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Alas, Babylon
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
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Publisher's summary
This true modern masterpiece is built around the two fateful words that make up the title and herald the end - “Alas, Babylon.” When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly.
But for one small town in Florida, miraculously spared, the struggle is just beginning, as men and women of all backgrounds join together to confront the darkness. Will Patton's narration paints this classic tale as an ominous picture of the terrible possibilites of the nuclear age.
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Jack Isidore doesn’t see the world like most people. According to his brother-in-law, Charley, he’s a crap artist, obsessed with his own bizarre theories and ideas, which he fanatically records in his many notebooks. He is so grossly unequipped for real life that his sister and brother-in-law feel compelled to rescue him from it. But while Fay and Charley Hume put on a happy face for the world, they prove to be just as sealed off from reality, in thrall to obsessions that are slightly more acceptable than Jack’s but a great deal uglier.
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The moods of the mass can't be fathomed...
- By Darwin8u on 05-21-18
By: Philip K. Dick
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Strong Motion
- By: Jonathan Franzen
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 20 hrs and 51 mins
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Louis Holland arrives in Boston in a spring of ecological upheaval (a rash of earthquakes on the North Shore) and odd luck: the first one kills his grandmother. Louis tries to maintain his independence, but falls in love with a Harvard seismologist whose discoveries about the earthquakes' cause complicate everything.
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Compelling Story, Ridiculous Narrator
- By DianeReads on 02-28-16
By: Jonathan Franzen
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The Forge of God
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
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On September 28th, a geologist working in Death Valley finds a mysterious new cinder cone in very well-mapped area. On October 1, the government of Australia announces the discovery of an enormous granite mountain. Like the cinder cone, it wasn't there six months ago.
Something is happening to planet Earth, and the truth is too terrifying to contemplate
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Great Story, Wonderful Listening, But the Editor?
- By George Knight on 07-14-13
By: Greg Bear
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Hornet Flight
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It's June 1941, and the low point of the war. England throws wave after wave of RAF bombers across the Channel, but somehow the Luftwaffe is able to shoot them down at will. The skies, indeed, the war itself seem to belong to Hitler.
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An Outstanding Spy Novel
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Iron Lake
- Cork O'Connor, Book 1
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Anthony Award-winning author William Kent Krueger crafts this riveting tale about a small Minnesota town’s ex-sheriff who is having trouble retiring his badge. Cork O’Connor loses his job after being blamed for a tragedy on the local Anishinaabe Indian reservation. But he must set aside his personal demons when a young boy goes missing on the same day a judge commits suicide—and no one but O’Connor suspects foul play.
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Great New Series
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The Dead Cat Bounce
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Since she bought her rambling fixer-upper of a house, Jacobia Tiptree has gotten used to finding things broken. But her latest problem isn't so easily repaired. Along with the rotting floor joists and sagging support beams, there's the little matter of the dead man in Jake's storeroom, an ice pick planted firmly in his cranium. Jake's unknown guest turns out to be local boy turned billionaire Threnody McIlwaine.
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too slow of a story...
- By Annette on 03-13-18
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The Hummingbird
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Deborah Birch is a seasoned hospice nurse whose daily work requires courage and compassion. But her skills and experience are tested in new and dramatic ways when her easygoing husband, Michael, returns from his third deployment to Iraq haunted by nightmares, anxiety, and rage. She is determined to help him heal and to restore the tender, loving marriage they once had.
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A MUST READ or LISTEN
- By Taryn on 01-23-16
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Paradise
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In Paradise - her first novel since she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature - Toni Morrison gives us a bravura performance. As the book begins deep in Oklahoma early one morning in 1976, nine men from Ruby (pop. 360), in defense of "the one all-black town worth the pain", assault the nearby Convent and the women in it. From the town's ancestral origins in 1890 to the fateful day of the assault, Paradise tells the story of a people ever mindful of the relationship between their spectacular history and a void.
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MORRISON AT HER MOST COMPLEX
- By Kennedi Hill on 11-07-19
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Hour of the Hunter
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A brutal, psychopathic murderer is released from prison - and stalks his prey with intent to kill.
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Hour of the Hunter
- By Marion Burke on 03-01-08
By: J. A. Jance
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What listeners say about Alas, Babylon
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kelli Perkins
- 08-31-12
Doesn't Seem Possible that This Is 1959!
What did you love best about Alas, Babylon?
I was resistant to trying this title because I always pick up on outdated technologies in a book and they don't ring true. I needn't have worried. This book is stunning and never for one second did I even realize that this wasn't present day America. Frank sticks to human nature as he explores a post-apocalyptic future, and human nature is the same generation to generation.
What other book might you compare Alas, Babylon to and why?
The Road by Cormac McCarthy is another view of a civilization gone awry, but with a different conclusion. Frank's account relies on the strength of human goodness to build a brighter outcome. We don't known which vision will ultimately be more realistic until the time comes.
What does Will Patton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
I loved the narration of this book. Will Patton's everyman style of delivery was a perfect fit for the setting--small town USA. The characters came alive.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I felt deeply for the characters and looked forward to a conclusion which would bring them some relief from the unknown.
Any additional comments?
I'm still impressed that I read this fifty years after it was written and it was as fresh and insightful as if it had been written yesterday. That's the best compliment I can give an author. A timeless work of fiction that will leave you thinking about the past and the future and what your reaction would be to a similar emergency. A hopeful read.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Michael
- 09-21-13
Essential but Antiquated
This book deserves its place as an Audible Essential, and has aged pretty well, if you don’t mind a little 1950’s sexism. Today there have been many post-nuclear war novels, many quite a bit better than this, but this is one of the very first, and I give it some historical credit for helping transform the idea of nuclear war to the unthinkable. The narration is excellent adding a lot of feeling to the protagonist. The characters and story are pretty simplistic yet nostalgically touching. The story does not have much action (other than a bunch of nudets) and all the problems are now standard post-apocalyptic fare. You can see the strong influence this book had on later novels, like One Second After. I likely won’t read this again, but I am glad to have heard it.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Tom Miller
- 07-21-11
Remember it well
I read this book when I was in 7th grade and it had a great impression on me. I had been looking for the book (it went in and out of print over the years) and was shocked when Audible.com advertised the now had an audible book. Will Patton does more than narrate; he makes it more like listening to a radio drama. I believe this book came out in 1959 (the year my parents bought a Plymouth with huge fins) and everything about nuclear war was interesting to a 13-year old. This was only several years before the Cuban Missile Crisis and I remember how scary that was.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Evan
- 07-27-11
Great. Realistic human reactions
I liked this book so much that I bought a whole lot of other books about the end of the world. Unfortunately they were not as good. Then I listened to this again and loved it all over again.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Gary
- 07-24-11
Breathtaking in its clarity of vision
It's shocking and amazing that such a carefully woven tale filled with nuanced predtictions of a post-apocalypse world could have been created so early in the cold war, by a single author with no specific training in the field. Give and take a few technical changes, this story could easily be told today. It's very entertaining, credible, and the narrator does a fantastic job in bringing the characters to life. The survivalist technocrat will enjoy the clever predictions and modeling of a town cut off, while everyone else will enjoy and relate to the very human tale of a population under extreme stress. Highly recommended. I've listened to the whole thing three times now. Bravo to the Audible team for finding this gem.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Kristi R.
- 04-09-13
Apocalyptic story with no Zombies!
Would you consider the audio edition of Alas, Babylon to be better than the print version?
Will Patton's voice makes this the only way to go for this book. He has the right nuances and cadences to each of the wonderful characters in this book of a Southern Apocalypse. I don't believe just reading the book would do it justice.
What other book might you compare Alas, Babylon to and why?
Earth Abides comes to mind because I listened to that a few years ago. They both tell the stories of survivors of an earth ending event. I liked Alas, Babylon better, only because I thought it was a little more reasonable than Earth Abides, but EA does take place over decades while Alas, Babylon is only a few months. Both are wonderful stories!
Have you listened to any of Will Patton’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Will Patton is one of my favorite narrators, I find myself searching for more books he has done. I think my next one of his will be Deliverance. He never lets you down.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
I think when Helen makes a pass at Randy and he doesn't know how to handle it, but Lib does and explains to him what is going on in Helen's head. I liked the way it was handled with dignity and strength.
Any additional comments?
This story was written in 1959 so the story could come off as a little dated, but then I look at the world today with North Korea and Iran desperately trying to show themselves as nuclear powers and I think how pertinent this story still is. Take the time to listen to this gem.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Kathleen
- 10-22-11
A great audiobook
I wasn't sure about this book because of all the changes in the world since it was written, but it's a timeless masterpiece. It was really interesting and made me think. I think I might just install an solar energy system in my house - I can see a lot of reasons for a system like that now instead of just the cost savings.
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2 people found this helpful
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- J.B.
- 04-17-14
And in the End, is there an End?
A story of nuclear war. A story of the apocalypse by humankind. A story that could have occurred in 1959; and a story of living in the aftermath of wide spread annihilation. I profoundly remember seeing a Playhouse 90 adaptation of the tale in a 1960 episode. The story, simple in its telling, has prophetic pronouncements of human fashioned horror and of human resiliency; at least now in retrospect having spent 50 years in human interaction.
The story never left my mind and I have used the title Alas Babylon dozens of times to explain a world suffering holocaust. (And usually those around me never understood what I was talking about.) The other night my cousin (also and Audible devotee) told me he was listening to a great story – Alas Babylon.
I had just the prior week downloaded the story to listen to. I went right to the listen and am not disappointed. It is a book of human triumph notwithstanding hominoid demoniacs. It is a book one wants to read (listen to) in one sitting.
By the way, Playhouse 90, Omnibus and of course, the Twilight Zone, have left me with tale after story after literary portrayal that have echoed in my memory all my 67 years. Wish we had them still. The Playhouse 90 stars were Burt Reynolds and the GREAT Rita Moreno (who I earlier saw in my first Broadway Play; By By Birdie.) Memory Lane.
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- Paula
- 03-25-13
Really Loved the Story and the Narrator!
My review is simple and concise: This is a great story, read by one of the best narrators ever. Don't hesitate to invest in it!
For those of us who grew up during the fifties and sixties when the spectre of atomic war was part of our lives (more so than even now -- when we really should be terrified), this story is not only an interesting fictional account of how things might have been, but a window into whether and how we might have survived.
Interestingly, in reflection, the citizens of the 50's were likely better prepared to fend for themselves and survive the end of civilization as we know it than we are today. Even the most hard core doomsday preppers should listen to this one!
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- jb
- 07-06-11
Absolutely Amazing
Riveting, masterful, colorful...and only Will Patton could have read it. I don't believe even Scott Brick could have told this story so eloquently. This was truly an amazing and wonderfully told story.
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