-
The State of the Art
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
The State of the Art
Buy for $19.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 183
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 161
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 160
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience! The first audiobook in Iain M. Banks's seminal science fiction series, The Culture. Consider Phlebas introduces listeners to a utopian conglomeration of human and alien races that explores the nature of war, morality, and the limitless bounds of mankind's imagination.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Music is super distracting and constant
- By Anonymous1234 on 06-17-20
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Algebraist
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 24 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year.
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Transition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 443
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 345
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 345
There is a world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Finally an Iain M. Banks book on audible...
- By Kurt on 10-29-09
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Prefect
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,372
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,905
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,908
Tom Dreyfus is a Prefect, a law enforcement officer with the Panoply. His beat is the multifaceted utopian society of the Glitter Band, that vast swirl of space habitats orbiting the planet Yellowstone, the teeming hub of a human interstellar empire spanning many worlds. His current case: investigating a murderous attack against one of the habitats that left 900 people dead, a crime that appalls even a hardened cop like Dreyfus.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Best yet of the Revelation Space series
- By Michael G Kurilla on 04-03-11
-
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
- Bobiverse, Book 1
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 102,593
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 94,195
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 93,957
There's a reason We Are Legion was named Audible's Best Science Fiction Book of 2016: Its irresistibly irreverent wit! Bob Johansson has just sold his software company for a small fortune and is looking forward to a life of leisure. The first item on his to-do list: Spending his newfound windfall. On an urge to splurge, he signs up to have his head cryogenically preserved in case of death. Then he gets himself killed crossing the street. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Ignore the Publisher's Summary! This is Amazing!
- By PW on 04-12-17
By: Dennis E. Taylor
-
Lake of Souls
- The Collected Short Fiction
- By: Ann Leckie
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 15 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 6
Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke award-winner Ann Leckie is a modern master of the SFF genre, forever changing its landscape with her groundbreaking ideas and powerful voice. Now, available for the first time comes the complete collection of Leckie's short fiction, including a brand new novelette, “Lake of Souls.”
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Adjoa Andoh and Ann Leckie are Perfection
- By Steven A. on 04-19-24
By: Ann Leckie
-
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 183
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 161
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 160
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience! The first audiobook in Iain M. Banks's seminal science fiction series, The Culture. Consider Phlebas introduces listeners to a utopian conglomeration of human and alien races that explores the nature of war, morality, and the limitless bounds of mankind's imagination.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Music is super distracting and constant
- By Anonymous1234 on 06-17-20
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Algebraist
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 24 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year.
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Transition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 443
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 345
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 345
There is a world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Finally an Iain M. Banks book on audible...
- By Kurt on 10-29-09
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Prefect
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,372
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,905
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,908
Tom Dreyfus is a Prefect, a law enforcement officer with the Panoply. His beat is the multifaceted utopian society of the Glitter Band, that vast swirl of space habitats orbiting the planet Yellowstone, the teeming hub of a human interstellar empire spanning many worlds. His current case: investigating a murderous attack against one of the habitats that left 900 people dead, a crime that appalls even a hardened cop like Dreyfus.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Best yet of the Revelation Space series
- By Michael G Kurilla on 04-03-11
-
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
- Bobiverse, Book 1
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 102,593
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 94,195
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 93,957
There's a reason We Are Legion was named Audible's Best Science Fiction Book of 2016: Its irresistibly irreverent wit! Bob Johansson has just sold his software company for a small fortune and is looking forward to a life of leisure. The first item on his to-do list: Spending his newfound windfall. On an urge to splurge, he signs up to have his head cryogenically preserved in case of death. Then he gets himself killed crossing the street. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Ignore the Publisher's Summary! This is Amazing!
- By PW on 04-12-17
By: Dennis E. Taylor
-
Lake of Souls
- The Collected Short Fiction
- By: Ann Leckie
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 15 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 6
Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke award-winner Ann Leckie is a modern master of the SFF genre, forever changing its landscape with her groundbreaking ideas and powerful voice. Now, available for the first time comes the complete collection of Leckie's short fiction, including a brand new novelette, “Lake of Souls.”
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Adjoa Andoh and Ann Leckie are Perfection
- By Steven A. on 04-19-24
By: Ann Leckie
-
The Quarry
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 98
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 88
Eighteen-year-old Kit is weird: big, strange, odd, socially disabled, on a spectrum that stretches from "highly gifted" at one end, to "nutter" at the other. At least Kit knows who his father is; he and Guy live together in a decaying country house on the unstable brink of a vast quarry. His mother's identity is another matter. Now, though, his father's dying, and old friends are gathering for one last time.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
By Iain Banks, not Iain M. Banks
- By Reader X on 05-19-18
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Polostan
- Volume One of Bomb Light
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Termination Shock and Cryptonomicon, the first installment in a monumental new trilogy—an expansive historical epic of intrigue and international espionage, presaging the dawn of the Atomic Age.
By: Neal Stephenson
-
Matter
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Toby Longworth
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 56
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 48
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 48
In a world renowned even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one brother it means a desperate flight, and a search for the one - maybe two - people who could clear his name. For his brother it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery and murder. And for their sister, even without knowing the full truth, it means returning to a place she'd thought abandoned forever.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Don't Buy this Abominable Abridgement
- By Jim Sabshin on 05-06-12
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Starfish
- Rifters Trilogy Series, Book 1
- By: Peter Watts
- Narrated by: Gabriel Vaughan
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 244
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 207
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 206
A huge international corporation has developed a facility along the Juan de Fuca Ridge at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to exploit geothermal power. They send a bio-engineered crew - people who have been altered to withstand the pressure and breathe the seawater - down to live and work in this weird, fertile undersea darkness.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
An excellent story, but only half of it
- By Casey on 02-12-20
By: Peter Watts
-
Revelation Space
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 5,500
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 4,616
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 4,612
Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself. With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. But as he closes in on the secret, a killer closes in on him because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Defeated
- By Eoin on 07-15-12
-
All Systems Red (Dramatized Adaptation)
- The Murderbot Diaries, Book 1
- By: Martha Wells
- Narrated by: Alejandro Ruiz, Bradley Foster Smith, Holly Adams, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 65
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.”
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Narrators are the opposite of what we want
- By Badger Badger on 09-12-23
By: Martha Wells
-
Children of Time
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37,798
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34,469
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34,397
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A very pleasant surprise
- By Simon on 06-17-17
-
Service Model
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into its core programming, they murder their owner. The robot discovers they can also do something else they never did before: They can run away. Fleeing the household they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating into ruins and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is having to find a new purpose.
-
The Bridge
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 90
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 81
A man lies in a coma after a near-fatal accident. His body broken, his memory vanished, he finds himself in the surreal world of the bridge - a world free of the usual constraints of time and space, a world where dream and fantasy, past and future, fuse. Who is this man? Where is he? Is he more dead than alive? Or has he never been so alive before?
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Sci-fi fans might skip, but it’s fantastic and well crafted
- By Moore Creative on 07-25-18
By: Iain Banks
-
The Three-Body Problem
- By: Cixin Liu
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 28,351
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 24,977
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 24,981
Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
They create a computer using a 30 million man Army
- By Josh P on 12-07-14
By: Cixin Liu
-
City of Last Chances
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 19 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 141
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 111
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 112
There has always been a darkness to Ilmar, but never more so than now. The city chafes under the heavy hand of the Palleseen occupation, the choke-hold of its criminal underworld, the boot of its factory owners, the weight of its wretched poor and the burden of its ancient curse. What will be the spark that lights the conflagration? Despite the city's refugees, wanderers, murderers, madmen, fanatics and thieves, the catalyst, as always, will be the Anchorwood–that dark grove of trees, that primeval remnant, that portal, when the moon is full, to strange and distant shores.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Occupied Paris during WW2 In Fantasy World?
- By caleb on 06-19-23
-
Echo of Worlds
- By: M. R. Carey
- Narrated by: Dami Olukoya
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Two mighty empires are at war—and both will lose, with thousands of planets falling to the extinction event called the Scour. At least that's what the artificial intelligence known as Rupshe believes. But somewhere in the multiverse there exists a force—the Mother Mass—that could end the war in an instant, and Rupshe has assembled a team to find it. Essien Nkanika, a soldier trying desperately to atone for past sins; the cat-woman Moon, a conscienceless killer; the digitally recorded mind of physicist Hadiz Tambuwal; Paz, an idealistic child and the renegade robot spy Dulcimer Coronal.
By: M. R. Carey
Publisher's summary
From New York Times bestselling and modern master of science fiction, Iain M. Banks, The State of the Art is the acclaimed collection of Banks's short fiction.
“Banks is a phenomenon...writing pure science fiction of a peculiarly gnarly energy and elegance.”–William Gibson
This is a striking addition to the body of Culture lore, and adds definition and scale to the previous works by using the Earth of 1977 as contrast. The stories in the collection range from science fiction to horror, dark-coated fantasy to morality tale. All bear the indefinable stamp of Iain Banks's staggering talent.
“Few of us have been exposed to a talent so manifest and of such extraordinary breadth.”–New York Review of Science Fiction
“[Banks] can summon up sense-of-wonder Big Concepts you've never seen before and display them with narration as deft as a conjuror's fingers."–scifi.com
The Culture series:
Consider Phlebas
The Player of Games
Use of Weapons
The State of the Art
Excession
Inversions
Look to Windward
Matter
Surface Detail
The Hydrogen Sonata
Critic reviews
“Banks writes with a sophistication that will surprise anyone unfamiliar with modern science fiction.”—The New York Times
“Banks never lets up in a dizzying array of characters, mind-bending ideas, and dazzling action.”—Booklist
More from the same
Narrator
Related to this topic
-
George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,431
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,342
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,341
It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
-
Project Hail Mary
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 169,285
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 154,333
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 153,778
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Bazinga
- By Davidgonzalezsr on 05-04-21
By: Andy Weir
-
The Martian
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 35,954
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 32,026
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 31,922
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
I love Wil Wheaton but why not R. C. Bray?
- By L. Newman on 01-11-20
By: Andy Weir
-
Point Nemo
- By: Jeremy Robinson
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 420
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 408
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 408
In the heart of the South Pacific lies Point Nemo, the most desolate and remote place on Earth. At its core is a dead zone, devoid of life, where government agencies crash their obsolete satellites and space stations, confident they won't harm a soul. When the International Space Station suffers a catastrophic failure and plummets through the atmosphere, it's here that Mission Specialist Julie Rohr, an astrobiologist studying living space dust called xylem, finds herself marooned. Julie's only hope for rescue lies in the hands of her estranged father, Dr. Finn Maddern, a renowned mycologist.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Totally original-totally feasible!
- By Lawrence Tate on 04-10-24
By: Jeremy Robinson
-
Artemis
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Rosario Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93,401
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 85,575
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 85,373
Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A ferrari with no motor
- By will on 11-18-17
By: Andy Weir
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,400
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6,588
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,582
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,431
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,342
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,341
It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
-
Project Hail Mary
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 169,285
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 154,333
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 153,778
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Bazinga
- By Davidgonzalezsr on 05-04-21
By: Andy Weir
-
The Martian
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 35,954
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 32,026
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 31,922
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
I love Wil Wheaton but why not R. C. Bray?
- By L. Newman on 01-11-20
By: Andy Weir
-
Point Nemo
- By: Jeremy Robinson
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 420
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 408
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 408
In the heart of the South Pacific lies Point Nemo, the most desolate and remote place on Earth. At its core is a dead zone, devoid of life, where government agencies crash their obsolete satellites and space stations, confident they won't harm a soul. When the International Space Station suffers a catastrophic failure and plummets through the atmosphere, it's here that Mission Specialist Julie Rohr, an astrobiologist studying living space dust called xylem, finds herself marooned. Julie's only hope for rescue lies in the hands of her estranged father, Dr. Finn Maddern, a renowned mycologist.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Totally original-totally feasible!
- By Lawrence Tate on 04-10-24
By: Jeremy Robinson
-
Artemis
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Rosario Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93,401
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 85,575
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 85,373
Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A ferrari with no motor
- By will on 11-18-17
By: Andy Weir
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,400
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6,588
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,582
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Algebraist
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 24 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year.
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 183
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 161
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 160
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience! The first audiobook in Iain M. Banks's seminal science fiction series, The Culture. Consider Phlebas introduces listeners to a utopian conglomeration of human and alien races that explores the nature of war, morality, and the limitless bounds of mankind's imagination.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Music is super distracting and constant
- By Anonymous1234 on 06-17-20
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Transition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 443
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 345
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 345
There is a world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Finally an Iain M. Banks book on audible...
- By Kurt on 10-29-09
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Quarry
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 98
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 88
Eighteen-year-old Kit is weird: big, strange, odd, socially disabled, on a spectrum that stretches from "highly gifted" at one end, to "nutter" at the other. At least Kit knows who his father is; he and Guy live together in a decaying country house on the unstable brink of a vast quarry. His mother's identity is another matter. Now, though, his father's dying, and old friends are gathering for one last time.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
By Iain Banks, not Iain M. Banks
- By Reader X on 05-19-18
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Wasp Factory
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 124
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 106
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 106
The Wasp Factory is a bizarre, imaginative, disturbing, and darkly comic look into the mind of a child psychopath - one of the most infamous of contemporary Scottish novels.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A history of a young psychopath
- By Eduardo on 03-11-13
By: Iain Banks
-
The Moonborn
- Or, Moby-Dick on the Moon
- By: D. F. Lovett
- Narrated by: DH Callahan
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 3
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 3
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3
When Ishmael lands on the Moon to ghostwrite the autobiography of Adam Moonborn, first man born on the Moon, he learns the job is not as straightforward as it seemed. They soon embark on a mission to destroy all of the Moon’s rogue robots, whom Moonborn holds responsible for the death of his family and the impending downfall of civilization.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Loved it.
- By D Callahan on 04-26-24
By: D. F. Lovett
-
The Algebraist
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 24 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year.
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 183
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 161
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 160
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience! The first audiobook in Iain M. Banks's seminal science fiction series, The Culture. Consider Phlebas introduces listeners to a utopian conglomeration of human and alien races that explores the nature of war, morality, and the limitless bounds of mankind's imagination.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Music is super distracting and constant
- By Anonymous1234 on 06-17-20
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Transition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 443
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 345
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 345
There is a world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Finally an Iain M. Banks book on audible...
- By Kurt on 10-29-09
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Quarry
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 98
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 88
Eighteen-year-old Kit is weird: big, strange, odd, socially disabled, on a spectrum that stretches from "highly gifted" at one end, to "nutter" at the other. At least Kit knows who his father is; he and Guy live together in a decaying country house on the unstable brink of a vast quarry. His mother's identity is another matter. Now, though, his father's dying, and old friends are gathering for one last time.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
By Iain Banks, not Iain M. Banks
- By Reader X on 05-19-18
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Wasp Factory
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 124
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 106
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 106
The Wasp Factory is a bizarre, imaginative, disturbing, and darkly comic look into the mind of a child psychopath - one of the most infamous of contemporary Scottish novels.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A history of a young psychopath
- By Eduardo on 03-11-13
By: Iain Banks
-
The Moonborn
- Or, Moby-Dick on the Moon
- By: D. F. Lovett
- Narrated by: DH Callahan
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 3
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 3
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3
When Ishmael lands on the Moon to ghostwrite the autobiography of Adam Moonborn, first man born on the Moon, he learns the job is not as straightforward as it seemed. They soon embark on a mission to destroy all of the Moon’s rogue robots, whom Moonborn holds responsible for the death of his family and the impending downfall of civilization.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Loved it.
- By D Callahan on 04-26-24
By: D. F. Lovett
-
The Bridge
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 90
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 81
A man lies in a coma after a near-fatal accident. His body broken, his memory vanished, he finds himself in the surreal world of the bridge - a world free of the usual constraints of time and space, a world where dream and fantasy, past and future, fuse. Who is this man? Where is he? Is he more dead than alive? Or has he never been so alive before?
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Sci-fi fans might skip, but it’s fantastic and well crafted
- By Moore Creative on 07-25-18
By: Iain Banks
-
The Steep Approach to Garbadale
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 132
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 90
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 87
The Wopuld family built their fortune on a board game called Empire, now a wildly successful computer game. So successful, in fact, that the American Spraint Corp wants to buy the Wopulds out. Alban, who has been evading the family tentacles for the last few years, thinks Spraint should be treated with suspicion, but he also has other things on his mind. What, for example, drove his mother to take her own life?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Entirely enjoyable. More AudioBooks by Iain Banks?
- By Daniel on 08-23-09
By: Iain Banks
-
Matter
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Toby Longworth
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 56
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 48
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 48
In a world renowned even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one brother it means a desperate flight, and a search for the one - maybe two - people who could clear his name. For his brother it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery and murder. And for their sister, even without knowing the full truth, it means returning to a place she'd thought abandoned forever.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Don't Buy this Abominable Abridgement
- By Jim Sabshin on 05-06-12
By: Iain M. Banks
-
Lake of Souls
- The Collected Short Fiction
- By: Ann Leckie
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 15 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 6
Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke award-winner Ann Leckie is a modern master of the SFF genre, forever changing its landscape with her groundbreaking ideas and powerful voice. Now, available for the first time comes the complete collection of Leckie's short fiction, including a brand new novelette, “Lake of Souls.”
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Adjoa Andoh and Ann Leckie are Perfection
- By Steven A. on 04-19-24
By: Ann Leckie
-
Exodus: The Archimedes Engine
- By: Peter F. Hamilton
- Length: 15 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Forty-thousand years ago, humanity fled a dying Earth. Traveling in massive ark ships, these brave pioneers spread out across the galaxy to find a new home. After traveling thousands of light-years, one fleet of ark ships arrived at Centauri, a dense cluster of stars with thousands of potentially habitable planets. The survivors of Earth signaled to the remaining ark ships that humanity had finally found its new home among the stars.
-
Raw Spirit
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Tom Cotcher
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 16
In a bid to uncover the unique spirit of the single malt whisky, author lain Banks has decided to undertake a tour of the distilleries of his homeland. His tour of Scotland combines history, literature and landscape in an entertaining and informative account.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
I miss this guy!
- By Marcos Ibarguen on 07-28-22
By: Iain Banks
-
Again, Dangerous Visions
- By: Harlan Ellison
- Length: 38 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America and winner of countless awards—including the Hugo, Nebula, Edgar Allan Poe, and Bram Stoker—Harlan Ellison proved once more that he was both unpredictable and irrepressible in this second collection of innovative science fiction. Again, Dangerous Visions—the middle installment in a planned three anthology series—includes award-winning stories from incomparable writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin, Gene Wolfe, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Piers Anthony, Dean Koontz, and James Tiptree, among many others.
By: Harlan Ellison
-
Dangerous Visions
- By: Harlan Ellison
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell, Simon Vance, Steven Jay Cohen, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 5
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 4
A landmark short story collection that put the more character-based New Wave science fiction on the map, Dangerous Visions won several prestigious awards and was nominated for many others. This now-classic anthology includes thirty-three stories by thirty-two award-winning authors, over half of whom have won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards.
By: Harlan Ellison
-
Ghost Station
- By: S.A. Barnes
- Narrated by: Zura Johnson
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 38
Psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray has dedicated her life to the study and prevention of ERS—a space-based condition most famous for a case that resulted in the brutal murders of twenty-nine people. When she's assigned to a small exploration crew, she's eager to make a difference. But as they begin to establish residency on an abandoned planet, it becomes clear that crew is hiding something. While Ophelia focuses on her new role, her crewmates are far more interested in investigating the eerie, ancient planet and unraveling the mystery behind the previous colonizer's hasty departure.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I’ve been waiting
- By Shelby ecker on 04-09-24
By: S.A. Barnes
-
Slow Bullets
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: Susan Duerden
- Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 200
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 181
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 179
A vast conflict, one that has encompassed hundreds of worlds and solar systems, appears to be finally at an end. A conscripted soldier is beginning to consider her life after the war and the family she has left behind. But for Scur - and for humanity - peace is not to be.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A great story ruined by narration.
- By Andrew Linke on 06-11-15
-
The Ascendant Wars: Ashes
- Ascendant War, Book 3
- By: Rhett C. Bruno, M.B. Vance
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Humanity's fate is in their hands... The Lucians have faltered in their fight against the cruel Ascendant overlord, Cef. Now, a handful of survivors from a failed liberation campaign have been called to a Final Challenge in a madman’s arena. For Rylan, Geeta, Scott and Aila, this may be their only opportunity to make peace with those they love. It will certainly be their last, best chance to save mankind from an endless cycle of genocidal slaughter.
By: Rhett C. Bruno, and others
-
The Left Hand of Darkness
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of Winter, a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants’ gender is fluid. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters.
What listeners say about The State of the Art
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Scott
- 04-19-24
Great(but missing final chapter)
Great reading of a fantastic collection of short stories.. BUT the final chapter of the book is left out - which is a huge oversight as the final chapter is probably the most important offering in the whole book... it is in fact the whole reason I had pre ordered this when they announced it on Audible, so that is really unfortunate.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mule
- 04-06-24
Great read by a great narrator
I’ve always enjoyed this book and can’t thank Peter Kenny enough for the spot on narration - the Drone
ps. can’t wait to hear The Algebraist all over again!!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars
-
Performance1 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Aaron Hill
- 04-13-24
Audio is too quiet
For some reason this book seems like it’s half as loud as normal. Even with my volume up all the way it’s hard to hear sometimes and sounds like the reader is practically whispering
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Will
- 04-19-24
Finally
Can we get the rest of the Culture series now? The work itself is great, a short story collection.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!