Influx

By: Daniel Suarez

Narrated by: Jeff Gurner

Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

What if our civilization is more advanced than we know?

The New York Times best-selling author of Daemon - "the cyberthriller against which all others will be measured" (Publishers Weekly) - imagines a world in which decades of technological advances have been suppressed in an effort to prevent disruptive change.

Are smartphones really humanity's most significant innovation since the moon landings? Or can something else explain why the bold visions of the 20th century - fusion power, genetic enhancements, artificial intelligence, cures for common diseases, extended human life, and a host of other world-changing advances - have remained beyond our grasp? Why has the high-tech future that seemed imminent in the 1960s failed to arrive?

Perhaps it did arrive…but only for a select few.

Particle physicist Jon Grady is ecstatic when his team achieves what they've been working toward for years: A device that can reflect gravity. Their research will revolutionize the field of physics - the crowning achievement of a career. Grady expects widespread acclaim for his entire team. The Nobel Prize. Instead, his lab is locked down by a shadowy organization whose mission is to prevent at all costs the social upheaval sudden technological advances bring. This Bureau of Technology Control uses the advanced technologies they have harvested over the decades to fulfill their mission.

They are living in our future.

Presented with the opportunity to join the BTC and improve his own technology in secret, Grady balks, and is instead thrown into a nightmarish high-tech prison built to hold rebellious geniuses like himself. With so many great intellects confined together, can Grady and his fellow prisoners conceive of a way to usher humanity out of its artificial dark age?

And when they do, is it possible to defeat an enemy that wields a technological advantage half a century in the making?

©2014 Daniel Suarez (P)2014 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"You'll hear a lot of reviewers compare Suarez to [Michael] Crichton, including me for his previous book Kill Decision. And Suarez deserved the honor in the truest sense...he had achieved a truly Crichton-level of storytelling. But with Influx, Suarez becomes the master, and Crichton is the one who is honored by the comparison." (Stephen L. Macknik, Scientific American)

"[Influx is] done with the dazzling sophistication, the play of ideas, the hints of a new understanding almost within our grasp that characterize sci-fi in the cybertronic age." (The Wall Street Journal)

“With this terrifying thriller, Suarez provides further support for the proposition that he’s a worthy successor to the late Michael Crichton… Suarez once again mixes science and fiction perfectly.”(Publishers Weekly, starred review)

More of a sprint than a marathon

Suarez really never fails to deliver. Here, we have another story by him, unrelated to his previous works, but just as engaging.

The book takes off running, then gets really fast and wild. Maybe too fast and wild, but whatever the audio equivalent of "page turner," this is it.

Technobabble

The first chapter is so strewn with techno-babble that it is hard to listen to. The story held my interest but did not capture my emotions. The technology is fully developed but the characters are not, so in the end I did not really care which side won the conflict. The narrator was incredible. I really thought there was more than one person reading.

Interesting - despite a Hollywood 5th act.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes - very cool idea of why the our present isn't more "furturey"

Who was your favorite character and why?

I think you mean "Did you have a favorite character in Influx and why?"

What about Jeff Gurner’s performance did you like?

Good job of in casing me in the story line

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

How is laughing or crying "extreme" ..?

Any additional comments?

Fire the moron who wrote the previous question

Interesting!!!

Good book and interesting ideas. This may not be to far fetched. Maybe we'll never know in this life time!

The futurist in you must get this audiobook!

This is another expertly narrated audio book. Jeff's performance is outstanding and Daniel's story is so interesting that I found myself binge listening to it for hours a time.

The futuristic ideas are things that any listener would want. Great story, great book.

Suarez sets the bar

After finishing all of Suarez' novels I have to say that this one definitely takes the cake. I thought the Daemon series couldn't be outdone - but it was. A clone army, AI interrogation, anti-aging biotechnology, anti-gravity physics - he has a knack of taking dry laboratory topics and throws them into the mix of human experience. We lack understanding of the social impacts of our technologies much like the Europeans lacked such understanding when they invented ships that could cross the Atlantic. Suarez unveils what this world could possibly be like with equal intensity of promise and disaster. I will be listening to this again.
Two last things.
One - Jeff Gurner is the best narrator I've yet to hear.
Two - If this ever becomes a movie Alexa is Scarlett Johansson.

Cotton

Wow what can I say. I bought this book on a whim and to my surprise is one of my favorite books. The first couple of of chapters were a little slow but then before I knew it i was engrossed with this novel. All I have to say is I love and hate cotton. This book is brilliant and the narrator is just as good. This book once it gets going kept me in the seat of my 👖trying to figure out in my mind where this was going. I loved the smart tech and the science was not overwhelmingly boring but fascinating. If you give this book a try you will not be disappointed.

not as good as his earlier work, but not bad.

not a good as his earlier work, but not bad. not what I had hoped for.

Falls apart at the end.

Would you try another book from Daniel Suarez and/or Jeff Gurner?

Yes

Would you recommend Influx to your friends? Why or why not?

I would only because it was fun and a neat idea.

What about Jeff Gurner’s performance did you like?

I really like how Jeff Gurner performed the characters and I felt like he portrayed the narrative the author was aiming for.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes

Any additional comments?

I have to say the book really falls apart and becomes really forced at the last 2 hours 30 minute mark. The forced romance other than being predictable is just unbelievably cheesy and the villain basically becomes a super evil mega villain like you'd expect. The story is still good to listen to although it's pretty rough after that.

exciting-can't put down!

good versus evil story that was both creative and exciting. I flew through this book!