Earth

By: David Brin

Narrated by: David DeVries, Kristin Kalbli

Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

The long-awaited new novel by the award-winning, best-selling author of Startide Rising and The Uplift War- an epic novel set 50 years from tomorrow, a carefully-reasoned, scientifically faithful tale of the fate of our world.

©1990 David Brin (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"One hell of a novel.... has what sci-fi readers want these days; intelligence, action, and an epic scale" ( Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine)

"The prime attraction of Earth is the author's unfailing resourcefulness in extrapolating a post-greenhouse-effect future that is plausible, dismaying, and amazing in equal parts…. Brin's prose ranges from regular to high octant…. His characters have vivid intellectual lives." ( Entertainment Weekly)

"Brin has conceived his story on a supremely ambitious scale, and executed it with all the skills at this command." ( Chicago Sun-Times)

what an amazing prescient and exquisite story!

I have listened to this fascinating book twice now...and it is so filled with thoughtful insights and exciting plotlines I may listen to it annually!

David Brin has grown hugely as an author and storyteller. This book is so much richer than all the typical dystopian novels littering the sci fi landscape I wish everyone could consume this book... as it deliciously depicts the unfolding future on many levels. It will cause you to think and reflect on where we are and where we are headed all wrapped neatly in a mystery filled with intrigue and emotion.

The narrator's are wonderful, adding to the rich depictions and extrapolations which combine to bring this story alive and give any thinking human a reason to pause and reflect on all we are doing and how things might unfold.

while the plotlines are fun and unique, it is the world Brin depicts that is the true beauty of this majestic adventure... do not miss it!

and I must add...absolutely the best endings ever... you get three... all connected and wonderful... the main story, Brian's discussion, and a lovely postscript... each of which it's absolutely marvelous

9 people found this helpful

David has an inside line on the future

What made the experience of listening to Earth the most enjoyable?

The narration was great the characters came alive.

What other book might you compare Earth to and why?

Accelerando by Charles Stross, it's a strong view of a possible future.

Any additional comments?

I'm just got done re-reading David Brin's "Earth" written in 1989 after a 15 year break to see how well it holds (the Audible version with a nice short story at the end that takes place in the same universe). In some of the sub-plot lines, he talks about the leaders with Swiss bank accounts? Check A world linked by computers and camera's recording everything done by the people? Check. Ice melting? Check. Earthquakes next to the coast taking out nuclear power plant? Check. The cost of connecting to the world wide web dropping to less then the cost of gas and food? Soon. Clearly he has a good inner line on projecting what could go on in the near future, check him out of you're looking for a good read.

13 people found this helpful

always surprised

I'm always surprised by how early David Brin's books were written after I've read them. I think that they must be written after 2010 to find out they were written before 1990

1 person found this helpful

long but good it drags at times....the ideas prese

this book drags a bit however the ideas presented are worth the listen and the performance is excellent

1 person found this helpful

Enjoyed it, but it goes slow too often (3/2020)

I sorry of enjoyed this story, in which an “gravity laser” is invented by an improbable scientist, and of course has weapons potential. Naturally, the then equivalent of the CIA comes after him. A woman astronaut gets involved, dislikes the scientist at first but eventually comes around. And and and.

Brin uses the device of starting each "part" with a series of repeated chapter titles like "Earth," "Space," etc. Many of these are non sequiturs, and confusing.

The characters get a bit hard to follow, and he pretty deep into characters that don't have much impact on the plot. When some side characters do interesting things, they often don't ever get explained. For instance one saves animals from an impossible situation, but _how_ is never revealed, nor does the event have any relevance to the plot. Neither does that character have much relevance to the plot.

People fall in love, but nobody shows passion, or any emotion, except jealousy. Sex, of any, is only vaguely hinted at.

The narrators are just barely good enough to tolerate, and their (or the director's?) work interferes with the character development. Several characters voices sound the same. Worst of all, the lead female protagonist has an unattractive man's voice with a strong Kiwi accent. He may have explained why a New Zealander is captain of an American space shuttle, I don't recall, but it has nothing to do with the plot. Weird.

Tying up those loose ends that actually do get tied up takes at least an hour, and is free of either surprises or action.

I'd return this book, but I have a lot of unused credits and Amazon recently started cancelling credits after so many months, which violates the contact I signed up for

Anyhow, I'm done with Brin.

Like Final Fantasy in real life.

David Brin brings the grand planetary perspective to the personable level of characters in a near future world that still feels believable 30 years later.

Milestone

Great book, not perfect reading.
A truly remarkable re-imagining of our planet used as a trick to go deep into the theories on how to preserve our dear earth.
I loved it in paper and wanted to listen to it, I was mostly happy about this version too.

Great story, poor narration

This is one of my favorite books, and I was pleased to find it unabridged on Audible. Unfortunately, the producers didn’t spring for top tier narration. While the male narrator is adequate, the female seems to have come from the 19th century elocution school that emphasized crisp diction and spit consonants over any emotional content. She couldn’t even be bothered to look up correct pronunciation of much of what she’s reading. I’d rather they just used the male narrator for the whole thing. Still, the book remains a classic. But next time, I’ll go back to the Kindle version.

Good work!

This is my first David Brin novel... Wow. Great work fleshing out the constraints of a world 50 years in the future.

Two readers

The female reader is excellent. The male readers is sometimes distracting with his accents. The one he did for one of the main female characters was particularly bad. But the story and other reader is excellent

Such an interesting book, David Brin is awesome.

I really love the way he deals with the big issues of the time with realistic plots, yet is optimistic. His characters can be a bit too wonderful, a bit too exceptional, and he's certainly US-centric. On the whole very thought provoking and inspiring

1 person found this helpful

Let down

The narrators are not bad, but I just couldn't get into the story. Stopped listening half way through.

2 people found this helpful

Just could not get into it. Tried twice.

This is one of my favourite subjects but this book seems too disjointed and lacks something.

loved it<br />

Great read. I think I'll start it again I liked it so much. That was a year ago so it's second time around.