Download Best Full Audiobooks in Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary Most Popular

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Title: Liberation

Subtitle: The Frontiers Saga, Book 10

Author: Ryk Brown

Narrator: Jeffrey Kafer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-15-14

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 835 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Heartfelt reunions with friends... Desperate plans to gain advantage... Opportunities that cannot be ignored... Discovery of family once thought lost... The time has come for Captain Scott to fight for that which was taken...the very freedom of the world he was sworn to protect.

Members Reviews:

Gripping

I have thoroughly enjoyed this series. This is book eleven in the Frontier Saga. This is the story of the battle for the liberation of Earth from the Jung. The story is none stop action. I could hardly put the book down.

The characters continue to evolve; unfortunately, we loss some characters, but also gain some new ones. The crew is working on getting Celestia in a flyable combat state as the Aurora is being shop up again. In the last book, Nathan brought the Ghatazhak fighters out of stases. They are an interesting addition to the story line. The Ghatazhak lieutenant is an interesting new character I would like to learn more about.

The book is well written. Brown is improving with each book. I think this series would make a great television series or at least a movie. As with the other books, the ending came upon me by surprise and left me with a cliff hanger.

Jeffrey Kafer does an excellent job narrating the book. Kafer is an award-winning audiobook narrator and actor.

Ryk Brown Raises His Game

Would you listen to Liberation again? Why?

Yes. This audiobook packs some very well written fast paced action scenes wrapped around the continuing saga of two female main characters who, although quite different in their individual talents / strengths, have one key similarity - they are two 100% rock solid beauties. If I was magically transported into this series and served on their ship and had any crumb of officer status I would find a way to be in their general area as much as humanly possible. As the call goes out "All officers to the bridge!" who is always magically there to open that sealed door for either / both to get though and then nonchalantly cadge a glimpse of them striding down that inner passageway in their skin tight "Star Trek - esque mini skirt suits? Lieutenant Me! That's why I would listen to this again.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Liberation?

There are a bunch of scenes in this audiobook where the Aurora finds herself in an intergalactic pickle as enemy hyper-sonic inertially guided missiles are spanging off of her phase shields or KK rounds drill into escorting armored space cruiser hulls that picking one single event is rather hard. Therefore I pick as a memorable moment a scene when any one of the above mentioned dynamic duo is anywhere doing anything at any time for whatever reason whatsoever.

What does Jeffrey Kafer bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

He has gotten to know these characters over the course of this audiobook series. As such, his narrative style is smooth, unobtrusive and compliments the text. He is easy to listen to and keeps the pace throughout.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Liberation: Defending Mother Earth Never Looked So Good!

Any additional comments?

Get this audiobook. If you enjoy scenes with well aimed zorching laser beams and super fit refreshingly scented USA born beauties with space academy degrees running up and down long corridors then you have come to the right place.

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Title: Ilium

Author: Dan Simmons

Narrator: Kevin Pariseau

Format: Unabridged

Length: 29 hrs and 40 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-25-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 617 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

From the towering heights of Olympos Mons on Mars, the mighty Zeus and his immortal family of gods, goddesses, and demigods look down upon a momentous battle, observing - and often influencing - the legendary exploits of Paris, Achilles, Hector, Odysseus, and the clashing armies of Greece and Troy.

Thomas Hockenberry, former 21st-century professor and Iliad scholar, watches as well. It is Hockenberry's duty to observe and report on the Trojan War's progress to the so-called deities who saw fit to return him from the dead. But the muse he serves has a new assignment for the wary scholic, one dictated by Aphrodite herself.

With the help of 40th-century technology, Hockenberry is to infiltrate Olympos, spy on its divine inhabitants...and ultimately destroy Aphrodite's sister and rival, the goddess Pallas Athena. On an Earth profoundly changed since the departure of the Post-Humans centuries earlier, the great events on the bloody plains of Ilium serve as mere entertainment.

Its scenes of unrivaled heroics and unequaled carnage add excitement to human lives devoid of courage, strife, labor, and purpose. But this eloi-like existence is not enough for Harman, a man in the last year of his last 20. That rarest of post-postmodern men - an "adventurer" - he intends to explore far beyond the boundaries of his world before his allotted time expires, in search of a lost past, a devastating truth, and an escape from his own inevitable "final fax." Meanwhile, from the radiation-swept reaches of Jovian space, four sentient machines race to investigate - and, perhaps, terminate - the potentially catastrophic emissions of unexplained quantum-flux emanating from a mountaintop miles above the terraformed surface of Mars.

Members Reviews:

Achaeans and robots and post-humans, oh my

(3.5 stars) I think there was some Star Trek episode in which characters from a fictional work were brought to life by advanced technology and wrought havoc, until Kirk remembered his classics. This novel is that idea on steroids. We get Shakespeare and Proust-quoting robots from the moons of Jupiter, and classical Greek gods who dwell on Mount Olympus -- on Mars -- and use nanotechnology and quantum doodads to intervene in a parallel universe in which the events of The Iliad are taking place, almost exactly as Homer described them.

Dan Simmons set a high bar with Hyperion, which remains one of my favorite science fiction novels (Im less enthusiastic about its followups). That book proved that space opera can play games with literary intertextuality, and it also had a great universe and some page-turning mysteries. So I was half skeptical, half optimistic about this one.

Ill give Simmons credit for having the skill to suck me into the story, in spite of my skepticism. The Iliad storyline, in which a 20th century Homeric scholar named Thomas Hockenberry was somehow resurrected by the gods to be an expert observer of the Trojan War (which only Zeus can foresee the outcome of), seemed well-researched and was a lot of fun, though it was helpful that I had recently read a translation of the Iliad.

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Title: Vicious

Author: V. E. Schwab

Narrator: Noah Michael Levine

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-24-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 547 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

A masterful tale of ambition, jealousy, desire, and superpowers.

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates - brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), and aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find - aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the arch nemeses have set a course for revenge - but who will be left alive at the end? In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesnt automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.

Members Reviews:

Wow

Where does Vicious rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

It's probably the second best book I've listened to. Firefight was the best - a book with similar subject matter, but much different story, tone, and pacing.

What did you like best about this story?

How it stars two very different kinds of sociopathic main characters. And oh my god those last chapters leading up to midnight - anticipation built up so well and the midnight fight so, so, lives up to all of it. Pretty creative superpowers, particularly Serena's. I also like how both Victor and Eli's powers were explored so far, as a lesser story wouldn't have thought of that many creative uses/ limitations of the one power.

Have you listened to any of Noah Michael Levines other performances before? How does this one compare?

Nope.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me really excited and happy when I finished it. It felt like the kind of story I'd come up with.

Any additional comments?

Okay, so, yes, I loved this book, however: when I first started listening to it, I hated it, and couldn't follow anything going on, since I went into the book pretty blind.

I didn't really know what it was about, save for the briefest of summaries that didn't cover more than "the two main characters used to be friends, but now they're enemies. Also, superpowers."

To get the full experience of this book, do read a little bit about the plot and structure it's written in, or it could be confusing and frustrating. This story jumps around in the timeline practically every chapter which makes the focus unclear.

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Title: Under the Empyrean Sky

Subtitle: The Heartland Trilogy, Book 1

Author: Chuck Wendig

Narrator: Nick Podehl

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-09-13

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 104 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Corn is king in the Heartland, and Cael McAvoy has had enough of it. It's the only crop the Empyrean government allows the people of the Heartland to grow - and the genetically modified strain is so aggressive that it takes everything the Heartlanders have just to control it.

As captain of the Big Sky Scavengers, Cael and his crew sail their rickety ship over the corn day after day, scavenging for valuables, trying to earn much-needed ace notes for their families. But Cael's tired of surviving life on the ground while the Empyrean elite drift by above in their extravagant sky flotillas. He's sick of the mayor's son besting Cael's crew in the scavenging game. And he's worried about losing Gwennie - his first mate and the love of his life - forever when their government-chosen spouses are revealed. But most of all, Cael is angry - angry that their lot in life will never get better and that his father doesn't seem upset about any of it.

Cael's ready to make his own luckeven if it means bringing down the wrath of the Empyrean elite and changing life in the Heartland forever.

Lyrics from "Harvest-Home Song" by John Davidson. Stedman, Edmund Clarence, ed. A Victorian Anthology, 18371895. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1895. Lyrics from "John Barleycorn" collected by Robert Burns in 1782. Lyrics from "The Big Rock Candy Mountains" by Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock, written in 1895 and first recorded as a song in 1928.

Members Reviews:

Superb reading of a really cool story.

Any additional comments?

This was a fun book. I loved the weird world the characters live in. They don't have it to well and always seem to be struggling but the things they do are so cool. I would love to float above tall stalks of corn on a ship equipped with hover rails scavenging for parts. Would I want to do that as a living? No. But it would be fun for a day, and it was really fun to read about. I don't want to spoil anything so I won't get into the cool things they discover, but it was a ride I was happy to be on next to the characters. That is enough for me to really enjoy a book, but Chuck's writing style was like a big old cherry on top of this hovering banana boat he served up.

I came to know Mr. Wendig from hearing him on a few podcasts and on these podcasts the hosts mentioned how helpful, regular, and hilarious Chuck's blog posts were. So I subscribed to his blog. I then began to receive new posts usually daily and sometimes twice a day. In these blog posts Chuck is at times profane enough to make me cringe but always doling out incredible advice for writers and he is hilarious. I'm pretty sure I have laughed from every one of Chuck's blog posts. I was hopeful this funny writing would come through in this book, and it did. But what surprised me more were the amazing descriptive passages and metaphors. There was some beautiful writing in this book. A lot of the story wasn't funny, it was serious stuff, and Wendig does a solid describing the world and the characters. Sometimes I would stop and just soak in a line or two that he wrote like I often do when I'm reading classical literature. His prose went from beautiful, to stunning, to hilarious, to vulgar, all in the same chapter.

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Title: Rise of the Corinari

Subtitle: Frontiers Saga Series, Book 5

Author: Ryk Brown

Narrator: Jeffrey Kafer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-29-13

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 867 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

A time to recover. A chance to make a new ally. A brief respite to repair and rearm. An opportunity for a people to regain their honor. For every civilization there comes a moment when a stand must be made against tyranny. The time has come for the Alliance to draw a line in the sand.

Members Reviews:

Wish audible would have a special on this series

Would you consider the audio edition of Rise of the Corinari to be better than the print version?

Yes by far and even better then the text to speech version

Any additional comments?

I read all 9 books in the series and then listen to all 9 books with my son using text to speech. We both love this series... My son saw that this book had a special whispersync price of $2.99 since we already had the kindle version and bought the audible version. He told me that the audible version was a 100 times better than the text to speech version. These books are too short to waste our credits, too expensive to buy so we are hoping to get them during an audible special.

A page turner

I have enjoyed this series. I had chosen to read Ryk Browns books because he is a local author. Many years ago my mother suggests that I always attempt to read authors from our area. I have done that over the years but now with e-books and the machine that our local book store has that prints books up while you wait more local people are writing, some good, some bad and some are great. For avid readers like me its exciting to have access to such an array of books. Ryk Brown is one of the self published Amazon e-book authors that has gone on to great success.

This is book five in the series. In the last book, Aurora arrived in Corinari in bad shape and the second in command, Cameron, needing a hospital. In this book the people of Corinari are helping to refit the Aurora and install newer more sophisticated technology.

I found it great to see how Brown has developed our key protagonist, Nathan Scott, from a rash know- it- all young man into a mature leader. Brown is also taking this time to develop the other members of the crew. It seems that Brown is using this book to develop the characters more and further flesh out the plot. While Aurora is being refitted the crew is helping in the defense of Corinari. It appears that Nathan and Corinari are forming a new alliance of planets in the Darvano system to rebel against the TaAkar. Toward the end of the book the Auroras repairs are completed and for the first time she has a complete crew with volunteers from Corinari and allied planets. Aurora and new crew is test when two TaAkar warships arrive it system and battle begins. Brown writes good space battle scenes and seems to improve with each book.

Needless to say the book is well written and moves at a good pace. The suspense keeps building and the reader knows that a big fight with the TaAkar is coming. Jeffrey Kafer does a good job narrating this series. Kafer is a voice over artist and a 2015 Audie Award finalist for audiobook narration.

Continuing saga-keeping me reading!

Would you listen to Rise of the Corinari again? Why?

Yes, definitely.

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Title: The End

Subtitle: A Post Apocalyptic Novel

Author: G. Michael Hopf

Narrator: Joseph Morton

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-11-13

Publisher: G. Michael Hopf

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 607 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

For Gordon Van Zandt, life was one of duty and loyalty to his country, so when 9/11 happened he dropped out of college and joined the Marine Corps. This youthful idealism soon vanished, one fateful day in a war torn city in Iraq. Ten years later, he is still struggling with the ghosts of his past, but must now face a new reality thrust upon him and his family.

North America, Europe, and the Far East have all suffered a devastating Super-EMP attack that has caused catastrophic damage to the power grids and all electrical devices. With nothing working, from cars to phones, and the total collapse of the economic infrastructure, Gordon must fight for limited and fast dwindling resources. He knows survival requires action and cooperation with his neighbors, but as daily life continues to break down so does all sense of civility within his community. With each passing day, Gordon makes choices that would seem extreme in today's world, but necessary in this new world.

Members Reviews:

So Dissapointed

So I usually love this genre, but this ranks closely to my least favorite "end of the world" as we know it book. The writing style is a mess. I didn't feel like I knew, or liked, a single one of the cardboard characters (and all the women are either "bitches" or wimps ), language is stronger than I care for and flat out murder by the main character is an ongoing constant. I couldn't suspend my disbelief. To make it worse it is a series and nothing is resolved... the book ends with a neighborhood shootout and the family taking off for Idaho. This is an EMP based disaster with Washington taking a nuclear bomb, the military and government play prominent parts.

Better books than this on same topic: One Second After, Alas Babylon, Jakarta Pandemic, The Road, 77 Days, The Stand, Patriots. Similar to this Lucifer's Hammer.

A young male with lots of testosterone and a desire to shoot people in the face might enjoy.

I know you're thinking of buying it. Just don't..

Would you ever listen to anything by G. Michael Hopf again?

No.

What didnt you like about Joseph Mortons performance?

Narration was lifeless, bland and annoying.

Any additional comments?

This is a genre I usually enjoy, but I strongly urge you to avoid this. It's just bad. The characters are neither realistic nor fun. They are not well developed, and you really don't empathize with any of them. They make bad decisions, run around blurting out their intentions to people they are about to betray. The dialog is stilted. Nobody talks like this. There is just nothing to recommend it. I have listened to a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction, and enjoyed almost every one, but this book left me wanting to stick a pen in my eye.

The narrator sounds like he is reading an encyclopedia to a 5 year old. Bland, dull, droning.

Just don't. And if you do, just remember I told you so.

A poor attempt

What disappointed you about The End?

The hero is not a hero, he is a self serving greedy person looking out for himself and the He** with neighbors and others in need. This is a lead in to other books to come and leaves you hanging at the end, I won't bother with any of the books that will follow.

What do you think your next listen will be?

I like post apocalypse but not this one.

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Title: White Trash Zombie Apocalypse

Author: Diana Rowland

Narrator: Allison McLemore

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-02-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2123 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Our favorite white trash zombie, Angel Crawford, has enough problems of her own, what with dealing with her alcoholic, deadbeat dad, issues with her not-quite boyfriend, the zombie mafia, industrial espionage, and evil corporations. Oh, and its raining, and wont let up.

But things get even crazier when a zombie movie starts filming in town, and Angel begins to suspect that its not just the plot of the movie that's rotten. Soon she's fighting her way through mud, blood, bullets, and intrigue, even as zombies, both real and fake, prowl the streets.

Angels been through more than her share of crap, but this time she's in way over her head. Shell need plenty of brainpower to fit all the pieces - and body parts - together in order to save herself, her town, and quite possibly the human race.

Members Reviews:

Absolutely loved it!

Would you consider the audio edition of White Trash Zombie Apocalypse to be better than the print version?

Yes, the audio edition is better than the print version. I love audiobooks. There is so much you can get done while listening to an audiobook unlike a regular book that you have to have time to sit down and read. The only thing that can ruin an audiobook is the voice and/or performance ability of the person reading the book. I like Allison McLemore, she does a very good job.

What did you like best about this story?

It's hilarious, gross, and good fun. There were parts of this book were I literally laughed out loud; got some funny looks let me tell you. Plenty of action, intrigue, and personal drama for those that like those aspects as well.

What about Allison McLemores performance did you like?

Allison McLemore has an enjoyable voice to listen to and does a decent job of distinguishing between different characters by making her voice sound different when each character is speaking. Those are two important skills that unfortunately not all audiobook performers have though you would think they would be the first thing you look for before hiring someone for that job. I have bought audiobooks in the past that I absolutely could not stand to listen to because the persons voice was just so annoying or I couldn't tell which character was speaking because they all sounded the same. My point is, that is not the case when Allison McLemore is narrating an audiobook. She's very good at her job.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The movie extras aren't the only Zombies wondering the streets.

Any additional comments?

Hope this is not the end of the series and there will be many more books to enjoy.

Corporate espionage on steroids and brains!

Ill be honest, I was concerned whether Id like this installment after having found the previous one a tad too over-the-top in the zombie conspiracies department, and also lacking in classic Angel moments becauselets face itI read this series mainly for her crass humour. WHITE TRASH ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE has a nice mix of both, so even though I found the story slow to start off, I ended up really enjoying it.

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Title: Aurora: CV-01

Subtitle: Frontiers Saga, Book 1

Author: Ryk Brown

Narrator: Jeffrey Kafer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-13-13

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 1618 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

A world recovering from a devastating plague. A brutal enemy threatening invasion. A young man seeking to escape the shadow of his father. A ship manned by a crew of fresh academy graduates. A top-secret experimental propulsion system. A questionable alliance with a mysterious green-eyed woman.

What destiny has in store for the crew of the UES Aurora is far greater than any of them could ever imagine. And this is only the beginning....

Members Reviews:

90% SciFi, 10% Cheese

What did you love best about Aurora: CV-01?

I have read all 10 books in the series and liked them all. The first two books are a little too cutesy in places--apparently the author thinks this is adding to the book when it's actually taking away. While it's great that the main character is a "natural" rather than the book learning type, he takes a little too much continual dufus pride in this. Also, fiction seems to be littered with characters that do what needs to be done and then fret about it like a little school child. While I dig characters with emotional depth, the books occasionally go overboard.

Also there's a Messiah gimmick which is pretty cheesy at times and may scare the reader that the books are going to go "Left Behind" which they thankfully don't. If the books didn't keep me interested with battles, espionage, and intergalactic diplomacy, I might have been more annoyed. At some points the military aspects are pretty inauthentic, but at times they are very well done. All-in-all these are better than average, although not exceptional SciFi. I actually found them better than the Lost Fleet books I read because I found the main character in those to be somewhat of a caricature, but I respect those that disagree.

I'm gettin book 2, now

Through the first two chapters, I was not sure if I was going to like this or not. Although when the young lady says to the young ensign," I think my ass looks great in this dress, what do you think?" I perked up.

I am a big fan of sarcastic humor and chapter 3 is chocked full of it. There are several more laugh out loud parts in the rest of the book and the action is non-stop once it gets started. Some are calling this Military Sci-Fi, yet the die hard fans of this genre don't seem too happy. I have tried several Military Sci-Fi and I just can't get into them. They are usually filled with long chapters on guns and ammunition etc. I liked the Lost Fleet: Dauntless, but I did not love it. This I love. If this is Military Sci-Fi, then I have found an author that can make it breath for me. I also like that most of the book takes place in space. It surprising how little Science Fiction actually takes place in space.

This did bring back thoughts of Voyager and of Captain James T. Kirk and of Spock. The Russian Engineer is also a great character (can't believe he is not a Scott.) The story is more complicated then some give it credit. How to figure out who to trust is intriguing. It is short, but I rather pay for a small amount of quality, then for a whole lot of details on how to put together a future gun.

Narrator is good and adds to the experience.

Decent Modern Military Sci Fi

Aurora CV-01 is a decent modern sci fi with enough characterization and action to keep one eagerly listening.

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Title: Halo: Silentium

Subtitle: The Forerunner Saga, Book 3

Author: Greg Bear

Narrator: Euan Morton

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-23-13

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 819 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

In the last years of the Forerunner empire, chaos rules. The Flood - a horrifying shape-changing parasite - has arrived in force, aided by unexpected allies. Internal strife within the ecumene has desperately weakened Forerunner defenses.

Too little, too late, the legal rate of Juridicals is only now investigating possible crimes by the Master Builder and others. Evidence-gathering agents known collectively as Catalog have been dispatched to collect testimony from the Librarian and both Didacts: the Ur-Didact, treacherously abandoned in a Flood-infested system, and the Bornstellar Didact, who accompanies the Librarian as she preserves specimens against the dire possibility of Halo extermination.

Facing the imminent collapse of their civilization, the Librarian and the Ur-Didact reveal what they know about the relationship between the long-vanished Precursors and the Flood. The Precursors created many technological species, including humanity and the Forerunners. But the roots of the Flood may be found in an act of enormous barbarity, carried out beyond our galaxy 10 million years before.... Because of that barbarism, a greater evil looms. Only the Ur-Didact and the Librarian - husband and wife pushed into desperate conflict - hold the keys to a solution. Facing the consequences of a mythic tragedy, one of them must now commit the greatest atrocity of all time - to prevent an insane evil from dominating the entire universe.

Members Reviews:

Orgasmic!

Would you listen to Halo: Silentium again? Why?

YES! I love the Halo universe!

What did you like best about this story?

Getting to know the deeper stories about the Forerunners and the truth behind the flood!

What about Euan Mortons performance did you like?

He should think about doing more!

The forerunner story has come full circle.

This a great prequel story to the Halo saga. Questions about how it all started and the ultimate purpose of everything is contained in this book.

This is a must read for all Halo fans and it sets the stage for all the games. I am now looking forward to what happens next in Halo 5.

Third time listening this booking

Have listened to this book three f****** times must read for any Halo fan peace

Great listen!

An epic adventure featuring the end of all known life in the known galaxy. How it all began. if you want to know the history of the forerunners then must read.

Great story of the end of the universe

The story is a great conclusion to the saga; the narrator works well with the characters. highly recommended!

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Title: Use of Weapons

Author: Iain M. Banks

Narrator: Peter Kenny

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-02-13

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 891 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks, and military action.

The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him toward his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought.

The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw knew both of these people. It had once saved the woman's life by massacring her attackers in a particularly bloody manner. It believed the man to be a lost cause. But not even its machine could see the horrors in his past.

Ferociously intelligent, both witty and horrific, Use of Weapons is a masterpiece of science fiction.

Members Reviews:

Tips on how to listen to this novel - NO SPOILERS

This is one of the Culture Series books, best introduced by "Player of Games" if the series is not familiar. Use of Weapons has a complex, non-linear structure that can be difficult to follow in audio format. The prolog establishes an event at a particular point in time, call it time t-zero. The story then begins at time t plus 13 and is told in alternating chapters, half of them moving backward toward t-zero, and the other half moving forward from time t plus 13. You arrive at the end of the book when the backward narrative reaches t-zero just as the forward narrative reaches a climax that reveals the real meaning of the events in the prolog. It is cleverly done, but you really do have to pay attention. This one is not for casual listening while you multitask. I would also suggest re-listening to the beginning of the book after you have finished it. Knowing the whole story really changes the meaning of the events at the book's opening. Brilliantly done, and exquisitely handled by Peter Kenny, who does not just read the book, he performs the story.

Audiobook might not be the right way to go.

The Culture series is one of my favorites, and this book is no exception (although Player of Games is still my favorite). Of the Culture books that I've read though, this one's story is the least linear and most disjointed, which, in my opinion is trickier to follow on audio.

The book is set up with an ongoing storyline in the present, with each chapter followed by a (critical) section detailing a portion of the main character's history, each section further and further into the past. It's a great way to tell a story, but I almost need to re-listen to this book now that I have a better picture of the story as a whole. Typically keeping everything straight isn't a problem for me when I just read a book and am able to speed up and slow down a little more naturally (compared to somebody reading to book to me at their pace).

That being said, if you enjoy the Culture series, I really do think that you'll enjoy this book too. Consider reading the book, and not listening to the audiobook, but either way, you'll still be pleased.

Amazing Character Portrait

After over twenty years, this still holds up as a Sci-Fi masterpiece character study into the dark soul of its protagonist, a mercenary named Cheradenine Zakalwe. At first, the unusual story structure of two asynchronous story lines, alternating between the present and an episodic sequence of thirteen key moments in Zakalwe's past (revealed in reverse chronological order), can be confusing.