Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Lord of All Things  By  cover art

Lord of All Things

By: Samuel Willcocks - translator, Andreas Eschbach
Narrated by: Nick Podehl
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $32.89

Buy for $32.89

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Winner of the 2012 Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis.

They are just children when they first meet: Charlotte, daughter of the French ambassador, and Hiroshi, a laundress’s son. One day in the playground, Hiroshi declares that he has an idea that will change the world. An idea that will sweep away all differences between rich and poor.

When Hiroshi runs into Charlotte several years later, he is trying to build a brighter future through robotics. Determined to win Charlotte’s love, he resurrects his childhood dream, convinced that he can eradicate world poverty by pushing the limits of technology beyond imagination. But as Hiroshi circles ever closer to realizing his vision, he discovers that his utopian dream may contain the seeds of a nightmare — one that could obliterate life as we know it.

Crisscrossing the globe, from Tokyo to the hallowed halls of MIT to desolate Arctic islands and Buenos Aires and beyond — far beyond — Lord of All Things explores not only technology’s dizzying potential, but also its formidable dangers.

©2011 Andreas Eschbach and Bastei Lübbe GmbH & Co. KG. English translation © 2014 by Samuel Willcocks. (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

What listeners say about Lord of All Things

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,402
  • 4 Stars
    832
  • 3 Stars
    302
  • 2 Stars
    79
  • 1 Stars
    43
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,670
  • 4 Stars
    588
  • 3 Stars
    154
  • 2 Stars
    20
  • 1 Stars
    17
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,299
  • 4 Stars
    702
  • 3 Stars
    318
  • 2 Stars
    83
  • 1 Stars
    53

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Story starts off small and gets huge

Every once in a while, a story comes along and sweeps me away, this was one of them. This is a huge expansive story that started out with a dream of a boy that ends up challenging everything we see around us and who we are as humans in the universe. It's a slow building story that keeps cranking up over decades and leaves you wondering what is going to happen next and what does happen you don't expect. The author doesn't take the easy way out, the guy guy doesn't always win. It's a mixture of philosophy, hard SciFi, a love story and it stretches the brain. Check it out, it might leave you changed like all great books should.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

63 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • GP
  • 11-02-14

Absolutely wonderful

The story line was intriguing, so I picked this up at some point. I expected your standard sci-fi thriller. Guy discovers amazing technology to make the world a better place. Governments and capitalists come after him and try to steal it away to rule the world.

Well yes, and no. The story had me at the start with Hiroshi looking out the window at Charlotte in Tokyo. And kept me intrigued to the end on the pampas in Argentina. There were twists and turns, and they were often unexpected. The characters were real, had feeling and emotion, and actually did things that their stories would lead them to do.

I loved it. I loved the story, I really cared about the main characters, and was sorry for it to end. More please.

I've already picked up something else by Andreas Eschbach and hope to be entranced once again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

58 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of the best stories I have ever read

I actually wrote a note to the Author asking why many of his other works have not been translated to english. He responded saying that it was up to Audible to do so. This story is one of the most awesome love stories I have had the pleasure of "reading".

Combined with science fiction and deep research on many topics, together with a writing style and story that will touch you to your core, this book is one of the few that changed me. I place this one alongside Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

36 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Surprisingly Good

I'm not even sure how this made it into my library. I appear to have paid a mere $0.25 for it, so it must have been due to some sale/coupon, and my guess is I grabbed it because I have extreme faith in Nick Podehl. He did not disappoint and further catapulted himself up my favorite narrator list.

As for the book itself, I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The last third of the book could be classified as science fiction, but the entire story is really the development of the two main characters, which is like singing a cappella - if you are out of pitch, there is no hiding it. The supporting characters all twine together masterfully, too. To be honest, I'm not sure I would have such a glowing opinion if it was performed by a lesser narrator, but all the pieces came together here to make a really great audiobook.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

34 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible Voice Acting

Any additional comments?

I loved the story, but I was even more impressed with the voice acting. I can't even call it narration, because it was so much more than that.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

28 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

fun listen

Very hard to put down, and many sleepless nights listening. The presentation was excellent, and the initial reason that I purchased this book was because I had heard him read another series. I highly recommend this book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

WOW, THAT WAS SOME STORY

BEING BORED IS SOMETHING WE LEARN IN SCHOOL
Was that 21 hours or 21 minutes. I am the Impatient one, but I listened to every word. This. excellently written story drew me in.

HE WAS SUCH A ROMANTIC
This book took several turns, so many it is hard to place it in one genre. There is almost no Science Fiction in the entire first half of the book and only a tiny bit of fantasy. I normally need a lot of bang, excitement or wonderment to keep listening, but the first half had none of that. The first half is character development. I became invested in the characters. Had it stayed that way throughout I still would have been happy, but later Science does happen. When it happens, it happens in a big way and gets bigger and bigger. At first I was reminded of Blood Music by Greg Bear and than it was more like Daniel Suarez. Through out is a running romance, kind of similar to Forrest Gump. He loves her from the beginning and always. She falls for the bad boy (the opposite of him), and others. He follows his dreams, while she gets sidetracked. She gets sick, etc... The book covers a lot of time and a lot of countries.

FATE
Early on there are conversations that just seem that, conversations. Have fate that they will return in a big way.

PERHAPS THERE WERE FEWER CONSEQUENCES IN LIFE THAN PEOPLE THOUGHT.
With the exception of the maybe over done voice of the main bad boy, the narrator was so good I didn't realize he was there. His voice seemed like the voice in my head. I had to consciously think I am listening to be aware of the narrator.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

SWEPT AWAY -- and wanted to STAY! 💥👍💥

One of my Top Five.
I wish there were two more books and this was a trilogy! There is certainly room to keep this story going -- right out into the galaxy.

Love love loved it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Expected nothing less from an Eschbach novel

I have read a lot of Eschbach's books (unfortunately some of the best one have not been translated yet) and so I was expecting a lot here. And he definitely delivered. Is it his best book? Probably not, but it is still really, really good. I don't want to give any spoilers, but as Eschbach likes to do, this book is a crossover between many genres.

Oh yes - Nick Podehl reads this extraordinarily well. His repertoire of different characters is out of this world and worked extremely well for this title.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

a love story at heart

I loved the story... mainly because of the science and the geek factor. But it also had a love story through out. The story is truly one of how we love hate ... and the flaws we all have. A story of who we were who we are and what we might become... I loved it!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

19 people found this helpful