Terminal World

By: Alastair Reynolds

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 19 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Spearpoint, the last human city, is an atmosphere-piercing spire of vast size. Clinging to its skin are the zones, a series of semi-autonomous city-states, each of which enjoys a different - and rigidly enforced - level of technology. Following an infiltration mission that went tragically wrong, Quillon has been living incognito, working as a pathologist in the district morgue.

But when a near-dead angel drops onto his dissecting table, Quillon's world is wrenched apart one more time. If Quillon is to save his life, he must leave his home and journey into the cold and hostile lands beyond Spearpoint's base, starting an exile that will take him further than he could ever imagine. But there is far more at stake than just Quillon's own survival, for the limiting technologies of the zones are determined not by governments or police but by the very nature of reality---and reality itself is showing worrying signs of instability.

©2010 Alastair Reynolds (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A rousing adventure in a widly original setting." ( Guardian, UK)

Sci-fi sailing on angel's wings.

Would you listen to Terminal World again? Why?

I'm sure I'll listen to Terminal World again, there were so many cool treatments both of characters and of science fiction tropes.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Terminal World?

The reveal about the essential truth of Spearpoint is powerful, elevating the story from kit-bashed fantasy to masterful science fiction.

What does John Lee bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

John Lee gives the characters personality thought their tones, inflection, and pace.

Below Par for AR

The story was slow paced and uninteresting. AR is my favorite author and this story was a mix cyber punk and steam punk. Throw in escort mission and various side plots which became extremely limited in scope.

I kept waiting for something interesting to take place but it was not to be.

Contemporary Sci Fi at its best

John Lee is a great narrator and does justice to an excellent book. Terminal World is amazingly inventive, the characters believable and I found it hard to stop listening.

For the people who don't like the ending I have only this to say.... WTF!

The logic of the book is impeccable although it does finish without explaining every possible permutation. The author is relying on you to use some of your own imagination, after all he has just delivered a masterpiece to you on a plate - surely that's not too much to ask.

Brain eating machines, dirigibles, his version of Reavers, mysteries everywhere are found on this dying planet and yet Reynolds holds it all together. If you get this book and don't like it please disregard all of my reviews, we're obviously not compatible.

The Zones are Shifting

Quillon is an odd bird in more ways than one. As a medical examiner for District 3 of Neon Heights he gets to check out all weird brain teaser corpses collected by sanitation. Somebody who cares about him is relying on that to deliver him a message.



Meroka starts out being Quillon’s bodyguard and guide until she evolves into a partner in his realized save the species mission. Their travels bring them in into contact with ghouls, Angels, Carnivorgs, Skullboys, the outcast Military organization of Dirigibles called Swarm and beings with nanomachine infused brains called Tectomancers.



It’s a full book. There is a character, Tulwar, in here that reminds me of the metal guardian from Logan’s Run only this one is Steampunk and greedy. Since we’re tossing genres around get your brain around this work of: Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Dieselpunk, Transhumanist, interdimensional travel.



Excellent crafting and narration throughout get this work four out of five entertainment award units of your choice. Stock up on Zone shift sickness meds and get moving. Enjoy!

I hate how good this guy writes.

Alastair Reynolds is a great author. He's got a clean, concise style to all the books I've read from him. You shouldn't believe in the universe of this novel, but you do. I hate that he's probably smarter than I will ever be.

Great story that just stops

One of the more disappointing endings I've read. The story flows nicely and just when you're ready for it to wrap up and explain everything it just ends. Almost none of the questions raised are answered. Very frustrating.

Terminal World should not be the Terminus

I really enjoyed listening to Terminal World and would rate this book much higher if it were the beginning of a series. But Reynolds has written Terminal World as a standalone novel which ends just as a great story is beginning so I found the book a real let down.

Reynolds sets up a great adventure tale that includes a nice mash-up of hard science and fantasy seasoned with steampunk elements. (I really liked the scientific explanations for the variations in technology. Steampunk often just seems to be about cool gadgets and doesn't incorporate enough logic to make me happy and that's not the case in Terminal World.) As we follow the main protagonist, Quillon, and his cohort, Meroka, in their flight to escape assassination attempts on Quillon, we get pieces of the puzzle to explain how their strange world functions, how it came to be, why it is "broken", and how it can be repaired and the great escape slowly evolves into more of a quest. However, just at the point you start to understand the constructs and have an inkling of how this happened, the story ends. It really feels like reading the first of a series and then having no second book available.

These are interesting characters with potential for a lot more development and a totally fascinating world whose history/evolution is only hinted at. There is a universe of room to expand and progress this story and I can only hope that Reynolds considers a sequel to "bring this story home".

Jon Lee does a good turn on narration and the voice he uses for the tough and sassy Meroka is perfect.

On its own, Terminal World is entertaining and, like all of Reynolds work, the story will expand your mind to some very cool new concepts, but it ends on the cusp of something great and may leave you wanting much more.

It was good - a little laborious to read

It was interesting, a good world but there were too many places I couldn't believe. I'll be watching the author for better though.

Far future bleak survival with non-tech zones

I guess this could make for a good movie, or series, because there is something of an epic here. The author has a brilliant technical and physical imagination, and has done a good job of thinking out what the various effects would be for certain technical or physical situations and it's a lot of fun being surprised by the results detailed in the story.

However, after a stint of reading author Larry Correia's books, this book seems lackluster in imagery and creating visual descriptions, characters and scenery. Terminal World seems to be a "B" effort instead of an "A" simply because there is so much lacking in sensual imagery. It's more like looking at a detailed blueprint than at the actual work of architecture - the beautiful building.

The story does start off slowly, and because it is a bleak future survival story, I often stopped and went off to another book for fun then returned to this one. (While highly technical, this is a book low in humor, and I just prefer books that have either wit, sarcasm, or a skewed viewpoint to spice things up) In the latter half of this book there was a more hopeful storyline and I was able to complete the rest of this book - and the latter part of the book was better than the first.

The narrator spoke quickly, almost too staccato in delivery, but had a clear and understandable intonation. Various narrators have different "accents" they can call on, and I was a little perplexed at the choices of a French and Jamaican-like accent for a few characters in a future that is at least 5000 years from now . . . but . . . okay. There are some narrators that excel at changing voices from character to character, and there are some narrators that excel at reading clearly. I think reading clearly is the strong point here and nice try with throwing in a couple of accents here and there.

I'm sure there are technically-minded people who will love this book and appreciate it, but I'm giving myself a virtual gold star for at least finishing it.

Another good one by Reynolds

If you're familiar with Alastair Reynolds other books this one may surprise you. Its not the typical 'hard science fiction' that comprises most of his other novels but instead is more a hybrid 'old-style' epic journey set in an advanced society. The story is actually quite memorable as i listened to it several months before writing this review and I'm having no trouble recalling it as I go along. It is a bit slow moving at times, the beginning took a while to get into and there is so much detail shoved at you right away that names/terms may be confusing for a while. However, all of that is clarified after a short while and the typical immersion of Reynolds's other stories sets in. I highly recommend giving this one a go, just be patient with it!