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Stations of the Tide
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
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Publisher's summary
From author Michael Swanwick—one of the most brilliantly assured and darkly inventive writers of contemporary fiction—comes a masterwork of radically altered realities and world-shattering seductions.
The Jubilee Tides will drown the continents of the planet Miranda beneath the weight of her own oceans. But as the once-in-two-centuries cataclysm approaches, an even greater catastrophe threatens this dark and dangerous planet of tale-spinners, conjurers, and shapechangers. A man from the Bureau of Proscribed Technologies has been sent to investigate. For Gregorian has come, a genius renegade scientist and charismatic bush wizard. With magic and forbidden technology, he plans to remake the rotting, dying world in his own evil image—and to force whom or whatever remains on its diminishing surface toward a terrifying and astonishing confrontation with death and transcendence.
This novel of surreal hard SF was compared to the fiction of Gene Wolfe when it was first published, and the author has, in the two decades since, become recognized as one of the finest living SF and fantasy writers.
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The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4
- By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor, Stephen King, Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Meredith Mitchell, Rebecca Mitchell, Michael Healy, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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With tales from Laird Barron, Stephen King, John Langan, Peter Straub, and many others, and featuring Datlow’s comprehensive overview of the year in horror, now, more than ever, The Best Horror of the Year provides the petrifying horror fiction readers have come to expect - and enjoy.
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Only a few decent stories in this bunch.
- By Jerry on 12-06-14
By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor, and others
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Because You Love to Hate Me
- 13 Tales of Villainy
- By: Ameriie - editor
- Narrated by: Ameriie, Kevin T. Collins, Julia Whelan
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In this unique YA anthology, 13 acclaimed, best-selling authors team up with 13 influential BookTubers to reimagine fairy tales from the oft-misunderstood villains' points of view. These fractured, unconventional spins on classics like Medusa, Sherlock Holmes, and 'Jack and the Beanstalk' provide a behind-the-curtain look at villains' acts of vengeance, defiance, and rage - and the pain, heartbreak, and sorrow that spurned them on. No fairy tale will ever seem quite the same again!
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I enjoyed more than I expected
- By Doha on 08-30-17
By: Ameriie - editor
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Stories
- All-New Tales
- By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, Al Sarrantonio - editor, Joe Hill, and others
- Narrated by: Anne Bobby, Jonathan Davis, Katherine Kellgren, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.
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Something for Everyone
- By Nicole on 05-24-17
By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, and others
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Worldship: Udo the Digger
- Worldship, Book 1
- By: Joshua Gayou
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Udo's biggest problem isn't being a digger (that's low class), or staying drunk (that's damn expensive), or avoiding the Dwergaz (they're monsters), or even pissing off the supposed Gods. It's that his reality...well, it isn't what he thought. And now, he can't even afford to drink because his so-called friend Nicz is cutting into his business, digging up tin, iron, and copper. So Udo forms a new plan: clay. After all, clay jars are used to store everything: meat, herbs, and, his personal favorite, ale.
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I am confused.
- By Ahkia on 06-02-20
By: Joshua Gayou
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The Monstrumologist
- By: Rick Yancey
- Narrated by: Steven Boyer
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Dr. Warthrop is a scientist who tracks and studies real-life monsters. Assisted by his 12-year-old apprentice, Will Henry, Dr. Warthrop discovers a pod of Anthropophagi and launches a hunt to destroy the foul beasts.
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Reader Be Warned
- By Eddie on 01-25-15
By: Rick Yancey
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The City of Lost Fortunes
- By: Bryan Camp
- Narrated by: Korey Jackson
- Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The post-Katrina New Orleans of The City of Lost Fortunes is a place haunted by its history and by the hurricane's destruction, a place that is hoping to survive the rebuilding of its present long enough to ensure that it has a future. Street magician Jude Dubuisson is likewise burdened by his past and by the consequences of the storm, because he has a secret: the magical ability to find lost things, a gift passed down to him by the father he has never known - a father who just happens to be more than human.
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Enchanting Creative Story
- By William on 09-02-18
By: Bryan Camp
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Heroes Die
- The First of the Acts of Caine
- By: Matthew Stover
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 22 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Renowned throughout the land of Ankhana as the Blade of Tyshalle, Caine has killed his share of monarchs and commoners, villains and heroes. He is relentless, unstoppable, simply the best there is at what he does. At home on Earth, Caine is Hari Michaelson, a superstar whose adventures in Ankhana command an audience of billions.
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Don't Let the Cover Turn You Off
- By Paul on 08-13-12
By: Matthew Stover
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How Long 'Til Black Future Month?
- Stories
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Shayna Small, Gail Nelson-Holgate, Robin Ray Eller, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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N. K. Jemisin is one of the most powerful and acclaimed speculative fiction authors of our time. In the first collection of her evocative short fiction, Jemisin equally challenges and delights listeners with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption.
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Great! One quibble with the audiobook editing
- By L on 03-05-19
By: N. K. Jemisin
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In the Ocean of Night
- Galactic Center, Book 1
- By: Gregory Benford
- Narrated by: Maxwell Caulfield
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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It is 2019. NASA astronaut Nigel Walmsley is sent on a mission to intercept a rogue asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Ordered to destroy it, he instead discovers that it is actually the shell of a derelict space probe - a wreck with just enough power to emit a single electronic signal….
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Like some Space with your Soaps?
- By Bradley on 05-15-12
By: Gregory Benford
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The Autumn Castle
- By: Kim Wilkins
- Narrated by: Richard Aspel
- Length: 19 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Berlin in autumn: Christine Starlight lives in an artists' colony with her lover Jude, whose patience and beauty have eased her battle with chronic pain. But Christine begins to be haunted by childhood recollections of a little girl's disappearance and the flapping of a blackbird's wings. Then her world is rocked by the return of a childhood friend... Mayfridh rules over a land where a wolf is the queen's counsellor, fate turns on the fall of an autumn leaf and mortals feel no pain.
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Great Story, Horrible Narration
- By KathyDB on 03-24-15
By: Kim Wilkins
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How annoying!
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Sooooooo thrilled to have it (finally) at Audible
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The Shadow of the Torturer
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The Shadow of the Torturer is the first volume in the four-volume epic, the tale of a young Severian, an apprentice to the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession - showing mercy towards his victim.
Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun" is one of speculative fiction's most-honored series. In a 1998 poll, Locus Magazine rated the series behind only "The Lord of the Rings" and The Hobbit as the greatest fantasy work of all time.
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great writing, won't appeal to everyone
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On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
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Leo Graf was just your average highly efficient engineer: mind your own business, fix what's wrong, and move on to the next job. But all that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat, where a group of humanoids had been secretly, commercially bioengineered for working in free fall. Could he just stand there and allow the exploitation of hundreds of helpless children merely to enhance the bottom line of a heartless mega-corporation?
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Don't read this one first
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The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1, 1929-1964
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This book contains 26 of the greatest science fiction stories ever written. They represent the considered verdict of the Science Fiction Writers of America, those who have shaped the genre and who know, more intimately than anyone else, what the criteria for excellence in the field should be. The authors chosen for the Science Fiction Hall Fame are the men and women who have shaped the body and heart of modern science fiction; their brilliantly imaginative creations continue to inspire and astound new generations of writers and fans.
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CHAPTER LIST to Help Find Stories
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By: Robert A. Heinlein, and others
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The Necromancer's House
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Andrew Ranulf Blankenship is a handsome, stylish nonconformist with wry wit, a classic Mustang, and a massive library. He is also a recovering alcoholic and a practicing warlock, able to speak with the dead through film. His house is a maze of sorcerous booby traps and escape tunnels, as yours might be if you were sitting on a treasury of Russian magic stolen from the Soviet Union thirty years ago.
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Finally - Magic / Fantasy Novel for adults.
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Ambergris
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Before Area X, there was Ambergris. Jeff VanderMeer conceived what would become his first cult classic series of speculative works: the Ambergris trilogy. Now, for the first time ever, the story of the sprawling metropolis of Ambergris is collected into a single volume, including City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek: An Afterword, and Finch.
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Entrancing “weird” novel
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Lucifer's Hammer
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The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization. But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival--a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known....
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Good story from front to back
- By DJM on 07-30-09
By: Larry Niven, and others
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Blindsight
- By: Peter Watts
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- Unabridged
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Set in 2082, Peter Watts' Blindsight is fast-moving, hard SF that pulls readers into a futuristic world where a mind-bending alien encounter is about to unfold. After the Firefall, all eyes are locked heavenward as a team of specialists aboard the self-piloted spaceship Theseus hurtles outbound to intercept an unknown intelligence.
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Gothic Horror Hard Science Fiction
- By Doug D. Eigsti on 06-24-15
By: Peter Watts
What listeners say about Stations of the Tide
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- working man
- 10-20-21
outstanding work
short book compared to other works by the author but my favorite M.S. that's worth reading more than once.
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- Pam
- 02-25-16
Open your mind....
Very very imaginative writing. I'm still thinking about the story and I finished it days ago.
I loved how fresh the writer's imagination is, the worlds he creates. I'm only sorry it ended, and slightly dissatisfied that it didn't last longer.
The eroticism is natural, but not for the prudish, and never out of place.
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- Kindle Customer
- 03-26-22
Awesome
A big beautiful fantastical existential crisis. I love love love it and all it says.
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- Robert L.
- 03-25-12
Hard to categorize, hard to put down
While it's categorized as Sci-Fi, this is as much a Southern Gothic and a spy novel as it is a science fiction piece. Oh yes, plus it's sexually explicit and has recurring Freudian motifs . . .
Even the approach to science fiction is unusual: characters have wildly advanced technologies but neither the characters nor the narrator ever stop to explain them. In some ways this very fresh and realistic (a contemporary story would never stop to explain what a cell phone is or how it works, the character would simply use it). Just so in this story we only figure out what some devices do and are capable of as we see them used.
On one hand this is a refreshing trust in readers' intelligence and helps keeps things moving but on the other hand, well sometimes it was a real effort to figure out what the hell was really going on. It is an enormous help if you have already bumped into the idea of taking hugely complex technological items and representing them as physical analogs that humans can "see" in virtual reality.
All of this makes for an engrossing read as does some very intricate plotting where things which seemed to be diversions or simple events when first read suddenly come back as vital clues as the plot pulls itself together near the end.
Still, the ending was peculiarly unsatisfying. After so much of the plot has been resolved by suddenly and cleverly taking building blocks from throughout the novel and assembling in a compelling way I never saw coming, at the very end there's a deus ex machina that has several 'out of nowhere' and even '. . . but wait, doesn't that go against some of the major elements of the story?' elements. Also it's not really clear why all the things that happened were important or that anything has really been resolved. In a story like this you would expect the crucial element to be the main character's journey and change, and maybe it is, but that's less compelling when you never even know the main character's name, he's simply "the bureaucrat" for the entire novel, and it's actually difficult to know him well enough to understand if there has been any change at all.
Perhaps the very end was only unsatisfying because so much of what went before it was so good. If you are looking for beach reading this is probably not it. If you like science fiction and are interested in hearing a very different and talented voice you may not have run into, this is a very good choice.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Michael G Kurilla
- 12-03-19
Do something before the flood
Michael Swanwick's Stations of the Tide is a sort of sci-fi Heart of Darkness on a primitive world about to undergo a periodic flooding episode. The main character, a bureaucrat, works for a bureaucracy which seeks to restrict technology on the world, although reasons for this state of affairs is never clearly articulated or makes sense. While attempting to retrieve unsanctioned technology, he encounters an adversary intent on changing the rules for the planet which is a bizarre collection of odd humans as well as strange indigenous life forms. At the same time, the bureaucrat keeps running into situations that question the integrity of his superiors as well as historical aspects of this unique planet.
While somewhat complex, the is infused with much sex and drugs that either distract from the main plot or else conflate reality and illusion. The most interesting item is the bureaucrat's briefcase which functions as a sort of AI with transformable physical capabilities. By the end, what is real and what was imagined becomes irrelevant. While the notion of magic replacing technology is offered, nothing quite gels.
The narration is quite well done with decent character distinction and adequate pacing.
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- Paul
- 04-16-14
Heck of a business trip this guy had!
Any additional comments?
A good example of Swanwick's superior writing ability, and his blend of SF and F. Oliver Wyman does an excellent job.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Nate S.
- 12-23-17
Not Bad
It's worth a listen. A little strange, though that is a positive in my opinion. Creative universe. I just never could care about the characters, and without caring about characters I have no buy-in.
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- Katherine
- 03-28-12
Nebula award winner, now on audio
It???s the Jubilee Year on the planet Miranda. Every 200 years the planet floods and humans must leave until Miranda???s continents are reborn. Miranda used to be the home of an indigenous species of shapeshifters who, during Jubilee, would return to their aquatic forms until the waters receded, but it seems that humans have killed them off.
Gregorian, who lives on Miranda but was educated off-planet by a rich and distant father, now styles himself a magician and is telling the citizens of Miranda that he can transform them into sea creatures so they can stay on the planet. He has stolen a piece of proscribed technology from Earth and our protagonist, who we know only as ???the bureaucrat,??? has been sent to find out what Gregorian has up his sleeve. The bureaucrat must track down Gregorian before the Jubilee tides flood the planet. During his quest he learns about the exotic planet???s history, meets several strange residents, does a lot of hallucinating, has a lot of sex, worries about his job back home, and gets hooked on a local soap opera. The middle of the book bogs down in a haze of drugs and sex which feels slightly self-indulgent, but Swanwick manages to make it fit the plot. In the end, it???s not just Miranda that changes.
Stations of the Tide, which has been compared to Joseph Conrad???s Heart of Darkness, is often surreal and confusing, but this seems to fit the dark exotic planet. The setting was my favorite part of the story ??? Miranda is both beautiful and frightening. I especially loved the Grandfather Tree which has many trunks descending from its huge branches and houses a caf?? and a shipwreck.
Then there???s the technology: the bureaucrat has a walking talking briefcase and can split his consciousness into surrogate electronic forms that can run errands for him. He???s very surprised to find that the Mirandans had even higher forms of technology until they were made illegal by the bureaucrat???s agency. The Mirandans resent this.
Some readers are likely to be put off by the nameless bureaucrat because he???s somewhat flat and emotionless for much of the novel, but Oliver Wyman, the narrator of Audible Frontier???s version, made him feel like a real person rather than a nameless entity. I liked Wyman???s interpretation of the bureaucrat???s epigrammatic business-like style. His aloofness made it all the more moving when he rarely but suddenly was overwhelmed with emotion.
This is the second novel by Michael Swanwick that I???ve tried. I didn???t at all like the first one, The Iron Dragon???s Daughter, but I liked Stations of the Tide even though it had some of the same issues. Both novels are original and inventive with exotic settings but the plot of Stations of the Tide was at least comprehensible most of the time. It reminded me most of Robert Silverberg???s fantasy, especially his novel Downward to the Earth.
Stations of the Tide was originally published in two parts in Isaac Asimov???s Science Fiction Magazine in 1990 but was published as a book in 1991. It won the Nebula Award for best novel that year and was also nominated for the Hugo Award, the Campbell Award, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Try Stations of the Tide if you like lushly exotic alien settings and don???t mind feeling like you???ve taken the same hallucinogens that the protagonist took.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Bouncybrit
- 04-01-14
I just couldn't listen anymore
Any additional comments?
This would have been a great read, but it just doesn't work as an audiobook. The narration is perfect for the story but really unlistenable to.
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