
The Departure
The Owner, Book 1
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Narrated by:
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Steve West
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John Mawson
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By:
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Neal Asher
About this listen
The Argus Space Station looks down on a nightmarish Earth. And from this safe distance, the Committee enforces its despotic rule. There are too many people and too few resources, and they need 12 billion to die before Earth can be stabilised. So corruption is rife, people starve, and the poor are policed by mechanised overseers and identity-reader guns. Citizens already fear the brutal Inspectorate with its pain inducers. But to reach its goals, the Committee will unleash satellite laser weaponry, taking carnage to a new level.
This is the world Alan Saul wakes to, travelling in a crate destined for the Calais incinerator. How he got there he doesn't know, but he remembers pain and his tormentor's face. He also has company: Janus, a rogue intelligence inhabiting forbidden hardware in his skull. As Janus shows Saul an Earth stripped of hope, he resolves to annihilate the Committee and their regime... once he's discovered who he was, and killed his interrogator.
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Editorial reviews
Dystopian in the extreme, The Departure chronicles one man's brave attempt to save Earth from an oppressive bureaucracy bent on a catastrophic plan to winnow the planet’s population. Chilling and remote, this listen is best for fans of hard sci-fi who like plenty of action alongside detailed description of plot points, and political digressions of the Ayn Rand variety. Performers Steve West and John Mawson bring a cool, precise feeling to the story, which is well-suited to the author’s dark and harrowing vision.
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Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself. With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. But as he closes in on the secret, a killer closes in on him because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason.
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Defeated
- By Eoin on 07-15-12
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Electric Angel: A Dystopian Sci-Fi Adventure
- Cyber Dreams, Book 1
- By: Plum Parrot
- Narrated by: Suzy Jackson
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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In the year 2107, the world has both made astounding leaps forward and reduced humanity to its most basic existence. While the megacorps and those who rule them enjoy lives of extraordinary comfort and ease, most people barely scrape by, doing whatever they can to keep going. Juliet Bianchi is one of the latter. She works cutting metal in a scrapyard and doesn't have much to show for it except for a small group of equally bereft, fiercely loyal friends. Still, she maintains a bright disposition, possessing more hope and optimism than anyone would expect her to—and she's going to need it.
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not sure what makes this a litrpg
- By Bryan Goodman on 09-07-23
By: Plum Parrot
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The Quantum Series, Books 1 - 3
- By: Douglas Phillips
- Narrated by: Graham Halstead, Kirby Heyborne, Traci Odom
- Length: 33 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Daniel Rice is a government science investigator whose specialty is solving seemingly intractable problems through scientific inquiry. But Daniel's intellectual strength is sorely tested by the bizarre realities he finds in the quantum world. Extra dimensions of space trap the unwary, probability replaces cause and effect, and time isn't what anyone imagined. The other side of the mirror is a place full of dangers, but it's also somewhere a dedicated scientist can uncover secrets that connect humans with something greater.
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Yes, there was a reason why this was on sale.
- By James Borders on 11-23-20
By: Douglas Phillips
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Consider Phlebas
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender. Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it....
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Visionary but half-cooked intro to Culture 'verse
- By Ryan on 07-20-13
By: Iain M. Banks
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Arrival: A Humorous Isekai LitRPG
- Terminate the Other World!, Book 1
- By: Icalos
- Narrated by: Savy Des-Etages
- Length: 17 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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She's unlike any one or any thing else: a Non-Standard Leashed-Intelligence Cybernetic Enforcer aka NSLICE-00P. The first of her kind, she's let loose into a universe of superheroes on behalf of her sinister masters to destroy all who oppose them. And everything's going according to plan—until NSLICE-00P gets hacked and sent into the past to kill her own creator before he creates her. Obeying orders as always, she wastes the poor guy. Unfortunately, there are consequences to initiating a reality-breaking time paradox. The most significant: total ejection from that reality.
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Great original story. texts needs adaptation for narration
- By Duskmoon on 03-20-24
By: Icalos
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Ruins of the Earth
- Ruins of the Earth, Book 1
- By: Christopher Hopper, J. N. Chaney
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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A secret buried in the Antarctic. A puzzle unsolved for thousands of years. And a Brooklyn-born master gunnery sergeant who's royally pissed that he has to babysit the researchers sent to figure it all out. But when Patrick "Wic" Finnegan finally sees what the team has uncovered, he can't believe his eyes, nor is he prepared for the violence to come. Soon, the portal opens and unleashes a storm of unbridled fury upon humanity.
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I really wanted to like this.
- By Jeremy Korpi on 04-06-21
By: Christopher Hopper, and others
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Ringworld
- By: Larry Niven
- Narrated by: Tom Parker
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Welcome to Ringworld, an intermediate step between Dyson Spheres and planets. The gravitational force created by a rotation on its axis of 770 miles per second means no need for a roof. Walls 1,000 miles high at each rim will let in the sun and prevent much air from escaping. Larry Niven's novel, Ringworld, is the winner of the 1970 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 1970 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the 1972 Ditmars, an Australian award for Best International Science Fiction.
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Genuinely Creative
- By Kennet on 05-25-03
By: Larry Niven
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The Forever War
- By: Joe Haldeman
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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William Mandella is a soldier in Earth's elite brigade. As the war against the Taurans sends him from galaxy to galaxy, he learns to use protective body shells and sophisticated weapons. He adapts to the cultures and terrains of distant outposts. But with each month in space, years are passing on Earth. Where will he call home when (and if) the Forever War ends?
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A classic.
- By John on 09-24-08
By: Joe Haldeman
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Blindsight
- By: Peter Watts
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in 2082, Peter Watts' Blindsight is fast-moving, hard SF that pulls readers into a futuristic world where a mind-bending alien encounter is about to unfold. After the Firefall, all eyes are locked heavenward as a team of specialists aboard the self-piloted spaceship Theseus hurtles outbound to intercept an unknown intelligence.
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Gothic Horror Hard Science Fiction
- By Doug D. Eigsti on 06-24-15
By: Peter Watts
Amazing science fiction saga
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hard choices for a harder world.
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as you know it gets monotonous, but not here, and oh boy is the story relatable to current geopolitical situation.
If you want a book about a bioborg in the middle of a bureaucracy caused apocalypse this is the book for you!
!!!!possible spoilers ahead!!!!
first chapter is wild, and there is a big time skip of about a year, the next following chapters are just amazing, and just Ludacris enough to be exciting, but not enough to be absurd in my opinion!
but okay if I do think back there is a literal feed them to the "laser" sharks, moments, of course the villain had to leave is the main character alive in a torture booth, because they wanted their bio enhancements,
but then I come back defending it with, you know they do set up that specific character to be just arrogant and power-hungry enough to be like that, so it's good it works, and it's exciting cuz you know holy m0ly he actually came close to dying, and only writing this do I go to myself relax it's just a book,
This is how much I liked this book!
Bioborg in the middle of a bureaucracy apocalypse!
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The sci-fi elements are pure Asher with the primitive beginnings of artificial intelligence (AI) beginning to emerge and assert itself. There is much in the way of human machine interface that telegraphs Asher's long term perspective on the AI ascendancy. While the space elements are futuristic (a Mars colony, a massive orbital space station, military style laser satellites, etc.), there is nothing overly remarkable or imaginative about their design or utilization. At its heart, this is a tale of prophecy of the potential perils and pitfalls of civilization's expectations for a risk-less and careful future by turning over personal responsibilities to machines and a select group of fallible humans.
The narration is superb with an excellent range of voices, solid pacing, and a tone that perfectly aligns with the delicate, yet tense nature of the action.
Realistic, frightening dystopic vision
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A Definite recommendation from me
Incredible!
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The story and narration were good, if a little bit dry and technical at times. I felt like the narration closely matched the writing style and the mood of the plot.
Not a casual listen
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Finally to my great satisfaction this showed up in my search results.
This is a revenge story where the Earth itself shakes at one man's fury. I can't really say much else about the plot without spoilers.
You'll notice the book has two narrators. Don't fret though, one of them only reads the intro's to each chapter in a documentary style diction. The other brings the story to life.
I think the worst part of this book is knowing you're going to have to wait for the rest of the series.
Neal Asher Delivers Again
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Asher's 2011 "The Departure" is the first of a trilogy that features a near-future society where nobody really owns anything and those "Zero-Asset" (ZA) members of the population exist on the gov't dole and at the pleasure of increasingly disconnected elites and their "Committees."
Constant gov't surveillance and authoritarianism abound, coupled with scarce resources and food riots. What's a forward thinking oppressive gov't to do? Why, kill a few billion ZAs to stabilize things for the betters' continued survival.
From this comes Alan Saul, with little memory of his life beyond that past 2 years who VERY quickly decides/gets roped in? to trying to bring the whole system down. So we've got resistant groups, orbital stations, and lots and lots of action.
The 1984-esque worldbuilding is far more satisfying than the characters and once bullets start flying, the book loses a lot of its appeal. But as a reasonably prescient look at who credentialed "elites" can run a society into the ground, "The Departure" ain't bad.
Decent world building
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I don’t know if he writes better far future, Earth-less, SF; or if he just does better in the novella format, but there was just a lot missing here.
There is an over-blown, over the top, totalitarian world government, that is just asking to be rebelled against. I suppose it is one possible future of what happens when the government passes the tipping point from viewing the people it governs as more than just an ignorant subclass, to overtly viewing them as sacrificial cogs in the machine that empower government.
While this is an extreme view of the future of a world government, I can’t say it is entirely illogical, given the attitude of the American, European, and Chinese governments are lately taking to their people since WWII, so I can’t dismiss Asher’s postulate as ridiculous.
But then we have the characters… The protagonist is excused from having a personality, because his memories were erased, except for those that weren’t. He has plenty of internal dialog, but over all is alien enough that I can’t relate. I can’t even support his goals, since his goals seem to mostly be survive and get revenge, and a few incidental side quests like removing the government, which come up along the way and he reluctantly takes on.
And his girlfriend/touchstone for humanity, is a constitutionally week 65 year old woman, with the emotional development of a 20 year old liberal college student, but apparently is smart and canny enough to make herself an indispensable scientist to the government, and devious enough to turn the main character and others into revolutionaries by her direct and indirect actions. Not really a character that makes a whole lot of sense to me.
I can’t even pull for the villains, since except for the accumulation of personal power, we never get any real idea what drives any of them.
Lastly, the way the first half of this is written—jumping back and forth through time—is off-putting, with no clarity when transitions happen. Unlike some reviewers, I didn’t have a problem when the point of view would change abruptly—I’ve seen authors do this before, and while I don’t love it as a story telling style, it’s far from rare, and you can usually pick up pretty fast that someone else is now doing the thinking. But the jumping through time without warning thing did throw me.
Okay, but hard to care about
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all in all this book delivered a good yarn and I'll read the other two.
a bit bloated but started very strong
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