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Delta-v  By  cover art

Delta-v

By: Daniel Suarez
Narrated by: Jeff Gurner
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Publisher's summary

The best-selling author of Daemon returns with a near-future technological thriller, in which a charismatic billionaire recruits a team of adventurers to launch the first deep space mining operation - a mission that could alter the trajectory of human civilization.

When itinerant cave diver James Tighe receives an invitation to billionaire Nathan Joyce's private island, he thinks it must be a mistake. But Tighe's unique skill set makes him a prime candidate for Joyce's high-risk venture to mine a near-Earth asteroid - with the goal of kick-starting an entire off-world economy. The potential rewards and personal risks are staggering, but the competition is fierce, and the stakes couldn't be higher.

Isolated and pushed beyond their breaking points, Tighe and his fellow 21st-century adventurers - ex-soldiers, former astronauts, BASE jumpers, and mountain climbers - must rely on each other to survive not only the dangers of a multi-year expedition but the harsh realities of business in space. They're determined to transform humanity from an Earth-bound species to a space-faring one - or die trying.

©2019 Daniel Suarez (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

*A Prometheus Award Best Novel Nominee*

“Daniel Suarez's hugely impressive Delta-v fuses the real world with sci-fi, giving the space genre a new boost and new hope.” —Tom Shippey, The Wall Street Journal

"Daniel Suarez has slowly gotten quite a reputation as a master of high-tech, sci-fi thrillers. Not only is Delta-v no exception, it very well may be his finest work to date... Throughout his career, Suarez has found consistent comparison to the late, great Michael Crichton. I can assuredly support that he is in a very small group of current writers who can carry that weighty mantle forward." —BookReporter

"Thoroughly researched and brilliantly written, Daniel Suarez integrates the technology, intrigue, chaos and the human drama of the next ‘giant leap’ with rare scientific and operational literacy. Haunting, bold and inspirational, this deep space tale resonates on every level. For me, a twenty-two year NASA veteran in direct mission support, Delta-v captures the very essence of exploration." —James Logan, MD, former NASA Chief of Flight Medicine

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What listeners say about Delta-v

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Daemon Deja Vu in Deep Space

The story follows the basic Daemon pattern ... a brilliant, seemingly evil billionaire has an elaborate plan to change the world. In this case, it's deep space rather than MMO.
The good: Suarez is brilliant at weaving near-future technology into an interesting story that stretches the mind. Jeff Gurner did his usual great job at narration.
The bad: The writing and story are sloppy compared to his prior books. The first 75% of the book could have been cut in half, and the character development wasn't up to Suarez's usual standard.
The inevitable: Clearly this book is screaming for a sequel.
Overall: Worth the credit and glad I spent the time, though I'm hoping the sequel will be more tightly written.

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44 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Uncreative and Predictable

Because I've enjoyed Suarez's previous novels and the publisher's summary of Delta-V sounded compelling, my expectations were high. But unfortunately, it was about as predictable, myopic, and cliché as most Michael Bay flicks, e.g. Armageddon, Deep Impact, etc. (In fact, Ben Affleck would be a great guy to cast as James Tighe if Mr. Bay were to bring Delta-V to the big screen.)

I've not the time to write a comprehensive review. So... The plot line is uncreative, predictable, and hackneyed. There are far too many lead characters (a baker's dozen), all of whom are poorly developed and colorless. The writing and dialogue is rather bland. And Jeff Gurner's narration is neither good nor bad; it's just meh. It's gotta be difficult for a solid narrator to narrate at his best when the novel he's narrating is a mess, so can't blame Jeff.

Even though I do not recommend Delta-V, I'm still a fan of Daniel's work...just not this time.

Story: 2.0
Narration: 3.5
Overall: 2.5

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29 people found this helpful

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"The Martian" on Steroids

Great book about a very Elon Musk type billionaire funding a secret asteroid mining project. However the story is mostly about the adventurous crew that has to survive the hostile challenges of space far away from any help. Great characters and a lot of info on the challenges of space beyond Earth. Plenty of action and, to me, a much more enjoyable and believable listen than "The Martian". I'm a big fan of Daniel Suarez's books and this one is one of his best. Love the reader too.

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20 people found this helpful

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This book is more like an outline of a good book.

I have really enjoyed Suarez's other books but this one is pretty bad. The concept is fantastic but the execution is painful. Imagine reading a book about the building of some magnificent skyscraper and all you find inside is a bunch memos from the HR department of the construction company. The author goes to great effort to tell us how diverse the group astronauts are and how the selection process includes people of all sexual orientations but as soon as something interesting happens in the story you get a wave of the hand explanation (lots of problems get solved while characters are passed out) and then right back to pure boredom. I wouldn't be this harsh but I know this author is capable of much more and I'm hopeful the next book will be better.

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19 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Not Daniel's Best Work

I've listened to all of Daniel's book and this book does not measure up to his other books. The book is an okay listen, the ending was lacking. Jeff did another amazing job reading.

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17 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Unsatisfactory second half to promising story.

The opening half of the book is much better than the resulting second half which leaves a great deal in the air and largely ignores it's own premise.

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14 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Disappointed it was not as good as his other books

I’ve listened to all of Daniel Suarez’s books & am a big fan of his work. However, while entertaining, in my opinion, this book isn’t nearly as good as his previous books.

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13 people found this helpful

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Nothing special here

Having read every book by this author this book lacks the twists and turns of his other books.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Powerfully inspiring hard scifi

I've read hundreds of sci-fi books in the past few years and this is perhaps the first time I've taken the time to write up a detailed Audible review.

I highly enjoyed almost every aspect of this book. Not only was the narration perfect for the characters, the effort put into the writing of this book really shows. Hard sci-fi is a difficult genre to write. It takes many hours to calculate orbits, masses, and research all the chemistry and biology. Daniel Suarez did his research. As a scientist who's done a lot of the same research for my own books, I can vouch for the authenticity of most of it. He didn't just strive to make the science accurate and persuasive, he made every character's job, from congressman, cave-diver, to space lawyer as authentic as possible. It's that authenticity that makes it so inspiring. By the end of the book, he really did convince me of potential (and difficulties) of astroid mining. More than that though, he's plotted us a way to do it. Like Arthur C Clarke and other futurists' writings, I think this work will inspire many future space entrepreneurs.

My only complaint is the sheer number of characters. It was difficult to keep them all straight. Still, it was easy to develop a strong connection to characters that were well developed. I was brought near to tears several times throughout the book.

So, in summary, I highly recommend this book for people who like smart sci-fi and aren't afraid to learn something. It might just change your perspective of the universe and humankind's place in it.

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8 people found this helpful

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Disappointing

I’m a huge fan of his other books but this one seemed half baked. I kept on looking at the time left and saying to myself, “this can’t be it, there has to be a twist coming.” But it never came. There were a bunch of plot elements that didn’t pay off, a bunch of characters that never got a comeuppance, a bunch of skipping over large sections of the timeline. I can’t help but think this was a good idea that didn’t get the authors due attention.

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5 people found this helpful