Existence

By: David Brin

Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins, Robin Miles, L. J. Ganser

Length: 32 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Best-selling, award-winning futurist David Brin returns to globe-spanning, high concept SF with Existence.

Gerald Livingston is an orbital garbage collector. For a hundred years, people have been abandoning things in space, and someone has to clean it up. But there’s something spinning a little bit higher than he expects, something that isn’t on the decades’ old orbital maps. An hour after he grabs it and brings it in, rumors fill Earth’s infomesh about an "alien artifact". Thrown into the maelstrom of worldwide shared experience, the Artifact is a game-changer - a message in a bottle, an alien capsule that wants to communicate. The world reacts as humans always do: with fear and hope and selfishness and love and violence. And insatiable curiosity.

©2012 David Brin (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Brin is a good writer. Complicated, interesting

I liked this book when I read it back in Nov 2017, but I can't remember any real details about it. Interesting. But not memorable or compelling. I'll read others by Brin, and see how it goes.

Exceptional

Finally, a new and stimulating work. You do have to pay attention. Not a book for the lazy, but a rich reward for an effort.

a path forward

A beautiful tale of the way our society, even with all of its ups and downs, can find a way forward to become better than it is today. In many ways, Existence is a somber tale of the current failures of democracy and of the growing economic gulf between the Haves and the Have Nots. In another deeper more important way, however, Existence shows us what we have to do to survive.

This tale necessarily stretches out decades, as we must think long-term in order to survive as an advanced civilization. There are many roads forward, some terrifying and dystopian, others enlightened and almost impossible to dream about. But David Brin brings them alive here.

brilliant narrators

what a fantastic story if you are able to get over the first part of where the hell is the story going. ..all pays off fantastic brilliance in future thoughts of what could be ..told by a excellent narrators that worked so well didn't want the book to end

Boring, couldn't keep my interest

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Definitely Not

Would you ever listen to anything by David Brin again?

No, if the other books are anything like this one I probably won't. I'm putting him on my do not listen book.

Could you see Existence being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No

Any additional comments?

No much more to say. I listened to the book for hours hoping that it would improve, but it was just too strange and boring.

Story plot reminded me of a kid on a Pogo stick.

In the end I came to understand the philosopy of where the author was going, but the trip to there was hard. The story plot jumped around way too much for my taste, found it boring and a drudge at too may times. Also, I was never sure who the main characters were, still not. The most redeaming part and the only reason I slogged my way through was the perfomance of the narrators.

Science Fiction at its Best

If you could sum up Existence in three words, what would they be?

Insightful Intriguing Inspiring

Who was your favorite character and why?

Tor. She is the type of person we should all aspire to emulate.

Which scene was your favorite?

The ending. This is one of those rare tales that has a very satisfying conclusion. I obviously can't describe what I liked about it without spoiling it.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Absolutely. When I absolutely had to put it down to sleep, I had the headphones back on before I even got out of bed when I woke up.

Any additional comments?

I'm beginning to find that my tastes no longer align with the majority of reviewers, so I didn't let the mixed reviews put me off. SciFi is my favorite genre when done right and my least favorite when done poorly (unfortunately, most of today's SciFi falls into the latter category). This is one of the best science fiction novels I've ever read.

It actually is a part of the uplift series!

Any additional comments?

It took a while for me to get into this novel, but I got hooked and am happy I did so. It is a prequel to the uplift series, something I didn't realize. Brin has some interestingly unusual ideas about AI and its proliferation. Recommended.

epic

The science fiction narrative comprises a sweeping epic covering the reaches of time and space, I feel it may take several listens to fully assimilate all its threads and ramifications

Most disapointed in the unfulfilled potential.

What did you like best about Existence? What did you like least?

The story seemed new and that made for an interesting beginning. Soon the story starts to jump ahead past in time, without much warning of what is happening. What is even more frustrating is that the author seems to be jumping past parts of the story that would be great to hear with what amounts to "Ten years later". This is a device that can be helpful to move past tedious parts of a story, but in this case you miss out on plot I never feel gets made up for. Sometimes it also seems like an act of Deus Ex Machicina to help the writer out of a corner they have painted himself into.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

Two of the three narrators turned in solid performances. I am not generally a fan of multi-narrator books. In this case several characters are assigned to each narrator, and parts of the story from their perspective are by that narrator. It is distracting when characters from different narrators meet, and their personality is changed by that narrators take on the character.

Do you think Existence needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

I think it would have been better if David Brin had taken two books to tell this story. There is enough story here if it were not glossed over with jumps forward in time. But the way he has chosen to write this has rendered it unnecessary.

Any additional comments?

This book is would not be a a total waste of time, but there are many more books I could suggest before you take the time to listen to this book.