Century Rain cover art

Century Rain

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Century Rain

By: Alastair Reynolds
Narrated by: John Lee
Try Premium Plus free

Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $46.99

Buy Now for $46.99

About this listen

Three hundred years from now, Earth has been rendered uninhabitable due to the technological catastrophe known as the Nanocaust. Archaeologist Verity Auger specializes in the exploration of its surviving landscape. Now, her expertise is required for a far greater purpose. Something astonishing has been discovered at the far end of a wormhole: mid-20th-century Earth, preserved like a fly in amber.

Somewhere on this alternate planet is a device capable of destroying both worlds at either end of the wormhole. And Verity must find the device, and the man who plans to activate it, before it's too late - for the past and the future of two worlds.

©2008 Alastair Reynolds (P)2010 Tantor Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction

Critic Reviews

“ Century Rain fuses time travel, hard SF, alternate history, interstellar adventure, and noir romance to create a novel of blistering powers and style.” ( SFRevu)
All stars
Most relevant
Wasn't sure whether I was enjoying this until about one third in. Took a while, after a slow start to capture my attention.
That said, it did gain my attention after I sorted out the characters in my mind and began to wrap itself around the broader story line.
In the end it was quite a good take on alternate Earth, life after the downfall and the mystery of hidden benevolent aliens.
Worth listening to but make sure you concentrate through the beginning.

Not what it seems at first.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Don’t listen to the only other review. This is the best book ever and anyone who doesn’t like it is an objectively morally corrupt human being, so says I.

REALLY GOOD

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
1950s crime novel meets space travel. was an excellent story. fantastically told. no loose ends. and the author really puts time into the charecters.

fantastic story and well written.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting voicing but it grates when French people are speaking French to each other but the English voicing gives them French accent!?!

Tedium

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Surely written as a joke, 1950’s crime noir meets sci fi romance. Stayed to the end just to see if it would improve. Did have some laugh out loud moments.

Tropes

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I just wanted to bridge these other two reviews because they were so extreme. in essence they are both accurate, you can find an entertaining story with top tier narration.

I find Alastair's writing to be frustrating, sometimes it's very clever and usually quite descriptive great for world building, but some of the plot contrivances really bring the story down. It seems like a mix of ideas making it a bit bumpy and disjointed but that is part of the charm of an adventure story.

The narration from John Lee really is fantastic, that alone makes this audio book much better and worth your time if you enjoy Alastair's other work.

Nobody likes a centrist...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting plot in the first half or so, but then it fell off the rails. What started as an intriguing and intelligent piece of writing ended up as gee-wizz slog that I couldn't wait to finish.

Good Start

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.