METAtropolis: Green Space

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

Narrated by: Dion Graham, Robin Miles, Mark Boyett, Scott Brick, Allyson Johnson, Sanjiv Jhaveri, Jennifer Van Dyck, Jonathan Davis

Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Finalist, Original Work, 2014

Audible’s Audie Award-winning and Hugo Award-nominated vision of the not-too-distant future returns!

As METAtropolis: Green Space moves into the 22nd Century, human social evolution is heading in new directions after the Green Crash and the subsequent Green Renaissance. Nearly everyone who cares to participate in the wired world has become part of the "Internet of things", a virtual environment mapped across all aspects of the natural experience. At the same time, the serious back-to-the-land types have embraced a full-on paleo lifestyle, including genetically engineering themselves and their offspring. At the same time, a back-to-space movement is seeking the moon, a green Mars, and even the stars, with the eventual goal of leaving a pristine and undisturbed Earth behind. METAtropolis: Green Space is the creation of Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominee Jay Lake; Hugo Award winning writers Seanan McGuire, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Elizabeth Bear; New York Times best-selling author Tobias S. Buckell; Aurora Award winner Karl Schroeder; and critically-acclaimed author Ken Scholes.

©2013 Joseph E. Lake, Jr., Elizabeth Bear, Karl Schroeder, Seanan McGuire, Tobias S. Buckell, Mary Robinette Kowal, Ken Scholes (P)2013 Audible Inc.

Better than the other two

This last anthology is definitely better than the second one and probably the first as well. The narrations are less irritating and the ideas in these stories are just off the chain, which is the main reason I like metatroplois. The pure sci-fi concepts that boggle the mind are incredible and it shows that the writers are heavily invested in their individual story lines at this point. If you get irritated by the Indian guy (Sanjiv Jhaveri) narrating the south American story, give him a second listen. It starts off kind of cheesy sounding but he's actually a decent narrator. The story is really good. It's in the same vein as the Russian guy stories about the virtual worlds. Also if you're a fan of the Reginald Stratton story arc, Tobias Buckell made him even more badass as an old guy. Overall, I think this book finally met my expectations for the series. It has good replayability value and it ties up the vagueness of the second installment nicely.

So much fun!!!

It was a great three books, enjoyed it to the end!!! I fall in love with the characters. I was sad when the book ended.

a great delight to listen to

love the addition of new voice actors play the male voices in this book. the story was great and intriguing and I loved how different people wrote different aspects of the books.

it was though provoking

it was nice to listen to. I enjoyed the different people speaking for each character.

The Good and the Bad

I have all three of the Metatropolis books - and I happened to listen to all three of them in order. There is good and bad about this book - one aspect I liked from the original Metatropolis was the geographic variety - unlike the second book which was located all in one area. Like any anthology read by different people, you'll find that some voices you like and some you don't. This is the case here. The mix of authors is also unique - some from previous Metatropolis books some new. Overall, the book is very good - hence the 4 stars. I do not think it has the appeal of the first book, but it is very well written and very well read. If you have the other two, this is a natural book to buy and it is worth the price. You'll be taken to places you haven't been before in this world, and some that you'll see from a different view. Some characters are old, some are new. Its a good read, but I don't think its as good as the first book.

Expected it to be great... And it was!

As a huge fan of the first two METAtropolis books, I expected nothing less from this final installment. After listening to these books in rapid succession, it was nice to get the closure on these overarching characters and plot lines. As an aside: I'm a huge proponent of the basic concept of these books. I think it's very intelligent to set up futurist science fiction in this world as opposed to a completely synthesized one. After all, these 'future cities' will be built upon or just modified versions of today's major metropolitan areas. I guess it gives the stories a strangely authentic flavor.

green space

Any additional comments?

I thought it was several short stories put together its hard to follow. Your in space in one chapter and talking about something completely different and new characters in the next paragraph which has nothing to do with what you were just talking about

A great addition to a storyline

I’ve always enjoyed the METAtropolis series and with author Jay Lake’s passing I hope the series is not ended as well. I liked how each story flowed into the next even when it didn’t seem that it should. I do think you can tell when overall editing was changed from one person to another and lets see if you can do it. This is a future version of the world where there is hope and there is life. This is not a series about complete hopelessness and I recommend it to everyone.

Best of the collection

I was lukewarm on the first metatropolis, but gave the series another chance and I am so glad I did! The stories only get stronger, and despite (or perhaps because of) the further-flung futuristic fiction elements this entry was my favorite by far. The stories are varied, but connected by a fairly urgent through line, although with the exception of the first and last they provide more of a series of points of view on small components of through line events rather than direct causative contributions. I rather enjoyed this quality, but I can see it as a strong negative for folks who enjoy more linear storytelling.

I will say there was one story I will be leaving out in future rereads for racial microaggression reasons, which is a shame since the sci-fi elements in the story were fascinating. I'm first-gen with strong ties to my south American family, most of whom still live there, and was really excited to see a story in this collection that took place in the Amazon with local characters. So it was pretty disappointing to feel myself wincing through what felt like a pretty comprehensive generic impoverished latin-american nation stereotype checklist in my head. I think I got bingo. These stories take place over a hundred years in the future, but even then we can only imagine south Americans straddling the line between nobel savage and neglectful parents of child swindlers who exist for tourist cash, building their futuristic villages out of garbage directly (bleach bottles? really?) where every other society addressed at least gets a sleek upgrade to their recycling that does not involve showcasing landfill-ingenuity.

The story seemed well intentioned, but may be rough for latine (and perhaps Desi, but I cannot speak directly to that) readers.

I am still giving the novel five stars, and it was well earned -- all of the vocal performances are strong, and every story showcases the regular ol' human capacity for compassion, cruelty, and weirdness underlying all of the shiny future tech. The way humanity shines through in each of these stories is what really makes the world feel a grounded and believable version of our own -- a vision of the future neither dystopian or utopian, but recognizably a product of ourselves.

Just didn't hook me like the first 2 in the series

I didn't make it through this book. Maybe I waited too long after listening to the first two and lost interest in the story.