Gravity

By: Tess Gerritsen

Narrated by: William Dufris

Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Emma Watson, a brilliant research physician, has been training for years for the mission of a lifetime: to study living beings in space. Jack McCallum, Emma's estranged husband, has shared her dream of space travel, but a medical condition has grounded and embittered him. He must watch from the sidelines as his wife prepares for her first mission to the international Space Station.

Once aboard the space station, however, things start to go terribly wrong. A culture of single-celled organisms known as Archaeons, gathered from the deep sea, are to be monitored in the microgravity of space. The true and lethal nature of this experiment has not been revealed to NASA. In space, the cells rapidly multiply and soon begin to infect the crew - with agonizing and deadly results.

A recovery attempt ends in catastrophe: the NASA shuttle crashes, killing all onboard, and the space station is left dangerously crippled. Emma struggles to contain the deadly microbe, while back home, Jack and NASA work against the clock to retrieve Emma from space.

But there will be no rescue. The contagion now threatens Earth's population as well, and the astronauts are left stranded in orbit, quarantined aboard the station - where they are dying one by one....

Written with an exacting eye, Dr. Tess Gerritsen ensnares the imagination with Gravity, her most steely, unforgettable thriller yet.

©2010 Tess Gerritsen (P)2012 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

"She is better than Plamer, better than Cook... yes, even better than Crichton." (Stephen King)

GREAT STORY - SCARY IDEA

Not at all what I expected from Gerritsen. MUCH BETTER. I loved the premise, I loved the plot line and characters. If you liked Gerritsen before you will love her now.

Mid level offering

I thought the beginning of the book was terrific, the middle was good. I couldnt finish the book as it became very predictable in my opinion.

Excellent

I loved it, very hard to put down, the narrator was great with characters,

Fast moving and funderful

It was great to listen to a book that did not bore me to the point of death with minutiae of characters. It has a plot which is easy to follow and enough detail to make the plot plausible. It was fun and entertaining. Full of action, it was hard to put it down even though I anticipated the next misadventure in the story. The only drawback was that I could anticipate the next surprise.

Loved the plot

Well narrated book, really nice voice. The story is engaging. Although the plot is very obvious. Makes it very accessible.

Great real life sci-fi

Love this story! I’m a fan of sci-fi that is seemingly real or possible, and this book delivered. It’s a tad slow in the beginning as Tess sets up the story and characters. But once it gets going, hold on tight!

Dufris’ narrations is good. It took me a little while to get used to his voice, which is very showman and somewhat lulling. He does a good job in his pauses, and paints a illustrative picture of when the characters are swallowing down their heavy situations.

Definitely worth your time! I actually binged listening to it in a day!

Fast paced, interesting ideas.

The narration was excellent, although the gulping and gasping of emotion got a bit cringy. I did get a bit frustrated at the silly mistakes by these highly trained professionals allowing themselves to be contaminated. Also the reckless desire to return to earth - I don’t believe ( at least I hope) that people who make the grade as astronauts would even consider it.
But overall a nicely paced story that kept me engaged throughout.

Nail biter with slightly disappointing end

The action flowed and pulled me through, I found myself looking for chores to do as an excuse to listen more. The character development was amazing and you really got the sensation of the cramped quarters of a modern space station. The science was fun and didn't ruin the suspended disbelief.

My one negative comment is that the end seemed a little lackluster, otherwise this story would have gotten 5 stars all the way.

Awesome Thriller

If you could sum up Gravity in three words, what would they be?

Fast Paced, Thrilling, Realistic

Who was your favorite character and why?

Jack is the person left behind however he remained strong.

Have you listened to any of William Dufris’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

My first one... but won't be my last. He has phenomanal story telling capabilites.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes - Felt like I was watching a movie.

Any additional comments?

What a great story and told so well by William!

Overacted

You can hear the narrator's every "mouth sound." If a character yawns, or is beginning to speak while tired, the narrator makes all the dry mouth sounds and it's cringe worthy. The narrator needs to back down about 30%.