Aftermath

I’ve waited for Aftermath to arrive and had it on my pre-order list. After listing to it completely, I am reasonably pleased. The premise and plot lines hold together well. The novel asserts that a super-nova generated by Alpha Centauri has affected the Earth’s weather and infrastructure. Although I am not an astrophysicist, I know this to be implausible – thus I will give the author his one pass card. The other science fiction is not too much of a departure.

The characters are interesting and Sheffield does a good job getting you involved in their stories. During the development of the plot, he switches among points of view reasonably and with enough detail to keep you engaged.

Gary Dikeos narrates the novel. I did not care for his voices, especially the one he used for the president – Sol. He did have a decent pace and I give him points for trying.

This novel would appeal to any general science fiction interested reader. However, those hard sci-fi aficionados would not find it up to their rigorous standards. I am please to have listened and will probably read the sequel Starfire.

The premise is super exciting -- Alpha Centauri goes super nova and creates an EMP, blowing up and leaving the earth in darkness as a result. The result? Dull, dull, dull. Not only is the storyline agonizing slow with very little action, but the narrator made it even worse. He reads the narration just fine, but whenever he gets to the dialog parts, every character sounds like a weird, disconnected robot (especially the women). And the accents were atrocious. I tried... really, I forced myself to make it past the half-way point, but I realized I'm just wasting precious time that I could be listening to something else. It's a shame. It's such an awesome premise, which is why I'm giving the story two stars instead of one. Maybe someone else will like it better.

How could it have been worse? I very rarely give up on a book, but this reading was so poorly executed that it was painful to listen to.

This story had me right from the beginning. The characters are believable and one worries about what will happen next to them. I hope there is a second book as this one ends somewhat in the middle. I want more, I tell you!

I have been so distracted by the really awful performance of the narrator...
He reads way to slow and the voices for caracters are just horrible!

I would recommend that my friends read the book instead of wasting their money/credits on the audiobook.

He reads far to slowly!
The "voices" for the different caracters makes many of them seem mentally handicapped..
Even with the player set at 1.5 speed, the narration is slow..

Dissapointment!
The story is OK, but the narrator just ruins the experience!

Yes to Charles Sheffield no to Gary Dikeos

Maybe to One Second After. That is mostly because both are post EMP novels

Wil Wheaton

Yes

Whilst I am enjoying the story I find it very difficult to listen to when the narrator does accents. His female voices are awful, his Australian accent is woeful and most of his male characters sound like senile old men.

I've been waiting for Aftermath to be released for a few months. The discription had me hooked. I have tried listening to this book all afternoon...fact is the story is slow and the narriation is flat. What a waste.