Machine cover art

Machine

A White Space Novel

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Machine

By: Elizabeth Bear
Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
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About this listen

Meet Doctor Jens.

She hasn't had a decent cup of coffee in fifteen years.

The first part of her job involves jumping out of perfectly good space-ships. The second part requires developing emergency treatments for sick aliens of species she's never seen before.

She loves it.

But her latest emergency is also proving a mystery:

Two ships, one ancient and one new, locked in a dangerous embrace.

A mysterious crew suffering from an even more mysterious ailment.

A shipmind trapped in an inadequate body, much of her memory pared away.

A murderous virus from out of time.

Unfortunately, Dr. Jens can't resist a mystery. Which is why she's about to discover that everything she's dedicated her life to...is a lie.

©2020 Elizabeth Bear (P)2020 Orion Publishing Group Cyberpunk Military Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction
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Interesting story and awesome world building....with great useage of the environment. The great voice acting and descriptive writing made it very easy to visualise the settings, as well as the quite interesting characters. Interesting and realistic aliens, that are voiced really well. All of the characters are well developed and rounded out, which creates a real sense of urgency and danger thanks to the excellent character development. The actual story is different, interesting and keeps you reliably engaged. Even the science is on point. There is a sorta shadow of some modern politics throughout, though it's not so much that it gets annoying, and the author has managed to weave it into the storyline and the culture quite skifully and manages to not sound too much like modern political propaganda. The book itself was quite enjoyable and definitely had me actually looking forward to my commute, so I could continue to enjoy the story. all round, I would recommend without any hesitation.

Great story. Great voice!

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I enjoyed this book much more than the first in the series. It seemed to hold together much better and I got involved in the plot and characters more easily. This volume has a first rate narrator and of course that does make a big difference, but I also think it’s just a better book.

An improvement on the first book

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Story was really slow to get moving and there were several moments where it felt like I was just listening to unnecessary rambling. Once the crisis proper got going it fantastic and the narration, especially towards the end was amazing

Wasn't wowed but was alright

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Listening to this book was like tramping through knee high under growth with little reward at the end of the journey. There is none of the finesse displayed in the first book of the series Ancestral Night.
Disappointed with this effort.

Disappointed

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