-
The World at the End of Time
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Audible Premium Plus
$14.95 a month
Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Beyond the Blue Event Horizon
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Frederik Pohl was on a streak when this Hugo Award-finalist novel was published in 1980. Now back in print after an absence of nearly a decade, this unique science fiction novel is as fresh and entertaining as ever. The story begins when the hero of Gateway finances an expedition to a distant alien spaceship that may end famine forever. On the ship, the explorers find a human boy, and evidence that reveals a powerful alien civilization is thriving on a transport ship headed right for Earth....
-
-
Good, way better than the first book
- By Amazon Customer on 10-09-20
By: Frederik Pohl
-
Gateway
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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!
-
-
A human-focused SF classic
- By Ryan on 12-05-13
By: Frederik Pohl
-
Heechee Rendezvous
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After millennia had passed, Mankind discovered the Heechee legacy (an alien culture that fled to the relative safety of a black hole) - in particular an asteroid stocked with autonavigating spacecraft. Robinette Broadhead, who had led the expedition that unlocked the many secrets of Heechee technology, is now forced once more to make a perilous voyage into space - where the Heechee are waiting. And this time the future of Man is at stake....
-
-
Not as good as the first two
- By Randall on 11-10-18
By: Frederik Pohl
-
The Annals of the Heechee
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Advanced Heechee technology had enabled Robinette Broadhead to live after death as a machine-stored personality, enjoying his life by flitting along the wires from party to party with a host of other machine-people. But suddenly his decadent existence ends when an all-powerful alien race intent on the utter destruction of all intelligent life reappears after eons of silence, and threatens the lives of all heechee and humans.
-
-
Disappointing after its predecessors
- By Christian on 11-24-18
By: Frederik Pohl
-
The Boy Who Would Live Forever
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Boy Who Would Live Forever has a sense of wonder and excitement that will satisfy those who loved Gateway and will delight new listeners as well. In Gateway, long after the alien Heechee abandoned their space-station, Gateway (as humans dubbed it) allowed humans to explore new worlds. The Heechee, alarmed by the alien Kugel whose goal was to destroy all organic lifeforms, had already retreated to the galactic core, where they now lived in peace.
-
-
It's long
- By Jeff Shultz on 08-04-16
By: Frederik Pohl
-
A Fire Upon the Deep
- By: Vernor Vinge
- Narrated by: Peter Larkin
- Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function.
-
-
Horrible narration
- By Matthew on 09-09-14
By: Vernor Vinge
-
Beyond the Blue Event Horizon
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Frederik Pohl was on a streak when this Hugo Award-finalist novel was published in 1980. Now back in print after an absence of nearly a decade, this unique science fiction novel is as fresh and entertaining as ever. The story begins when the hero of Gateway finances an expedition to a distant alien spaceship that may end famine forever. On the ship, the explorers find a human boy, and evidence that reveals a powerful alien civilization is thriving on a transport ship headed right for Earth....
-
-
Good, way better than the first book
- By Amazon Customer on 10-09-20
By: Frederik Pohl
-
Gateway
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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!
-
-
A human-focused SF classic
- By Ryan on 12-05-13
By: Frederik Pohl
-
Heechee Rendezvous
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After millennia had passed, Mankind discovered the Heechee legacy (an alien culture that fled to the relative safety of a black hole) - in particular an asteroid stocked with autonavigating spacecraft. Robinette Broadhead, who had led the expedition that unlocked the many secrets of Heechee technology, is now forced once more to make a perilous voyage into space - where the Heechee are waiting. And this time the future of Man is at stake....
-
-
Not as good as the first two
- By Randall on 11-10-18
By: Frederik Pohl
-
The Annals of the Heechee
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Advanced Heechee technology had enabled Robinette Broadhead to live after death as a machine-stored personality, enjoying his life by flitting along the wires from party to party with a host of other machine-people. But suddenly his decadent existence ends when an all-powerful alien race intent on the utter destruction of all intelligent life reappears after eons of silence, and threatens the lives of all heechee and humans.
-
-
Disappointing after its predecessors
- By Christian on 11-24-18
By: Frederik Pohl
-
The Boy Who Would Live Forever
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Boy Who Would Live Forever has a sense of wonder and excitement that will satisfy those who loved Gateway and will delight new listeners as well. In Gateway, long after the alien Heechee abandoned their space-station, Gateway (as humans dubbed it) allowed humans to explore new worlds. The Heechee, alarmed by the alien Kugel whose goal was to destroy all organic lifeforms, had already retreated to the galactic core, where they now lived in peace.
-
-
It's long
- By Jeff Shultz on 08-04-16
By: Frederik Pohl
-
A Fire Upon the Deep
- By: Vernor Vinge
- Narrated by: Peter Larkin
- Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function.
-
-
Horrible narration
- By Matthew on 09-09-14
By: Vernor Vinge
-
The Ministry for the Future
- A Novel
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Jennifer Fitzgerald, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Ramon de Ocampo, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us - and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face. It is a novel both immediate and impactful, desperate and hopeful in equal measure, and it is one of the most powerful and original books on climate change ever written.
-
-
Great ideas, uneven narration
- By depthpsychologist on 12-09-20
-
Heaven's River
- Bobiverse, Book 4
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 16 hrs and 57 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Civil war looms in the Bobiverse in this brand-new, epic-length adventure by Audible number one best seller Dennis E. Taylor. More than a hundred years ago, Bender set out for the stars and was never heard from again. There has been no trace of him despite numerous searches by his clone-mates. Now Bob is determined to organize an expedition to learn Bender’s fate - whatever the cost. But nothing is ever simple in the Bobiverse. Bob’s descendants are out to the 24th generation now, and replicative drift has produced individuals who can barely be considered Bobs anymore.
-
-
BOB-tastic!!! 🛸
- By C. White on 09-24-20
By: Dennis E. Taylor
-
Man Plus
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
More timely now than ever
- By Sandy R on 06-28-10
By: Frederik Pohl
-
The Last Theorem
- A Novel
- By: Arthur C. Clarke, Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The historic collaboration between Frederik Pohl and Arthur C. Clarke is both a momentous literary event and a fittingly grand farewell from the great visionary author of 2001: A Space Odyssey
This is a story of one man's mathematical obsession, a celebration of the human spirit and the scientific method, and an intellectual thriller in which humanity, facing extermination from all-but-omnipotent aliens, must overcome differences of politics and religion and come together or perish.
-
-
2 master writers=1 great story
- By Gary on 12-27-13
By: Arthur C. Clarke, and others
-
The Mote in God's Eye
- By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
- Narrated by: L J Ganser
- Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mote In God's Eye is their acknowledged masterpiece, an epic novel of mankind's first encounter with alien life that transcends the genre. No lesser an authority than Robert A. Heinlein called it "possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read".
-
-
A great read!
- By J. Rhoderick on 02-12-10
By: Larry Niven, and others
-
The Space Merchants
- By: Frederik Pohl, C. M. Kornbluth
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
a SciFic classic done really well
- By John Loden on 05-06-12
By: Frederik Pohl, and others
-
Gateways
- Original New Stories Inspired by Frederik Pohl
- By: Elizabeth Anne Hull (editor), Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, and others
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It isn’t easy to get a group of bestselling SF authors to write new stories for an anthology, but that’s what Elizabeth Anne Hull has done in this powerhouse book. With original, captivating tales by Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, David Brin, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Joe Haldeman, Harry Harrison, Larry Niven, Vernor Vinge, Gene Wolfe, and others, Gateways is a SF event that will be a must-buy for SF readers of all tastes, from the traditional to the cutting edge; from the darkly serious to the laugh-out-loud funny.
-
-
Quite the mix
- By AmyBeth on 10-30-15
By: Elizabeth Anne Hull (editor), and others
-
The Salvage Crew
- By: Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
- Narrated by: Nathan Fillion
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An AI overseer and a human crew arrive on a distant planet to salvage an ancient UN starship. The overseer is unhappy. The crew, well, they're certainly no A-team. Not even a C-team on the best of days. And worse? Urmahon Beta, the planet, is at the ass-end of nowhere. Everybody expects this to be a long, ugly, and thankless job. Then it all goes disastrously wrong. What they thought was an uninhabited backwater turns out to be anything but empty.
-
-
Promising First Half, Then a Mess
- By YL on 11-03-20
-
Spin
- By: Robert Charles Wilson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One night when he was 10, Tyler stood in his backyard and watched the stars go out. They flared into brilliance, then disappeared, replaced by an empty black barrier. He and his best friends, Jason and Diane Lawton, had seen what became known as the Big Blackout. It would shape their lives.
-
-
A good listen
- By ChellyBelle on 09-18-08
-
The Gripping Hand
- By: Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, award-winning authors of such best sellers as Footfall and The Legacy of Heorot, return us to the Mote, and to the universe of Kevin Renner and Horace Bury, of Rod Blaine and Sally Fowler. There, 25 years have passed since humanity quarantined the mysterious aliens known as Moties within the confines of their own solar system. They have spent a quarter century analyzing and agonizing over the deadly threat posed by the only aliens mankind has ever encountered - a race divided into distinct biological forms, each serving a different function: Master, Mediator, Engineer, Warrior.
-
-
Sequel to "The Mote in God's Eye"
- By Ken on 01-14-13
By: Jerry Pournelle, and others
-
Old Man's War
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First, he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce - and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So, we fight, to defend Earth and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.
-
-
Fun and Witty Military Sci-Fi
- By M. Spencer on 10-21-12
By: John Scalzi
-
Brushfire
- Expeditionary Force, Book 11
- By: Craig Alanson
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 19 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Peacetime can be a rough adjustment for the battle-hardened Merry Band of Pirates. Especially when aliens don’t get the memo that the shooting is over.
-
-
everything has a message
- By John Wisniewski on 12-21-20
By: Craig Alanson
Publisher's Summary
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.
The colonists of Newmanhome first suffered the effects of Wan-To's games when their planet's stars began to shift, the climate began to cool down, and the colony was forced into a desperate struggle to survive.
Viktor Sorricaine was determined to discover what force had suddenly sent his world hurtling toward the ends of the universe. And the answer was something beyond the scope of his imagination - even if he lived for 4000 years...
More from the same
What listeners say about The World at the End of Time
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- John
- 04-30-14
puts the science back into fiction
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
yes it was a very engaging story I wished it could have gone on for another 15 hours !!
What about William Dufris’s performance did you like?
very rich voice easy to listen to in the car great characterisations
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
no I like to have it there when I'm driving
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Travis
- 05-23-14
Great Story!
Where does The World at the End of Time rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
I thought the ending was a little weak, I was sad to find that the author has passed away, and didn't leave a series.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The World at the End of Time?
I have read a plot line similar to this in Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds. Relativistic effects and deep time in general are such interesting topics so the conversations and narration surrounding them were fascinating.
What does William Dufris bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
William Dufris doesn't get paid enough ha-ha, I listen to books just because he reads them. In fact, its why I listened to this one.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The different societies and how they evolved became interesting. I think most of these hardcore sci fi authors have a lot of politics and civilization extrapolation built into them. This was no exception. It paints a valid picture of a super modern dark age, and something that couldn't be so far over the horizon from us.
Any additional comments?
If you're looking for something like what Reynolds writes, this will be a delight.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- naughtee design
- 03-26-14
love the physics
an enjoyable romp through time and space... love the astro-physics and nuclear pointy-head posturing, sent me off to touch-up with some nuclear physics concepts (for the eight-year old daughter).
performance was great, i'm a sucker for dufris, having worked through most of scalzi's offerings.
what can i say, i was left wanting more, good work!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JohnB
- 02-07-15
The best SF story ever!
Frederick Pohl has produced a sweeping saga that extends to the end of the Universe -- and beyond! The narrator does a great job in setting the mood and developing the characters.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jason
- 07-09-20
#Mindblown
So many different sci-fi troupes covered it’s hard to know where to begin, and all in a stand-alone novel with a great ending. This is the first audio book I’ve listened to more than 4 times (and I’ve got “The Martian, First Law, etc.”) This listen is as unique as you’ll find - just crazy good and it gets better with each listen!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andy
- 03-01-20
Great Story Ends Abruptly - Would Read a Sequel
For a book that explores some of the theoretical science about the super slow end of time and the end of the universe as we know it, the story ends rather abruptly. That's ironic.
There are two main storylines that run parallel to each other. The non human storyline impacts the human storyline greatly without the humans ever having any true understanding of the underlining causes of the major events happening in their lives. Sounds accurate.
I loved the Wan Tao story! His lack of empathy and ultimate aloofness was dangerously intriguing. It was tension building to wonder if his carelessness would totally wipe out the humans without them ever knowing.
The main character in the human storyline is kind of a jerk. Need to check the copyright date, but some of his attitudes were a little gruff. Not my favorite Male protagonist in my recent sci-fi readings, but he's not the worst either. A little bit of an ass, but I still find myself rooting for him as the story unfolds.
I had trouble empathizing with either of the 2 main protagonists. One is basically a reckless, god-like plasma person with some major character flaws. The other is a basic "modern day" human sent to a colony in another solar system during the 2nd of a 3 wave plan to colonize a new planet via interstellar travel. Both protagonists are imperfect and flawed creatures, especially the "more advanced" one of the two.
The human protagonist has 3 distinct time frames that he lives through in the book and it's not the 3 that you think it is in the first half of the story. interestingly enough, I found myself connecting to the human character, Victor, more and more throughout the story and I found myself enjoying the Wan Tao character less and less. Victor and I were finally on the same page by the time I reached the third and final stretch of time that he lives through.
Lots of interesting ideas carried along by flawed characters. The huge time jumps due to cryogenic freezing gave lots of flexibility to the story machanics and ability to play with the timeline. The Second section after a major time jump is awkward and rushed feeling. The final section of time after being thawed out is weird but enjoyable.
The end is so abrupt that it's unsettling. I wanted there to be more just as I was starting to get super invested in the new direction and tone of the story. Enjoyable for a Sci-Fi nerd that likes big ideas and isn't expecting deep character development. Would love to read a Sequel detailing the lives of some of the other Plasma People. And what happened to the 3rd colonist ship? And what happened to some of the family members on Newman Home? And what happened in the thousands of years that humanity was growing in the habitats? And what happened with some of the other intelligent life / matter people elsewhere in the Galaxy? There's tons of great material for a loose sequel.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nick
- 06-05-16
A difficult concept handled well.
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes. It was thought provoking and interesting.Some books are riveting, this was not a riveting book, and that's ok. I hope you know what I mean, I did want to know what happened next.
What did you like best about this story?
Many things. The story was wrapped up very well. It made me think and I really cared about the characters.
What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?
It was satisfactory in the main with some parts being annoying, thankfully they did not last too long. Often when the narrator tried other voices it was done professionally but the voice chosen often grated on my nerves. Due to the lack of talent of the narrator he should have stuck to the one voice, and just read the story, not tried to dramatize it.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
The end to all life.
Any additional comments?
I give full credit to Frederik Pohl for succeeding in writing a story that would I think be very difficult for most authors to tackle. A science fiction story that I think ranks up there with the greats. He is to be congratulated.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Justin
- 03-26-16
It's a slow start, but worth it
It's a really good story overall, but the beginning is hard to get through. However, the second half is worth the struggle.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- John F Keane
- 08-06-15
What no sequel?!
Any additional comments?
Really like Pohl's stuff and the audio performance was quite good as well. But the plot leaves you waiting for the next big event to happen and Pohl never followed up with Book 2 as far as I know.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Steve
- 03-17-18
Great concept hurt by sometimes tedious execution
Would you listen to The World at the End of Time again? Why?
No, I doubt I would. I first read this years ago and loved it, and for the first half I was excited, for the next 25% I was mildly entertained, and toward the end I stopped listening. Why? Because there was enough story here for a novella, stretched into a novel.
Would you be willing to try another book from Frederik Pohl? Why or why not?
Absolutely. I love Pohl's work in general.
Which character – as performed by William Dufris – was your favorite?
I didn't have a favorite, per se. The narration was up to Dufris' excellent standard, but I kept giggling that the voice of astrophysicist Pal Sorricaine (the main character's father, who is pretty significant to the plot) sounded so much like ... Homer Simpson. Imagine Homer explaining cosmology and you'll understand why I kept losing it.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
A aeon too far. Before it was over, I was feeling as old as the plasma being Wan-To.
Any additional comments?
Don't let this review put you off of either Pohl or Dufris. I love the work of both, but this one just didn't pan out for me.