• Atomic Awakening

  • A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power
  • By: James Mahaffey
  • Narrated by: John McLain
  • Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (1,060 ratings)

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Atomic Awakening

By: James Mahaffey
Narrated by: John McLain
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Editorial reviews

A person does not have to delve deeply into his or her memory to determine why nuclear power has a bad rap. The disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima, not to mention the terrifying specters of Hiroshima and the Cold War, inform many personal judgments about nuclear safety. But in his first book, research physicist James Mahaffey aims to get the facts straight and establish the viability of nuclear power beyond both the hype and the scare tactics.

John McLain's performance makes this accessible and entertaining book even more inviting. At times McLain sounds almost like a narrator of a science fiction film, a fitting tone considering the term "atomic bomb" originally came from a novel by H. G. Wells.

Publisher's summary

"Persuasive and based on deep research. Atomic Awakening taught me a great deal." (Nature)

The American public's introduction to nuclear technology was manifested in destruction and death. With Hiroshima and the Cold War still ringing in our ears, our perception of all things nuclear is seen through the lens of weapons development. Nuclear power is full of mind-bending theories, deep secrets, and the misdirection of public consciousness - some deliberate, some accidental. The result of this fixation on bombs and fallout is that the development of a non-polluting, renewable energy source stands frozen in time.

Outlining nuclear energy's discovery and applications throughout history, Mahaffey's brilliant and accessible book is essential to understanding the astounding phenomenon of nuclear power in an age where renewable energy and climate change have become the defining concerns of the twenty-first century.

©2009 James Mahaffey (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Atomic Awakening

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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book. Atrocious robot narration.

At first I thought the narration was one of those robotic voices everyone hates on YouTube. Even had the weird Scandinavian accent heard on old automated weather radio. I almost quit the Audible book at first. It got a little better later. This book deserves a redo by a good narrator. Because, as a science teacher who has read a lot of stuff on nuclear history, I can say this is a really good book by a fine author. It has a lot of new material on the history of the nuclear era.. A pet peeve on complex scientific material is that the narration should be read much slower. Some material just needs space between ideas so the listener can digest it. Speed reading does not work with technical topics. Speed reading is like running through an art gallery. Narrators: Slow down! Breathe between sentences. Pause between paragraphs. Make audio books great again : -)

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    1 out of 5 stars

Apparently atheists can't innovate.

From the opening that made the spurious claim that only those that believe in the supernatural can new truly innovative in science (and that atheists make good lab assistants but terrible scientists,) I should have realised that this book has very little concern for accuracy. It gets worse from there. I made it through chapter one.

Scientific rigor is a phrase the author may have heard of once, but I doubt it.

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5 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great but needs a new edition

The history lesson is fantastic but a new version is needed to bring the reader beyond 2010 where the current story ends. Explaining the author’s perspective of the progress of fusion and TWR reactors (Terra Power & Bill Gates) would be greatly appreciated.

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Pretty Good, Well Presented Book with Bad Editing

This is another book that languished in the wish list until it was on two for one. I had listened to this author's book, ‘Atomic Accidents’, and I was fairly curt in that review. I couldn’t commit to this book because of that, but the sale essentially got me this book for free so, I took it.

The Good - Atomic Awakening details the history of ‘atomic’ (nuclear) science in a detailed, yet easy to understand, way. From the very beginning, through the major discoveries, to the present day. Any layperson, with basic public education, should comprehend it. The book touches on science fiction and myths that surround this field and it also ties it together with other fields of study such as electricity. If you have no knowledge of nuclear science this book will provide a good foundation. If you have some knowledge it will supplement what you already know. I finished the book feeling satisfied and curios to learn more about some of the specific topics covered in the book. I made a total of 12 bookmarks with notes for later reference. It’s a fairly good book overall, but not a great book.

The Not So Good – The outline is a bit confusing because it’s broken into parts so you may hear the narrator say “Chapter 2” when you’re halfway through the book because it’s in the second chapter of that part. Also, some dates are slightly confusing because the story jumps ahead and then goes back. I think that’s more the reality of taking a book meant for reading and turning it into an audio book and not the writing however.

The Bad – There’s one major error in this book where it recounts a meeting of scientist working on the ‘A-Bomb’ before 1945. When citing the location of the meeting, the Bohemian Club, the narrator says “founded in 1972” when, in fact, it was founded in 1872. While I very easily made that determination through simple context this is an example of horrible editing because it takes zero knowledge of the subject matter to catch this error.

Caveat - I won’t write this entire book off over one error no matter how blatant because I know the bulk of the book is accurate. This was most likely a misreading by the narrator and not an error by the author; I hope? Regardless, the editor/author failed to catch it and coupled with the inconsistency in this author’s other book it does make me question the attention to detail by the editor and the author.

Narration – John McLain’s narration was good and well suited to this book’s writing style and subject matter, albeit somewhat mechanical in delivery and even slightly annoying, at times, in the way he would trail off at the end of sentences. However, it didn’t take long to grow accustomed to that. His narration didn’t add to, or detract from, the book.

Summation – Reflecting on the entire work; it left me with the not so surprising impression the author is a supporter of nuclear science and energy. However, I don't think he displayed any unfair bias or mindless predilection toward them. He hides nothing and goes into a fair amount of detail about all the major accidents; devoting large sections to the incidents at Idaho Falls, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl to name a few. He provides facts about these events from a balanced perspective. This book sparked my interest in reading (listening to) other books about those incidents. As a result, instead of switching genres, as I do after finishing a book, I went to the book ‘Idaho Falls’ (see that review too). Even with its faults I wouldn’t steer anyone away from this book because overall it was accurate and it was put together pretty well. That said, I'm still glad I didn't pay full price or drop a full credit for it.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Narrator not as bad as in the intro snippet.

Detailed, informative, and entertaining. Not at all technical, but enough meat to keep technically-minded listeners happy. Complements his newest book, Atomic Adventures, which is also great.

Narrator was dry and took away significantly from the author's personality. Otherwise the narration was fine. Audible needs to choose better audio snippets; for the longest time I avoided buying this book for fear of having to listen to that obnoxious, overly-inflected narration for 12 hours.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Awesome perspective on nuclear history

This book makes the story of nuclear science and engineering so cool that I too could imagine myself standing over a naked core and daring it to go critical. One of my favorite books.

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McLain is a great Voice for this Book

Sometimes a book, topic, and voice talent are perfect - this is the case for this book.

You also get an awesome topic and great details on history that are important but rarely covered. Mahaffey is not journalist, he is an engineer, so this makes the book believable. Loved it.

This is a great read for engineers and science readers interested in the nuclear industry.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Awfully narrated, but exceptional book

I would highly recommend getting this book in written format, as the content is highly interesting and is a very satisfying read if you are interested in the history of nuclear energy development. It's heavily USA biased, of course.

However, what essentially ruins it in audio format is narrator. How in the world did they pick this guy to write scientifically-inclined material is beyond me. His understanding of the source is almost non-existent, and that shows through. And his voice would be more suitable for reading Fifty Shades of Grey. Completely uninterested and sounding absolutely corky.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating material!

Inherently interesting material, presented with insight and a sense of humor and perspective. I didn't love the reader: good diction and clarity, but an odd, "radio-advertising-like" delivery. I got used to it, but couldn't really settle in. Still, recommended.

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Great book

I discovered this book after a YouTuber shared they got their inspiration to make a video after listening to it. It's definitely a book I've recommended to my friends who want to learn more about this topic.

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