havoc with everything from the investigation of serial stranglings to candlelight dinners. Dr. D'Amato, NYPD forensic detective, investigates a spate of unusual cases of memory loss and finds evidence of a bacteria-like organism that has lived in our brains since our origin as a species and may be responsible for our very consciousness.

There's evidence for this consciousness bug in the ancient Phoenician and Viking cultures and everywhere Phil looks in our world. A new antibiotic crosses the blood-brain barrier and inadvertently kills this essential bug. Phil himself becomes a victim of the memory drain, and must struggle to get the proper authorities to pay attention before everyone loses so much memory that they forget that they forgot in the first place.

©2002 by Paul Levinson (P)2004 Listen & Live Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

  • Audie Award Finalist, Science Fiction, 2005

"Levinson's intelligent blend of police procedural and speculative fiction should appeal to fans of mystery and science fiction." (Library Journal)
"Intriguing speculation, solid sleuthing, and agreeably baffling suspects." (Kirkus Reviews)
"Levinson handles myth, history, science and police procedures with equal skill, earning high marks for intelligence and originality in the process." (Booklist)

What listeners say about The Consciousness Plague

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Forget it!

This book has a so-so premise, but is ruined by terrible writing and the plot. The characters are flat, and the dialog between them is always a contruct just to move the story forward. On the other hand, the author wastes our time on boring details that have nothing to do with anything (e.g., looking for the old man on the train).I got so frustrated after 4 hours of this that I gave up on it. The worst of Philip K. Dick is 100 time better than this.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

So bad I couldn't finish it!

The biggest problem with this was the implausibility of the lead character and the plot. A few people get the flu and lose their memory and he's off hypothesisng about the Phoenicians and Atlantis (and he's a detective to boot). I don't know how it turned out because I just couldn't finish it.

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