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Immobility  By  cover art

Immobility

By: Brian Evenson
Narrated by: Mauro Hantman
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Publisher's summary

You open your eyes for what you know is not the first time and you remember nothing. You find out that a catastrophic event known as the Kollaps has destroyed life as we know it. Someone claiming to be your friend tells you that you’re needed. Something crucial has been stolen - but under no circumstances can you know what or why. You’ve got to get it back or something bad is going to happen. And you’ve got to get it back fast, so they can freeze you again before your own time runs out. Paralyzed from the waist down, you’re being carried around on the backs of two men who don’t seem anything like you at all. Who inject you regularly and tell you it’s for your own good…to stop the disease, or else they must cut directly into your spine. Welcome to the life of Josef Horkai….

Critically acclaimed and O. Henry prize-winning author Brian Evenson turns his literary eye to a post-apocalyptic earth in this dazzling science fiction novel.

©2012 Brian Evenson (P)2012 AudioGO Ltd.

What listeners say about Immobility

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A paralyzing journey to survive

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

A fascinating post apocalyptic journey for human survival. Josef Horkai is brought back to consciousness and finds he is unable to walk. Stuck in a foreign environment with strangers with an odd culture doesn't recognize he is immediately sent on a mission to recover an artifact from the wasteland. Twists and turns kept coming as the plot unraveled at a fast pace. Crisp dialogue, short sharp descriptions of a world long dead keeps the plot moving. Readers looking for something different and scary will love this gripping sci-fi thriller. I thoroughly enjoyed Immobility and I look forward to more novels by this author.

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11 people found this helpful

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A sensation of coming back to life, only...

"A sensation of coming back to life, only not quite that: half life maybe."
- Brian Evenson, Immobility

My first exposure to Brian Evenson was a stack of his short stories (Altmann's Tongue: Stories and a Novella) at the BYU bookstore my sophomore year that was there and then, just as suddenly, wasn't there. I had recently returned from my mission and Evenson was a professor at BYU who that year got into trouble because his stories were too violent, weird, funky for the placid BYU English department [some of my best and worst memories were related to the BYU English department].

My second exposure to Brian Evenson was discovering a good friend of mine was also good friends with Brian's dad Bill. My third memory of Brian Evenson was discovering another friend (a professor of English now at William & Mary) is a friend of Brian's. So, I've been collecting Evenson's books, and surfing two degrees away from Brian Evenson since college. But those books of his. Somehow, they would get boxed, lost, rediscovered, reburied, hidden, moved, etc.. But recently, I felt pushed to find, unbox, and read one. I was expecting it was going to be a hybrid of early Orson Scott Card and later Dan Simmons. But after finishing Immobility, I felt more like I walked into a strange amalgam of Samuel Beckett, Walter M. Miller Jr., and Cormac McCarthy.

Anyway, I loved Immobility. It was stark, moody, and always plagued with the shadows of both the similar and the sinister. One benefit of living in Orem and going to BYU is I could have easily drawn a map of the story's main journey from the BYU Library to the Granite Mountain Records Vault and back (complete with roads traveled). That said, this isn't Mormon fiction. It is post-apocalyptic fiction built on the ruins of Utah. It is as Mormon as Post Malone.

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8 people found this helpful

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Existential Post Apocalyptic Tale

Any additional comments?

This is a terrific post-apocalyptic tale that can be summed up as 12 Monkeys meets The Road. An amnesiac superhuman survivor is used by the survivors of a nuclear war to obtain something stolen from them -- lots of Kafkaesque type scenes with multiple existential tangents -- with a great twist at the end. Perfect for that 8 hour car ride.

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Worst audiobook I've ever finished

I consider myself to be a fairly voracious consumer of literature, in audio and written form. I also almost never leave reviews because art is subjective and my opinions shouldn't taint or sway others. So when I say this book was by far the hardest to complete, I do not say it flippantly. I'm not sure if it was the poorly written dialogue or the expressionless narration, but I felt like I was read a children's book by a computer screen reading program for 8 hours. The dialogue was simplistic, but not in a concise way, in an only-2-year-olds-speak-like-this kind of way. The premise was actually good, which is why I kept listening. It was the writing and narration that made it nearly unbearable. In addition to a very predictable ending, there were many unresolved threads throughout. It felt like the book was finished over a long weekend under a hard deadline. This book was so bad, that I will avoid this author and narrator in the future. Save yourself the frustration and skip this one.

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6 people found this helpful

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CATASTROPHIC !

Ar first I took this book to be another post-apocalyptic yarn and that I preferred 'The Road'. Then there evolved a philosophic perspective, religion, free will, morality and then some twists and turns took the book in a new direction. I found myself caring for characters that shouldn't warrant too much attention. The Qs were so innocent. This novel is an interesting scifi or is it horror scifi?

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miserable, and stupid good thing it was a freebie.

the headline above says it all. No redeeming qualities.
Dumb, miserable, stupid, inane without any redeeming aspects.

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4 people found this helpful

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Dreadfully Daunting

It's a bizarre and strange story, with helplessness and hopelessness consistent throughout. Reminiscent of hell.

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IGNORANT, RIDICULOUS, & PURE FOOLISHNESS

This is one of the most ridiculous storylines ever conceived! It makes NO SENSE and is completely foundationless. Maybe if you were high on LSD you might be able to make sense of this mess. It is unorganized and highly confusing. The characters are all religious fanatics or communists. Every character but the main character is slow witted and mentally retarded. Even the main character at times acts like he is inbred. I cant describe just how horrible this book is, but no matter what it will the biggest waste of time if you read it. Pure garbage. Ive read better stories on the walls of public restrooms!!!

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3 people found this helpful

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I so Love Brian Evenson books!!!

This is one of my favorite modern authors, his wry treatment of humanity, religion, horror, and life is just fantastic. I find myself finishing anything I find by him in as close to one sitting as I possibly can. And this was no exception.

Like a Gothic Horror set in a future post-apocalyptic Sci-fi wasteland, Immobility doesn't give you jump scares. But certainly leaves you with an Existential terror that can needle at your brain for days or even years to come.

I can't recommend this book enough. And the reader did a wonderful job.

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confusing most of the book but a good read

interesting and thoroughly entertaining as long as you can enjoy reading without any answers for most of the book.

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