The Atopia Chronicles

Atopia, Book 1

By: Matthew Mather

Narrated by: Luke Daniels, Nick Podehl, Angela Dawe, Tanya Eby, Amy McFadden, Mikael Naramore

Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

In the near future, to escape the crush and clutter of a packed and polluted Earth, the world’s elite flock to Atopia, an enormous corporate-owned artificial island in the Pacific Ocean. It is there that Dr. Patricia Killiam rushes to perfect the ultimate in virtual reality: a program to save the ravaged Earth from mankind’s insatiable appetite for natural resources.

A strong narrative with several distinct voices propels the listener through this brave new world, painting a powerful and compelling vision of a society that promises everyone salvation with passage to an addictive, escapist alternative reality.

©2013 Matthew Mather (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Horrible voice actors

Every single voice actor they use cannot do the opposite sex. Every time they voice the opposite sex it's like some horrible mimicry meant to demean and mock that sex. Seriously, it's bad. The story is good and the voice actors do fine as long as they do the same sex. And the story was interesting enough to keep me going. However, I will be READING the next books if I decide to further the story. I honestly can't believe someone paid these actors for their "work".

Amazing!!

With every chapter it left me wanting more! Eerily capable of being close to this reality.

Keep reading!

The beginning of this book had me a little frustrated. The initial character was annoying, and the story started off a little slow, but then things got really interesting. The more you get into the story, the more fascinating it becomes. The multiple characters and view points could have become confusing, but the author does a good job making it clear who and where you are in the story. Very cool world and very interesting premise.

A story that bridges the possible with incredible!

If you could sum up The Atopia Chronicles, Book 1 in three words, what would they be?

Utterly Mind Blowing!

Any additional comments?

As my understanding of physics and technology goes this author has developed an amazing possibility for the relative near future of humanity. Far more exciting and tangible then the majority of the science fiction I've read. Starts slow but quickly becomes a fantastic story that expanded my appreciation of the possible.

beautifully voiced sprawling Epic

it's a story so detailed and imaginative that it will take you until almost the end of the novel to realize that the plot of the entire series isn't even revealed until the last five or six chapters.

The world the author creates is one you will alternatively long for and fear. it's well worth the time to listen.

forgive the poor capitalization and punctuation this was dictated at a traffic light.

Not a fan

The most annoying narration I have ever heard. literally couldn't finish it. The story is good. just read it instead.

like a symphony the individual parts come together

If you could sum up The Atopia Chronicles, Book 1 in three words, what would they be?

Twisted Utopian Future.

What other book might you compare The Atopia Chronicles, Book 1 to and why?

As do many books of the same ilk, this story demonstrates why there could never be a Utopian World. No matter how hard we might try to create one, human beings are complex and though an idea to add or remove things, people and lifestyles seems perfect, there are always reasons an human(oid) being will mess it up.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

In Chapter 1 the audio book opens to an excruciating obnoxious female voice with a heavy NYC accent. I come from NY, So this is not anything quaint and the accent was such a cliché, it was horrible. Not many people have that accent any longer, it's very archaic. I was like an assault on my ears and nearly returned the book, but I liked what I was hearing and decided to stick it out. Fortunately, the character, Olympia only reappears briefly later and the narration is not 1st person Olympia. I think if I had to endure that heinous, contrived accent for more chapters in the book I'd not be able to enjoy the book as I did.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I'd have to say when I found out about Jimmy's childhood. But then, even that is not what it seems.

Any additional comments?

I found this book to be highly engaging and a fascinating story. I loved the 1st person view by each character and the way they were all tied in together. The scifi of splintering was compelling and I really could not put it down once it took off for me which was fairly quickly.

Remarkable.

I am not a huge Sci-Fi fan. While I have (thanks to some recommendations from my brothers) read a few Sci-Fi stories in the past, it's never been an area I was that comfortable in or drawn to.

When I received notification that my pre-order for Atopia was in my library and ready for download, I was a little stumped; when had I ordered this? Why would I have? I read the synopsis and could see why I may have been drawn to it; dystopian undercurrents, with multiple narrators and points of view... The current senile me thanked the previous, unremembered me for having pre-ordered the story, and I began the book immediately.

As mentioned above, the story is told by multiple points of view with jumping and/or overlapping timelines. You may at times find yourself in the same conversation you've read before, but now from the other character's point of view. Each new section begins with a clear announcement of which character you are about to hear from. In the firsts half of the book, these sections are larger chunks and it takes a while to catch on to the intricate cobweb of shared history that connects all of these people (or perhaps I should instead say sentient beings) together. Then, as you become more comfortable with the format and players, these sections become shorter and faster as the narrative speeds up to it's final conclusion; or at the very least, the conclusion for now.

One of my favorite authors, Michael J. Sullivan, was discussing recently that one of the accepted, identifying qualities of the Science Fiction genre is that it provides us with a forum in which to look at, consider, and discuss moral and ethical ramifications of different choices and ideologies as they are extended into the future. I'd never considered that before, but between his recent Sci-Fi book (Hollow World) and this novel Atopia, I really see what he's talking about. This book gave us a great deal to consider regarding what we call "progress" and "technology" today, asking how far these ideas can be taken before they become something that controls us, rather than something we control.

I believe that for the great majority of people, this is a book that will greatly benefit a second reading; and I am greatly looking forward to mine. Now that I'm more comfortable with the players and the landscape, I believe I'll pick up on a lot of great stuff in the second read that I missed in the first one.

I recommend this book, regardless of what "genres" you typically listen to.

Brilliantly written, well done audio

Here we are in a bleak future where we are using all of our resources (big surprise) so some brilliant people come up with the idea of Atopia. A place where you can go and live how you want getting all of your pleasures fulfilled. And I do mean … all of them! But you have to be careful what you wish for!! With differing points of view for each story it is very easy to see and understand how the character of that story feels. I was immediately caught up in the storyline from book one and enjoyed most how Matthew Mather ends these. A bit evil (right up my alley).

Book one and two really caught me and I think there was a real moral lesson to be learned in them, as in this entire story, but those two stuck with me all the way through. It helps that every story starts at the same time and I got to see some of the characters that I’ve come to know. Each story gives a little more depth, and then a bit more so by the end I was able to see how they intertwined.

The audio for this was fabulous. I loved that this has different narrators. There are so many characters that NOT having multiple narrators may have bogged the voices down, but as it is I was able to interpret the voices very easily. It also helps that at the beginning of some of the chapters in later books we are told who is giving their point of view. Also, sometimes I feel like an audio would be better read in book form, in this case with the differing characters and the great production, hands down suggest audio all the way.

Audiobook purchased for review by ABR.

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Great book

It was amazing the first chapter sold me at the start.😄😄😄😄😄 the scene where she is getting angry is hilarious