Frontera

By: Lewis Shiner

Narrated by: Gabrielle de Cuir, Stefan Rudnicki

Lewis Shiner's stunning science fiction debut

After the world's governments collapsed, the corporations took control. Houston's Pulsystems has sent an expedition to the lost Martian colony of Frontera to search for survivors, but Reese, aging hero of the US space program, knows better. The colonists are not only alive; they have discovered a secret so devastating that the new rulers of Earth will stop at nothing to own it. But none of them have reckoned with Kane, tortured veteran of the corporate wars, whose hallucinatory voices are urging him to complete an ancient cycle of heroism and alter the destiny of the human race.

©1984 Lewis Shiner (P)2014 Blackstone Audio

Fantastic spot-on sf of Mars and our own Earth

This one's really fantastic. Shiner’s 1980s debut novel, right in there with Neuromancer and Bruce Sterling and the others of the cyberpunk movement with which he was a big part, and with a real solid hard sf space mission to Mars element as well, finally in audio. I think I've finally found an audiobook that I can point to when someone asks about "Hey I liked this book The Martian what else you got?" It’s a lot, lot more f'ed up than The Martian; bigger cast (there’s the titular Mars colony) and a couple decades into a further, weirder future with cyberpunk influences (brain implant tech, corporations, genetic drift, psychedelic drugs, …). I’m a huge, huge, raving Lew Shiner fan, and Rudnicki is one of my favorites, and both he and Gabrielle de Cuir are fantastic on this one, as always. This one's aged uncannily well, as Shiner's extrapolations (crumbling Soviet Union fragmenting, collapse of US government space program and rise of private space interests) hit the bullseye all too well.

I guess it was okay

it didn't really hold my interest. I think it was okay, but I don't really remember the story as anything more than background noise

Surprisingly interesting and engaging story

Sex scenes are a bit much. Not hot, just awkward. I like the depth of the character building. The end kinda fizzled for me, but over all really good listen.

Great great great

I don’t know if the dual-narrator experiment worked exactly, but both narrators are excellent so it doesn’t exactly “fail” either. The story is fantastic and the solid writing holds it up though out. Highly recommended.

Mars needs women! ( Still ! )

What did you like best about Frontera? What did you like least?

Best...the performance by both readers but especially Gabrielle. She rocks this book. Goodness, owns the emotions, the intensity ( and there is that! ) and the story.
Least is the wimpy ending, but that is subjective.

Would you recommend Frontera to your friends? Why or why not?

I would for the performances alone.

What about Gabrielle de Cuir and Stefan Rudnicki ’s performance did you like?

This story is relatively derivative, and is dated in it's technology. That said, these 2 performers bring it to life, and the characters they inhabit ( esp. Gabrielle's ) walk through the listeners lives. Stunningly good.

Could you see Frontera being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Nah. Too derivative, and too dated.

Any additional comments?

All that said, a wonderful offering. Stefan is Mr. Mars, and his companion seems to be along for the journey. If you like Mars oriented SciFi with amazing reading, get this. Highly recommended, for the genre!