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Idlewild  By  cover art

Idlewild

By: Nick Sagan
Narrated by: Clayton Barclay Jones
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Publisher's summary

He wakes alone, nameless, in a strangely bucolic day-after-tomorrow world. His amnesia is near-total; he cannot remember his name and doesn't recognize anything around him, but he knows with absolute certainty that someone has tried to kill him and will surely try again.

Not knowing who, if anyone, he can trust, he reacquaints himself with eight companions, all of whom are being trained (for what?) at an esoteric academy run by a cryptic superintendent named Maestro. As he tries to discover the identity of the person who wants him dead, he quickly begins to unravel a series of sinister truths, which make it clear that the ramifications of his search are far greater than he could ever have imagined. Much more than his own life is at stake.

Idlewild takes the best of its genre and transcends it, creating a story that will appeal to readers far beyond the traditional science fiction fan base.

©2003 Damned If I Don't Productions (P)2003 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"Sagan may have more imagination than he knows what to do with a wonderful thing in a new author." (Kirkus Reviews)

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What listeners say about Idlewild

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Great story

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it. It was a realitively easy listen. I gave only 3 stars because the author did not make enough commitment to characters and details. I was not drawn into their world enough to feel a personal stake in the characters. Good twist to human behavior and instinctual self-preservation.

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12 people found this helpful

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

Not as good as the sequel

I listened to edenborn the sequel to this book, when I was a member of a much inferior audio book club. They did not have Idlewild and I did not even know this book existed. I enjoyed the sequel and so thought this would be good. This was terrible. I could not take more then 2 hours of it. It is all a dream sequence. Slowly you learn that these kids are in suspended animation and are learning to graduate to the real world when they will be able to survive in it. They are the last ten people of the world. It sounds like a great story and it could have been, but Carl's son is too busy trying to be Fedor Dostoevsky to write a good story. May I suggest you go right to the sequel, as NS must have gotten the good advice to make the story more interesting to the reader.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent work by Carl Sagan's son

This is a happy confluence of superb narration and compelling writing. It is best to know as little about the plot as possible before begining, but this book can be thought of as a much darker Ender's Game. There are excellent characterizations of teenagers, a fast-moving (if initially confusing) plotline, and some intriguing twists. It is a dark book, however, with a not always likable narrator, so those who prefer light and breezy might be advised to move on. Otherwise, this is one of the best science fiction offerings on Audible.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful! This is a must!

Of the many many Audible books that I've listened to, this is only the second time that I've ever been moved to write a review.

This is one of those books that is so well written, and draws you in so completely, that for days afterward you see the world in a slightly different way. That, to me, is always the sign of an amazingly good story.

I remember seeing this book in the book store when it was first released. It looked like a fascinating premise, but for some reason I walked out of the store without it. I'm glad that I decided to listen to it on Audible! Now I've spent the past 8 months waiting for the release of the sequel, "Edenborn". I sure hope that Audible carries it!

Download this one. Listen to it. You can't go wrong.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

What a debut!

Well, everyone's mileage may vary, but for me this is the best audiobook I've heard in a very long time. It's hard to describe without giving away the plot, but this is a dark, weird, Matrix-like story that starts out one way and winds up somewhere completely different, and along the way it amuses, provokes, tickles and disturbs. It takes a little while to realize where it's going, but once it comes together, look out. I had chills by the end of it. For a first novel, Idlewild is terrific, and honestly for a fifteenth novel it'd be pretty darn good too.

Four and half stars, and I'm rounding that up to five.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic in the truest sense

This was the 2nd best sci-fi audiobook I have heard thus far (out of many) with the best being Orsen Scott Card's "Ender's Game". This novel has a similar feel to that novel, and the author knows how to get you "inside the head" of his characters in a like fashion. Like all good sci-fi novels, technology is a backdrop for characters to wrestle through weighty and complex issues, both spiritual and pyschological in nature. This is not a "light" novel, it had a definite depressing feel to it which I felt was very effective.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Best Audio Book I've Ever Heard

Starts off wierd. You'll be a little confused at first. Stick with it. If you've seen The Matrix, you'll be able to follow the scifi aspects and everything well. 60 year old Grandmothers won't get it, (unless they're into scifi). The author writes Extremely intelligently and the book is a poetic and philosophical masterpiece. Better than Prey, better than the matrix.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Not as boring as people say

More than a few reviewers here and on Amazon thought the book had some slow parts. I did not feel this way. The reader took some getting used to, but I was hooked after the first hour. By 3 hours in I was fully engaged as the pieces came together. If you post-apocalyptic, virtual reality sci-fi you will love this book.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Another winner from Highbridge

Highbridge consistently puts out terrific audiobooks and this sci-fi thriller/mystery is no exception.
In his debut, screenwriter turned novelist Sagan breaks all the rules and comes up with a plot that seems like it should be all over the map but instead comes together beautifully.
With a terrific performance, Clayton Barclay Jones does justice to the hero, Halloween, a young man lost in an existential nightmare, unable to tell what's real from what isn't. Clayton makes you feel for Halloween's plight, rooting for him to find his way through a mystery that's bigger than anything he's known and more sinister than he can imagine.
Typical high quality production values from Highbridge. Great actor. Wonderful book. What more could you want?

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3 people found this helpful

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

getting to the good parts...

if there are any...seems impossible. This is one of the most annoying books that I have ever tried to read. I started it a couple of times, put it away, and now its too late to return it or I would do so. AND I resent the reference by another reviewer along the lines of "60 year old grandmothers" not appreciating it. Many 60 year old grandmothers (and grandfathers) grew up in the heyday of the great science fiction writers - Clarke, Heinlein, Brunner, too many to mention, - and this writer is simply not in their class. If you go ahead and buy this showy piece of jumpy junk, don't let the "return by" date pass you by.

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2 people found this helpful