METAtropolis: Cascadia

By: Jay Lake, Mary Robinette Kowal, Elizabeth Bear, Ken Scholes, Karl Schroeder, Tobias Buckell

Narrated by: Rene Auberjonois, Kate Mulgrew, Wil Wheaton, Gates McFadden, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Jay Lake

Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

This provocative sequel to the Hugo and Audie Award nominated METAtropolis features interconnected stories by today’s top writers of speculative fiction – performed by a galaxy of Star Trek stars.

As the mid-20th century approaches, the Pacific Northwest has been transformed - politically, economically, and ecologically - into the new reality of Cascadia. Conspiracies and secrets threaten the tenuous threads of society. The End of Days seems nearer than ever. And the legend of the mysterious Tygre Tygre looms large.

METAtropolis: Cascadia is the creation of Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominee Jay Lake; Mary Robinette Kowal, winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer; New York Times best-selling author Tobias S. Buckell; Hugo Award winner Elizabeth Bear; Aurora Award winner Karl Schroeder; and critically acclaimed author Ken Scholes. The team of narrators is any Star Trek fan’s dream: Rene Auberjonois (“Odo”); Kate Mulgrew (“Capt. Kathryn Janeway”); Wil Wheaton (“Wesley Crusher”); Gates McFadden (“Dr. Beverly Crusher”); Jonathan Frakes (“Cmdr. William Riker”); and LeVar Burton (“Geordi La Forge”). Jay Lake, who also served as Project Editor, introduces this stunning sequel, written and produced exclusively for digital audio.

Check out the original METAtropolis here.;Learn more about the narrators and authors at the METAtropolis: Cascadia microsite now.

©2010 Joseph E. Lake, Jr., Mary Robinette Kowal, Tobias S. Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, Karl Schroeder, Ken Scholes (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Winner, Original Work, 2012

Politicized

Again, the political overtones severely detracted from my enjoyment of stories that would have otherwise been well done me enjoyable.

I loved it

I was both excited and nervous because I love the first one so much. this one very much lived up to it and I enjoyed it at least as much. where is it the first one the stories were connected through these loose threads that hinted at each other this one was much more deliberate and the threads were woven together to form a much tighter fabric

Good stories some of the nations ware just terribl

Very good stories continuing exploring the alternative universe (or possible future).

The stories ware intriguing and provoked some thoughts about the future of technology and society.

The only thing that i did not like was some of the narration especially of Deodand, i don't get how this was published with narrator that cna not pronounce the name of main character right at all. How hard is to pronounce Genady... and the so called Russian accent was just jiberish....
The story was great but the narrator just killed it for me... Especially after the great narration in the first book. I don't know who decided that this narration is good enough to publish, that was a terrible mistake.

Overall good collection, worth listening 🎧 and I will definitely continue with the next installment in this nice series.

Better than the first

I liked this better than the first book, although this one does have a better cast of narrator's with one exception. Scott Brick is one of the best, but I can see he didn't quite fit the Star Trek theme. Great book!

Some good, some bad

When I saw that Audible did a follow up to the original METATropolis, I was interested to see what they had done to one of my favorite programs.

"The Bull Dancers": Extension of "Forests of the Night" the original leadoff. Pretty decent story other than the fact that it went on for much too long (3 hrs). Rene Auberjonois was decent, however most of his characters sound like Odo from Star Trek.

"Water to Wine": A wonderful tale that fits well in the Cascadia cycle. Definiteley a good choice of narrator

"Byways": Extension of "Stochasti-city". Didn't work as well as the other stories, but Wil Wheaton definiteley got the same rhythm/pacing that the original had.

"Confessor": Right length, however all the characters (male and female) all sounded the same, so identifying which story line we were on is difficult.

"Deonand": The Bad of the book. While the text is spot on, Frakes is not the right person to be narrating this segment. His butchering of Gennady (pronounced Go-Knot-ee) Malianov is so disjointed as compared to "To Hie from Far Cilenia"


In short I can tell which narrators had gone over the previous work (if there was one) and which did not. Audible, If you care about this book and the series please bring Stefan Rudniki in and re-record Deonand.

Science fiction for thinkers

This is an exceptionally good book of speculative fiction. What a relief from ridiculous vampire novels and vapid space operas. The book builds on the first volume and the stories are all as good and most are better. Like good speculative fiction they are not predictions of the future but vehicles for looking at current issues--ecological breakdown, privatized military and law enforcement, genetic experimentation, adding intelligence to formerly unintelligent things, and many other ideas. And they are great stories by some of the best new scifi writers. And I thought the reading was superb. On the contrary, actors often make the best readers. Next task for me is to see what else each these authors have written.

Great compilation and follow up!

Where does METAtropolis: Cascadia rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I've enjoyed mostly all of my audiobooks, but this one is near the top.

What did you like best about this story?

The authors came back and followed up on loose ends from the last book that made me so happy. I like how they all can focus on the events going on in the Cascadia area and have linked everything. I can't wait until the next book comes out later this month!

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?

I was also pleasantly surprised by the cast of readers being I listen to books on my commute to work. LeVar Burton brought be back to my childhood sitting in front of the tv watching Reading Rainbow. I loved watching him read to me! But I also recognized Jonathan Flakes which brought me back to Star Trek when my parents watched it. And I investigated and realized all of the readers for these 6 short stories were from that show. Great choices.

Any additional comments?

All I have to say is WOW! I was drawn to the first METAtropolis because I am a writer and I appreciate several writers coming together to create the world and then branch off to create the characters. I was a bit skeptical and not sure about how I felt about some of those stories. But they are doing a great job at keeping consistency with quality.

Great stories from perfect presenters

Each reader brings their own talents to their stores beautifully. A fitting sequel to Metatropolis

I don't have enough words for how good this was.

I read the original several years back as a college student, and knew I would like this one too. It was better than I anticipated - relevant to society and politics today while also showing a potential future. My partner, who generally doesn't enjoy fiction, also enjoyed this far more than either of us expected. The stories made us think, but also kept us on the edge of our seat. It was wonderful.

Better than the first Metatropolis

This wouldn't make sense without having read or listened to the first. A lot of characters make a come back and Cascadia expends on weird tech and the consequences of the revolution underway.