Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Luminarium

Author: Alex Shakar

Narrator: Charles Carroll

Format: Unabridged

Length: 17 hrs and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-13-11

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 19 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Fred Brounian and his twin brother, George, were once co-CEOs of a New York City software company devoted to the creation of utopian virtual worlds. Now, in 2006, as two wars rage and the fifth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, George is in a coma, control of the company has been wrenched away by a military contracting conglomerate, and Fred is broke. Near despair, he's led by an attractive woman, Mira, to a neurological study promising "peak" experiences and a newfound spiritual outlook on life.

As the study progresses, lines between subject and experimenter blur, and reality becomes increasingly porous. Meanwhile, Fred finds himself caught up in what seems at first a cruel prank: a series of bizarre emails and texts that purport to be from his comatose brother.

Moving between the research hospitals of Manhattan, the streets of a meticulously planned Florida city, the neighborhoods of Brooklyn, and the uncanny, immersive worlds of urban disaster simulation; threading through military listserv geek-speak, Hindu cosmology, the maxims of outmoded self-help books, and the latest neuro-scientific breakthroughs, Luminarium is a brilliant exploration of the way we live now, a novel that's as much about the role technology and spirituality play in shaping our reality as it is about the undying bond between brothers, and the redemptive possibilities of love.

Critic Reviews:

Heady and engrossing ... Shakar is such an engaging writer, bringing rich complications to the narrative.... At times, Luminarium reads like a Christopher Nolan or Wachowski brothers movie as scripted by Don DeLillo. (The New York Times Book Review)

A brilliant book dogged in its pursuit of disassembling human experience in hopes of finding the essence, or at least an astoundingly prismatic view. (Los Angeles Times)

"A strikingly metaphysical novel that never dematerializes into misty cliches, a book to challenge the mystic and the doubter alike." (Ron Charles, Washington Post)

Members Reviews:

A book by a human, and a writer at that.

I found this book fascinating and compelling throughout. Don't be put off by the fact that every review seems to mention The Matrix and Inception. I'm an old school reader (read elderly) who has no wish to see either of those movies a second time. This is very good writing on timeless human mysteries. I wish this author long life and many more books.

I'm surprised to find myself giving the reader five stars, because there were some jarring almost dyslexic misreadings of particular words and syntax, but in the end it seemed the perfect voice for the book.

Fine novel, poorly served

During the mid-2000s, Fred struggles in the aftermath of losing both his twin brother, George, to a cancer-induced coma, and the technology company the two men created together. His engagement is broken, and he's living with his parents. To earn a little extra money, he (rather improbably) agrees to participate in a study that involves inducing states of "spiritual transcendence" by stimulating parts of the brain.

This is an intelligent, very well-written book about the nature of reality and the ways people find meaning in life. Unfortunately, the narrator isn't really equal to the task.