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Narrated by:
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Mark Boyett
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Robert J. Sawyer
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By:
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Robert J. Sawyer
About this listen
BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction written and read by author Robert J. Sawyer.
©2002 Robert J. Sawyer (P)2009 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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While J. Robert Oppenheimer and his Manhattan Project team struggle to develop the A-bomb, Edward Teller wants something even more devastating: a weapon based on nuclear fusion - the mechanism that powers the sun. But Teller’s research leads to a terrifying discovery: by the year 2030, the sun will eject its outermost layer, destroying the entire inner solar system - including Earth. After the war ends, Oppenheimer’s physicists combine forces with Albert Einstein, computing pioneer John von Neumann, and rocket designer Wernher von Braun.
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Scratches head
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Jake Sullivan has cheated death: he's discarded his doomed biological body and copied his consciousness into an android form. The new Jake soon finds love, something that eluded him when he was encased in flesh: he falls for the android version of Karen, a woman rediscovering all the joys of life now that she too is no longer constrained by a worn-out body. Karen's son sues her, claiming that by uploading into an immortal body, she has done him out of his inheritance.
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Entertaining, but not Sawyer's Best
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Experimental psychologist Jim Marchuk has developed a flawless technique for identifying the previously undetected psychopaths lurking everywhere in society. But while being cross-examined about his breakthrough in court, Jim is shocked to discover that he has lost his memories of six months of his life from 20 years previously - a dark time during which he himself committed heinous acts.
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PHILOSOPHICAL ZOMBIE
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After a rough break up, Wyatt moves to New York City, eager to prove himself while working on Wall Street. When he’s asked to visit the father of his ex-girlfriend, a billionaire tycoon, his fate is sealed. The revolutionary company, Nu-En, launches a radical innovation, an energy that will allow every person on the planet access to power. Only it doesn’t perform as anticipated. Harnessing the ocean has consequences, and highly dangerous creatures emerge from the depths. Soon, the Earth is fracturing, and the world will never be the same.
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Interesting story but..
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The Overlords appeared suddenly over every city - intellectually, technologically, and militarily superior to humankind. Benevolent, they made few demands: unify earth, eliminate poverty, and end war. With little rebellion, humankind agreed, and a golden age began.
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Food for Thought
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Dr. Tyson Klein is a quantum physicist who has dedicated his entire life to his research. At CERN, he analyses data generated by the Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. Now, Ty believes he's found a pattern in its output. It looks like an organised data stream, being broadcast over what he calls a quantum radio. Could it be a signal from another universe? A message sent from the future? Or something else entirely?
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Can't wait for book two
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A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.
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Odd narrator choice
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Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition
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Overall
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Performance
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Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience! The first audiobook in Iain M. Banks's seminal science fiction series, The Culture. Consider Phlebas introduces listeners to a utopian conglomeration of human and alien races that explores the nature of war, morality, and the limitless bounds of mankind's imagination.
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Music is super distracting and constant
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A classic thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Crichton, Sphere is a bravura demonstration of what he does better than anyone: riveting storytelling that combines frighteningly plausible, cutting-edge science and technology with pulse-pounding action and serious chills.
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Sphere
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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".
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A great read!
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Critic reviews
"Multiple award-winning Canadian author Sawyer offers an epic hard-science space adventure full of technical descriptions of starships and physics tempered by human concerns. In 2094, scientists on the Starplex study the mysterious artificial wormholes that make space travel routine and convenient. Then the wormholes' creators appear, and the scientists must understand and communicate with them to save the galaxy. Highly recommended for sf collections." ( Library Journal)
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- By Jim "The Impatient" on 12-02-17
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Just ok
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- Jim "The Impatient"
- 06-23-12
Tribute to Arthur C. Clarke
I believe this to be a tribute to Clarke by Sawyer. It is written in a similar style to Clarke and Sawyer even mentions one of Clarke's biggest books, Childhood's End. I like all six of the Sawyer books I have read, but if he was trying to write like Clarke, I do not believe he captured Clarke's ability to show the wonder of space. That being said it is still a good book. I believe I am a hard customer to please, but Sawyer has yet to produce something I could give less then four stars to.
There is lots of science in this, especially physics. There is lots of explaining science in this that might turn some people off, but I was not bothered by it. The story includes, Green Stars, Dark Matter, Time Travel, Gateways, Space Biology, Macro Life, a glass man and the word Billions is often used to describe.
A very small part of the book deals with an aging man going through a middle age crisis and how it effects his marriage. Another bigger part is a kind of a "Make Love Not War" theme which I found a little annoying. Bad guys who try to kill you are forgiven and become your buddy. There is also a part of the book where scientist fight a military with makeshift weapons and the scientist come out on top. I found that I little hard to swallow.
If you like this, you will want to read Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke. My favorite Sawyer books are Terminal Experiment, Flash Forward and Calculating God. As mentioned before no Sawyer book has disappointed me yet.
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18 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Scott
- 02-27-11
Worth it
Took a little while to get going, but then it was worth it. Nice listen.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Jared
- 01-21-10
The synopsis is misleading
Slight Spoiler alert!
Not a great book. The story is mostly told in a non-linear fashion, jumping from time to time. The majority of it being told by the main character to a being on an alien ship. The alien ship actually has nothing to do with any conflict in the books universe.
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13 people found this helpful
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- Erwin valderramos
- 05-18-23
Didn’t think it was for me but Loved it.
This was a compelling brisk but meaningful
Journey. I enjoyed it lots and well worth a credit.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Michael G Kurilla
- 06-12-19
Alien contact during a midlife crisis
Robert J Sawyer's Starplex offers a first contact tale. Humanity has discovered a network of artificial nodes, origin unknown, that allow for instantaneous travel across light years of distance. In the course of early exploration, they have made contact with two other intelligent races as well as uplifting dolphins. Starplex is a large spacecraft constructed for space exploration with all four intelligences taking parts. This leads to personnel issues at the same time, the human director (a position that rotates) is undergoing a midlife crisis. They discover dark matter which is also intelligent as well as the means to use the nodes to travel through time. Interstellar warfare also erupts.
Sawyer posits that with the bulk of the universe consisting of dark matter, there is no reason to believe it is also not capable of generating intelligent life. In addition, he suggest that galactic formations are the result of conscious effort by dark matter. Finally, there is the notion of using time travel to modify the overall mass of the universe for long term stability.
The narration is well done with a decent range of characters. Pacing is aligned with the plot.
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- Wendy Clark
- 09-22-24
Spectacular Mind *#€k
Another insanely thought provoking novel by R.J.Sawyer. Exceptional writing that kicks one’s mind into overdrive!
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- Cougar
- 01-01-12
Great SciFi listen
Without giving away the plot, the book is a little confusing at the outset. However, stick with it and all will become clear. I thought the author could have provided more details regarding his description of futuristic objects and events. I found it difficult to visualize some of the things in the book. However, the shortcoming was more than offset by the imagination of the author and the flow of the action. A good listen.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-06-18
interesting listen
Well worth a listen if your looking for a good space opera. Good addition to my collection.
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- Torbjørn Pettersen
- 09-02-15
One of the best!
Sawyer does what he does best; captivates me from page 1 and never let go for a single paragraph.
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- Canadian Guy
- 02-10-15
A symphony for the mind
This was truly an incredible book. Starplex was a rare exploration of the Space Opera sub-genre, and as Robert J. Sawyer intended, did not focus on a military plot as the central theme, but rather, a peaceful group of scientists who's mission was to make peaceful contact with other races via a vast network of 'shortcuts' or stargate type devices. Yes, there is certainly space combat and battles, but what makes this book so different is the anchoring in real science fiction roots -- at it's core it's about science, and the extrapolation and exploration of 'what-if' scenarios. It seeks to tease apart answers to current scientific knowledge.
To say this book was riveting was an understatement. I read it in 24 hours, and wished there was a whole series like it. But alas, this book is, and must be, fully self-contained. Starplex plucks the most melodious strings of science fiction, and turns them into a symphony for the mind.
The various races described in the novel were also fascinating, each with distinct cultures and idiosyncrasies. Sawyer is a man with an incredible imagination.
Almost 20 years after publication this book remains singular and utterly engaging.
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2 people found this helpful