New York 2140: Booktrack Edition

By: Kim Stanley Robinson

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren, Robin Miles, Peter Ganim, Jay Snyder, Caitlin Kelly, Michael Crouch, Ryan Vincent Anderson, Christopher Ryan Grant, Robert Blumenfeld

Length: 22 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

New York 2140: Booktrack Edition* adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience!

As the sea levels rose, every street became a canal. Every skyscraper an island. For the residents of one apartment building in Madison Square, however, New York in the year 2140 is far from a drowned city.

There is the market trader, who finds opportunities where others find trouble. There is the detective, whose work will never disappear - along with the lawyers, of course.

There is the internet star, beloved by millions for her airship adventures, and the building's manager, quietly respected for his attention to detail. Then there are two boys who don't live there, but have no other home - and who are more important to its future than anyone might imagine.

Lastly there are the coders, temporary residents on the roof, whose disappearance triggers a sequence of events that threatens the existence of all - and even the long-hidden foundations on which the city rests.

*Booktrack is an immersive format that pairs traditional audiobook narration to complementary music. The tempo and rhythm of the score are in perfect harmony with the action and characters throughout the audiobook. Gently playing in the background, the music never overpowers or distracts from the narration, so listeners can enjoy every minute. When you purchase this Booktrack edition, you receive the exact narration as the traditional audiobook available, with the addition of music throughout.

©2017 Kim Stanley Robinson (P)2020 Hachette Audio

KSM at his best

Great voices. Even better book. If Kim Stanley Robinson wrote every technical manual in the world he’d put Pepto-Bismol out of business.

Best audible production I’ve heard

For me this is the best Audible production I’ve listened to and the book itself is so beautifully, gently written. I can’t know how anyone else would assess it ... but for me during a grave illness, it’s been a treasure find as companion. And the questions in that story about life on this incredible planet are all mine too. I’ve not reached the end yet ... I’ve been delaying that moment ...

Not at all to KSR's standard

Terrible dialogue and unsympathetic characters, plus hours of exposition about financial markets. Really the worst of KSR's (and I've read all but 1 or 2).

This is made much, much worse by the Booktrack version, which features multiple readers emphasizing the wrong words in sentences, "dramatic" readings that further detract, and random background music that makes the whole thing cheesy and distracts from the reader's imagination.

Eutopian and way short depth

It was a very Eutopian story. Terrible tragedy befalls the planet but we’re ok everyone will just get along. Some brief mentions of peripheral hardships that could happen but again no big impact. Character evolution and linkage was really welded together, and the readers sounded like they whispering by speaking so softly, not much emotion behind it. Not recommend.

The audiobook sounds like a bad infomercial

Was really looking forward to listening to the audiobook but I simply can’t stomach listening to it. It sounds like a parody of a cheesy infomercial underscored with the soundtrack from some new age musac played during a massage. Which, in this context, is completely distracting and not relaxing. There are moments of relief, specifically the voice and delivery of the man who reads the part of Franklin Garr. Thus far the only part that didn’t make me cringe. Would love to listen to this book if the audiobook could be redone. Maybe just one narrator reading the different parts? It needs to be simplified and de-cheesified. Currently I just can’t listen to this confusing hodgepodge of different styles and voices that sound like they are either trying to sell me antidepressants or narrate the next action adventure movie trailer. A hot mess.