METAtropolis: Cascadia

By: Jay Lake, Mary Robinette Kowal, Elizabeth Bear, Ken Scholes, Karl Schroeder, Tobias Buckell

Narrated by: Rene Auberjonois, Kate Mulgrew, Wil Wheaton, Gates McFadden, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Jay Lake

Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

This provocative sequel to the Hugo and Audie Award nominated METAtropolis features interconnected stories by today’s top writers of speculative fiction – performed by a galaxy of Star Trek stars.

As the mid-20th century approaches, the Pacific Northwest has been transformed - politically, economically, and ecologically - into the new reality of Cascadia. Conspiracies and secrets threaten the tenuous threads of society. The End of Days seems nearer than ever. And the legend of the mysterious Tygre Tygre looms large.

METAtropolis: Cascadia is the creation of Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominee Jay Lake; Mary Robinette Kowal, winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer; New York Times best-selling author Tobias S. Buckell; Hugo Award winner Elizabeth Bear; Aurora Award winner Karl Schroeder; and critically acclaimed author Ken Scholes. The team of narrators is any Star Trek fan’s dream: Rene Auberjonois (“Odo”); Kate Mulgrew (“Capt. Kathryn Janeway”); Wil Wheaton (“Wesley Crusher”); Gates McFadden (“Dr. Beverly Crusher”); Jonathan Frakes (“Cmdr. William Riker”); and LeVar Burton (“Geordi La Forge”). Jay Lake, who also served as Project Editor, introduces this stunning sequel, written and produced exclusively for digital audio.

Check out the original METAtropolis here.;Learn more about the narrators and authors at the METAtropolis: Cascadia microsite now.

©2010 Joseph E. Lake, Jr., Mary Robinette Kowal, Tobias S. Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, Karl Schroeder, Ken Scholes (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Winner, Original Work, 2012

Wonderful!

As a huge fan of Star Trek TNG and DS9. It was so delightful to hear these stories told by such familiar voices!

Great!

I liked the original but this one felt more closely knit together. Also it was really cool that all the narrators were star trek cast members (something I was surprised was not mentioned in the forward).

One of the first books I ever listened to

I've now been through this title twice - it was just as good the second time around as it was the first. Its a wonderful read - a future that could happen and who knows, might. I like the collaborative style that the different short stories bring and well, the reading talent, amazing. If I could suggest two titles that every audio book nut should read - METAtropolis and METAtropolis: Cascadia are the two!

Mostly well read, stories fall short

Hats off to the all star cast reading these books, many great performances! Where I thought this series got derailed was veering away from the mix of visions of the future with cities and the environment. That story about wine makers could have been written on its own, and then loosely connected to this series as an after thought. And this dogmatic anti-christian story at the end, really? I loved METAtropolis for its gutsy re-envisioning of the future, based on current trends. That came through again in two stories, but the story about bio experiments also seemed way off. I enjoyed the Bashar storyline, and the different directions people will take, given where life is headed. Too bad you lost focus.

Even better than the first Metatropolis

As someone who lives in "Cascadia", I can really see this as a potential for my grand-daughters future. They are 19 and 7 and I suspect the world they will live in is going to be much different than it's been. As for me, I've been a recycler hippy/greenie/recycler since the 1950s and as far a I'm concerned, we should have been living this way for the last 50 years and not doing so is what will lead to the dystopian future as discussed in the two books in the series.

All the stories are interesting and some are better than others. Johathan Frakes (Reiker from Star Trek) is a very bad narrator but LaVar Burton and
Wil Wheaton are both great. I love Wil Wheatons narrations of John Scalzi's novels. If you haven't read them, give yourself a treat-most are very funny...gut laugh funny even with Scalzis inability to write dialog without "He Said" 'She Said" and it happens in his piece in the first of the Metatropolis anthologies. But you get used to it.

I'm going to share these with a few family members-I think they will enjoy them a lot.

I encourage them for those who want to think about a potential new future that could be in our not so distant future!

100% Nostalgia from the Star Trek narration cast and I’m here for it

But that’s only the surface level. These stories are rich. The world is interesting and relevant.

If you enjoy any one of these authors and/or any one of these narrators then this book belongs in your collection.

***A note of caution on reviews (specifically of anthologies)***

If you enjoy anthologies, then you’re already used to variance in prose. Some people aren’t as well rounded in their literary consumption and are therefore unreliable reviewers as they’ll tend to issue statements resembling: “I liked some stories more than others…” which says more about the reviewer who prefers to state the obvious than it does of the work.

Each story was Great!

This set of short stories gave a full and rounded picture of the universe they created. I’m a huge fan and will be hoping for more. Each narrator did their characters justice beautifully.

Still powerful, surprisingly apt performers

Stories not quite as powerful as the original collection, but there’s still tons here that’s striking and thought-provoking and exciting.

Only potential weak link in the readers is Frakes, I’m a bit surprised and disappointed to say. I say potential either because he was doing an incredibly accurate accent that I’m ignorant of, or he kinda bull-in-China-shopped his way through his story. All other readers were actually downright excellent.

Another great Metatropolis Series

After hooked on the first series of Metatropolis, I had to also listen to the sequence. It's great to catch up with some of the characters from the initial series and to see how things developed. Each story is brilliant, filled with many inventive details, that are scarily likely to develop at the same time. Metatropolis Cascadia plays entirely in the USA/Canadian area, it would be interesting to read Metatropolis stories from other parts of the world.

Pretty good, semi-connected stories

Unlike the 1st book, the short stories in this book were long enough to get to know the characters & really enjoy. One of the stories could have been an old Western, with just a little tech thrown in to make it kinda fit in the shared world, but the others were all good & moved the world forward.