-
Brain Wave
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 6 hrs
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Childhood's End
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer, Robert J. Sawyer - introduction
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Overlords appeared suddenly over every city - intellectually, technologically, and militarily superior to humankind. Benevolent, they made few demands: unify earth, eliminate poverty, and end war. With little rebellion, humankind agreed, and a golden age began.
-
-
Food for Thought
- By Kindle Customer on 11-17-08
By: Arthur C. Clarke
-
Eversion
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: Harry Myers
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1800s, a sailing ship crashes off the coast of Norway. In the 1900s, a Zepellin explores an icy canyon in Antarctica. In the far future, a spaceship sets out for an alien artifact. Each excursion goes horribly wrong. And on every journey, Dr. Silas Coade is the physician, but only Silas seems to realize that these events keep repeating themselves. And it's up to him to figure out why and how. And how to stop it all from happening again.
-
-
An entirely new level of science fiction
- By Possum Bean on 01-08-23
-
The Fellowship of the Talisman
- By: Clifford Simak
- Narrated by: Nicholas Techosky
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an alternate world where the Dark Ages never ended, "the Evil" that arises every 500 years has prevented all manner of technological advancement, even well into the 20th century. The son of a powerful English noble, young Duncan Standish has always longed to be a soldier of the Lord, and now he's been offered a rare opportunity to fulfill his dream.
By: Clifford Simak
-
The Goblin Reservation
- By: Clifford Simak
- Narrated by: Bernard Setaro Clark
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The hunt for his killer leads a dead professor of supernatural phenomena into the perilous intrigues of aliens, fairy folk, and time travelers in this classic of science fiction. Until the day he was murdered, Professor Peter Maxwell was a respected faculty member of the College of Supernatural Phenomena. Imagine his chagrin when he turns up at a Wisconsin matter transmission station several weeks later and discovers he's not only dead but unemployed.
-
-
Perhaps my #1 favorite Science Fiction Book
- By Signalshifter on 10-15-16
By: Clifford Simak
-
City
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jenkins was a robot. He was built to be the perfect worker, tireless and uncomplaining. But, quite unexpectedly, he also became a close companion to generation after generation of his owners as the human race matured, moved beyond the confines of its once tiny planet, and eventually changed beyond all recognition.
-
-
A very special kind of story.
- By Andrew on 08-27-08
-
The Fountains of Paradise
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vannemar Morgan's dream is to link Earth to the stars with the greatest engineering feat of all time: a 24,000-mile-high space elevator. But first he must solve a million technical, political, and economic problems while allaying the wrath of God. For the only possible site on the planet for Morgans Orbital Tower is the monastery atop the Sacred Mountain of Sri Kanda.
-
-
Hard
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-30-11
By: Arthur C. Clarke
-
Childhood's End
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer, Robert J. Sawyer - introduction
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Overlords appeared suddenly over every city - intellectually, technologically, and militarily superior to humankind. Benevolent, they made few demands: unify earth, eliminate poverty, and end war. With little rebellion, humankind agreed, and a golden age began.
-
-
Food for Thought
- By Kindle Customer on 11-17-08
By: Arthur C. Clarke
-
Eversion
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: Harry Myers
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1800s, a sailing ship crashes off the coast of Norway. In the 1900s, a Zepellin explores an icy canyon in Antarctica. In the far future, a spaceship sets out for an alien artifact. Each excursion goes horribly wrong. And on every journey, Dr. Silas Coade is the physician, but only Silas seems to realize that these events keep repeating themselves. And it's up to him to figure out why and how. And how to stop it all from happening again.
-
-
An entirely new level of science fiction
- By Possum Bean on 01-08-23
-
The Fellowship of the Talisman
- By: Clifford Simak
- Narrated by: Nicholas Techosky
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an alternate world where the Dark Ages never ended, "the Evil" that arises every 500 years has prevented all manner of technological advancement, even well into the 20th century. The son of a powerful English noble, young Duncan Standish has always longed to be a soldier of the Lord, and now he's been offered a rare opportunity to fulfill his dream.
By: Clifford Simak
-
The Goblin Reservation
- By: Clifford Simak
- Narrated by: Bernard Setaro Clark
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The hunt for his killer leads a dead professor of supernatural phenomena into the perilous intrigues of aliens, fairy folk, and time travelers in this classic of science fiction. Until the day he was murdered, Professor Peter Maxwell was a respected faculty member of the College of Supernatural Phenomena. Imagine his chagrin when he turns up at a Wisconsin matter transmission station several weeks later and discovers he's not only dead but unemployed.
-
-
Perhaps my #1 favorite Science Fiction Book
- By Signalshifter on 10-15-16
By: Clifford Simak
-
City
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jenkins was a robot. He was built to be the perfect worker, tireless and uncomplaining. But, quite unexpectedly, he also became a close companion to generation after generation of his owners as the human race matured, moved beyond the confines of its once tiny planet, and eventually changed beyond all recognition.
-
-
A very special kind of story.
- By Andrew on 08-27-08
-
The Fountains of Paradise
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vannemar Morgan's dream is to link Earth to the stars with the greatest engineering feat of all time: a 24,000-mile-high space elevator. But first he must solve a million technical, political, and economic problems while allaying the wrath of God. For the only possible site on the planet for Morgans Orbital Tower is the monastery atop the Sacred Mountain of Sri Kanda.
-
-
Hard
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-30-11
By: Arthur C. Clarke
-
Brave New World
- By: Aldous Huxley
- Narrated by: Michael York
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Lenina and Bernard visit a savage reservation, we experience how Utopia can destroy humanity. Cloning, feel-good drugs, anti-aging programs, and total social control through politics, programming, and media: has Aldous Huxley accurately predicted our future? With a storyteller's genius, he weaves these ethical controversies in a compelling narrative that dawns in the year 632 A.F. (After Ford, the deity). When Lenina and Bernard visit a savage reservation, we experience how Utopia can destroy humanity.
-
-
Michael York should stick to the stage and leave narration to the pros.
- By SD on 08-21-19
By: Aldous Huxley
-
A Fire Upon the Deep
- By: Vernor Vinge
- Narrated by: Peter Larkin
- Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function.
-
-
What a wild, wacky, awesome book!
- By Noah Smith on 06-20-10
By: Vernor Vinge
-
Children of Time
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
-
-
A very pleasant surprise
- By Simon on 06-17-17
-
Shakespeare's Planet
- By: Clifford Simak
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For thousands of years, Carter Horton has been traveling across the galaxy toward a distant world capable of supporting human life. At journey's end, awakened from his millennia-long sleep by a curiously adaptive android, he is informed that his crewmates have all perished due to a system malfunction. But worse is yet to come: Horton's sentient ship is refusing to return him to Earth, and a strangely cordial predator is waiting for him on the planet's surface.
-
-
Slogged thru it
- By JBP on 04-13-23
By: Clifford Simak
-
I, Robot
- By: Isaac Asimov
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They mustn't harm a human being, they must obey human orders, and they must protect their own existence...but only so long as that doesn't violate rules one and two. With these Three Laws of Robotics, humanity embarked on a bold new era of evolution that would open up enormous possibilities, and unforeseen risks.
-
-
Thank you
- By Fredrik on 06-11-04
By: Isaac Asimov
-
The Shockwave Rider
- By: John Brunner
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nickie Haflinger had lived several lifetimes...but technically never existed. He was originally a fugitive from Tarnover, the incredibly powerful government think tank that educated him. First he had broken his identity code - then he made his escape. Now he needed to find a way to restore sanity and freedom to the computerized masses and save a world nearing the brink of disaster. He didn’t care how he accomplished this - but the government did. That’s when his Tarnover teachers took him back into their labs, where Nickie Haflinger was set up to receive a whole new education.
-
-
Best Science Fiction Writer Ever
- By kerry on 07-23-21
By: John Brunner
-
Special Deliverance
- By: Clifford Simak
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following a conversation with a talking slot machine, Professor Edward Lansing finds himself mysteriously transported to a tavern on a long and empty road. It is immediately obvious to the educator that he is no longer on campus - or even Earth - and that he is not alone. Lansing's new companions - a female engineer, a military officer, a humorless priest, a poetess, and a robot named Jurgens - all hail from separate alternate realities and share Lansing's confusion.
-
-
One of my favorite books.
- By Aric B on 01-22-19
By: Clifford Simak
-
The Forever War
- By: Joe Haldeman
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
William Mandella is a soldier in Earth's elite brigade. As the war against the Taurans sends him from galaxy to galaxy, he learns to use protective body shells and sophisticated weapons. He adapts to the cultures and terrains of distant outposts. But with each month in space, years are passing on Earth. Where will he call home when (and if) the Forever War ends?
-
-
A classic.
- By John on 09-24-08
By: Joe Haldeman
-
Red Mars
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 23 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, Red Mars is the first book in Kim Stanley Robinson's best-selling trilogy. Red Mars is praised by scientists for its detailed visions of future technology. It is also hailed by authors and critics for its vivid characters and dramatic conflicts.
For centuries, the red planet has enticed the people of Earth. Now an international group of scientists has colonized Mars. Leaving Earth forever, these 100 people have traveled nine months to reach their new home. This is the remarkable story of the world they create - and the hidden power struggles of those who want to control it.
-
-
very long
- By Dana on 07-17-08
-
Extinction Series: The Complete Collection
- By: James D. Prescott
- Narrated by: Gary Tiedemann
- Length: 24 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Geophysicist Jack Greer believes he may finally have found the resting place of the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. A few miles off the Yucatán coast, Jack and a team of scientists tow an aging drilling platform over the impact crater with the aim of securing a sample. But buried deep beneath the earth lies a shocking discovery that threatens to shatter everything we think we know about our species.
-
-
Holy cliche and bad science, batman!
- By Andrew Pollack on 07-23-19
-
The Lathe of Heaven
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George's dreams for his own purposes.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Adrienne R. on 11-23-18
-
City of Golden Shadow
- Otherland, Book 1
- By: Tad Williams
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 28 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Surrounded by secrecy, it is home to the wildest dreams and darkest nightmares. Incredible amounts of money have been lavished on it. The best minds of two generations have labored to build it. And somehow, bit by bit, it is claiming the Earth's most valuable resource - its children.
-
-
Weird. Seriously weird.
- By Townsend on 05-15-15
By: Tad Williams
Publisher's summary
For millions of years, the part of the galaxy containing our solar system has been moving through a vast force field that has been inhibiting certain electromagnetic and electrochemical processes and, thus, certain neurotic functions. When Earth escapes the inhibiting field, synapse speed immediately increases, causing a rise in intelligence, which results in a transfigured humanity reaching for the stars, leaving behind our earth to the less intelligent humans and animal life-forms.
This is a transcendent look at the possible effects of enhanced intelligence on our planet.
Critic reviews
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
Time Is the Simplest Thing
- By: Clifford Simak
- Narrated by: Matthew Boston
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Space travel has been abandoned in the 22nd century. It is deemed too dangerous, expensive, and inconvenient - and now the all-powerful Fishhook company holds the monopoly on interstellar exploration for commercial gain. Their secret is the use of "parries", human beings with the remarkable telepathic ability to expand their minds throughout the universe.
-
-
An old SciFy story but a good one.
- By Bob Wilson on 01-26-18
By: Clifford Simak
-
Perchance to Dream
- Selected Stories
- By: Charles Beaumont
- Narrated by: J. Paul Boehmer, Gabrielle de Cuir, Harlan Ellison, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The profoundly original and wildly entertaining short stories of a legendary Twilight Zone writer. It is only natural that Charles Beaumont would make a name for himself crafting scripts for The Twilight Zone - for his was an imagination so limitless it must have emerged from some other dimension. Perchance to Dream contains a selection of Beaumont's finest stories, including five that he later adapted for Twilight Zone episodes.
-
-
Contents
- By Ralph Freaster on 06-22-16
By: Charles Beaumont
-
Dr. Bloodmoney
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What happens after the bombs drop? This is the troubling question Philip K. Dick addresses with Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb. It is the story of a world reeling from the effects of nuclear annihilation and fallout, a world where mutated humans and animals are the norm, and the scattered survivors take comfort from a disc jockey endlessly circling the globe in a broken-down satellite.
-
-
Post nuclear apocalyptic surburban middle class
- By Michael G Kurilla on 01-04-18
By: Philip K. Dick
-
Deus Irae
- By: Roger Zelazny, Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two masters of science fiction collaborate on one wild post-apocalyptic story. After World War III, the Servants of Wrath cult deified the mysterious Carlton Lufteufel, creator of the doomsday weapon that wiped out much of humanity. But to worship the man, they need an image of him as a god, and no one has ever seen him. So the high priests send a limbless master painter named Tibor McMasters into the wilderness on a mission to find Lufteufel and capture his likeness.
-
-
Satirical apocalypse or apocalyptic satire?
- By Jacob on 06-30-17
By: Roger Zelazny, and others
-
The Adjustment Team
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Al Kessel
- Length: 1 hr
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ed Fletcher is a real estate agent with a normal life, until one day he leaves the house for work a few minutes later than he should have. He arrives at a terrifying, grey, ash world. Ed rushes home and tells his wife, Ruth, who goes back to the office with him. When they return, everything is normal. But he soon realizes people and objects have subtly changed.
-
-
Unknown Gem of a Story
- By Jackie Houser on 11-20-14
By: Philip K. Dick
-
Gateways
- Original New Stories Inspired by Frederik Pohl
- By: Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, and others
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It isn’t easy to get a group of bestselling SF authors to write new stories for an anthology, but that’s what Elizabeth Anne Hull has done in this powerhouse book. With original, captivating tales by Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, David Brin, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Joe Haldeman, Harry Harrison, Larry Niven, Vernor Vinge, Gene Wolfe, and others, Gateways is a SF event that will be a must-buy for SF readers of all tastes, from the traditional to the cutting edge; from the darkly serious to the laugh-out-loud funny.
-
-
Spectacular.
- By Steve Reid on 08-21-15
By: Greg Bear, and others
-
Time Is the Simplest Thing
- By: Clifford Simak
- Narrated by: Matthew Boston
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Space travel has been abandoned in the 22nd century. It is deemed too dangerous, expensive, and inconvenient - and now the all-powerful Fishhook company holds the monopoly on interstellar exploration for commercial gain. Their secret is the use of "parries", human beings with the remarkable telepathic ability to expand their minds throughout the universe.
-
-
An old SciFy story but a good one.
- By Bob Wilson on 01-26-18
By: Clifford Simak
-
Perchance to Dream
- Selected Stories
- By: Charles Beaumont
- Narrated by: J. Paul Boehmer, Gabrielle de Cuir, Harlan Ellison, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The profoundly original and wildly entertaining short stories of a legendary Twilight Zone writer. It is only natural that Charles Beaumont would make a name for himself crafting scripts for The Twilight Zone - for his was an imagination so limitless it must have emerged from some other dimension. Perchance to Dream contains a selection of Beaumont's finest stories, including five that he later adapted for Twilight Zone episodes.
-
-
Contents
- By Ralph Freaster on 06-22-16
By: Charles Beaumont
-
Dr. Bloodmoney
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What happens after the bombs drop? This is the troubling question Philip K. Dick addresses with Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb. It is the story of a world reeling from the effects of nuclear annihilation and fallout, a world where mutated humans and animals are the norm, and the scattered survivors take comfort from a disc jockey endlessly circling the globe in a broken-down satellite.
-
-
Post nuclear apocalyptic surburban middle class
- By Michael G Kurilla on 01-04-18
By: Philip K. Dick
-
Deus Irae
- By: Roger Zelazny, Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two masters of science fiction collaborate on one wild post-apocalyptic story. After World War III, the Servants of Wrath cult deified the mysterious Carlton Lufteufel, creator of the doomsday weapon that wiped out much of humanity. But to worship the man, they need an image of him as a god, and no one has ever seen him. So the high priests send a limbless master painter named Tibor McMasters into the wilderness on a mission to find Lufteufel and capture his likeness.
-
-
Satirical apocalypse or apocalyptic satire?
- By Jacob on 06-30-17
By: Roger Zelazny, and others
-
The Adjustment Team
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Al Kessel
- Length: 1 hr
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ed Fletcher is a real estate agent with a normal life, until one day he leaves the house for work a few minutes later than he should have. He arrives at a terrifying, grey, ash world. Ed rushes home and tells his wife, Ruth, who goes back to the office with him. When they return, everything is normal. But he soon realizes people and objects have subtly changed.
-
-
Unknown Gem of a Story
- By Jackie Houser on 11-20-14
By: Philip K. Dick
-
Gateways
- Original New Stories Inspired by Frederik Pohl
- By: Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, and others
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It isn’t easy to get a group of bestselling SF authors to write new stories for an anthology, but that’s what Elizabeth Anne Hull has done in this powerhouse book. With original, captivating tales by Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, David Brin, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Joe Haldeman, Harry Harrison, Larry Niven, Vernor Vinge, Gene Wolfe, and others, Gateways is a SF event that will be a must-buy for SF readers of all tastes, from the traditional to the cutting edge; from the darkly serious to the laugh-out-loud funny.
-
-
Spectacular.
- By Steve Reid on 08-21-15
By: Greg Bear, and others
-
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- By: Douglas Adams
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last 15 years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.
-
-
HHTGH - Lightly Fried
- By J. Medany on 05-08-05
By: Douglas Adams
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Great! One quibble with the audiobook editing
- By L on 03-05-19
By: N. K. Jemisin
-
The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination
- Original Short Fiction for the Modern Evil Genius
- By: John Joseph Adams - editor
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Mary Robinette Kowal, Justine Eyre
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mad scientists have never had it so tough. In super-hero comics, graphic novels, films, TV series, video games, and even works of what may be fiction, they are besieged by those who stand against them, devoid of sympathy for their irrational, megalomaniacal impulses to rule, destroy, or otherwise dominate the world as we know it. It’s just not fair. So those of us who are so twisted and sick that we love mad scientists have created this guide.
-
-
HAND DANCING
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 05-30-15
-
Into the Out Of
- By: Alan Dean Foster
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Earth is being invaded by the shetani - spirit creatures so small and stealthy that only one man knows about the increasing peril. The potential savior is an African elder named Olkeloki who is capable of fighting evil both in this world and the spirit one. But to be successful he must recruit the help of two others: government agent Joshua Oak, and a feisty young woman named Merry Sharrow. Only the three of them can keep the shetani from destroying reality as we know it.
-
-
Another Great Book by a Master Storyteller!
- By Tracy Michael Herring on 05-03-21
By: Alan Dean Foster
-
Fear
- By: L. Ron Hubbard
- Narrated by: Roddy McDowall
- Length: 2 hrs and 56 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Professor James Lowry didn’t believe in spirits, or witches, or demons. Not until a gentle spring evening when his hat disappeared, and suddenly he couldn’t remember the last four hours of his life. Now, the quiet university town of Atworthy is changing - slightly at first, then faster and more frighteningly each time he tries to remember.
-
-
The Best of Hubbard
- By JJ on 01-31-15
By: L. Ron Hubbard
-
Gravity's Rainbow
- By: Thomas Pynchon, Frank Miller - cover design
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 37 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the 1973 National Book Award, Gravity's Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the 20th century as Joyce's Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force.
-
-
"Time to touch the person next to you"
- By Jefferson on 07-04-16
By: Thomas Pynchon, and others
-
Fahrenheit 451
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Tim Robbins
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family."
-
-
Wish I Hadn't Cliff Noted This in High School
- By Joel on 03-27-17
By: Ray Bradbury
-
The Martian Chronicles
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bradbury's Mars is a place of hope, dreams, and metaphor - of crystal pillars and fossil seas - where a fine dust settles on the great, empty cities of a silently destroyed civilization. It is here the invaders have come to despoil and commercialize, to grow and to learn - first a trickle, then a torrent, rushing from a world with no future toward a promise of tomorrow. The Earthman conquers Mars...and then is conquered by it, lulled by dangerous lies of comfort and familiarity, and enchanted by the lingering glamour of an ancient, mysterious native race.
-
-
The Original. Great Stories, Great Narrator.
- By Troy on 04-05-16
By: Ray Bradbury
-
Grass
- By: Sheri S. Tepper
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 18 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What could be more commonplace than grass or a world covered over all its surface with a wind-whipped ocean of grass? But the planet Grass conceals horrifying secrets within its endless pastures. And as an incurable plague attacks all inhabited planets but this one, the prairie-like Grass begins to reveal these secrets - and nothing will ever be the same again.
-
-
Speculative & Creative, Yet well Paced and Unique
- By Zach Wilson on 04-17-17
By: Sheri S. Tepper
-
The Stand
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 47 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides - or are chosen.
-
-
My First Completed Stephen King Novel
- By Meaghan Bynum on 02-20-12
By: Stephen King
-
In the Ocean of Night
- Galactic Center, Book 1
- By: Gregory Benford
- Narrated by: Maxwell Caulfield
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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….
-
-
Like some Space with your Soaps?
- By Bradley on 05-15-12
By: Gregory Benford
-
Moonheart
- By: Charles de Lint
- Narrated by: Richard Powers
- Length: 19 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Sara and Jamie discovered the artifacts, they sensed the pull of a dim, distant place, a world of misty forests, ancient magics, mythical beings, ageless bards...and restless evil.
-
-
Enjoyable, different storyline
- By Vava on 10-19-09
By: Charles de Lint
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Three Hearts and Three Lions
- By: Poul Anderson
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The gathering forces of the Dark Powers threaten the world of man. The legions of Faery, aided by trolls, demons, and the Wild Hunt itself, are poised to overthrow the Realms of Light. Holger Carlsen, a bemused and puzzled twentieth-century man mysteriously snatched out of time, finds himself the key figure in the conflict. Arrayed against him are the dragons, giants, and elfin warriors of the armies of Chaos and the beautiful sorceress Morgan le Fay.
-
-
I FEEL ALL AT SEA
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 03-24-17
By: Poul Anderson
-
The Broken Sword
- By: Poul Anderson
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thor has broken the sword Tyrfing so that it cannot strike at the roots of Yggdrasil, the tree that binds together earth, heaven, and hell. But now the mighty sword is needed again to save the elves in their war against the trolls, and only Skafloc, a human child kidnapped and raised by the elves, can hope to persuade Bölverk the ice-giant to make Tyrfing whole again. But Skafloc must also confront his shadow self, Valgard the changeling, who has taken his place in the world of men.
-
-
A spirited homage to old myths
- By Ryan on 01-25-14
By: Poul Anderson
-
The Heaven Makers
- By: Frank Herbert
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Immortal aliens have observed Earth forcenturies, making full sensory movies of wars, natural disasters, and horrifichuman activities - all to relieve their endless boredom. When they finally becomejaded by ordinary, run-of-the-mill tragedies, they find ways to create theirown disasters, just to amuse themselves.
-
-
a Dune fix
- By blackstonepoet on 05-13-20
By: Frank Herbert
-
Tau Zero
- By: Poul Anderson
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This science fiction novel describes the epic voyage of the spacecraft Leonora Christine. From practically the very first minute, Tau Zero sets scientific realities in dramatic tension with the very real emotional and psychological states of the travelers, exploring the effect of time contraction due to traveling at near-light speed on the human psyche. This tension is a dynamic that Anderson explores with great success over the course of the novel, as 50 crewmembers settle in for the long journey together.
-
-
Not What I Hoped For
- By Audio Audits on 12-22-16
By: Poul Anderson
-
Nova
- By: Samuel R. Delany
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Given that the suns of Draco stretch almost 16 light-years from end to end, it stands to reason that the cost of transportation is the most important factor driving the 32nd century. And since Illyrion is the element most needed for space travel, Lorq von Ray is plenty willing to fly through the core of a recently imploded sun in order to obtain seven tons of it.
-
-
Just as fresh as my first reading 4+ decades ago
- By Gary Gray on 02-27-21
By: Samuel R. Delany
-
Across a Billion Years
- By: Robert Silverberg
- Narrated by: Alex Knox
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Graduate student Tom Rice is thrilled to embark on his first deep-space archeological expedition. He is part of a team from Earth, venturing out in search of artifacts from a civilization that ruled the universe many millennia ago. Called the High Ones, the members of this long-gone society left tantalizing clues about their history and culture scattered throughout space. One such clue, a "message cube" containing footage of the ancient ones, is more interesting than all of the others combined. It seems to indicate that the High Ones aren't extinct after all.
-
-
I was expecting better
- By Beth Storer on 01-20-21
-
Three Hearts and Three Lions
- By: Poul Anderson
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The gathering forces of the Dark Powers threaten the world of man. The legions of Faery, aided by trolls, demons, and the Wild Hunt itself, are poised to overthrow the Realms of Light. Holger Carlsen, a bemused and puzzled twentieth-century man mysteriously snatched out of time, finds himself the key figure in the conflict. Arrayed against him are the dragons, giants, and elfin warriors of the armies of Chaos and the beautiful sorceress Morgan le Fay.
-
-
I FEEL ALL AT SEA
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 03-24-17
By: Poul Anderson
-
The Broken Sword
- By: Poul Anderson
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thor has broken the sword Tyrfing so that it cannot strike at the roots of Yggdrasil, the tree that binds together earth, heaven, and hell. But now the mighty sword is needed again to save the elves in their war against the trolls, and only Skafloc, a human child kidnapped and raised by the elves, can hope to persuade Bölverk the ice-giant to make Tyrfing whole again. But Skafloc must also confront his shadow self, Valgard the changeling, who has taken his place in the world of men.
-
-
A spirited homage to old myths
- By Ryan on 01-25-14
By: Poul Anderson
-
The Heaven Makers
- By: Frank Herbert
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Immortal aliens have observed Earth forcenturies, making full sensory movies of wars, natural disasters, and horrifichuman activities - all to relieve their endless boredom. When they finally becomejaded by ordinary, run-of-the-mill tragedies, they find ways to create theirown disasters, just to amuse themselves.
-
-
a Dune fix
- By blackstonepoet on 05-13-20
By: Frank Herbert
-
Tau Zero
- By: Poul Anderson
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This science fiction novel describes the epic voyage of the spacecraft Leonora Christine. From practically the very first minute, Tau Zero sets scientific realities in dramatic tension with the very real emotional and psychological states of the travelers, exploring the effect of time contraction due to traveling at near-light speed on the human psyche. This tension is a dynamic that Anderson explores with great success over the course of the novel, as 50 crewmembers settle in for the long journey together.
-
-
Not What I Hoped For
- By Audio Audits on 12-22-16
By: Poul Anderson
-
Nova
- By: Samuel R. Delany
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Given that the suns of Draco stretch almost 16 light-years from end to end, it stands to reason that the cost of transportation is the most important factor driving the 32nd century. And since Illyrion is the element most needed for space travel, Lorq von Ray is plenty willing to fly through the core of a recently imploded sun in order to obtain seven tons of it.
-
-
Just as fresh as my first reading 4+ decades ago
- By Gary Gray on 02-27-21
By: Samuel R. Delany
-
Across a Billion Years
- By: Robert Silverberg
- Narrated by: Alex Knox
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Graduate student Tom Rice is thrilled to embark on his first deep-space archeological expedition. He is part of a team from Earth, venturing out in search of artifacts from a civilization that ruled the universe many millennia ago. Called the High Ones, the members of this long-gone society left tantalizing clues about their history and culture scattered throughout space. One such clue, a "message cube" containing footage of the ancient ones, is more interesting than all of the others combined. It seems to indicate that the High Ones aren't extinct after all.
-
-
I was expecting better
- By Beth Storer on 01-20-21
-
Hoka! Hoka! Hoka!
- By: Poul Anderson, Gordon R. Dickson
- Narrated by: Gabriel Vaughan
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Interbeing League had been formed to make contact with new intelligent races in the galaxy and offer them membership. But when the League encountered the Hokas, furry creatures strongly resembling the teddy bears of Earth, the league's agent, Alexander Jones, could have been excused for wishing he had a simpler assignment than making sense out of the Hokas - such as singlehandedly stopping an interstellar war.
By: Poul Anderson, and others
-
The Van Rijn Method
- Technic Civilization Series 1
- By: Poul Anderson
- Narrated by: BJ Harrison
- Length: 21 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Think there's an unbridgeable gulf between human and alien thought? Not so! There's a common tongue, all right - and Nicholas Van Rijn speaks it fluently: trade. For behind the buffoonish blarney and bawdy bonhomie of the Falstaffian Van Rijn is a man who gets things done. A born wheeler-dealer who usually leaves both sides better off in the bargain. (While pocketing a hefty cut of the profits himself, of course!)
-
-
Humph and hassenpfeffer!
- By Anonymous User on 07-31-20
By: Poul Anderson
-
Time Patrol
- By: Poul Anderson
- Narrated by: Wayne Mitchell
- Length: 23 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forget minor hazards like nuclear bombs. The discovery of time travel means that everything we know, anyone we know, might not only vanish, but never even have existed. Against that possibility stand the men and women of the Time Patrol, dedicated to preserving the history they know and protecting the future from fanatics, terrorists, and would-be dictators who would remold the shape of reality to suit their own purposes.
-
-
I can not listen to this Horrible Narrator
- By S.E.Anderson on 09-05-20
By: Poul Anderson
-
Direct Descent
- By: Frank Herbert
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 2 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Earth has become a library planet over the last several thousand years, a bastion of both useful and useless knowledge - esoterica of all types: History, science, politics - gathered by teams of "pack rats" who scour the galaxy for any scrap of information. Knowledge is power, knowledge is wealth, and knowledge can be a weapon. As powerful dictators come and go over the course of history, the cadre of dedicated librarians is sworn to obey the lawful government - and use their wits to protect the treasure trove of knowledge they have collected over the millennia.
-
-
Asimov Did It Better
- By Gilbert M. Stack on 06-28-21
By: Frank Herbert
-
Immortality, Inc.
- By: Robert Sheckley
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Want to be immortal? You can be in AD 2110. Just go to the Hereafter Insurance Corporation and hook yourself up to the Machine. There’s nothing to fear. That is, if it happens to be working right, and if nobody slips another mind into your body when you’re not looking, and if you’re not on a poltergeist hatelist.
-
-
Sheckley Is The Best There Is
- By Nils J. Rasmussen on 05-14-14
By: Robert Sheckley
-
More Than Human
- By: Theodore Sturgeon
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this genre-bending novel, among the first to have launched sci fi into literature, a group of remarkable social outcasts band together for survival and discover that their combined powers render them superhuman. Together, they may represent the next step in evolution - or the final chapter in the history of the human race. As they struggle to find whether they are meant to help humanity or destroy it, Sturgeon explores questions of power and morality, individuality and belonging.
-
-
Must listen
- By Dion on 01-16-10
-
Madness from the Inconstant Moon
- A Collection of Short Works from Larry Niven
- By: Larry Niven
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Madness from the Inconstant Moon is a collection of early short science fiction works by Larry Niven, the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of the Ringworld series. This classic collection includes "The Inconstant Moon", the basis for a forthcoming film by The Arrival producer Shawn Levy.
-
-
A Collection of Gems
- By devilinlaw79 on 09-12-21
By: Larry Niven
-
To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Riverworld Saga, Book 1
- By: Philip José Farmer
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Along with a remarkable group of compatriots, including Alice Liddell Hargreaves (the Victorian girl who was the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland), an English-speaking Neanderthal, a WWII Holocaust survivor, and a wise extraterrestrial, Burton sets sail on the magnificent river. His mission: to confront humankind's mysterious benefactors, and learn the true purpose—innocent or evil—of the Riverworld....
-
-
Great concept, dated writing.
- By Battaglia on 08-04-11
-
World of Ptavvs
- By: Larry Niven
- Narrated by: Bradford Hastings
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nothing quite prepared telepath Larry Greenberg for mind-to-mind contact with an alien. In the interest of science, Larry tapped the mind of Kzanol - and that was his first mistake. Kzanol was a thrint from a distant galaxy. He had been trapped on Earth in a time-stasis field for two billion years. Now he was on the loose, and Larry knew everything he was thinking. Thrints lived to plunder and enslave lesser planets - and what the planet Kzanol had in mind was Earth!
-
-
How annoying!
- By 1phsteacher on 11-22-20
By: Larry Niven
-
Time's Eye
- A Time Odyssey, Book 1
- By: Stephen Baxter, Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For eons, Earth has been under observation by the Firstborn, beings almost as old as the universe itself. The Firstborn are unknown to humankind - until they act. In an instant, Earth is carved up and reassembled like a huge jigsaw puzzle. Suddenly the planet and every living thing on it no longer exist in a single timeline.
-
-
I expected better from these two
- By Kennet on 06-04-08
By: Stephen Baxter, and others
-
The Boat of a Million Years
- By: Poul Anderson
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 20 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Others have written science fiction on the theme of immortality, but in The Boat of a Million Years, Poul Anderson made it his own. Early in human history, certain individuals were born who live on—unaging, undying—through the centuries and millennia. This story follows them over two thousand years, up to our time and beyond—to the promise of utopia, and to the challenge of the stars.
-
-
Terrible narration
- By Genevieve on 12-03-11
By: Poul Anderson
-
Risk
- By: Dick Francis
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Roland Britten, accountant and amateur jockey, awakens one morning to find he can’t move his hands—because he is tied up with netting, held captive where no light penetrates and no amount of yelling will get any attention. But why?
-
-
Not a typical Dick Francis
- By Jean on 11-14-16
By: Dick Francis
Love Books? You'll Love Audible.
Transform your day
Replace endless scrolling with endless listening. Chores can be fun.
Listen everywhere
Download titles to listen offline, wherever you are in the world.
Carry your entire Library
Your stories go where you go. Audiobooks don’t weigh a thing.
Listen and learn
Discover stories that can change your mind, your well-being, and your life.
Reach your reading goals
You can’t turn pages while you drive—but you can press play.
Find your niche
WIth thousands of titles to explore, there’s something for everyone.
What listeners say about Brain Wave
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Shari Isaac
- 08-11-21
Good book.
I really enjoyed this book. My one outstanding question is what about the rats and mice. Already smart to start with they could become scary.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- Ken
- 06-21-11
Another brilliant Poul Anderson classic
Although written decades ago, this is a remarkably fresh story with wonderful speculations about how the world would change if everything with a nervous system suddenly started getting a lot smarter. The idea shows up a few decades later, highly modified, in Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep, but there it plays out on a more galactic scale. In Anderson's version we get a more intimately human look at what our intelligence means to us. Well narrated too boot.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chance
- 01-15-22
Decent enough sci-fi from it's lens of time
Pretty good sci-fi from it's time, but it's not particularly "timeless".
The story is interesting both from the sci-fi perspective and the retro/historical perspective, just go in knowing that everything is from that 1954 perspective. The politics, the science, the ideals, the relationships, and all of the expected -ism's are present, either directly, indirectly, or subtly.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JohnR
- 03-06-22
Wonderful story!
This book started slow but grabbed my interest quickly. The author weaved the separate experiences into a nice web. The thoughtfulness of each character and chapter made me smile, grimace and cheer.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Eduardo Gonzalez
- 07-17-21
a good story
the story overall was good. some parts of the story seem to lean towards a specific sort of bias as to how people would react to a sudden increase in thinking capacity but I guess that's to be expected when reading, or in this case listening, to sci fi stories.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael G Kurilla
- 10-12-20
Flowers for Algernon and everyone else
Poul Anderson's Brain Wave is an engaging tale of Earth emerging into a region of space that now allows for neural circuitry to move faster with the result that not only humans, but all animals with 'brains' are now 5X smarter than before. The story recounts not only the scientific adjustments, but also the societal adaptations that take place, not all of which are positive. In particular, mundane physical and clerical occupations go unfilled creating issues with feeding and maintaining civilization. At the same time, a star faring expedition is mounted that finds Earth unique among galactic intelligent species ascribed to its unique evolutionary history of intelligence forming with the 'brakes on'. Some people can't adapt and find ways to go back to their normal.
Anderson asks a simple questions and explores what on the surface sounds like a wonderful situation, but then goes on to detail all the possible problems. At the same time, he distinguishes intelligence from wisdom as smarter people are not always best for implementing solutions. One criticism is that he doesn't separate intelligence from knowledge. When the spacecraft reaches the field barrier and the neural slowdown ensues, the astronauts become forgetful as well as slow-witted, but they were brilliant scientists before and they revert to far below their former potential by forgetting what they have already learned.
The narration is well done with decent character distinction, especially with a host of accents. Pacing is brisk, making for a quick listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- per erik loeff
- 12-04-20
Very interesting
Story. A kind of reversed apocalypse. It could of course be more detailed and less jumps in the evolution, but I really liked the thought experiment of what would happen if suddenly everyone got supersmart and how that didn't make personality change...
Recommended!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- clarinet-man
- 06-19-19
Wonderful
Written very well. Narrated masterfully. You will enjoy it. I first read it as a teenager many years ago and I still found it enthralling.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- R. M. Emerson Jr.
- 01-10-23
I love this story!
the performance is very well done. the reader does a pretty good job at mimicking some of the other voices that are not his own. I thoroughly love the story. I have loved the story for a very long time. and I like the fact that only one thing changes, the loss of inhibition on the efficiency of the neuron, and it Ripples and causes all sorts of things to happen. I think this is a very good example of what good science fiction should be.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mr.Chunky Monkey
- 10-18-22
Brain Wave (1954) is a mediocre story, hindered by mediocre voice acting.
I started to listen to Poul Anderson’s Brain Wave with an open mind since I have positive memories reading a lot of science fiction from that era. The book was published in 1954 and I do not think it aged very well when you also consider how the voice actor has treated it. It is often preachy as well.
The story does not specify in what alternate future year it is taking place but when you read it, in this case listen on Audible, you get a distinct feel that it is set in the 1950s. There are many outdated cultural elements and mannerisms characters display which make it a kind of jarring experience to listen to it.
For example the few women characters in the story sound weak and timid. And the way the narrator has chosen to voice act their voices sounds like an intentional mockery of what in voice actor’s opinion they should sound like. The same problem occurs when other characters are given voices. There is one character who is describes as a Jewish man from New York, and another is a mentally undeveloped man from a farm. When their voices are acted it just sounds ridiculous and unbelievable. Essentially they sound like cartoon characters. When the voice actor does the main narrator voice the voice is excellent, so these “in character” portions come up it interrupts any enjoyments that could be derived from the book.
As far as fictional science in the book I don’t think the idea is scientific enough to be believable. Without spoiling anything, the people and animals are becoming rapidly “more intelligent” because of the shifting force/magnetic fields in space. It’s not explained convincingly how this at all could be possible, even as science fiction.
I just thoroughly didn’t like it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!