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Parable of the Talents
- Narrated by: Patricia R. Floyd, Peter Jay Fernandez, Sisi Aisha Johnson
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
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Publisher's summary
Environmental devastation and economic chaos have turned America into a land of horrifying depravity. Assault, theft, sexual abuse, slavery, and murder are commonplace. Taking advantage of the situation, a zealous, bigoted tyrant wins his way into the White House.
Directly opposed is Lauren Olamina, founder of Earthseed - a new faith that teaches "God Is Change". Persecuted for "heathen" beliefs as much as for having a Black female leader, Earthseed's followers face a life-and-death struggle to preserve their vision.
Best-selling author Octavia Butler's fluid writing and keen observations about race, gender, politics, and religion make for a moving parable that will be pondered for generations. A powerful reading from three standout narrators captures the multi-generational sweep of this poignant tale.
Butler's acclaimed novels have won numerous awards, and she is a recipient of a "genius" grant from the MacArthur Foundation. Parable of the Talents was selected as one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly.
Critic reviews
- Nebula Award, Best Novel, 1999
"Octavia E. Butler is one of the finest voices in fiction....period." (Washington Post Book World)
"These...are the keynotes of Talents: family and characters, warmth and endurance, hope and determination. It's a worthy book, well up to Butler's standard for thoughtfulness and insight." (Analog Science Fiction & Fact)
"Though not for the faint-hearted, this work stands out as a testament to the author's enormous talent, and to the human spirit." (Publishers Weekly)
Featured Article: 175+ of the Best Quotes from Black Authors, Activists, Entrepreneurs, and Artists to Celebrate Black History Month
Black History is American History. Whether writers, poets, activists, entertainers, scientists, entrepreneurs, or some combination thereof, Black people have frequently offered exactly the right words when they were needed most. This sweeping collection of wise, stirring, and thought-provoking words from Black Americans offers much to inspire all Americans.
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In the home where Arabella Godwin was raised it is forbidden to speak her name, and her picture is turned to the wall. But in the turbulent America of the 1850s, everyone knows her as "Belle Cora", madam of San Francisco's finest bordello. Judges and senators do her bidding; a vicious newspaper editor plots her downfall; a preacher looks at her from across his pulpit and tries to forget that once she was his wife. Merchant's daughter, farm girl, prostitute, mother - the only thing that never changes is her tireless pursuit of the one man who can see her for who she really is.
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excellent
- By Patricia on 05-15-20
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Farnham's Freehold
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Hugh Farnham is a practical, self-made man, and when he sees the clouds of nuclear war gathering, he builds a bomb shelter under his house, hoping for peace and preparing for war. But when the apocalypse comes, something happens that he did not expect. A thermonuclear blast tears apart the fabric of time and hurls his shelter into a world with no sign of other human beings.
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Heinlein of his time...
- By Lisa on 07-03-11
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The Eden Express
- A Memoir of Insanity
- By: Mark Vonnegut
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Mark Vonnegut set out in search of Eden with his VW bug, his girlfriend, his dog, and his ideals, but genetic predisposition and a whole lot of shit going down made him crazy in a culture that told him mental illness is a myth and schizophrenia is a sane response to an insane society. Describing his experiences during the late '60s and early '70s, Eden Express reveals how Mark went from being a recent college grad who was in love and living communally on a farm to having nervous breakdowns.
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Touches the challenges of human condition
- By Glenn Ainsworth on 06-23-23
By: Mark Vonnegut
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Becoming Duchess Goldblatt
- By: anonymous
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman, Lyle Lovett, J. Smith-Cameron
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Becoming Duchess Goldblatt is two stories: that of the reclusive real-life writer who created a fictional character out of loneliness and thin air, and that of the magical Duchess Goldblatt herself, a bright light in the darkness of social media. Fans around the world are drawn to Her Grace's voice, her wit, her life-affirming love for all humanity, and the fun and friendship of the community that's sprung up around her.
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Oh Dear Duchess!
- By Rebecca Lindroos on 07-20-20
By: anonymous
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Lighthouse
- By: Eugenia Price
- Narrated by: Tessa Richards
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Raised in post-Revolution Granville, Massachusetts, James Gould could only imagine the beauty and warmth of the lands to the south. It was there that he longed to build bridges and lighthouses from his very own designs and plans. His gripping story unfolds as Gould follows his dream to the raw settlement of Bangor on the Penobscot River, St. Simons Island off the coast of Georgia, lawless Spanish East Florida, and back - at last and finally - to St. Simons.
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Local history come to life!
- By the Island on 05-07-21
By: Eugenia Price
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Shoutin' in the Fire
- An American Epistle
- By: Danté Stewart
- Narrated by: Danté Stewart
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In Shoutin’ in the Fire, Danté Stewart gives breathtaking language to his reckoning with the legacy of white supremacy - both the kind that hangs over our country and the kind that is internalized on a molecular level. Stewart uses his personal experiences as a vehicle to reclaim and reimagine spiritual virtues like rage, resilience, and remembrance - and explores how these virtues might function as a work of love against an unjust, unloving world.
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Poetic. Narrative. Vulnerable. Heartbreaking. Hopeful.
- By A. Smith on 10-13-21
By: Danté Stewart
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In the Shadow of the Valley
- A Memoir
- By: Bobi Conn
- Narrated by: Bobi Conn
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Bobi Conn was raised in a remote Kentucky holler in 1980s Appalachia. She remembers her tin-roofed house tucked away in a vast forest paradise; the sparkling creeks, with their frogs and crawdads; the sweet blackberries growing along the road to her granny’s; and her abusive father. An elegiac account of survival despite being born poor, female, and cloistered, Bobi’s testament is one of hope for all vulnerable populations, particularly women and girls caught in the cycle of poverty and abuse.
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Hard Pass
- By Kathryn Liggett on 06-13-20
By: Bobi Conn
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Who Killed My Father
- By: Édouard Louis
- Narrated by: Edouard Louis
- Length: 1 hr and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Who Killed My Father rips into France’s long neglect of the working class and its overt contempt for the poor, accusing the complacent French - at the minimum - of negligent homicide. The author goes to visit the ugly gray town of his childhood to see his dying father, barely 50 years old, who can hardly walk or breathe: “You belong to the category of humans whom politics consigns to an early death.” It’s as simple as that.
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Powerful. Poetic. Sparse. Piercing.
- By Theophile Jones on 06-01-23
By: Édouard Louis
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The Promise
- By: Damon Galgut
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Haunted by an unmet promise, the Swart family loses touch after the death of their matriarch. Adrift, the lives of the three siblings move separately through the uncharted waters of South Africa; Anton, the golden boy who bitterly resents his life’s unfulfilled potential; Astrid, whose beauty is her power; and the youngest, Amor, whose life is shaped by a nebulous feeling of guilt.
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Excellent novel
- By ALG on 11-09-21
By: Damon Galgut
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The Mathematician's Shiva
- By: Stuart Rojstaczer
- Narrated by: Angela Brazil, Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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When the greatest female mathematician in history passes away, her son, Alexander "Sasha" Karnokovitch, just wants to mourn his mother in peace. But rumor has it the notoriously eccentric Polish émigré has solved one of the most difficult problems in all of mathematics and has spitefully taken the solution to her grave. A ragtag group of mathematicians from around the world descends upon Rachela's shiva, determined to find the proof or solve it for themselves - even if it means prying up the floorboards for notes.
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Great read
- By Lee Crowe on 07-27-15
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In Order to Live
- A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom
- By: Yeonmi Park
- Narrated by: Eji Kim
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In In Order to Live, Yeonmi Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories. She tells with bravery and dignity for the first time the story of how she and her mother were betrayed and sold into sexual slavery in China and forced to suffer terrible psychological and physical hardship before they finally made their way to Seoul, South Korea - and to freedom.
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Wow. What a story!
- By Jfm on 02-01-16
By: Yeonmi Park
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Fifth Business
- The Deptford Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Robertson Davies
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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This first novel in The Deptford Trilogy introduces Ramsay, a man who returns from World War I decorated with the Victoria Cross but who is destined to be caught in a no man's land where memory, history, and myth collide. As we hear Ramsey tell his story, we begin to realize that, from childhood, he has influenced those around him in a perhaps mystical, perhaps pernicious way.
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Been waiting for this
- By Vinity on 12-10-11
By: Robertson Davies
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Octavia B. is the John Coltrane of Scifi fantasy
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La estirpe de Lilith [Lilith's Brood]
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The Age of Death ended countless millennia ago. No longer burdened by limited lifespans, the immortal humans who populate inhabited space now have the luxury to travel vast distances effortlessly and to tinker with the intricate mechanics of space time. But one such experiment in quantum physics has had a catastrophic and unanticipated result, creating an enormous, rapidly expanding vacuum - a region of new physics - with the frightening potential to devour countless inhabited solar systems.
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Octavia Would Be Proud
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By: Bell Hooks, and others
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Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs. Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares.
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Messages
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Given that the suns of Draco stretch almost 16 light-years from end to end, it stands to reason that the cost of transportation is the most important factor driving the 32nd century. And since Illyrion is the element most needed for space travel, Lorq von Ray is plenty willing to fly through the core of a recently imploded sun in order to obtain seven tons of it.
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Just as fresh as my first reading 4+ decades ago
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2312
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The year is 2312. Scientific and technological advances have opened gateways to an extraordinary future. Earth is no longer humanity's only home; new habitats have been created throughout the solar system on moons, planets, and in between. But in this year, 2312, a sequence of events will force humanity to confront its past, its present, and its future. The first event takes place on Mercury, on the city of Terminator, itself a miracle of engineering on an unprecedented scale. It is an unexpected death, but one that might have been foreseen....
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Good story, HORRENDOUS narration.
- By New on 11-19-12
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A Wizard of Earthsea
- The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: Rob Inglis
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When Sparrowhawk casts a spell that saves his village from destruction at the hands of the invading Kargs, Ogion, the Mage of Re Albi, encourages the boy to apprentice himself in the art of wizardry. So, at the age of 13, the boy receives his true name - Ged - and gives himself over to the gentle tutelage of the Master Ogion. But impatient with the slowness of his studies and infatuated with glory, Ged embarks for the Island of Roke, where the highest arts of wizardry are taught.
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A little gem, excellently narrated.
- By Marjorie on 05-14-12
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A Handful of Earth, a Handful of Sky
- The World of Octavia Butler
- By: Lynell George
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
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A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler offers a blueprint for a creative life from the perspective of award-winning science-fiction writer and “MacArthur Genius” Octavia E. Butler. It is a collection of ideas about how to look, listen, breathe - how to be in the world.
By: Lynell George
What listeners say about Parable of the Talents
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- David
- 09-27-11
Powerful, dark sequel that stands on its own
This book is the sequel to"Parable of the Sower," but it stands up pretty well by itself, though I would definitely recommend reading the first book, because Butler is that good and these books are very powerful. In Parable of the Talents, Lauren Olamina, the protagonist of the first book, continues trying to build a community and a following devoted to her new religion, "Earthseed." Unfortunately, she is trying to found this new religion just when America, in the grip of a near-apocalyptic economic and environmental collapse, elects a witch-burning fundie Talibaptist for President. Lauren and her people are literally enslaved, and Lauren's infant daughter is taken away from her.
This is a dark book, a truly horrific dystopia, but the rape and violence does not read like a gratuitous admixture the way it does in so many books. You know how some authors want to make their books extra dark to let you know that these are Very Bad Times and Very Bad People, so they toss in a little rape, a little dismemberment, like one of those buckets o' blood horror films that just wind up being too schlocky and over-the-top to really horrify you? Octavia Butler doesn't do that. Instead, Lauren tells us what happened to her and her people in very clear but non-graphic terms, and the impact is felt for the rest of the story because even though she is trying to start a hopeful new religion, she hates her abusers with the heat of a thousand burning suns and makes no bones about it. It's very refreshing. None of that "I have to get past this" or forgiveness bull. She does survive and eventually launch her movement, successfully, but it's not like "Oh, and along the way some bad stuff happened."
Parable of the Talents is also, indirectly, a mother-daughter story. It's told in the past tense through the journals of both Lauren Olamina and her daughter, whom she never knew until her daughter reached adulthood. Her daughter has a very difficult time coming to terms with who her mother was, and so there are two very different narrative threads woven through the events described in the novel: Lauren, describing much of it as it was happening, and her daughter, commenting (and often, passing judgment) decades later.
This is one of those science fiction books that really should be considered literature, and it's a shame Octavia Butler isn't more widely known. It's even more of a shame that she died before she could write the third book she planned. I give both of the Earthseed books a very high recommendation.
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- Alysia
- 01-27-14
A Look Into Our Future
This is the second book in the Parable series by Octavia Butler. I purchased a copy of this book from Audible.com to read and review for A More Diverse Universe blog tour (November 15 - 17th) As you can see I am just now getting to posting my review. I read the first book in January of this year as a book club book of the month selection. (Review here)
In the first book, Lauren Olamina leaves her burning town and home to find a safe place to live and expand her new belief system called Earth Seed.
In this book (I will try and not spoil it for you) Lauren's community has grown and is thriving. She has married and gives birth to a baby girl. All of this is happening in their small community, Acorn as the rest of the United States is completely falling apart. People are migrating to Alaska (the new promise land) due to climate changes. Political leaders who are extreme right-wing Christians create fanaticals who are burning non-believers a la Salem Witch Hunts. There are ramped lack of trials in court system. Slavery is back in and children are being bought and sold into the sex trade.
This book is bleak to say the least. I was not really expecting it to be a feel good book after reading the first one. I knew things would get worse. I could see it coming. But the reason I liked this book so much is the bleakness. I know that makes no sense at all but it was. I think Octavia Butler shows her deep foresight into our future without really making things up. People are not super humans. People are not flying. She shows us as we are and what will happen if we stay on the course we are on now. It is smartly written with very probable situations and the author really put thought into all the details of our future.
I thought it was perfect to have the chapters read by different voices. Lauren, her husband and daughter each write a chapter or have passages from their journals that tell their side of events. Each narrator did an excellent job.
Due to the bleak nature of this book I would not recommend it to readers with a weak stomach and who are looking for a happy love story.
But do read this one.
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- Margit D. Morawietz
- 06-10-12
Visionary
Now this is why I became a Sci Fi fan; here you have a fully formed idea, how our present trajectory could look like. This is set in a very plausible story, with fully formed, engaging characters. It is told suspensefully, entertaining and thought provoking. You might not agree with the author at all levels, but at least it is a serious contribution to the discussion. The prose serves the story, does not get in the way of the story, the narration also works.
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17 people found this helpful
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- J. Charley
- 10-17-07
Repetitive
I should have liked this book more – it has many great science fiction elements in it – an apolyptical future, religious cults, struggle to stay alive, etc. But it really seems more like a short story that’s been stretched into novel length by repetitive ramblings about the same or similar concepts over and over again. The story is somewhat interesting, but becomes tiring a third of the way through and never really improves that much.
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- Alana
- 12-04-07
Intriguing & Insightful
A captivating and believable look into thirty years from now in Northern California. The planet's warmth pushes rich and poor north, religious extremism grows unchecked, and people are torn between individual survival and holding on to fragments of their humanity.
This book may not satisfy hardcore sci-fi buffs. It's about individual and group struggle in the future, though, just as easily could have been set in any number of dark times in the past that were ruled by corruption, chaos, and spiritual discontent. Characters are well developed enabling the reader to understand and relate to actions and motivations, even when they are extreme. Brutality is rampant, though, rape scenes are thankfully referred to instead of described. An excellent exploration of trust, loyalty, faith, power, and destiny.
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15 people found this helpful
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- Asa
- 01-16-15
Poor production
The book is amazing. Performance was good, editing/production not so much. Jumps abruptly between chapters with jarring volume changes.
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14 people found this helpful
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- james
- 12-23-07
worth reading
Not a really fast paced book, but the story does move along. In the middle of the book I was annoyed with the amount of time the author spent on theology, "Earthseed". But as the story progresses it does make more sense.
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-07-15
Gripping and real
The story is gripping and feels so real. It's not an easy or pleasant book, but it's interesting, full of ideas and opinions and peopled with great characters.
I really liked the narrator too.
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- K. Staples
- 10-20-12
Prophetic and Eye-Opening!
Would you listen to Parable of the Talents again? Why?
I would definitely listen to Parable of the Talents again because it is such an amazing story about perseverance. Laure Olamina is an awesome young woman who is determined to survive in this post-apocalyptic time. And while her religion is not one I would choose, I understand why the Acorn community lives according
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
There is a moment in Parable of the Talents when the protagonist and her community are enslaved by a fanatical Christian group and it is such a defeating and hopeless moment. However, things do turn around for the Acorn community...
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- Marcia
- 09-19-08
Depressing and lacking in real substance..
I was compelled by the title and summary and hoped for better than what I got. I found the futuristic world of chaos intriguing in that we could be headed for something like that with the state of our economy right now. The haves and the have nots.. But it was more like "what if everyone lost their minds" a bit too biazzare!
I found the whole story line depressing and it reminded me of the guy who got all of his followers to kill themselves during the eclipse or comet sighting some years back. They poisoned themselves and had on purple sneakers and were going to ride the tail of the coment... or something, right?!! "Lauren" was overbearingly and simple minded. As noted by another reviewer, the characters are not very developed.
The most important thing though was the narrator! Boy was her voice aggrevating and I could hear her swallow quite often throughout the text being read!
I know there are a lot of long passages, however I have listened to many other books and this is the first time the narrator's voicebox expressed all of the annoyances that come with regular, non-professional exchanges, very fluid! Maybe it was the audio equipment that was not set properly, I am not sure. I just found that everytime I heard her swallow, I cringed..
Sorry and better luck next time!
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