Idlewild

By: Nick Sagan

Narrated by: Clayton Barclay Jones

Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

He wakes alone, nameless, in a strangely bucolic day-after-tomorrow world. His amnesia is near-total; he cannot remember his name and doesn't recognize anything around him, but he knows with absolute certainty that someone has tried to kill him and will surely try again.

Not knowing who, if anyone, he can trust, he reacquaints himself with eight companions, all of whom are being trained (for what?) at an esoteric academy run by a cryptic superintendent named Maestro. As he tries to discover the identity of the person who wants him dead, he quickly begins to unravel a series of sinister truths, which make it clear that the ramifications of his search are far greater than he could ever have imagined. Much more than his own life is at stake.

Idlewild takes the best of its genre and transcends it, creating a story that will appeal to readers far beyond the traditional science fiction fan base.

©2003 Damned If I Don't Productions (P)2003 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"Sagan may have more imagination than he knows what to do with a wonderful thing in a new author." (Kirkus Reviews)

Fantastic in the truest sense

This was the 2nd best sci-fi audiobook I have heard thus far (out of many) with the best being Orsen Scott Card's "Ender's Game". This novel has a similar feel to that novel, and the author knows how to get you "inside the head" of his characters in a like fashion. Like all good sci-fi novels, technology is a backdrop for characters to wrestle through weighty and complex issues, both spiritual and pyschological in nature. This is not a "light" novel, it had a definite depressing feel to it which I felt was very effective.

Good virtual reality/apocalypse read

Pretty good read but would have liked to have had a little more back story in their world prior to entering the real world.
But in the end it was a pretty good book.

What a debut!

Well, everyone's mileage may vary, but for me this is the best audiobook I've heard in a very long time. It's hard to describe without giving away the plot, but this is a dark, weird, Matrix-like story that starts out one way and winds up somewhere completely different, and along the way it amuses, provokes, tickles and disturbs. It takes a little while to realize where it's going, but once it comes together, look out. I had chills by the end of it. For a first novel, Idlewild is terrific, and honestly for a fifteenth novel it'd be pretty darn good too.

Four and half stars, and I'm rounding that up to five.

If you enjoy a braintwist...

I would recommend Idlewild to those who enjox The Matrix. It's a nice change of pace compared to a lot of the recent sci-fi that is out there right now. Mind you I did not enjoy the end and would have preferred a more closure.

Better than Most Sci Fi

There are many annoying technology problems with this book (that were completely avoidable), so if that kind of thing really bothers you, you will not like Iderwild. I had to grit my teeth and accept the premise and just go with it. The narration is excellent, the writing is very good, and the story is quite acceptable. This is nowhere close to Ender's Game or The Matrix, but it was substantially better then most science fiction, and much, much better than most VR sci fi. There is good vocabulary and few cliches. This would be enjoyed more by people younger than I am - so I rated it at 4 instead of 3 stars. Only the main character is really fleshed out, but that is consistent with the story - so can be forgiven. You do have to listen very attentively to keep track of where, who and what you are - take your attention away for a moment and you will find yourself lost - focus and stick with it and it will be well worth the listen.

Woah, what a twist!

What I love about this book is that it feels like a YA book but isn't. The reason for this, I imagine, is that the characters are young adults, so it fits. I don't want to say much about the book as the value mostly lies in the twists about the world of the novel. I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the prose and especially the short delves into human psyche and philosophizing on some topics. I highly recommend the audio book.

Interesting, but very little actual story

I didn't find the story to be slow, per se, but I did feel like it was building towards a climax that never came. Clearly the author wrote this book with the intent to write the sequel (Edenborn), but with most books I've read from a series, although characters and the storyline build over time, each book has a standalone plot unto itself. This book left me feeling unsatisfied and I would have been happier (though perhaps it would have made less money) if the author had continued the story in this book rather than cutting it off and starting a new book. As others have mentioned, I also feel this story could have been compacted into many fewer pages than it was. I can only blame the editor for that one. Of course, then they would have HAD to combine it with Edenborn. Other reviews have said that Edenborn is better than Idlewild and I am anxious to continue the story and see if that is true, but if you're only looking for one book, not a whole series, I'd pick something other than this one.

A watered down version of Matrix

I've listened to this book as well as the second. This story is like a childish version of The Matrix minus the high tech suspense. If you can forget the fact that most 13 year old kids these days know more about computers than the author seems to know, you might be able to enjoy the limited technical details of the story. For me, the poorly written workings of this virtual world sounded like my grandmother was explaining how computers operated.

Starting the plot with the typical main character with amnesia should have been a warning to me. After that the story gets even more childish and borders on B movie type silly with a plot thats just too improbable to be entertaining. My only reason for not deleting this from my ipod was because I wanted to know how much worse the story could get.

If you enjoyed The Matrix you will not enjoy this book at all. The only relation between the 2 is a virtual world.

You might enjoy this book if you're more into fantasy and less into deep scifi.

Exciting new writer

Mindbending and heartbreaking, this is my new favorite.Almost as good as Orson Scott Card's Ender's game. Who knew Carl Sagan's kid could write?

Not as boring as people say

More than a few reviewers here and on Amazon thought the book had some slow parts. I did not feel this way. The reader took some getting used to, but I was hooked after the first hour. By 3 hours in I was fully engaged as the pieces came together. If you post-apocalyptic, virtual reality sci-fi you will love this book.