Atropos

By: John Japuntich

Narrated by: Renton Burnette

Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

The aftermath of the virus left the world in shambles. Humanity was centuries from recovering. The devastation was caused not by pestilence and death as in past plagues, but by immortality, vitality, and infertility. The pandemic was so transformative that it became known as simply the Event.

John Fitzpatrick, retired FBI agent, is consumed with exposing what, or who, is behind the Event. As John looks for answers, he must navigate a new world created by the Event, decades of world-wide depression and war, messianic cult leaders, and a meddlesome AI.

Civilization survives the Event depression by uniting under one government. The Federation of Nations is led by a charismatic economist who restructures the world economy to focus on one goal: interstellar colonization. Centuries later, John’s obsession with the cause of the Event leads him to discover the forces behind the Event may threaten the launch of humanity’s first interstellar ship, Atropos, and plunge the world back into darkness.

©2020 John Japuntich (P)2021 John Japuntich

Great story!

This book hooked me from the opening! I found myself driving longer than I needed to just to be alone in the car so I could hear what was next. Each layer of storytelling kept me enthralled and curious about what was to come and how the players and pieces would fit together until the end!

Hard science fiction done right.

The plot here is one that is fairly unique and I won't spoil it. It does a beautiful job of taking characters thru poverty all the way to amazing achievements while advancing the plot. There is commentary on monogamy, religious fanaticism, religious malfeasance, political pragmatism and corruption. At the same time it looks at the possibilities in engineering, physics, and biology. A solid read for fans of sci-fi but also mystery buffs. Well done.

Narrator Awful

It was a slightly interesting story. But the narration sounded like my 14-year-old nephew was reading a book. I got involved in the story so I listen to the whole thing and I couldn’t wait for him to stop talking.

A long way to go

I knew not to expect much science from this "science fiction" right from the epilogue that had a single celled organism experiencing emotions and memories. This disappointment was matched by the unprofessional recording and what seems to be the narrarator's first attempt at this line of work. Imagine someone reading a book to you and not attempting to differentiate characters' voice in any way; but the audiobook and you won't have to imagine.

Brilliant

not a single steely eyed space battle. a clever story. the only failing, in my opinion, is the stiff and uninvolved reading.

Boring

Can't decide which is worse, the reading or the writing. My advice is pass on this one.

Narration speed is way to fast.

I might actually like the story more than I do at this point but the narration speed is killing it. Actually gives me a headache to listen. Tried 3 separate times, this last time only made it through 10 minutes. It's a shame, the story is actually kind of interesting.