WWW: Wonder

By: Robert J. Sawyer

Narrated by: Jessica Almasy, Marc Vietor, Oliver Wyman, Anthony Haden Salerno, Robert J. Sawyer - introduction

Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

"A writer of boundless confidence and bold scientific extrapolation" (New York Times) concludes his mindbending trilogy.

Webmind - the vast consciousness that spontaneously emerged from the infrastructure of the World Wide Web - has proven its worth to humanity by aiding in everything from curing cancer to easing international tensions. But the brass at the Pentagon see Webmind as a threat that needs to be eliminated. Caitlin Decter - the once-blind 16-year-old math genius who discovered, and bonded with, Webmind - wants desperately to protect her friend. And if she doesn't act, everything - Webmind included - may come crashing down.

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction written and read by author Robert J. Sawyer.

Listen to the rest of the WWW Trilogy.

©2011 Robert J. Sawyer (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Sawyer shows mastery in his ability to move between complex scientific concepts and genuine and realistic characters....Wonder...is fast-paced and immediately engaging." (The Globe and Mail)

"The shining star of this near-perfect production is Jessica Almasy as the sweet teenager who introduces WebMind to the world. Her equal is Marc Vietor, the voice selected by the machine because of his brilliant work reading audiobooks. (Good inside joke there.) This story, the audiobook equivalent of a page-turner, challenges the listener to pick a side: human or machine. The answer is surprising." (Audiofile)

Being about being while engaging in the world

The series definitely makes the listener think. The author has the protagonist's math Professor named Heidegger for a reason. I had no problem with how the author steps through the creation of the self-aware entity into its understanding of its being about being, and is engagement in the world as an other. Heidegger (the real philosopher) if anything is nothing but a refutation of Descartes and his 'cogito ergo sum'. I'm not bothered at all by the author taking two entirely different approaches to the question of our own existence and self awareness (Heidegger v Descartes). This little novel provokes as a good science fiction should always.

I particularly enjoyed Caitlin's father, Malcolm. The author presents the character in a realistic fashion as someone who is on the Asperger Spectrum. It was a clever way to use him as a reflection to how some humans as well as an AI might see the world differently than neuro-typicals do.

The author gives voice to atheist and pretty much just assumes a progressive political world view. There was one theme that the author really pressed throughout the book, and that is you don't have to become like your enemy in order to defeat your enemy (either when fighting a bully or when fighting those who want to destroy you because your different).

Good Story but,,,,,,

I like the story but the readers don't always do a good job. The good guys in the story are way too simple.

You people are getting Jamaican accents wrong. The Jamaican accent as read sounds like a person from Trinidad. As a Jamaican I find it a little irritating.

Otherwise a good story

this is an excellent trilogy

I really like this book. It's well written and has really good 'heart'. Robert Sawyer is a wonderful author. I recommend everything that he has written. Specifically 'Calculating God' , 'the Quintagleo Ascension', 'Rollback', 'the Neanderthal Parallax', and 'Factoring Humanity'. All excellent.

Only two flaws imo. Sawyer seems obsessed with suicide in this series. It's a little tough to take but it's usual for him to get preachy in his books. It's just something you have to either submit to or fast forward through.

As far as technical, some chapter's decimals were so low it was difficult to have to keep toggling the volume.

How far would you go to survive?

Would you kill? The last chapter of the WWW shows how far an AI must go to stay alive. The world has changed but some don't feel for the better. The final book does a nice job at tiring everything together and making every character have a true connection to the the bigger story.

Great Series!

I just finished listening to Wonder having previously listened to Wake and Watch. I thoroughly enjoyed each book. These books are not only good story-telling, but the best audio productions I have ever heard. The readers were perfect for each part they played and totally believable. Jessica Almasy in particular nailed the part of Caitlin. Thank you to everyone involved!

Brilliant!

This is a great End for the trilogy. It keeps the rythm of the other two books, and doesn't disapoint the followers.

A Truly Riveting Trilogy!

Sawyer has not disappointed me yet!... And if all his novels are like this, I doubt he could!

I’m sure that mine is the most boring positive review written for this book, but I don’t have much else to say other than: Loved it!

Although it’s a Sci-Fi story, I think it can easily appeal to a wider audience because the premise of Artificial Intelligence is just this side of credible, and Sawyer had a great knack for making people think. I felt exactly the same way after reading the Neanderthal Parallax Trilogy. In both cases, I would recommend that you read all 3 books back to back to back in order to really sink into the story properly.

This review really doesn’t tell you much about the plot, I know, but you can read the publisher’s summary for that. If you were debating whether or not to read the trilogy, hopefully I can influence you to do so - I’d be surprised if you were disappointed!

Decent conclusion. But needlessly repetitive.

The final book of the Robert Sawyer's WWW series, "Wonder" attempts to answer the ultimate question: Can an entity who knows everything. Unlike the first two books, however, it appears that Sawyer was attempting to make "Wonder" more accessible to those who had not read the previous volumes. A good 1/3 of the book involves the characters recapping action that occurred in the previous two books. This repetition becomes tedious at times, and detracts from the narrative flow of the story. I think from the onset, this story was broken down to be a trilogy, however, the final act, edited appropriately could have been told in two volumes instead of 3.

Jessica Almasy & Mark Vietor continue with their excellent characterizations from the point of view of Caitlyn and "the entity". The production greatly suffers for the disappearance of Jennifer Van Dyke's narration of the Primate Researcher Shoshanna. The passages from her point of view are ready by Almasy in this production. While there is nothing technically wrong with Almasy's characterization, her intonation and emphasis differ greatly from what we might have heard had Van Dyke had continued with the role. With the three volumes being a "tight" package, this change is somewhat jarring.

You will have to make up your own mind, about how satisfied you are with the ending of the series. Perhaps it takes the well known exclamation "Information longs to be Free." to the extreme, and I still am not very settled with how "the entity" manipulates people as a means to the end he seeks. In "Wake", "the entity" is given his prime directive by Caitlyn and the bulk of the story revolves around how an independent observer with virtually unlimited power would achieve that end.

Completing my thoughts across the books, however, I was very entertained by Sawyer's writing style and enlightened by his knowledge of both pop culture and hard science, blending it together into an interesting brand of science fiction that is highly contemporary and teeters on the edge of the possible. This was the first of his works I've read and I'm eager to go back and check out his other writings, especially the original novel "Fast Forward" upon which the ill fated ABC series of the same name was based. It will be fun to see what was actually intended and left hanging by the aborted production.

Such a great series!

This is probably one of my favorite YA series now. Well written and researched. Loved the character development and the plot. The epilogue was lovely as well. I'm going to check out more of Sawyer's books now. :)

Fantastic!

Yes, it is Science Fiction but there are some great messages for the human race. The series, and especially this book, causes me to think more and more about what could be accomplished if we, all sides, looked at issues from different perspectives.