The Incrementalists

By: Skyler White, Steven Brust

Narrated by: Ray Porter, Mary Robinette Kowal

Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

The Incrementalists - a secret society of 200 people with an unbroken lineage reaching back 40,000 years. They cheat death, share lives and memories, and communicate with one another across nations, races, and time. They have an epic history, an almost magical memory, and a very modest mission: to make the world better, just a little bit at a time. Their ongoing argument about how to do this is older than most of their individual memories. Phil, whose personality has stayed stable through more incarnations than anyone else’s, has loved Celeste - and argued with her - for most of the last 400 years. But now Celeste, recently dead, embittered, and very unstable, has changed the rules - not incrementally, and not for the better. Now the heart of the group must gather in Las Vegas to save the Incrementalists, and maybe the world.

Editors Select, September 2013 - There are two reasons I’m excited about The Incrementalists. The first is that it’s about a secret, ancient organization that manipulates individuals in order to make the world just a little bit better. The second is that it’s co-narrated by Ray Porter, whose performance made Peter Cline’s 14 the insta-classic it turned out to be. Splitting the narration duties with Mary Robinette Kowal makes perfect sense, as the book’s perspective shifts between Phil, a member of the organization, and Renee, a new recruit. This is just the kind of quirky, contemporary sci-fi I look forward to. —Chris, Audible Editor

©2013 Steven Brust and Skyler White (P)2013 Audible Inc.

Critic reviews

"Secret societies, immortality, murder mysteries, and Las Vegas all in one book? Shut up and take my money." (John Scalzi)

"Watch Steven Brust. He's good. He moves fast. He surprises you. Watching him untangle the diverse threads of intrigue, honor, character, and mayhem from amid the gears of a world as intricately constructed as a Swiss watch is a rare pleasure." (Roger Zelazny)

Loved the characters, but still lost me.

I am always searching for inspiring woman characters. Ren did not disappoint. She was lively, smart and skeptical. Just like me! The story was enticing when the boy and girl meet under contrived, yet creative circumstances and love followed. Once that was set up, the other characters were introduced and the hating started. That was ok, but after the femme-drugging, I was lost. I was distracted. I have good focus for audible books and even I stopped listening. I may start up again -- perhaps I will find myself in a mood for caricatures instead of characters.

I loved the concept of this book. I hope I can put up with the dull members of the secret society of incrementals when I decide to pick it up again.

Love Love Love Steven Brust

Never read anything by this guy I didn't love - ever.
Crazy about the stand-alone stories and madly in love with the Vlad Taltos series too.

Just not my thing.

Would you ever listen to anything by Steven Brust and Skyler White again?

Probably not.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Ray Porter and Mary Robinette Kowal ?

Sure. I don't think they saved the book, but they were better than the story.

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

I liked the female character's obsession with good design, but the author's kind of let it fall by the wayside once they had used it to establish her.

Any additional comments?

This book just kind of bored me. I didn't hate it, but I stopped listening with only an hour or so to go and I never missed it. I didn't really care what happened to anyone and don't have any interest in finding out.

Couldn't Get into This. Too Cerebral.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I don't think I'd recommend this one. I couldn't get into the story line. I fast forwarded ahead thinking it would get better. No.

Would you recommend The Incrementalists to your friends? Why or why not?

No. Too cerebral. Seems to move 2 spaces back and 1 step ahead at every turn.

Did The Incrementalists inspire you to do anything?

Get a Clive Cussler book for a really good read.

Expected much more

When I chose this book, I was expecting to hear about the world of the Incrementalists and tales of their endeavours to make the world a better place. Instead, the actions of the Incrementalists were no more than hinted at all through the book. As intriguing as the premise was, the development of it was patchy in most places and was not much more than the backdrop to a rather mawkish romance.
The narrators were okay but they had a disconcerting practice of using different accents for the same characters. Mary Kowal portrayed the character Jimmy with a French accent while Ray Porter gave him a gruff American accented voice.
The descriptions of the practice of the Incrementalists and how they work was intriguing but this book was unable to satisfy the need for a story with substance to match the premise.

WARNING: NOT SCi-Fi. Love Story In Disguise. Meh.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

This book is being sold as a secret society molding human history through the mists of time/sort-of time travel story, when in fact it's just another 'we were meant for each other' sappy love story with a thin veneer of 'we have this amazing way of transferring memories from one human consciousness to another over the last 40,000 years, but that's just a plot device.' SOOOO disappointing. I kept listening waiting for the good stuff to kick in, and it never does. I don't know who decided on this bait and switch marketing approach but it's really lame.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narration isn't awful.

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

No way.

Audible Reviewers, I'll never doubt you again!

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Ray Porter and Mary Robinette Kowal ?

Any narrator(s) that can be on the same page! One character from one narrator has some sort of sophisticated European accent and the same character from the other narrator has her as an old Granny. How can you possibly keep it straight and better yet, take it seriously? Why did no one point this out?

What character would you cut from The Incrementalists?

Because this story was about big ideas and wasn't broken down for the rest of us, I felt nothing for these characters.

Any additional comments?

There were too many ideas in this book. It's a great concept, but poorly constructed. I never felt invested in these characters. The narration ruined it, and I'm actually a fan of both these voice actors! So disappointing. I should have listened to the reviews. I'll be requesting a refund.

Empty novel that forgot its own plot

What disappointed you about The Incrementalists?

This is a book I really wanted to enjoy. It has a really interesting sci-fi/fantasy premise and tries to be philosophically and politically informed - that should chime with me, and initially it does. Renee is recruited into an ancient society of people with the ability to change people's minds, an ability they have decided to use to only incrementally change the world for the better. Debates about good or bad ensues, promising the kind of cerebral adventure I admit to being fond of. But this promising beginning is evaporated as the authors suddenly tries to make this a book about facing change, as they create a villain who instead - horror! - want stability. This quickly devolves into a strange storyline where the protagonists have to defend the possibility of change (changing other people?) against the threat of neurotic stagnation (although I never get what should change and what threatens to stagnate) ... But wasn't the story about the difficulties establishing what is good and bad, and the curse of having the power to change people around you? Then the authors just keeps introducing unrelated ideas. There is something about virtual worlds, and then about the power of thought, also something about justice and then power to the people! ... and I am sorry, but this doesn't hold together, not on any level. The story is not exactly empty, just overloaded with unrelated ideas, none of which is explored to any depth. And nothing grips me, sadly. Though I had loved if it had...

What about Ray Porter and Mary Robinette Kowal ’s performance did you like?

I like the performance, Porter and Kowal do a splendid job with a difficult material. They kept me listening even after the point at which I had realized the narrative would not get any more exciting.

What character would you cut from The Incrementalists?

The characters, I am sorry to say, are vividly described, but not believable. Let's see... We have an almost two thousand years old person who after all that time writes a letter which turns out to be the first in which he risks making a fool of himself before a woman? And a several hundred years old guy who mind travels to other bodies, has his own inner mind garden, changes other people's minds at will ... and who is a Marxist materialist?

And I am sorry, but I don't get the antagonist. At one point it just turns out she is evil - because...? Oh, right, she is not EVIL evil, but merely wrong, as the protagonists say. But why does she have to be killed, suppressed... ? A lot of other characters are obviously wrong and harm to others, but they are described as nice guys...

And evidently, the protagonists are deeply engaged in exchanging and debating ideas, but suddenly prefer sex and romantic love before putting them into practice? (I really couldn't see them as protagonists after that.)

Any additional comments?

So the novel uses complicated words and refers to big thinkers? Well, a lot of people can do that trick, but precious few are great novelists. The Incrementalists is not a good novel, rather a novel that incrementally forgets the interesting plot at its centre and just goes bananas with random themes, till nothing remains.

disappointing

What would have made The Incrementalists better?

I don't know how this book got such a high rating. This story might have been better if it made any sense. I like a good sic-fi, but this story is way out in left field and, maybe I'm showing my ignorance, but I just didn't get it at all.

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

The narrators were both good and probably the only reason I kept listening.

Any additional comments?

I didn't have any desire to listen to the last 5 minutes.

Too metaphysical for my taste

Sadly, I was really struggling with this book. While I like a dose of surrealism in my books, this one was too much for me. I liked the overall universe the story is set it but did not care for the fates of the people or their endless meanderings. I didn't find it "quirky" as the Audible review suggested, nor exciting or even mildly amusing but rather lengthy and very difficult to get through. Clearly this book was not my cup of tea.