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The Space Merchants
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
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very long
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Publisher's summary
In a vastly overpopulated near-future world, businesses have taken the place of governments and now hold all political power. States exist merely to ensure the survival of huge transnational corporations. Advertising has become hugely aggressive and boasts some of the world’s most powerful executives. Through advertising, the public is constantly deluded into thinking that all the products on the market improve the quality of life. However, the most basic elements are incredibly scarce, including water and fuel.
The planet Venus has just been visited and judged fit for human settlement, despite its inhospitable surface and climate; colonists would have to endure a harsh climate for many generations until the planet could be terraformed.
Mitch Courtenay is a star-class copywriter in the Fowler Schocken advertising agency and has been assigned the ad campaign that would attract colonists to Venus, but a lot more is happening than he knows about. Mitch is soon thrown into a world of danger, mystery, and intrigue, where the people in his life are never quite what they seem, and his loyalties and core beliefs will be put to the test.
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A human-focused SF classic
- By Ryan on 12-05-13
By: Frederik Pohl
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The World at the End of Time
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Wan-To was the oldest and must powerful intelligence in the universe, a being who played with star systems as a child plays with marbles. Matter occupied so tiny a part of his vast awareness that humans were utterly beneath his notice.
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puts the science back into fiction
- By John on 04-30-14
By: Frederik Pohl
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Gun, with Occasional Music
- By: Jonathan Lethem
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Gumshoe Conrad Metcalf has problems - not the least of which are the rabbit in his waiting room and the trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail. Near-future Oakland is an ominous place where evolved animals function as members of society, the police monitor citizens by their karma levels, and mind-numbing drugs such as Forgettol and Acceptol are all the rage. In this brave new world, Metcalf has been shadowing the wife of an affluent doctor, perhaps falling a little in love with her at the same time.
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SF SLAMS into a hard-boiled, noir pulp!
- By Darwin8u on 04-18-12
By: Jonathan Lethem
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Man Plus
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Roger Torraway watched in horror as the monster lurched, toppled over and died. Project Man Plus had gone suddenly and drastically wrong. The race to colonize Mars was too important, too costly, and America was already too committed, for plans to be scrapped. They would have to make a new Martian. And Roger Torraway was it, candidate for the endless surgery, operation after painful operation, that would enable him to survive on that faraway planet.
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More timely now than ever
- By Sandy R on 06-28-10
By: Frederik Pohl
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The Sparrow
- By: Mary Doria Russell
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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A visionary work that combines speculative fiction with deep philosophical inquiry, The Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission entrusted with a profound task: To make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. The mission begins in faith, hope, and beauty, but a series of small misunderstandings brings it to a catastrophic end.
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Superbly Written and Thought-provoking
- By Jim N on 08-15-12
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Vurt
- By: Jeff Noon
- Narrated by: Dean Williamson
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Vurt is a feather - a drug, a dimension, a dream state, a virtual reality. It comes in many colours: legal Blues for lullaby dreams. Blacks, filled with tenderness and pain, just beyond the law. Pink Pornovurts, doorways to bliss. Silver feathers for techies who know how to remix colors and open new dimensions. And Yellows - the feathers from which there is no escape. The beautiful young Desdemona is trapped in Curious Yellow, the ultimate Metavurt, a feather few have ever seen and fewer still have dared ingest. Her brother Scribble will risk everything to rescue his beloved sister.
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top 10 all time fiction
- By Doing-fine-in-FLA on 02-27-21
By: Jeff Noon
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Gateway
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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When prospector Bob Broadhead went out to Gateway on the Heechee spacecraft, he decided he would know which was the right mission to make him his fortune. Three missions later, now famous and permanently rich, Robinette Broadhead has to face what happened to him and what he is...in a journey into himself as perilous and even more horrifying than the nightmare trip through the interstellar void that he drove himself to take!
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A human-focused SF classic
- By Ryan on 12-05-13
By: Frederik Pohl
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The World at the End of Time
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Wan-To was the oldest and must powerful intelligence in the universe, a being who played with star systems as a child plays with marbles. Matter occupied so tiny a part of his vast awareness that humans were utterly beneath his notice.
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puts the science back into fiction
- By John on 04-30-14
By: Frederik Pohl
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Gun, with Occasional Music
- By: Jonathan Lethem
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Gumshoe Conrad Metcalf has problems - not the least of which are the rabbit in his waiting room and the trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail. Near-future Oakland is an ominous place where evolved animals function as members of society, the police monitor citizens by their karma levels, and mind-numbing drugs such as Forgettol and Acceptol are all the rage. In this brave new world, Metcalf has been shadowing the wife of an affluent doctor, perhaps falling a little in love with her at the same time.
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SF SLAMS into a hard-boiled, noir pulp!
- By Darwin8u on 04-18-12
By: Jonathan Lethem
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Man Plus
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Roger Torraway watched in horror as the monster lurched, toppled over and died. Project Man Plus had gone suddenly and drastically wrong. The race to colonize Mars was too important, too costly, and America was already too committed, for plans to be scrapped. They would have to make a new Martian. And Roger Torraway was it, candidate for the endless surgery, operation after painful operation, that would enable him to survive on that faraway planet.
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More timely now than ever
- By Sandy R on 06-28-10
By: Frederik Pohl
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The Sparrow
- By: Mary Doria Russell
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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A visionary work that combines speculative fiction with deep philosophical inquiry, The Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission entrusted with a profound task: To make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. The mission begins in faith, hope, and beauty, but a series of small misunderstandings brings it to a catastrophic end.
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Superbly Written and Thought-provoking
- By Jim N on 08-15-12
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Doomsday Book
- By: Connie Willis
- Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin
- Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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For Oxford student Kivrin, traveling back to the 14th century is more than the culmination of her studies - it's the chance for a wonderful adventure. For Dunworthy, her mentor, it is cause for intense worry about the thousands of things that could go wrong.
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Timely, beautiful, terrible and haunting
- By mudcelt on 11-02-09
By: Connie Willis
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All the Lives He Led
- A Novel
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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When Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79, it gave so little warning that Pompeiians were caught unawares, and many bodies were preserved in volcanic ash. Two thousand years later, in 2079, Pompeii is a popular theme park eagerly anticipating Il Giubeleo, the Jubilee celebration of the great anniversary. But Vesuvius is still capable of erupting, and even more threatening are terrorists who want to use the occasion to draw attention to their cause by creating a huge disaster.
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ANYWAY
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 09-16-14
By: Frederik Pohl
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Fiasco
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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The planet Quinta is pocked by ugly mounds and covered by a spiderweb-like network. It is a kingdom of phantoms and of a beauty afflicted by madness. In stark contrast, the crew of the spaceship Hermes represents a knowledge-seeking Earth. As they approach Quinta, a dark poetry takes over and leads them into a nightmare of misunderstanding.
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Instruction Manual
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 07-22-11
By: Stanislaw Lem
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The Green Hills of Earth
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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The Green Hills of Earth is a collection of short stories from one of the masters of science fiction who has held readers spellbound for over 30 years. This collection includes "Delilah and the Space-Rigger," "Space-Jockey," "The Long Watch," "Gentlemen Be Seated," "The Black Pits of Luna," "It's Great to Be Back," "' - We Also Walk Dogs,'" "Ordeal in Space," "The Green Hills of Earth," and "Logic of Empire."
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HOT JETS
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 05-24-18
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The Chrysalids
- By: John Wyndham
- Narrated by: Noah Reid
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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David Strorm's father doesn't approve of Angus Morton's unusually large horses, calling them blasphemies against nature. Little does he realise that his own son, his niece Rosalind and their friends have their own secret aberration that would label them as mutants. But as David and Rosalind grow older it becomes more difficult to conceal their differences from the village elders. Soon they face a choice: wait for eventual discovery or flee to the terrifying and mutable Badland....
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It is awfully exciting
- By S. Corney on 11-27-21
By: John Wyndham
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Revolt in 2100
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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After the fall of the American Ayatollahs (as foretold in Stranger in a Strange Land) there is a Second American Revolution; for the first time in human history there is a land with Liberty and Justice for All.
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Heinlein's Future History
- By ShySusan on 05-30-12
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Search the Sky
- By: C.M. Kornbluth, Frederik Pohl, Andrew Gibson
- Narrated by: James C. Gibson
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Search the Sky is a satirical science fiction novel set in the far future, at a time when humanity has long since colonized the stars. It begins on a planet called Halsey's, which is in a state of decline. When a Longliner generation ship arrives, having failed to make contact with at least six other colonised planets, Ross (the main protagonist in the story) is sent to investigate what is going on at the other colonies. He is given access to a faster than light spacecraft that can make each journey almost instantly.
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Quirky, fun sci fi
- By anne-v on 05-24-21
By: C.M. Kornbluth, and others
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The Last Theorem
- A Novel
- By: Frederik Pohl, Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Two of science fiction’s most renowned writers join forces for a storytelling sensation. The Last Theorem is a story of one man’s mathematical obsession, and a celebration of the human spirit and the scientific method. It is also a gripping intellectual thriller in which humanity, facing extermination from all-but-omnipotent aliens, the Grand Galactics, must overcome differences of politics and religion and come together...or perish.
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2 master writers=1 great story
- By Gary on 12-27-13
By: Frederik Pohl, and others
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The Engineer
- By: Frederik Pohl, C. M. Kornbluth
- Narrated by: Andre Baum
- Length: 19 mins
- Unabridged
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It was very simple. Some combination of low temperature and high pressure had forced something from the seepage at the ocean bottom into combination with something in the water around them. And the impregnable armor around Subatlantic Oil's drilling chamber had discovered a weakness.
By: Frederik Pohl, and others
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City
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Jenkins was a robot. He was built to be the perfect worker, tireless and uncomplaining. But, quite unexpectedly, he also became a close companion to generation after generation of his owners as the human race matured, moved beyond the confines of its once tiny planet, and eventually changed beyond all recognition.
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A very special kind of story.
- By Andrew on 08-27-08
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The City and the Stars
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Geoffrey T. Williams
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Diaspar is Earth's last city - surrounded by deserts, on a world where the oceans have long since dried up. It is a domed, isolated, technological marvel, run by the Central Computer. Diaspar has conquered death. People are called forth; they live for a thousand years and then are recalled, to be born thousands of years later, over and over again. No child has been born for at least 10 million years. Until Alvin....
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A Classic
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 12-10-11
By: Arthur C. Clarke
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The Demolished Man
- By: Alfred Bester
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In a world policed by telepaths, Ben Reich plans to commit a crime that hasn't been heard of in 70 years: murder. That's the only option left for Reich, whose company is losing a 10-year death struggle with rival D'Courtney Enterprises.Terrorized in his dreams by The Man with No Face and driven to the edge after D'Courtney refuses a merger offer, Reich murders his rival and bribes a high-ranking telepath to help him cover his tracks. But while police prefect Lincoln Powell knows Reich is guilty, his telepath's knowledge is a far cry from admissible evidence.
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It needed the visuals of the paper book.
- By Traci L. Brennan on 05-15-18
By: Alfred Bester
What listeners say about The Space Merchants
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jim "The Impatient"
- 07-20-13
You a New Crumb?
YOU DON'T GET PULLED TO VENUS, YOU GET PUSHED.
Turn off your Hypnoteleset, get your pot of Coffiest from your nightstand and listen to me rather your a Star Class or a Consumer. I am a slow reader of hard backs, so I can count on my fingers the number of hard copy books a have read more then once in the last 30 years. This book I read at least three times. I had a copy of this on cassette and I listened to it numerous times. I am so glad it is out in a new audible format. This should be on your top ten list of classic Science Fiction.
SHE WAS JUST A TOOL
This is a world taken over by advertising agencies and by corporations. Some may think it goes a little too far. I say it is spot on and is happening right now. Just before I listened to this, there was a story on the news about retail stores using cameras and face recognition to follow customers through the store and to keep track of where in the store consumers spend most of there time. This was written in 1952. One of the products talked about was called Pregnot. The pill was not approved until 1960. Another product was the Bolster Bra. Have you seen the padding in push up bras at Victoria Secret? Did you think 20 years ago that half naked women would be modeling panties and bras on TV? In the book, cops will not come investigate a crime unless you subscribe to them. Is there not places where you can not get firefighters to come out unless you subscribe to them? Are you one of the millions of people who must have caffeine in the morning, either through coffee or cola? Isn't one of the more recent books to come out, called Sugar and Salt, and doesn't it talk about how much sugar and salt is put in food, because it is addictive. One of my favorite parts of the book, is when they talk about congress. People are not represented by States. The congressmen represent companies, such as Yummy Cola. Don't many people believe that lobbyist from special interest groups and large corporations, own many of our congressmen? The president is just a figure head in this book with no power. The president is born to his position. How much power does today's president have? Until Obama didn't most of our presidents come from the same powerful families? The book has hypnotelesets and people go into a trance when they watch it. I have seen people do the same thing in front of modern television. In the book people sign a contract on the length of there marriage. Remember in 1952 it was very hard to get a divorce. How long do most marriages last today and how many times do most people marry? A big part of the book is the wide divide between Star Class (conservatives) and Consies (liberals). Is there not the largest divide today between the two?
SPLIT A SHOWER, BUD?
Pohl and Kornbluth did not get everything right. Like the Science Fiction writers of there day they thought space travel would be common place and they believed in overpopulation. Regular people don't travel to the moon or Venus and overpopulation is not what they tried to convince us it would be. Also like most writers of that time, Pohl was a huge liberal. Some of today's readers may not be able to get over there bias in that area.
The narrator did an excellent job and really got into the spirit of the book.
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22 people found this helpful
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- John Loden
- 05-06-12
a SciFic classic done really well
I picked up this scifi classic as a way to begin filling in my knowledge of works from the past that inform the genre's current status and to see what things have dropped out. Pohl's work, like Bester's, is tough to read/listen to because the central character is not the usual hero figure. That said, Pohl's vision of the future from the fifties appears to be more accurate than Asimov's, and so maybe we are a lot more like his characters than Asimov's.
The performance of the story is quite good, making the story quite followable and giving nuance where it's called for.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Joel D Offenberg
- 03-25-12
Classic satiric sci-fi
Pohl & Kornbluth's Space Merchants takes place in a not-so-distant future where the world is ruled by advertising agencies. It's a very satirical take on the commercial world and its possible future, in which corporations and governments don't manage advertising---the advertisers manage the corporations and governments.
One agency has won the contract for the planet Venus --- find the colonists, create commercial enterprises, and essentially make the biggest buck possible. Opponents include competing agencies and the "Consies" (conservationists).
The plot is interesting but the value of the story is in the satire and humor value. It's not a laugh-out-loud book, more of a OK-that's-our-society-taken-to-the-max kind of humor.
Bittner's reading is pretty good...maybe a little more editing in the sound booth was needed, but OK.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Ben
- 03-04-13
Good build...peters out.
Is there anything you would change about this book?
The author built an intriguing and terrifying world and could have used it to build a better story. The book ended suddenly and left me wondering what would have happened next.
What about Dan Bittner’s performance did you like?
Very good.
Was The Space Merchants worth the listening time?
Not really. I was disappointed. I expected a better read.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Pentachoron
- 02-17-19
coffiest
Dear readers, this story shows exactly what working at an ad agency is all about.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Håkan
- 01-29-13
great recollection
Where does The Space Merchants rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Among the better ones. I've listened to Good fact and this is Good fiction.I read the novel in the sixties and couldn't remember it. This was better.
What other book might you compare The Space Merchants to and why?
I like SF and Fantasy. Some of them had the theme "you can sell anything with adequate promotion."
What three words best describe Dan Bittner’s performance?
Quite Good really.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
I listen 30-45 min sessions.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Michael G Kurilla
- 12-17-18
"Mad Men" in outer space
The Space Merchants by the writing duo of Frederik Pohl and C M Kornbluth is a 1950's sci-fi epic with a surprisingly timeless appeal. The tale is set in the future when space travel is routine and colonization of Venus is being contemplated. Society is an extension of Auldous Huxley's Brave New World where corporations, run by an elite class, control the globe indirectly and advertising has been elevated almost to a science to maintain the "consumer" class in an indebted state as they are convinced to buy everything. The main character is an elite advertiser who gets the job of selling the colonization of Venus, but ends up being shanghai'ed and dumped with ordinary consumers. To survive and eventually escape, he must align himself with the radical conservationists who are mounting a violent insurgency against the ruling corporations.
Other than space flight and concepts about living on Venus, the tale focuses mainly on societal evolution as corporations rule the roost by corrupting government and subliminally and overtly influencing the general population. In addition, products are intentionally selected and designed for addictive qualities to further enhance their attractiveness. Ironically, the tale nails much of the development of a consumer society for the rest of the 20th century, the rise of conservation and environmentalism, as well as the corrupting influence of money and politics.
The narration is well done with excellent character discrimination and solid pacing. The is a quick listen, but in spite of the short length, the tale takes a number of unexpected twists and turns.
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1 person found this helpful
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- subtitles
- 05-26-15
Good classic SCI-FI with a nod of things to come.
What made the experience of listening to The Space Merchants the most enjoyable?
I've been mining classic SCI-FI for a little while now, and I found the Space Merchants very refreshing. A good story set in the future, zero sexism of the era, and a fascinating look at the future from a 1950's perspective.
What did you like best about this story?
The issue of classism being addressed in the past, and in the future at the same time.
Which scene was your favorite?
Star Class!
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
It definitely kept me going, and I enjoyed getting back to it when free time allowed.
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1 person found this helpful
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- cheribob
- 04-03-13
old sci-fi
What did you like best about The Space Merchants? What did you like least?
In my opinion there is nothing worse than old, out dated Sci-Fi. This book was written in the 50's or 60's. No science is involved in the story. I am sure it was very ground breaking when first published.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 08-05-22
Not bad. Just not how I remember it.
This was on my college Science Fiction Literature reading list in the late 70's. Written in 1952, the technology is dated. It has always been a book I wanted to re-read. The Audible version got me all of the way across Montana.
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