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The Fear Index  By  cover art

The Fear Index

By: Robert Harris
Narrated by: Christian Rodska
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Publisher's summary

At the nexus of high finance and sophisticated computer programming, a terrifying future may be unfolding even now.

Dr. Alex Hoffmann’s name is carefully guarded from the general public, but within the secretive inner circles of the ultrarich, he is a legend. He has developed a revolutionary form of artificial intelligence that predicts movements in the financial markets with uncanny accuracy. His hedge fund, based in Geneva, makes billions. But one morning before dawn, a sinister intruder breaches the elaborate security of his lakeside mansion, and so begins a waking nightmare of paranoia and violence as Hoffmann attempts, with increasing desperation, to discover who is trying to destroy him.

Fiendishly smart and suspenseful, The Fear Index gives us a searing glimpse into an all-too-recognizable world of greed and panic. It is a novel that forces us to confront the question of what it means to be human—and it is Robert Harris’s most spellbinding and audacious novel to date.

©2012 Robert Harris (P)2012 Random House

Critic reviews

"Unputdownable.... Harris has achieved the impossible, or at least the improbable: an explanation of the extravagantly esoteric nature of hedge funds, which normal people can understand.... I gorged myself, devouring his dystopian vision of free markets enslaved by a sinister artificial intelligence in one breakneck sitting.” ( The Daily Telegraph)
“Reminiscent of everyone from Michael Crichton to Ian Fleming, Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock.” ( Financial Times)
“A virtuoso specimen.... Inventively exploiting current anxieties about algorithmic trading to update the Frankenstein story, The Fear Index is both cutting edge and keenly conscious of its literary predecessors.... A tour de force.” ( The Sunday Times, London)

What listeners say about The Fear Index

Average customer ratings
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fun and Interesting Book ---

I bought this audiobook after hearing an interview with the author on NPR. The world of finance is not something I am at all familiar with but I found the premise of the book interesting and it did not disappoint. Though I think the 'reveal' was obvious and there were a few lose ends that frustrated me (like the storyline with the Darwin book) I still loved this book. Found the setting, the characters, and the story line different and compelling. The performance was EXCELLENT! Overall just a fun and hard to 'put down' book. I was really sad when it ended!

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

inconsistent and full of lose ends

Would you try another book from Robert Harris and/or Christian Rodska?

Not very probable

Would you ever listen to anything by Robert Harris again?

Not likely

Any additional comments?

There was so much emphases on the machine thing that left the story around it inconsistent and full of lose ends, and the author never actually connected the dots

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

Bonfire of the Vanities meets HAL.

Would you listen to The Fear Index again? Why?

Best Harris ever. I love Robert Harris, but this book was the most fast moving and suspenseful of the books by him that I have read. I really enjoyed the character development.

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

Pass on It

Was very sorry I bought this
Hard to get thru the whole thing
Cannot recommend it the narrator does not do it any good either

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

Pass on It

Was very sorry I bought this
Hard to get thru the whole thing
Cannot recommend it the narrator does not do it any good either

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

Stayed Up All Night; It Was THAT Good!

The scary part is that what happens in this story is quite plausible, and has already made our financial markets unstable and ungovernable. The "smartest guys in the room" since the 1990's became Wall Street "quants" who wrote the algorithms that make scads of money getting in and out of stocks in seconds or less, while hedging their downside. Being right 55% of the time is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The mental illness plot twist made the book even more difficult to put down. Christian Rodska's narration was really good, including the accents and pace. The setting in Geneva sounds lovely. Great book, from beginning to end.

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