Permutation City

By: Greg Egan

Narrated by: Adam Epstein

Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's Summary

The good news is that you have just awakened into Eternal Life. You are going to live forever. Immortality is a reality. A medical miracle? Not exactly.

The bad news is that you are a scrap of electronic code. The world you see around you, the you that is seeing it, has been digitized, scanned, and downloaded into a virtual reality program. You are a Copy that knows it is a copy.

The good news is that there is a way out. By law, every Copy has the option of terminating itself, and waking up to normal flesh-and-blood life again. The bail-out is on the utilities menu. You pull it down...The bad news is that it doesn't work. Someone has blocked the bail-out option. And you know who did it. You did. The other you. The real you. The one that wants to keep you here forever.

©2013 Greg Egan (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Amazing book. Amazingly bad narrator.

I am torn. Greg Egan is arguably one of the greatest sci-fi authors of our time, and without reservation my favorite. Permutation City is an exemplary piece. I waited years for audible to release his works. When they did, I immediately went to purchase Diaspora, one of the best books, sci-fi or otherwise, that I've ever read. I clicked the sample audio button... and then checked to make sure it wasn't April 1st. Surely this was joke. I heard a whiny, nasal, mosquito buzzing voice, reading at kindergarten speed, and then using some of the most comically exaggerated and poorly executed accents I've ever encountered in a professional production. I then discovered to my horror that this narrator reads almost all of the newly released Greg Egan material. Give it a try. If the voice doesn't bother you, you are in for some seriously mind blowing hard sci-fi. If it does, pick up some of his books in another format. They are amazing.
If you dig, you can find an old cassette recording of Diaspora online. It is read by John Polk, and even with poor audio quality, is far superior to kindergarten audio-torture version offered by Audible.

Painful

Any additional comments?

This was the most painful narration I've had to listen to. Usually I can get used to a voice but this was... just not workign for me at all. Sorry, dude, but your voice was like nails on a blackboard. I'm sure you're a nice person though.

Narrator tolerable at 1.4x speed

The story was fantastic.

A lot of other reviewers mentioned the narrator's slow pace. I sped up the playback to 1.4x and I thought it was alright.

Hope any potential readers are not disuaded. Narration is not bad sped up and the story really makes it worth the listen.

Excellent Hard SciFi done right! AWFUL narration

Would you consider the audio edition of Permutation City to be better than the print version?

No, the narration was awful, about as bad as possible without causing me to stop listening or return the purchase to audible. His voice is nasal, and his style monotonous: A deadly combination. On top of this, his accents were awful

What other book might you compare Permutation City to and why?

Anything else by Greg Egan; The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick

What didn’t you like about Adam Epstein’s performance?

His voice is nasal, and his style monotonous: A deadly combination. On top of this, his accents were awful I don't recall listening to anything else by him, so maybe he just had a bad day.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Permutation City, the Movie: WTF, Hollywood Actually Made This?

Any additional comments?

Permutation City amounts to a compelling thought experiment on the nature of consciousness, self-identity, and the implications of artificial reality & existence. This is not SpaceOpera scifi; It's hard scifi and requires thinking about the ideas & concepts presented rather than passively enjoying a good story. One of my favorite books.

i don't hold it against my friend for reccomending

What was most disappointing about Greg Egan’s story?

the publishing company must have printed the rough draft by mistake. major plot developments drop off and never picked back up, useless character have there stories re told multiple times and never contribute to the over all story, and the book end abruptly as though the author accidentally forgot the last third of the book somewhere.

What three words best describe Adam Epstein’s performance?

lackluster and weak. compared to the book itself this verbal recitation (wont call it a performance) is the least of my complaints, but won't be listening to books read out loud by this guy again.

Was Permutation City worth the listening time?

maybe - there were great concepts and moments in the book that gave it the potential to be very thought provoking. plenty of ethical and philosophical discussions on what defines a person and reality. i really lost myself in the world from time to time, but more often i noticed that the pacing was off and great ideas were being presented as major plot development only to be mentioned later in passing like the author forgot he was trying to do something with them. a story line that got repeated more than twice that added nothing to the story and should have been presented as a miner diversion at best was beat to death for some reason. overall i wanted this book to be great and maybe the final draft was, but that's not what i got to listen to.

Not recommended.

If you suffer from insomnia…this book is for you. It WILL put you to sleep. Adam Epstein must have been brain dead when he read this, it sounded like a technical manual rather than a story.

On Sale....for a reason

The story is great...the reader is terrible. Dante has a level in Hell where you are made to listen to this reader.

Interesting book, truly awful performance

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes and no. The book is fascinating and well-written, but the performance is truly awful. The voice of the reader (I can't in good faith call him a performer) became bearable over time, but only just. It detracted from the story, and thus failed.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Permutation City?

I enjoyed both the exploration of the computational ideas behind singularity and the exploration of the emotions of people dealing with living in a society where (a form of) immortality was possible.

Would you be willing to try another one of Adam Epstein’s performances?

Absolutely not. I would like to listen to more of Egan's books, but there is no way I would buy another book "performed" by Epstein.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes.

Narrator provides a surmountable challenge

Many reviewers point out that the narrator's performance of this audiobook leaves much to be desired. True, but I found his reading to be passable enough at x1.25 speed and was able to enjoy the content of the book.

That said, some of Egan's very complex ideas are hard to grasp via audio only. I found it useful to visit his Dust Theory FAQ page to help me sit and contemplate his ideas.

Overall, the ideas are fascinating, but the character's motivations are murky. As with a lot of idea-driven science fiction, character development takes a hit. Sometimes, as in Charles Stross' work, flat or unrelateable characters make it hard to enjoy the otherwise good hard science fiction. Somehow, the brilliance and audacity of Eagan's ideas overshadow the books other shortcomings.

Great story, but narration isn't terrific

Would you listen to Permutation City again? Why?

I will read Permutation City again because of the subject matter, but I won't listen to it again (see my comments on the performance below).

What other book might you compare Permutation City to and why?

This book is similar to Egan's Diaspora and Schild's Ladder. They borrow some of the same concepts and features of the universe.

How could the performance have been better?

The accents the narrator affects are rather jarring. The German accent sounds more Russian and the Australian accent is a cartoonish caricature. It may sound petty, but it really does take you out of the story. Another minor thing is the pronunciation of the acronym ASEAN (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations). It should be AH-zee-ahn, but the narrator pronounces it A-shawn.

A great book that deserves a much better narrator

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The story here is interesting and pushes some big boundaries in hard science fiction - what constitutes reality? Is a simulation of reality in which 'consciousness' can arise any less real than reality itself? But the narration is a barrier to anything better than a 2/5 overall score. If that was better, I would gladly raise this to 4/5.

Would you be willing to try another one of Adam Epstein’s performances?

No. The accent is too strong, and the pitch and timbre get in the way of the story. The accents aren't very good and one - Repetto's cod-Italian - was almost enough to make me stop listening altogether. Only the fact I was already a good way toward the end made me hold on.

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I loved the story - I just didn't love the performance. If you can (somehow) put the narration out of your mind, you might be able to enjoy the story. I couldn't.

Any additional comments?

I would have continued with more Greg Egan stuff, had it had a different narrator. Shame.

Inception AI and singular universes

The ghost in the machine no longer is a ghost but a replication, a mantra for a new form of creation for making life possibilities that are beyond the grasp of death but not human despair.
A complex tale of machine replicating human consciousness and human environments, to sustain immortal consciousness in imperfect machine realities.
This is one of those ideas that are interesting but so full of paradoxes and possibilities of time restrictions, on not just the biological but the physicality of machines and cultures sustaining ideas of the past or possibility of maintaining a code for hundreds or thousands of years.
No matter how virtual your universe it is still in having a primary reality and physics, not to mention and everchanging culture and political influences that would not at all points in time respect the needs of virtual citizens or entities that do not share a common reality, for example, in the now we do not respect even beings that inhabit our reality.
And interesting mind exercise that was better developed by the movie Inception.

Interesting if you take your time

Where does Permutation City rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The story and concepts are fantastic but is let down a little by the narration.

What other book might you compare Permutation City to, and why?

Islands in the Net or any Hard SciFi / Cyberpunk

What about Adam Epstein’s performance did you like?

There are a few comments here saying Adam Epstein's performance is terrible. While not the best performance in the world it was definitely listenable and once I got used to the way he narrated I began to listen to longer chunks and enjoy the narration.

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

Some of the concepts introduced in the book held my attention a lot more than the actual story.

Any additional comments?

Concepts gave me something to think about after I finished the book. Give it a chance and take your time with it.

Such a great story let down by poor narration

If you're fascinated by concepts like uploaded minds, and some of the rarely explored aspects of what that entails, this book is great, and one of my favourites.

I just really wish it had a different narrator. Adam Epstein's odd, repetitive intonation in every phrase is extremely distracting and makes listening an unenjoyable experience. Listen to the sample of this book, and get the audiobook if you think you might be able to ignore the repetitive intonation, otherwise read the book yourself, it's great!

Great story, awful narration

Greg Egan's novel is brilliant SF and I have read it to myself countless times. The narration in this audiobook is dreadful, though. The narrator's intonation is monotonous, he cannot do accents to save his life and shouldn't have tried, and he doesn't seem to know the difference between "causal" and "casual". I managed to tune out the delivery and focus on the story, but if I didn't already love the story, I wouldn't have got past the first chapter.

Intriguing and original story; terrible narration

I found the story to be intriguing, original and thought-provoking, if a little far-fetched at times. But there was enough to keep me interested, and often hooked, right up to the end. So I'd definitely recommend the book.

Sadly, it was let down by the narrator. Although Adam Epstein does narrate clearly and understandably, there are at least three things he does that I didn't like:

(1) He reads every sentence in exactly the same way. He's not monotonous in the literal sense, but his intonation is identical for every sentence, regardless of what's going on. There was a complete lack of variety. While I don't expect an audiobook to be performed like a play, I do expect the narrator to inject at least _some_ personality into it.

(2) Epstein seems to have a weakness for foreign words, and frequently mispronounces them. In particular, there are a number of German names and words in this book, and he manages to get almost every single one wrong. He also doesn't appear to know how to say "Yorkshire".

(3) His foreign accents are not great. The worst was an Italian character, which was just painful to listen to, and occasionally wandered into something like Jamaican.

I previously reviewed Distress, also by Greg Egan and narrated by Epstein; my comments about the narration for that book are much the same as for this one. So, at least he's consistent, I guess...? :-)

Obsessed with Permutation City, but...

Obsessed with Permutation City, a very profound novel indeed exploring the true nature of algorithms and the nature of sentience, but a lot of the subtlety will be lost on most people who will simply view it as just another Sci-Fi novel, because they won't be familiar with recursion, or Turing machines, or Turing Complete cellular automata, or von Neumann's reproduction proof, demonstrated by creating a combination (on paper) of a Universal Constructor and a Universal Turing Machine - independently paralleling the discovery of the mechanism of DNA structures by Watson and Crick.

Epstein is a fine narrator on the whole, but why did he make up an accent straight out of Mrs. Brown's Boys when reciting the lines of Elizabeth, Durham's wife? That was utterly hilarious (but not in a good way).

Great Start But ...

Most of the interesting philosophical issues are covered in the early chapters. I listened to the end, but had mostly lost interest over half way.

For Science Nerds

Unless you're a science nerd into some pretty complex stuff (Ultimate Ensemble Theory anyone?) you're going to have a tough time. The story is OK, but most of the exposition is far too long and falls into what I like to call 'philosturbation.'

And this is leaving aside the truly awful narration. I won't listen to another Adam Epstein-narrated book again.