Emergency Skin

Forward

By: N. K. Jemisin

Narrated by: Jason Isaacs

Length: 1 hr and 4 mins

Publisher's Summary

2020 Audie Award Winner for Best Science Fiction

Audible narration by Jason Isaacs (Star Trek: Discovery)

What will become of our self-destructed planet? The answer shatters all expectations in this subversive speculation from the Hugo Award - winning author of the Broken Earth trilogy.

An explorer returns to gather information from a climate-ravaged Earth that his ancestors, and others among the planet’s finest, fled centuries ago. The mission comes with a warning: A graveyard world awaits him. But so do those left behind - hopeless and unbeautiful wastes of humanity who should have died out ages ago. After all this time, there’s no telling how they’ve devolved. Steel yourself, soldier. Get in. Get out. And try not to stare.

N. K. Jemisin’s Emergency Skin is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

©2019 N. K. Jemisin (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic Reviews

“Emergency Skin, by the award(s)-winning Jemisin, is part of a sensational project called Forward, which brings together six writers, each telling a story about Earth’s imagined future.” --Spine Magazine

“Narrator Jason Isaac’s voice is the perfect mix of insistent, pedantic, and scornful…This brief but clever tale is truly best enjoyed on audio.” (AudioFile - Earphones Award Winner)

“The tale is a fascinating experiment in story structure…Thoughtful and interactive.” (LOCUS)

  “This is exactly how I like my techno-anxiety…Happy bingeing!” (Audible, an October Editors Pick)  

NK Jemisin is a genius

The prose on this one was interesting, as you never hear the voice of the protagonist. Like always, the author explores the things we take for granted in our society. It's a good intro into the author's work of you're unfamiliar.

Blown away!

The amount of inventiveness and detail in this story is staggering. Pride excellence. I want to read the written version because the plot sometimes went too fast for me to catch everything. I will definitely listen to this audiobook again.

What a grand tale, almost wish it were true!

The author really blew me away with this story. I hate to use another reviewers words bit someone said this book was the smartest story she had ever read and I totally agree. Jason Issacks' narration was wonderful.

Excellent!

post-apocalyptic, sci-fi-fantasy, short

Bought on the recommendation of a sci fi fan even though it is not my preference. I found it a brilliant tale of hope for geopolitical mankind and very thankful that it also came as audio.
Jason Isaacs was perfect as narrator!

One you must download!!

loved it!! must get audiobook. highly recommend. Enjoyed this better than any in the series

Good until the heavy handed political lecturing

I was actually enjoying the story until the author decided to push their unrealistic political fantasy.

Narrator did a great job.

This story will make me think twice before listening/reading something else by this author.

I am an outlier, I guess.

I thought the premise was interesting, but the story was underwhelming. To me it seemed to be a screed against white supremacy, capitalism, and individualism. Sure, white supremacy is vile. But it is hardly the cause of all humanity's problems. And the idea that all we need to do to solve all the world's problems is to get rid of awful, nasty, selfish people is absurd.

I guess my basic problem with the story is that it promotes the idea that the only problem with the world is that there are bad people in it, and that's it. Get rid of a few thousand selfish folks and nirvana will arrive? Hardly. Even the most cursory familiarity with history dispels this myth.

I'd love for us to achieve nirvana. But pushing the idea that what stands between us and nirvana is a few "bad" people is not only puerile, history shows that when people buy this BS the result is a push to get rid of those "bad" people. And since sending them off in FTL ships isn't available, less peaceful means are used.

Writing is OK, but the political message is more appropriate to a Sophomore year bull session.

Wonderful!

I adore N.K. Jemisin and this is another brilliant tale that catches you from the start. The narration captures the story perfectly.

chuckling all the way

what a fun listen and the narrator was great! this combo would be worth trying again!!

You get what you pay for

What a load of literary drivel. This story must have been written by a twelve-year-old girl that believes in unicorns and thinks that “everybody should have the same amount of stuff.” I know why this was free; I can't imagine anyone paying for this. What a waste of an hour.

Absurd, subversive, fun

I really, really enjoyed this short story! It’s hilarious. Using absurdity Jemisin illuminates a hopeful attitude of how we could change our world for the better. I listened to the audio book narrated by Jason Isaacs who is nothing short of brilliant.

Incredible

Why have I never heard of this author before? This story was briliant. I didn't know it was possible for someone to write so amazingly. My review of this story can't do it justice because I haven't the author's way with words. I too am obsessed with immortality, but this story delves into what the consequences of eternal life might be, and what such an existence would entail. Should we want for longevity at any cost? And yet the vibe of the author's storytelling is also quirky in a smart clever way. So glad I've found a new favourite author to read! Well, listen to audibooks. And this one being narrated by Jason Isaacs is brill. He's so good at accents it seems he's really born where he's talking from.

Funny and extremely thought provoking

Really enjoyed this short story. Excellent narrationaw well. Must look out some of their other work.

Enjoyable and thought provoking

The narrator really brought this story to life, particularly the later part where we were introduced to the character of the old man.

Disgusting Race-Communist Propaganda

A transparent race-baiting communist propaganda piece, disgustingly trite and deeply hateful of modern society, which it strawmans as an all-male white supremacist fascist splinter group responsible for all the worlds ills. NK Jemisin is a vile sexist racist demagogue and I will never read another thing by her again. She is the epitome of the word "scum" and her writing is a direct reflection of her political hate.

Fantastic idea.

I did really enjoy this idea and the POV it was told from. The execution and performance by the narrator was fabulous.

told from an interesting perspective

alot of the text is one side of a conversation, which I thought worked very well. enjoyable and interesting short story.

Fascinating concept.

A highly original concept that masks a morality tale. This strange imagination provides a very human hope. I enjoyed it immensely and will seek this author out.

How Earth could be.

I enjoyed this story tremendously, and the narrator. Themes include: technological advancement, humanity, survival.

"The babble of the rabble."

When earth, mentioned in polution, was no longer able to support it's growing population, the wealthy, the powerful, the 'best of the best', flew away to found new woods and shape them to be better. They left everyone else behind to die. Centuries into the future, a young soldier is sent back to Tellus - their new name for Earth - to try to recover something essential which was fast running out and was known to have been plentiful in that planet. He goes alone in this dangerous task but with an A.I.implant to guide and instruct him - and it is from this 2nd person point of view that we learn the story; the voice of the young soldier himself is never heard.

The writing format is unusual but very effective, if a little clunky at times. The A.I.'s comments and outbursts are often amusing in context and the whole is a clever indictment of present day politics. Narrator Jason Isaacs does an excellent job of providing voice both for the A.I. and for the others encountefed. Well paced and nicely modulated, also, his was a good performance.

A fun, far futuristic short story, which pokes fun at present day circumstances, if a little over hopeful about the furure. Nothing wrong with that: we all need a little more hope in our lives.