Voice of the Whirlwind

By: Walter Jon Williams

Narrated by: Don Leslie

Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Steward is a clone, a beta. His memories are 15 years old, because his alpha never did have a brain-scan update.

In those 15 years, the entire world has changed. An alien race known as The Powers has established relations with humanity, and the Orbital Policorp which held his allegiance has collapsed. He fought and survived the off-world Artifacts War, but dozens of his friends did not. Both his first and second wives have divorced him. And, more importantly, someone has murdered him, causing the activation of the beta back-up.

Now Steward must probe into the horrors of the war, its politics and betrayals, to find out who wanted him dead - if he doesn't want to die again.

©2007 Night Shade Books (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Slick and intelligent entertainment. The tension remains high throughout. A taut, satisfying tale of space-age skullduggery." (San Francisco Chronicle)
"Resonances of Vietnam-era moral concerns make this deft updating of the postWorld War II genre of psychological thrillers about amnesiacs one of the best of its kind." (Publishers Weekly)

Looking at a future then ..quite cool.

The pay phone was the internet in this world that was so cool….many won’t understand. The ‘80s beat any other decade in futuremagination IMO.

Outstanding!!

Fantastic story! Walter John Williams hit another homerun!

The only criticism is that the reader repeatedly mispronounced so many words that were integral to the atmosphere of the story. It would have taken only a few minutes to verify the correct pronunciations. Very annoying.

Even with that, the story was excellent!

Fun but forgettable read

This cyberpunk, sf-noir, transhumanist work is quite readable, but not all that memorable. I definitely enjoyed bits of it. The world was quite interesting in places, as it is in many cyberpunk novels, but while the overall plot ended up making sense, I didn't fall in love with it. I guess that's how gumshoe novels often are for me (whether they are cyberpunk or not). The main characters aren't all that likable and the plot is just about getting there, not about any kind of meaningful reveal. You have to be into the style of the thing and really just sip it joyfully until it's done without holding any expectations over its head. I had the same experience with the cyberpunk novel, Noir by K. W. Jeter. Though I think I liked the latter better. 

I thought the narrator had a good voice but it is the kind of voice that's hard to hear if you have any background noise, like when you are driving in a car.

Really good cyberpunk

Walter Jon Williams was one of the best authors of the cyberpunk genre. This is an excellent story and as with most cyber punk it is more focused on the story and the world with seriously flawed, often tragic characters. This novel has a lot of attitude and action.

The only down side is that the voice of the narrarator didn't match what I envisioned for the main character, but that is a personal choice. The narrarator took some getting used to but once I did I enjoyed the audiobook, although I have to admit I think I enjoyed reading it a little bit more. it is still worth a credit if you like this type of book.

Surprisingly excellent

Low cost audible, didn't expect much. Very drawn into the book quickly Twist ,turns, plot was very creative. Narrator was excellent, nuanced each character, I highly recommend this book. Spy, revenge, love, story of many interesting characters.

A good enough book that didn't grab me

Steward is a clone, the clone of a man who spent years as a member of a military polycorp called Coherent Light. The original, or "alpha," was murdered, and the clone, or "beta," is determined to find out who and why.

Unfortunately, he's been revived with fifteen years of memory missing. Nor is this an accident. It's a deliberate choice his alpha made, and chose not to explain. Steward has a lot of information to recover before he can hope to complete his mission, and every step of the way is dangerous. He's chasing through the solar system, one space habitat after another, and the history he missed includes the arrival of a significantly more advanced alien species known as the Powers.

It's a well-written story, with good plot and good characters, as you'd expect of Walter Jon Williams. Unfortunately, unlike many other Williams works, this one just didn't really connect for me. Not enough that I stopped listening to the audiobook, or that I regret listening to it. It is a good book. If you like cyberpunk, there's a good chance this will work a lot better for you than it does for me.

So I'd say don't rush out and buy it, but if it crosses your path, give it a try.

I bought this audiobook.

a fun sci-fi mystery

enjoyed the style, story and working with the character to figure out what really was happening

Excellent!

A good story made better by a masterful reading of the tale ! Don Leslie is stellar!

Much better than the first part!

Although I kinda fail to see how this is the second part to the first part? No connection?

Good Read...Been waiting years for the audio

Would you listen to Voice of the Whirlwind again? Why?

many times. and already have

Any additional comments?

I read this book in High school, and a couple times after that. I've Listened to it about 5 times since I bought it. There's just something about it I love. Hardwired was a decent read but Voice of the Whirlwind is a far better book, and I'm sure I will listen to it again sometime soon.