Lynda Engler
- 151
- reviews
- 74
- helpful votes
- 256
- ratings
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Earthside
- Quantum Earth, Book 2
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Original Recording
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The Yellowstone super-eruption has put an end to modern civilization. As cities and countries continue to fall, the colony of Rivendell in the alternate Earth known as Outland looks more and more like the only real hope for humanity. But life in Rivendell isn’t getting any simpler, either. Bill and Kevin continue to discover new worlds; the population continues to rise; winter is approaching; and everyone has their own opinion about how things should be run.
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Why all the politics?
- By Leisa on 01-29-23
- Earthside
- Quantum Earth, Book 2
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
Great sequel
Reviewed: 09-20-24
The Outland series is a "build a new world and government" story that happens to be set in a scifi universe. Not comedic like 'We Are Bob' though it has it's moments, and much bloodier. If you could build a new world on an unspoiled (and dangerous) version of Earth, what would you build? I enjoyed the political and economic discussions by the characters. I'm sure there will be a 3rd book, and hope for even more in this series as they discover even more Earths through the gates.
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The Original
- By: Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 3 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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When Holly Winseed wakes up in a hospital room, her memory compromised and a new identity imposed on her, a team of government agents wastes no time stating their objective. With intent to infiltrate and defeat the terrorist group ICON, the agents tell Holly that she is now a Provisional Replica and has one week to hunt down and kill her Original for the murder of her husband, Jonathan. If she succeeds, she’ll assume her Original’s place in society. If she fails, her life will end.
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Good story, but something ruined it for me...
- By jturner on 09-16-20
- The Original
- By: Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
Reality or fiction?
Reviewed: 09-15-24
In a future where everyone digitally overlays their own "theme" on the world, what is real, and what is fiction?
I love Julia's narration, and of course Brandon and Mary are tops in scifi writing, so I spent 3.5 hours listening to this short story. I am not a fan of short stories because by the time I get into the narrative, it's over. Still, this is 4.5 stars!
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Infinite 2
- By: Jeremy Robinson
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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William Chanokh is immortal...and he’s trapped on the Galahad, an interstellar starship on a never-ending journey through open space. His only companions are Capria - mortal and in cryo-sleep - and Gal, an artificial intelligence, and the love of his life, with whom he spends every waking moment in the "Great Escape". After untold years living countless lives, Gal begins acting strange. Betrayed by his digital love, his long-term memory overwritten, and enduring violent manipulation, Will painfully peels back layers of simulation, fighting to reach reality 1.0...
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Wanted to love it, but. . .
- By Wiley Brooks on 03-23-21
- Infinite 2
- By: Jeremy Robinson
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
Will's journey is a wild and crazy ride.
Reviewed: 09-11-24
Insane AI... falling in love with an artificial intelligence... immortality... simulated realities... this book goes through hours and hours of this stuff before I even figured out what was happening.
It's a very well written novel, but it's a bit, no a LOT, OUT THERE. And note: RC Bray is one of the absolute BEST ever narrators, so take advantage of this one on Audible.
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The Road to Roswell
- A Novel
- By: Connie Willis
- Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
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When level-headed Francie arrives in Roswell, New Mexico, for her college roommate’s UFO-themed wedding—complete with a true-believer bridegroom—she can’t help but roll her eyes at all the wide-eyed talk of aliens, which obviously don’t exist. Imagine her surprise, then, when she is abducted by one. Odder still, her abductor is far from what the popular media have led her to expect, with a body like a tumbleweed and a mass of lightning-fast tentacles. Nor is Francie the only victim of the alien’s abduction spree.
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Connie Willis must be really losing it
- By Mary E Waitrovich on 07-15-23
- The Road to Roswell
- A Novel
- By: Connie Willis
- Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky
indy is like a frustrating toddler...
Reviewed: 08-24-24
... you love them to death, but communicating with them is almost impossible!
Cute story... aliens are real, which makes the premise of Francie warning her BFF off her wedding to a nutjob alien chaser a moot point. As she and a cast of characters, all well voiced!, drive all over the SW as they figure out what their alien wants and fix it.
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The Children of Tomorrow
- This Alien Earth, Book 3
- By: Paul Antony Jones, Robert Greenberger
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Meredith Gale has to make contact with the Architect before the Adversary’s agent, the transformed Abernathy, reaches her and ruins the millennia of planning designed to save the Earth. In order to accomplish this, she and her ragtag band of friends have to unify the scattered survivors of the multiverse to oppose the Adversary. Along the way, new allies will be made while new opponents do their best to stop her. If she fails, not only will the last of humanity be wiped away, but the Earth won't survive the collapse of the universe.
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It was terrible.
- By Jordan Schaefer on 02-07-21
- The Children of Tomorrow
- This Alien Earth, Book 3
- By: Paul Antony Jones, Robert Greenberger
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
Almost as good as the first 2
Reviewed: 08-06-24
This 3rd book was written after Paul Antony Jones passed away of cancer, written by Robert Greenberger from Paul's notes. it wraps up the series nicely.
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Shards of Earth
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
- Length: 18 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade him in the war. And one of humanity's heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers. After Earth was destroyed, mankind created a fighting elite to save their species, enhanced humans such as Idris. In the silence of space they could communicate, mind-to-mind, with the enemy. Then their alien aggressors, the Architects, simply disappeared - and Idris and his kind became obsolete. Now, 50 years later, Idris and his crew have discovered something strange abandoned in space.
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Not sure what the point was [Spoilers]
- By C. Andrew Hessler on 08-27-21
- Shards of Earth
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
A bit long winded
Reviewed: 07-16-24
I have truly loved every Adrian Tchaikovsky book I've ever read, but this one wasn't my favorite. It was very long, stretching out a lot of the plot over chapters where very little happened. It was good enough, but not his best work. I started it many months ago, then put it aside for about half a year, and finally decided I'd finish it because I didn't want to get into something new just yet.
The narration was well done making each character truly come alive.
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Big Time
- A Novel
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Grace Berney is a mid-level bureaucrat in the Food and Drug Administration, a woman who once brimmed with purpose but somehow turned into a middle-aged single mom with a dull government job and a melancholy sense that life has passed her by. Until the night a strange photo comes across her desk, of a young woman in a hospital bed who has been subjected to a mysterious procedure.
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Enjoyable
- By ALISTAIR on 04-24-24
- Big Time
- A Novel
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
Liked this one a lot
Reviewed: 07-16-24
I've read and/or listened to a lot of Winters' books and they are always compelling. #Speculativefiction: it's our world, but ONE thing is different. In this case, it's a scientist who thinks they can pull pieces of time from one person and inject them into another person (who presumably is dying). It all starts with Grace, an FDA employee of 14 years, a middle-aged, divorced woman with a teenager and an elderly mom she takes care of, who is assigned a project involving a catheter port in a young Jane Doe. The case is dropped, but she keeps going with it, unable to get the woman out of her mind.
Mystery, a victim on the run, identity questions...the book is great, but I give it 4 stars because it took the entire first half of the book to really get into the story. Too much background to start, especially around Grace. It's worth the read; It's just not as great as his "Last Policeman" trilogy which I loved!
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Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
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Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
- Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
Never a dud from John Scalzi
Reviewed: 07-16-24
This was smart, funny, full of twists and turns, and of course... 🩵 the cats and dolphins. 🐈🐈⬛️🐬
Please listen to this one on audiobook. Wil Wheaton does a masterful job narrating it.
Goodreads description: Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place.
Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.
It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.
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The Ministry of Time
- A Novel
- By: Kaliane Bradley
- Narrated by: George Weightman, Katie Leung
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.
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More than the sum of its parts but…
- By L. Williams on 05-17-24
- The Ministry of Time
- A Novel
- By: Kaliane Bradley
- Narrated by: George Weightman, Katie Leung
Any book I finish this fast deserves 5 stars
Reviewed: 07-16-24
I hope to see more from this debut novelist.
I preordered this one on Audible, then promptly forgot. Of course, I also selected it as my May book from Book of the Month club. No more preorders!
"A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.
Sometimes, time travel means falling in love with a man from 1845 who is scandalized by your calves."
The first third of the book is a comfortable romp through what it means to be part of the 21st century, through the eyes of the "expats" (those saved from death by the time device and brought to "our" time). Not much action, but lots of heart. Then it gets supercharged, in more ways than one.
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George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
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It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
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A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
- George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, Tom Hardy, Chukwudi Iwuji, Romesh Ranganathan, Natasia Demetriou, Francesca Mills, Alex Lawther, Katie Leung
For the love of the classics
Reviewed: 07-16-24
This was a well-produced full cast audio production of George Orwell's classic novel, not a reading of the novel. At just over 3 hours, it was a wonderful listen.
The repercussions of state control over its people still plays out today. And the fears of it happening here and now is the thing of apocalyptic nightmares.
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