Atlas Shrugged

By: Ayn Rand

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 62 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s magnum opus: a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller—nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

Atlas Shrugged is the "second most influential book for Americans today" after the Bible, according to a joint survey of five thousand people conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club in 1991.

In a scrap heap within an abandoned factory, the greatest invention in history lies dormant and unused. By what fatal error of judgment has its value gone unrecognized, its brilliant inventor punished rather than rewarded for his efforts?

This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world—and did. In defense of those greatest of human qualities that have made civilization possible, he sets out to show what would happen to the world if all the heroes of innovation and industry went on strike. Is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battle not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves? The answers will be revealed once you discover the reason behind the baffling events that wreak havoc on the lives of the amazing men and women in this remarkable book.

Tremendous in scope and breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand's magnum opus, which launched an ideology and a movement. With the publication of this work in 1957, Rand gained an instant following and became a phenomenon. Atlas Shrugged emerged as a premier moral apologia for capitalism, a defense that had an electrifying effect on millions of readers (and now listeners) who had never heard capitalism defended in other than technical terms.

©1985 Eugene Winick, Paul Gitlin and Leonard Peikoff (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

A herculean listener shrugs

A thought provoking listen for sure:

It’s like one more tortured Russian writer trying to process or escape through pure fantasy histories horrors by extreme individuality, extreme bureaucracy, morality and ethics with out God since the author is an Atheist - but that does not stop her from using evil as an endless hammer pounding it’s way along looking for an ideology based on a separatist individualism without responsibility to anything outside of the individual - the temple of me is very shallow - greed is not good - in a way it is the old elitism of Russia transposed on top of her crony capitalist view of American business sold as a level playing field based on merits and competition and hard work that really is more of the same endless tricks and hypocrisy of the old Russian elites and peasants who did the hard dirty work - she just took the old Russian social struggles of mass injustices between the have and have nots but worse the powerful and the week dominated by inverted motivations satisfactions delusions and megalomania of the histories sadists created by war extermination and re-education camps and folded transposed projected transferred centuries of guilt brutality cruelty and hate on top of the twisted American Robber baron Era - American greed is vastly different from Russian greed - but that’s what makes it such a great long term seller to be endlessly miss applied as some kind of philosophy given the most pathetic rambling disjointed pointless book ending ever - making this monster book a must read just because it’s been around since high school

Exeptional.Still so relevant for today

Long story .Love the reader's voice and presentation.Interesting story line and believable characters .Still relevant today.

awesome

It took me a while to listen to the whole audible. I'm going to say about 6 months worth of listening. I fell in love with this book and would recommend this novel to anyone.

Phenomenal

Published in 1957, outlining the upcoming decades of American life. This book will force you to evaluate your own values. At moments a painful reflection of yourself in some characters and at others a rewarding reminder that your personal interests are not flawed.

Slow, but worth the build up. Chilling and Eye Opening.

Think critically about your decisions, and never let the government tell you what’s best for you.

the classic that nobody reads

John Gault's speech is one of the great monologues in literature. this novel is epic.

Great story, long read

Atlas Shrugged is a great book! Could be cut in half without repetitive details. Many mundane scenes are prolonged with unnecessary details, and doesn't progress the book. Overall, very interesting book, with a lot of great characters.

Kudos to the Narrator

First off, I am very impressed at the abilities of the narrator in bringing each individual to life with voices and inflections crisp enough to recognize the characters without introduction. This was not the most gripping tale I have read, but it is one I will remember and reflect on more than most other books I have enjoyed. I did not understand why Dagny had to ditch Hank, and that frustrated me a bit. One could almost classify the development of Dagny's and Hanks relationship as a sub plot when you consider it is present though about 90% of the story. In contrast, the development of Dagny and John's relationship is covered in about an hour's worth of reading. This prevented me from accepting the pairing of John and Dagny. I just don't see how this partner switch benefitted the story at all. I also felt there were many places where Ann drawled on much longer than needed. Now that I am done with this book, and I miss it, I now see it was this verbose voice that allowed for the complex and rich image I now have in my mind of everything and everyone in this story.

The best narration I've experienced.

Scott Brick brings this story to life! His skills are unmatched, in my opinion. The novel itself was thought provoking and from a purely literary perspective, excellent. My critiques are few. John Galt did not have the life and work experience necessary to be the hero in this story, particularly when there are characters like Reardon involved. He walked away from the motor company at only 26. It detracts from the substance of his role. Ms. Rand made a factual error regarding Christian beliefs. Christians do not believe men are born evil, but that humans have a temptation to sin that is ever-present and it is human nature to stray toward sin.

A great reading of a long, but important, book.

Where does Atlas Shrugged rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I have read Atlas Shrugged a few times before. This is the first time that I have listened to the book on audio. I would say that this book ranks at the top, or very near it. I think the narrator did a great job on a very long and difficult book.

What did you like best about this story?

I am an Objectivist, so of course this book is the very definition of the philosophy I embrace.

I like the lessons, of course, that come from the book. For me, the best part was really the references to what Objectivists call "the Sanction of the Victim." It was good for me to hear that again, in context.

What does Scott Brick bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I think Scott is a very good narrator. He did a good job with the different voices, and there was a consistency over the length of the book that I appreciated.