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Everything Is Broken  By  cover art

Everything Is Broken

By: John Shirley
Narrated by: Michael Goldstrom
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Publisher's summary

Twenty-year-old Russ arrives in the northern California town of Freedom to visit his dad. Freedom has peculiarities other than its odd name: the local mayor's ideas of "decentralization" have left it without normal connections to state or federal government and minimal public services. Russ meets an interesting young woman, Pendra, but before he can get to know much about Freedom or its people, a savage tsunami strikes the West Coast.

The wave of human brutality that soon hits the isolated town proves more dangerous to the survivors than the natural disaster. Russ, his father, Pendra, and the other townsfolk must tap all their courage and ingenuity - and find strength they never knew they had - if they have any hope of living to find real freedom!

©2012 John Shirley (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Everything Is Broken

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • RJ
  • 05-27-21

Life can be hard to live with!

A tsunami strikes the small town of Freedom off the coast of California. Survivors helped the injured and tried to put together some type of organization. Communications were out and they feared that any relief would go to the bigger cities. They were on their own. Unfortunately for the majority, a group of locals who had lost everything had plans of their own; to remake Freedom, to “get rid of the last ties to the welfare state”. Deer Creek was the nearest town, could someone get there for help? The wave had washed away more than the town; it washed away humanity and morality. The survivors of Freedom found themselves, prisoners. Three.point.five.

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1 person found this helpful

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

Be careful what you wish for...

(2.75 Stars)

This book was very different from the other John Shirley books/stories that I've read before this. Usually his books are set in strange new worlds but this one was eerily close to our own. I won't just repeat the book description here, but I will say that you can tell the politics of most of the reviewers by how they reviewed it. This book is like a mini-dystopia, set in a community that through a natural disaster finds itself getting what it wished for... complete off-the-grid autonomy and self-rule. It is contemptuous of conspiracy-minded anti-intellectualism and Libertarian sensibilities. a caricatured vision of what would be seen as the "MAGA" crowd of today.

The writing is great, and paced appropriately. I didn't want to stop reading and the narration of the audiobook was on point. Readers of all speculative fiction should enjoy this book. The major characters are compelling and distinct. My only criticism of the book is probably directed on me more than the author... (I have a problem remembering people's names), the final few chapters of the book introduce a lot of minor characters that I had trouble remembering which "side" they were on. I found myself replaying the previous 15 seconds several times to make sure I was keeping things straight in my mind.

I really enjoy John Shirley's cyberpunk-type works, and this was not that, but with that being said, this was still a good book.

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

Everything is broken

This audio book was crazy good. It was about a small town that goes insane while trying to survive after a major disaster.

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

Didnt Expect This To Be A Gem!

when I decided to add this book to my library I didn't really read the description and I was politely surprised how good this book was. I couldn't stop myself from listening to it.

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

tilted

Boring, regressive progressive drivel!
Sounds like an 18 year old liberal arts student's fantasy of the world.

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11 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Not For Me

The opening 5 minutes was full of the F word! Maybe it was my mood, but I can’t get into a story full of that and don’t have the time for it. It definitely didn’t pull me into the story, it did just the opposite! Stopped it right away, I’m so glad I didn’t use my credit on it.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Trash

No redeeming quality to this book at all. Badly written book starring the worse dregs of society doing what scumbags do. Who wants to write that crap and who wants to read that filth? I did not finish and wish I hadn't even started it.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Stereotypical trash

Wasted too much time trying to find something interesting in this story. Four star review? Weird, when all the reviews are negative.

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3 people found this helpful