-
The Departure
- The Owner, Book 1
- Narrated by: Steve West, John Mawson
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $29.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Dark Intelligence
- By: Neal Asher
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 18 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One man will transcend death to seek vengeance. One woman will transform herself to gain power. And no one will emerge unscathed... Thorvald Spear wakes in a hospital to find he's been brought back from the dead. What's more, he died in a human vs. alien war that ended a century ago.
-
-
Lots of space battles, violent aliens, bloody AIs
- By David on 02-09-16
By: Neal Asher
-
The Soldier
- Rise of the Jain, Book 1
- By: Neal Asher
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a far corner of space, on the very borders between humanity’s Polity worlds and the kingdom of the vicious crab-like prador, is an immediate threat to all sentient life: an accretion disc, a solar system designed by the long-dead Jain race and swarming with living technology powerful enough to destroy entire civilizations. Neither the Polity or the prador want the other in full control of the disc, so they’ve placed an impartial third party in charge of the weapons platform guarding the technology from escaping into the galaxy: Orlandine, a part-human, part-AI haiman.
-
-
disappointing.
- By golly folye on 01-16-19
By: Neal Asher
-
The Diamond Age
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Jennifer Wiltsie
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Neal Stephenson, "the hottest science fiction writer in America", takes science fiction to dazzling new levels. The Diamond Age is a stunning tale; set in 21st-century Shanghai, it is the story of what happens what a state-of-the-art interactive device falls into the hands of a street urchin named Nell. Her life, and the entire future of humanity, is about to be decoded and reprogrammed.
-
-
The rock could use a bit more polishing
- By Tango on 05-19-13
By: Neal Stephenson
-
The Engineer ReConditioned
- By: Neal Asher
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mysterious aliens...ruthless terrorists...androids with attitude...genetic manipulation...punch-ups with lasers...giant spaceships...what more do you want? A collection by the author of Gridlinked, The Skinner, In the Line of Polity, Cowl, Brass Man, and The Voyage of the Sable Keech.
-
-
Great into to Asher
- By SciFi Kindle on 06-26-13
By: Neal Asher
-
Ball Lightning
- By: Cixin Liu, Joel Martinsen - translator
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Chen’s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of the mysterious natural phenomenon. His search takes him to stormy mountaintops, an experimental military weapons lab, and an old Soviet science station. The more he learns, the more he comes to realize that ball lightning is just the tip of a new frontier in particle physics. Although Chen’s quest provides a purpose for his life, his reasons for chasing his elusive quarry come into conflict with soldiers and scientists who have motives of their own.
-
-
if you loved the three body problem . a must
- By Boaz on 10-19-18
By: Cixin Liu, and others
-
Shards of Earth
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
- Length: 18 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Not sure what the point was [Spoilers]
- By C. Andrew Hessler on 08-27-21
-
Dark Intelligence
- By: Neal Asher
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 18 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One man will transcend death to seek vengeance. One woman will transform herself to gain power. And no one will emerge unscathed... Thorvald Spear wakes in a hospital to find he's been brought back from the dead. What's more, he died in a human vs. alien war that ended a century ago.
-
-
Lots of space battles, violent aliens, bloody AIs
- By David on 02-09-16
By: Neal Asher
-
The Soldier
- Rise of the Jain, Book 1
- By: Neal Asher
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a far corner of space, on the very borders between humanity’s Polity worlds and the kingdom of the vicious crab-like prador, is an immediate threat to all sentient life: an accretion disc, a solar system designed by the long-dead Jain race and swarming with living technology powerful enough to destroy entire civilizations. Neither the Polity or the prador want the other in full control of the disc, so they’ve placed an impartial third party in charge of the weapons platform guarding the technology from escaping into the galaxy: Orlandine, a part-human, part-AI haiman.
-
-
disappointing.
- By golly folye on 01-16-19
By: Neal Asher
-
The Diamond Age
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Jennifer Wiltsie
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Neal Stephenson, "the hottest science fiction writer in America", takes science fiction to dazzling new levels. The Diamond Age is a stunning tale; set in 21st-century Shanghai, it is the story of what happens what a state-of-the-art interactive device falls into the hands of a street urchin named Nell. Her life, and the entire future of humanity, is about to be decoded and reprogrammed.
-
-
The rock could use a bit more polishing
- By Tango on 05-19-13
By: Neal Stephenson
-
The Engineer ReConditioned
- By: Neal Asher
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mysterious aliens...ruthless terrorists...androids with attitude...genetic manipulation...punch-ups with lasers...giant spaceships...what more do you want? A collection by the author of Gridlinked, The Skinner, In the Line of Polity, Cowl, Brass Man, and The Voyage of the Sable Keech.
-
-
Great into to Asher
- By SciFi Kindle on 06-26-13
By: Neal Asher
-
Ball Lightning
- By: Cixin Liu, Joel Martinsen - translator
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Chen’s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of the mysterious natural phenomenon. His search takes him to stormy mountaintops, an experimental military weapons lab, and an old Soviet science station. The more he learns, the more he comes to realize that ball lightning is just the tip of a new frontier in particle physics. Although Chen’s quest provides a purpose for his life, his reasons for chasing his elusive quarry come into conflict with soldiers and scientists who have motives of their own.
-
-
if you loved the three body problem . a must
- By Boaz on 10-19-18
By: Cixin Liu, and others
-
Shards of Earth
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
- Length: 18 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Not sure what the point was [Spoilers]
- By C. Andrew Hessler on 08-27-21
-
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. Earth itself is a backwater.
-
-
Fun and Witty Military Sci-Fi
- By M. Spencer on 10-21-12
By: John Scalzi
-
Perdido Street Station
- By: China Mieville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the center of the world. Humans and mutants and arcane races brood in the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the river is sluggish with unnatural effluent and foundries pound into the night. For a thousand years, the Parliament and its brutal militias have ruled over a vast economy of workers and artists, spies and soldiers, magicians, crooks, and junkies. Now a stranger has arrived, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand. And something unthinkable is released.
-
-
Brilliant, wonderful book -- horrible recording
- By James on 08-19-09
By: China Mieville
-
The Martian
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.
-
-
I love Wil Wheaton but why not R. C. Bray?
- By L. Newman on 01-11-20
By: Andy Weir
-
The Girl on the Train
- A Novel
- By: Paula Hawkins
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett, Louise Brealey, India Fisher
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The debut psychological thriller that will forever change the way you look at other people's lives. Every day the same. Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and night. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. Jess and Jason, she calls them. Their life - as she sees it - is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.
-
-
The Girl on The Train
- By BookReader on 12-30-15
By: Paula Hawkins
-
Brave New World
- By: Aldous Huxley
- Narrated by: Michael York
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Lenina and Bernard visit a savage reservation, we experience how Utopia can destroy humanity. Cloning, feel-good drugs, anti-aging programs, and total social control through politics, programming, and media: has Aldous Huxley accurately predicted our future? With a storyteller's genius, he weaves these ethical controversies in a compelling narrative that dawns in the year 632 A.F. (After Ford, the deity). When Lenina and Bernard visit a savage reservation, we experience how Utopia can destroy humanity.
-
-
Michael York should stick to the stage and leave narration to the pros.
- By SD on 08-21-19
By: Aldous Huxley
-
The Dog Stars
- By: Peter Heller
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hig survived the flu that killed everyone he knows. His wife is gone, his friends are dead, he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, his only neighbor a gun-toting misanthrope. In his 1956 Cessna, Hig flies the perimeter of the airfield or sneaks off to the mountains to fish and to pretend that things are the way they used to be. But when a random transmission somehow beams through his radio, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life exists beyond the airport.
-
-
Absolutely Stellar!
- By Mel on 08-10-12
By: Peter Heller
-
Outland
- Quantum Earth, Book 1
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an experiment to study quantum uncertainty goes spectacularly wrong, physics student Bill Rustad and his friends find that they have accidentally created an inter-dimensional portal. They connect to Outland - an alternate Earth with identical geology, but where humans never evolved. The group races to establish control of the portal before the government, the military, or evildoers can take it away. Then everything changes when the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts in an explosion large enough to destroy civilization and kill half the planet.
-
-
I made myself finish. Glad I did.
- By RJPF on 05-26-19
By: Dennis E. Taylor
-
The Peripheral
- By: William Gibson
- Narrated by: Lorelei King
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Where Flynne and her brother, Burton, live, jobs outside the drug business are rare. Fortunately, Burton has his veteran's benefits, for neural damage he suffered from implants during his time in the USMC's elite Haptic Recon force. Then one night Burton has to go out, but there's a job he's supposed to do - a job Flynne didn't know he had. Beta-testing part of a new game, he tells her.
-
-
Worst Narration Ever
- By Tristan G R Wall on 05-29-15
By: William Gibson
-
The Forever War
- By: Joe Haldeman
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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?
-
-
A classic.
- By John on 09-24-08
By: Joe Haldeman
-
Red Mars
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 23 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, Red Mars is the first book in Kim Stanley Robinson's best-selling trilogy. Red Mars is praised by scientists for its detailed visions of future technology. It is also hailed by authors and critics for its vivid characters and dramatic conflicts.
For centuries, the red planet has enticed the people of Earth. Now an international group of scientists has colonized Mars. Leaving Earth forever, these 100 people have traveled nine months to reach their new home. This is the remarkable story of the world they create - and the hidden power struggles of those who want to control it.
-
-
very long
- By Dana on 07-17-08
-
The Water Knife
- By: Paolo Bacigalupi
- Narrated by: Almarie Guerra
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the American Southwest, Nevada, Arizona, and California skirmish for dwindling shares of the Colorado River. Into the fray steps Angel Velasquez, detective, leg breaker, assassin, and spy. A Las Vegas water knife, Angel "cuts" water for his boss, Catherine Case, ensuring that her lush, luxurious arcology developments can bloom in the desert, so the rich can stay wet while the poor get nothing but dust.
-
-
The fight for water in a drought fueled apocalypse
- By Lore on 09-24-15
By: Paolo Bacigalupi
-
Wild Cards I
- Wild Cards, Book 1
- By: George R. R. Martin - editor
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 18 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the aftermath of WWII, an alien virus struck the Earth, endowing a handful of survivors with extraordinary powers. Originally published in 1987, the newly expanded saga contains additional original stories by eminent writers.
-
-
Dry Politics
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 02-24-13
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.
Publisher's summary
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.
More from the same
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Dark Intelligence
- By: Neal Asher
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 18 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One man will transcend death to seek vengeance. One woman will transform herself to gain power. And no one will emerge unscathed... Thorvald Spear wakes in a hospital to find he's been brought back from the dead. What's more, he died in a human vs. alien war that ended a century ago.
-
-
Lots of space battles, violent aliens, bloody AIs
- By David on 02-09-16
By: Neal Asher
-
Finder
- By: Suzanne Palmer
- Narrated by: Joe Hempel
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fergus Ferguson, repo-man, has one job: find the spacecraft Venetia's Sword and steal it back from Arum Gilger, ex-nobleman turned power-hungry trade boss. Finding Gilger in the farthest corner of human-inhabited space, a gas-giant harvesting colony called Cernee, was easy. The hard part will be getting past a field of space mines, hacking into the Sword's compromised AI, and fighting a crew of hostile enemies to take control of the ship. But when a cable car explosion launches Cernee into a civil war, Fergus finds himself caught in the crosshairs.
-
-
this was pretty bad
- By Amazon Customer on 09-16-19
By: Suzanne Palmer
-
Rebel’s Call
- The Space Trooper Series
- By: Jamie McFarlane, Rachel Aukes
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello, Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Separated at birth, orphaned twins Peyton and Jai Foster’s lives couldn’t be more different. Raised by a billionaire, Peyton Foster has been taught that anything other than first place is failure. With her adoptive family’s name dangled like a carrot, she’ll need to not only get accepted to Space Academy but finish at the top of her class. Raised in a group shelter one step from the streets, Jai Foster has earned every meal he’s ever eaten. Discovering early that his penchant for technology gave him an undeniable advantage, Jai manages to earn a spot to the academy.
-
-
Two narrators playing the same characters
- By Mark on 11-02-21
By: Jamie McFarlane, and others
-
Linesman
- By: S. K. Dunstall
- Narrated by: Brian Hutchison
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The lines. No ship can traverse the void without them. Only linesmen can work with them. But only Ean Lambert hears their song. And everyone thinks he's crazy.... Most slum kids never go far, certainly not becoming a level 10 linesman like Ean. Even if he's part of a small and unethical cartel, and the other linesmen disdain his self-taught methods, he's certified and working. Then a mysterious alien ship is discovered at the edges of the galaxy.
-
-
Absolutely Excellent Story - Sci-fi Meets Fantasy
- By Striker on 07-13-15
By: S. K. Dunstall
-
The Soldier
- Rise of the Jain, Book 1
- By: Neal Asher
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a far corner of space, on the very borders between humanity’s Polity worlds and the kingdom of the vicious crab-like prador, is an immediate threat to all sentient life: an accretion disc, a solar system designed by the long-dead Jain race and swarming with living technology powerful enough to destroy entire civilizations. Neither the Polity or the prador want the other in full control of the disc, so they’ve placed an impartial third party in charge of the weapons platform guarding the technology from escaping into the galaxy: Orlandine, a part-human, part-AI haiman.
-
-
disappointing.
- By golly folye on 01-16-19
By: Neal Asher
-
Outpost
- By: W. Michael Gear
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan
- Length: 18 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Donovan is a world of remarkable wealth that comes at a high price. When Supervisor Kalico Aguila's ship arrives, she discovers a failing colony, its government overthrown, the few remaining colonists gone wild. Donovan could make her career - or kill her. Planetside, Talina Perez is one of three rulers of the Port Authority colony - the only law in the one remaining town. With the Corporate ship demanding answers about the things she's done, Perez could lose everything, including her life. For Dan Wirth, Donovan is a last chance. A psychopath with a death sentence looming over his head, he will make a desperate play for power. No matter who he has to corrupt, murder, or destroy. Captain Max Taggart is the Corporation's enforcer. But is it too late to seize control of Donovan?
-
-
Must have been written for teenage girls
- By Bob on 03-30-20
By: W. Michael Gear
-
Dark Intelligence
- By: Neal Asher
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 18 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One man will transcend death to seek vengeance. One woman will transform herself to gain power. And no one will emerge unscathed... Thorvald Spear wakes in a hospital to find he's been brought back from the dead. What's more, he died in a human vs. alien war that ended a century ago.
-
-
Lots of space battles, violent aliens, bloody AIs
- By David on 02-09-16
By: Neal Asher
-
Finder
- By: Suzanne Palmer
- Narrated by: Joe Hempel
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fergus Ferguson, repo-man, has one job: find the spacecraft Venetia's Sword and steal it back from Arum Gilger, ex-nobleman turned power-hungry trade boss. Finding Gilger in the farthest corner of human-inhabited space, a gas-giant harvesting colony called Cernee, was easy. The hard part will be getting past a field of space mines, hacking into the Sword's compromised AI, and fighting a crew of hostile enemies to take control of the ship. But when a cable car explosion launches Cernee into a civil war, Fergus finds himself caught in the crosshairs.
-
-
this was pretty bad
- By Amazon Customer on 09-16-19
By: Suzanne Palmer
-
Rebel’s Call
- The Space Trooper Series
- By: Jamie McFarlane, Rachel Aukes
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello, Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Separated at birth, orphaned twins Peyton and Jai Foster’s lives couldn’t be more different. Raised by a billionaire, Peyton Foster has been taught that anything other than first place is failure. With her adoptive family’s name dangled like a carrot, she’ll need to not only get accepted to Space Academy but finish at the top of her class. Raised in a group shelter one step from the streets, Jai Foster has earned every meal he’s ever eaten. Discovering early that his penchant for technology gave him an undeniable advantage, Jai manages to earn a spot to the academy.
-
-
Two narrators playing the same characters
- By Mark on 11-02-21
By: Jamie McFarlane, and others
-
Linesman
- By: S. K. Dunstall
- Narrated by: Brian Hutchison
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The lines. No ship can traverse the void without them. Only linesmen can work with them. But only Ean Lambert hears their song. And everyone thinks he's crazy.... Most slum kids never go far, certainly not becoming a level 10 linesman like Ean. Even if he's part of a small and unethical cartel, and the other linesmen disdain his self-taught methods, he's certified and working. Then a mysterious alien ship is discovered at the edges of the galaxy.
-
-
Absolutely Excellent Story - Sci-fi Meets Fantasy
- By Striker on 07-13-15
By: S. K. Dunstall
-
The Soldier
- Rise of the Jain, Book 1
- By: Neal Asher
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a far corner of space, on the very borders between humanity’s Polity worlds and the kingdom of the vicious crab-like prador, is an immediate threat to all sentient life: an accretion disc, a solar system designed by the long-dead Jain race and swarming with living technology powerful enough to destroy entire civilizations. Neither the Polity or the prador want the other in full control of the disc, so they’ve placed an impartial third party in charge of the weapons platform guarding the technology from escaping into the galaxy: Orlandine, a part-human, part-AI haiman.
-
-
disappointing.
- By golly folye on 01-16-19
By: Neal Asher
-
Outpost
- By: W. Michael Gear
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan
- Length: 18 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Donovan is a world of remarkable wealth that comes at a high price. When Supervisor Kalico Aguila's ship arrives, she discovers a failing colony, its government overthrown, the few remaining colonists gone wild. Donovan could make her career - or kill her. Planetside, Talina Perez is one of three rulers of the Port Authority colony - the only law in the one remaining town. With the Corporate ship demanding answers about the things she's done, Perez could lose everything, including her life. For Dan Wirth, Donovan is a last chance. A psychopath with a death sentence looming over his head, he will make a desperate play for power. No matter who he has to corrupt, murder, or destroy. Captain Max Taggart is the Corporation's enforcer. But is it too late to seize control of Donovan?
-
-
Must have been written for teenage girls
- By Bob on 03-30-20
By: W. Michael Gear
-
The Van Rijn Method
- Technic Civilization Series 1
- By: Poul Anderson
- Narrated by: BJ Harrison
- Length: 21 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Think there's an unbridgeable gulf between human and alien thought? Not so! There's a common tongue, all right - and Nicholas Van Rijn speaks it fluently: trade. For behind the buffoonish blarney and bawdy bonhomie of the Falstaffian Van Rijn is a man who gets things done. A born wheeler-dealer who usually leaves both sides better off in the bargain. (While pocketing a hefty cut of the profits himself, of course!)
-
-
Humph and hassenpfeffer!
- By Anonymous User on 07-31-20
By: Poul Anderson
-
Freedom's Fire Box Set, Books 1-6
- The Complete Military Space Opera Series
- By: Bobby Adair
- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 38 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The best-selling, epic space adventure, Freedom's Fire: the complete series of six audiobooks, in one bundle.
-
-
Not Recommend.
- By William on 09-30-19
By: Bobby Adair
-
Genesis
- The Holy War Series, Book 1
- By: Rick Partlow
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was every starship captain’s nightmare, and for Travis Miller, it was his own personal hell. He’d done everything by the book, but when the Tahni had attacked him and his crew, there was no choice but to return fire and destroy the first alien vessel humans had ever encountered. Excoriated in the press, his career in shambles, Travis is exiled to a long patrol of the outer colony worlds. Forgotten, except as a bad example...until the Tahni prove him right by declaring war on the human commonwealth.
-
-
Six Stars
- By David T. on 05-27-21
By: Rick Partlow
-
Summertide
- The Heritage Universe, Book 1
- By: Charles Sheffield
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was just before Summertide, the time when the twin planets, Opal and Quake, would orbit closest to their sun, subjecting both - Quake in particular - to vast tidal forces. It was to be the most violent Summertide ever, creating something that only happened every 350,000 years. Planetary Administrators Hans Rebka and Max Perry had no choice but to go to Quake - risking their lives to protect the others - and to learn, just maybe, the secret of Summertide and the Builders.
-
-
Intriguing and leaving you wanting for more...
- By Herve Bronnimann on 08-09-05
-
The Last Exodus
- By: Paul Tassi
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Earth lies in ruins in the aftermath of an extraterrestrial invasion, the land devastated by a desperate war with no winners between mankind and a race of vicious, intelligent creatures. The seas are drying up while the atmosphere corrodes and slowly cooks any life remaining on the now desolate rock. Food is scarce, trust even more so, and the only people left alive all have done horrific things to stay that way.
-
-
Paint by numbers
- By sonofapharmacist on 08-19-19
By: Paul Tassi
-
Space Carrier Avalon
- By: Glynn Stewart
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Avalon was the flagship of the Castle Federation in the last war, now 20 years past. The first of the deep space carriers, no other warship in the fleet holds as many honors or has recorded as many kills. No other warship in the fleet is as old. Accepting the inevitable, the Federation Space Navy has decided to refit her and send her on a tour of the frontier, showing the flag to their allies and enemies as a reminder of her glory - and then decommission her for good.
-
-
Could have been 5 star most might consider it so
- By Jim K on 10-11-15
By: Glynn Stewart
-
The End of the Story
- By: Clark Ashton Smith
- Narrated by: Josh Greenwood
- Length: 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In “The End of the Story” by Clark Ashton Smith, mysterious passion and ardor lead us through forbidden manuscripts, mystical encounters, and matters of the heart. Set in 17th-century France, young law student Christophe Morand discovers the tale of Gerard de Venteillon, a knight seduced by a lamia dwelling in the ruins of Chateau des Faussesflammes near Perigon. Will Morand share his fate? The choice between heart and the abbot’s counsel becomes pivotal, and the enigmatic woman continues to tempt.
-
Veiled Alliances
- A Prequel Novella to the Saga of Seven Suns
- By: Kevin J. Anderson
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook shows the origin of the green priests on Theroc, the first Roamer skymining operations on a gas-giant planet, the discovery of the Klikiss robots entombed in an abandoned alien city, the initial Ildiran expedition to Earth, the rescue of the generation ship Burton and the tragedy that leads to sinister breeding experiments. Veiled Alliances is an excellent starting point for readers new to the Saga, as well as an unforgettable adventure for fans of the series.
-
-
Start with Book One
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 06-05-14
-
The Intrepid Saga: Books 1-3 & Orion War: Destiny Lost
- Aeon 14, Book 1
- By: M. D. Cooper
- Narrated by: Khristine Hvam
- Length: 40 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tanis is looking forward to a long journey in stasis before arriving at the newly terraformed world of New Eden. New Life. New Start. Getting a berth on the Intrepid is her ticket out of the Sol System. But nothing proves easy for Major Tanis Richards. Nothing is at it seems. What should be a simple trip is fraught with danger and filled with adventure. An array of forces seek to stop the Intrepid - no matter the cost, or lives lost. From competing corporations, to stellar eco-terrorists, no one wants the Intrepid to arrive at New Eden.
-
-
Boring
- By lance on 03-23-20
By: M. D. Cooper
-
Death Wave
- The Star Quest Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Ben Bova
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Kell and his team return to Earth many years after their departure, they find that their world has changed almost beyond recognition. Not only has a second wave of greenhouse flooding caused sea levels to rise, but society has been changed by the consequences of the climate shift. Few people want to face Jordan Kell's news. He must convince Earth's new rulers that the human race is in danger of extinction unless it acts to forestall the death wave coming from the galaxy's heart.
-
-
complete let down don't waste a credit! !
- By Ryan on 12-02-15
By: Ben Bova
-
Solomon's Arrow
- A Novel
- By: J. Dalton Jennings
- Narrated by: Peter Larkin
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's the mid-21st century. The oceans are rising, the world's population is growing, terrorist organizations are running rampant, and it has become readily apparent that humanity's destructive nature is at the heart of the matter. When all faith in humanity seems lost, a startling proposal is announced: Solomon Chavez, the mysterious son of the world's first trillionaire, announces that he, backed by a consortium of governments and wealthy donors, will build an interstellar starship.
-
-
Couldn’t finish this one.
- By The Carolina Dude on 11-08-20
-
Star Warrior
- By: Isaac Hooke
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 18 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a galaxy where the fabric of reality can be bent and shaped by a privileged few, and almost any skill desired is a mere injection away, one young man is thrust into the fight of his life. Tane, a hydroponics farmer with some mad cereal crop gene-splicing skills, decides to get chipped. The operation gives him full control over his autonomic nervous and endocrine systems, plus the ability to install custom memories. All seems well until a couple of days later aliens come knocking at his door. And they aren't the friendly type.
-
-
wheel of time
- By Amazon Customer on 05-02-18
By: Isaac Hooke
Love Books? You'll Love Audible.
Transform your day
Replace endless scrolling with endless listening. Chores can be fun.
Listen everywhere
Download titles to listen offline, wherever you are in the world.
Carry your entire Library
Your stories go where you go. Audiobooks don’t weigh a thing.
Listen and learn
Discover stories that can change your mind, your well-being, and your life.
Reach your reading goals
You can’t turn pages while you drive—but you can press play.
Find your niche
WIth thousands of titles to explore, there’s something for everyone.
What listeners say about The Departure
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael G Kurilla
- 05-10-15
Realistic, frightening dystopic vision
Neal Asher's The Departure which is the 1st installment in the Owner trilogy, is a frightening realistic dystopic future vision of what may be the eventual outcome of the culmination of a digitally interconnected world that is both powerfully intrusive into individual lives, while at the same time, substantially vulnerable to abuse and corruption. Asher paints a terrifying scenario of a future with a fragile society where the bulk of humanity, referred to a "zero assets" (ZAs) offers nothing of value to an oligarchic government that is seeking a final solution for a sustainable future with their retention of total societal control. Into this mix comes a former genius, since discarded by the power elites, who is both mentally damaged, but also digitally enhanced to challenge the current regime. At the same time,a power struggle for survival is occurring in the fledgling Mars colony that was put on hold, while the Earth issues are sorted out.
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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
17 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anton
- 06-17-17
Incredible!
This book has absolutely blown my mind. I was deeply enthralled the whole way through.
A Definite recommendation from me
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Edward Cruz
- 08-02-21
Amazing science fiction saga
Loved it, excellent storytelling, can't wait to listen to book two. Hope its as good as this. Well worth the listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Patrick Smith
- 10-11-22
hard choices for a harder world.
The descriptions were a little shorter than I normally enjoy but the story was gripping if hard. Facing extinction at the hands of global environmental collapse or at the hands of a government that has decided that near extinction isn't a bad idea as long as they keep power.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cody
- 02-12-13
Neal Asher Delivers Again
After listening to Neal Asher's Spatterjay series I frequently check to see if any of his other works have been released.
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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Friendly Neighborhood Nitpicker
- 09-14-21
Okay, but hard to care about
I have really loved Asher’s “short” stories (novellas, I guess), so I was looking forward to finally reading one of his novels. I came away somewhat disappointed.
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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kindle Customer
- 06-08-22
Decent world building
A decent dystopian cyberpunkish experience with good worldbuilding but thin characters.
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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- The guy
- 05-20-16
a bit bloated but started very strong
Asher starts off very well, indeed he went up in my estimation because of those first 100 pages. Asher's typical smash it up comes on strong in the latter half but this book could have been a bit shorter. i have read nearly everything he's written and he gets better with practice, in general his books have increased in skill over the years. however I will always prefer the Banks, Reynolds and Hamiltons more. that does not mean I dislike Asher, but there is something about his earlier sci-fi that turned me off. still I've read everything and he does a good job of bringing the story into interesting places. this book represents a new style for him. another reader commented that this was more like Richard Morgan. i agree, for those first 150 pages, afterwards the monsterama tries to kick in but without any alien creatures or dangerous million years old nano tech to do it with bee is left with robots... very cool and deadly sounding robots mind you.
all in all this book delivered a good yarn and I'll read the other two.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- S.Kaye
- 06-12-23
S Kaye
A different perspective of the future. I love the progression of our hero.
Narrative is right on the mark.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jblack
- 10-04-23
luv story
the story is awesome seems like this could really be our future with are politicians so curopted and wanting to turn to socialism chip us take away free speech and all the other correlations to this story luv it
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!