One Trillion Dollars

By: Andreas Eschbach

Narrated by: Adam Verner

Length: 25 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's Summary

Yesterday John Fontanelli was just a pizza delivery guy in New York City. One day later, he's the richest man in the world. One trillion dollars - one million times one million - $1,000,000,000,000: more money than anyone could imagine.

For generations the Vacchis, an old Italian family of lawyers and asset managers, had supervised the fortune as it grew over five hundred years, until one particular date that the benefactor had stipulated in his will. The youngest male descendant would be fated to oversee the fortune for the good of humanity. John relishes his new life of luxury, rubbing elbows with royalty, buying up corporations, fielding a flood of beautiful women - until one day the phone rings, and a mysterious stranger tells the trillionaire that he knows what dirty secrets lie behind the fortune...

©2014 Bastei Lübbe (P)2014 Lübbe Audio

Loved it but ending was a copout

Smart people may be a little frustrated with the hapless simpleton of a protagonist, though that is intentional I think. I personally disliked the ending. It left several loose ends and left me with a feeling of anticlimax. I felt like the author was under pressure to finish the book, and should have taken the extra time to write the last 5 hours of the book rather than slap together an ending. That being said, the book overall was great fun and thought provoking. The political, social, and economic commentary was educational and kept me guessing whether the author had a political agenda (which is good). There were a couple of miscalculations (compound interest, historical currency conversions), but they didn't get in the way of the narrative. Anyway I will definitely be reading everything else available from this author.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Boring and inconsistent

An intriguing premise followed by boring economical banter and episodic unfulfilling characters, concluded in an abrupt, bizarre and unresolved way.

love it

I really enjoyed this, there was lots of amazing points, and I couldn't stop thinking about the book when I wasn't listening to it

Way too long

I like the creativity of this author but this story could have made all of its essential points at half the length.

The other critics are right about it going a bit off the rails in the last third. it didn't help that the protagonist was not as smart as I wanted him to be. everything in the book was well telegraphed and there were no surprises. I could never have finished it if the narration hadn't been so good.

Great Premise Terrible Execution

I listened to the first few chapters. then I couldn't bare anymore of the completey clichéd and totally uninspired writing. I skipped to the last chapter just to get a feel if I would be missing anything.
my feeling was gratitude towards myself for sparing me many more hours of boredom and irritation

the reader was also quite terrible.
unless you are entertained by the mundane and ordinary, avoid this waste of time.

...I decided to finish the book. I now give it 2 stars instead of one. it's basically a boring and tedious " world economy for dummies" text book poorly disguised as a story. I give it one more star upon completion because even though it is obviously aimed at the totally clueless. I still found a small handful of inspiration and interesting realizations. but these do not excuse tha mundane and downright irritating story line

Tedious

At the out set the premise of the story sounded interesting, and at the beginning it was ... but by half way through the storyline became tedious and I had to force myself to finish. If I had wanted a lesson on world micro economics I would have taken a course.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Tedious...glad it's over.

Tedious…glad it’s over.

The premise of the story is unique but the story drags on. At least 40 percent of the book deals with finances and economic science including supply/demand, tax strategies, compound interest, banking, GNP, allocation of resources, environmental conservatism, etc. While this may be informative and interesting to some people, it was overdone for me. As one reader said, “If I wanted to learn about economics I would’ve taken a course.” It seems that the author was more concerned about promoting his personal theories on restructuring the U.S. financial/eco systems rather than delivering an engaging plot.

The main character through the first 90 percent of the book is naive, feckless, whiny and boring. His inability to grasp simple business concepts when dealing with financial and economic theory, in contrast to his powerful and well-informed antagonists, was frustrating and incredibly tedious as was his constant self-deprecation and self-defeating attitude. There were few redeeming moments for this pathetic character. I kept waiting for him to rise to the occasion. Alas, he finally “got it” and attempted to redeem himself during the last 10% of the book but it was too little, too late. By that time, I just wanted the experience to be over.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Eschbach’s Lord of All Things, and expected this earlier work to be just as captivating. Unfortunately that was not the case.

The narrator was excellent and handled the English, American, German and Italian accents adroitly.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

Best writer I've heard in years- a must listen

If you could sum up One Trillion Dollars in three words, what would they be?

(no spoilers) An emotional rollercoaster, really feel empathy with the main character John Fontanelli. The author is a superb wordsmith.

Who was your favorite character and why?

John Fontanelli. I really fealt for him and the life he had been through. I can't think of anyone who would handle getting $1 trillion without something going wrong...

What does Adam Verner bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

He's an excellent voice actor. He is very easy to understand and comforting to listen to.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me late for work! I would remain stuck in my car not wanting to leave it. Eventually I started listening to it on my earphones in work!

Any additional comments?

Please translate more of Eschbach's books. He is highly regarded in Germany and has many more german language books. I need someone to translate and record his books in English please!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Hard work

Would you try another book written by Andreas Eschbach or narrated by Adam Verner?

Narration was good but the novel not so good. Tried this author as I had not read him before. I won't read him again.

Has One Trillion Dollars put you off other books in this genre?

No. The idea is good

Do you think One Trillion Dollars needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Definitely not. Plot so drawn out and lengthy only to finish with the equivalent of a 7 year olds 'Then I woke up !'