Terminal World

By: Alastair Reynolds

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 19 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Spearpoint, the last human city, is an atmosphere-piercing spire of vast size. Clinging to its skin are the zones, a series of semi-autonomous city-states, each of which enjoys a different - and rigidly enforced - level of technology. Following an infiltration mission that went tragically wrong, Quillon has been living incognito, working as a pathologist in the district morgue.

But when a near-dead angel drops onto his dissecting table, Quillon's world is wrenched apart one more time. If Quillon is to save his life, he must leave his home and journey into the cold and hostile lands beyond Spearpoint's base, starting an exile that will take him further than he could ever imagine. But there is far more at stake than just Quillon's own survival, for the limiting technologies of the zones are determined not by governments or police but by the very nature of reality---and reality itself is showing worrying signs of instability.

©2010 Alastair Reynolds (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A rousing adventure in a widly original setting." ( Guardian, UK)

Where's the rest of the story?

As usual Alistair Reynolds whiting is engaging and draws you into a world of his making and John Lee's performance is superb (again, as usual). As good as the story is, just as the story looks like its going to get even more interesting, the book ends.

Event though it's still worth listening/reading, it seems like there should at least be another book in the series.

Another great book by Reynolds.

Where does Terminal World rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This book ranks in my top 20 SF reads.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Cutter. This guy is tuff, determined and smart.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes, John Lee is great.

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

no, but it made me dream.

Any additional comments?

Great read.

Another great one

Different from other Reynolds works, but thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope there's more to come.

Reylolds could use another narrator

Most of the reviewers have nothing but praise for the narrator. I, however, agree with Michael's review below. I think that most people like Lee, just because the author is so great, not because the narrator's performance is good.

Everything is read in the same deadpan style. Reynolds tells great stories, but Lee does not stress the story, but the originality of his books. It's as if he was saying "everything is so strange, but for the characters in the book its normal". His reading does not follow the story, and a great action-packed passage is read in exactly the same way as a static description. All characters speak in the same way, use the same intonation at all times. I can't imagine any two people talking to one another in this way, let alone a whole world of people.

If you listen (not that) closely you will notice that where there is no dialog Lee reads every sentence with exactly the same intonation. You could have like 20 sentences in a row read exactly the same. Then, every single book is read in exactly the same way, so you have a hundred hours of listening to the same intonation. No wonder people find it hard to concentrate and decide that Reynolds' books are too difficult for them.

I love Reynolds, but find Lee extremely irritating. I may be totally wrong - I am just one person. However, I would advise the publisher to try another narrator for a change and see how readers react.

Don't expect closure

An interesting plot in a far future Earth, but his ideas don't cross the finish line, and there will be no sequel. Imaginative and the pace is good, leaving plenty to think about. Overall, worth reading.

Rather weak quest sci-fi book

This book is really a squandered opportunity for a cool sci-fi novel. Reynolds' whole thing typically is his solid science but flat characters. He's great at thinking up new and interesting science topics. He's also typically space opera, of which this isn't. The best way to describe this book is a mix of steampunk/dirigible and fringe multiple universe (??) science. He rather flips the script in that the characters are pretty fleshed out and there's quite a lot of dialogue, but the science is really not very legit in terms of moons, equator temps, how floating works, how length measurements work, etc. Also, he utilizes quest as a method for pulling the reader along. This works well until you it becomes apparent that the quest was just a method for telling the story and doesn't amount to anything in the end. The author becomes so enamored with so much dialogue between the characters that he never really reveals well what the heck is going on on this planet or how stuff works, which really is the only interesting aspect of the book in my opinion. So, at 50% I was very positive and then I got ground down by the boring dialogue and the ending was definitely lacking for a stand-alone. I would suggest House of Suns as this author's best book instead.

John Lee is okay as a narrator but I've found that he becomes quite repetitive when you listen to several of his book. It's sorta British John Wayne in his execution of characters.

Well written, well read, but unsatisfying

As a Reynolds fan I thought I'd try this, knowing it was different from his other novels. Sadly, I've been disappointed....
This story is very much a science-as-fantasy travelogue, as the protagonist (who goes from loner into someone who hopes to save all his friends) crosses a post-holocaust/steampunk style landscape on a future "earth" (actually Mars)....

While the writing style is up to Reynolds usual excellent style, and John Lee's reading is very good, the story itself is the weak point ;
The unusual sights the protagonist sees (dirigibles, sadistic post-apocalyptic punk gangs) have appeared in a multitude of stories before and unfortuantely Reynolds doesnt do anything particularly new with them. In addition, what ideas he does have that have potential new uses (for example, Angels) are not really used to any great extent and are more or less irrelevant to the majority of the book....

As a result the storyline itself is over-familiar, and ultimately unsatisfying. While not actually bad, this is not a strong selection from Reynolds otherwise excellent stories.....

For fans of cyberpunk/steam punk or fantasy, I'd recommend anything by William Gibson or Michael Moorcock over this . For Reynolds fans, I'd say this is the weakest of his stories I've come across - I'd recommend most of his other work over this.( I particularly recommend 'The Prefect' as a far better story which is read by the same vocal talent)

Great story but distracting narration

I'm a great fan of Reynolds and have read/listened to most of his books. So it was with great anticipation that I downloaded Terminal World. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, but the narration was a distraction. The narrator's use of regional accents from around the UK (and a couple of other countries) became so annoying at times I almost gave up. I could understand the use of these accents in a story set in the UK of the near future, but in the context of this story it just struck a discordant note. Perhaps a more nuanced tone to distinguish between characters would have been more believable.
Having said that, I would still recommend Terminal World as a captivating and enjoyable listen, and worth the credit.

A new style for Alastair, and its great!

so this is a new style of writing for this author, I have read everything he has on Audible and I love everything, now this new book and its not in the normal format and the author said about this book is its "SF ... weird, and it doesn't have spaceships" - well thats OK because this is just awesome----

The Zones they talk about in this book arent explained more then to say certian ones allow more advanced things to work, and others make things like gears and pistons in engines fuse together and become useless even if you go back to a "higher" zone - this is a little confusing but without spoiling to much I think that the "zones" are sections of atmosphere that are infected with nano-bots or something like that and are running a muck of things because somehow it got screwed up thousands of years ago and they escaped the pace they were----

stuff that is really advanced like AI controlled guns or other things that would require really advanced technology only works in the "celestial" levels and the further down you go the the more and more less advanced things get until you get to "horse town" which is like the old west without as many guns----

there are some unanswered questions left, hopefully a sequel or 2 or 3 would be nice - I have asked the author and he said he plans to do some more in this world and I cant wait for that----the story starts off strong and keeps going that way till the end, with only a couple of places that were slow paced but thats needed from time to time - there isnt really a sense of "time" here as in how much time has passed in the story as in there are some balloon rides and you have no idea of how long this took but it is assumes that it didnt take that long----

this combines Steam Punk, New Wierd, and Alastair Reynolds style all in one and I love the Steam Punk parts even though I am not that a huge fan of that style of writing, but I love the style in function - google Steam Punk and look at the images things are beautiful looking

Sci-fi sailing on angel's wings.

Would you listen to Terminal World again? Why?

I'm sure I'll listen to Terminal World again, there were so many cool treatments both of characters and of science fiction tropes.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Terminal World?

The reveal about the essential truth of Spearpoint is powerful, elevating the story from kit-bashed fantasy to masterful science fiction.

What does John Lee bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

John Lee gives the characters personality thought their tones, inflection, and pace.