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Rejoice

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Rejoice

By: Steven Erikson
Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard
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About this listen

From the best-selling author of the epic Malazan Book of the Fallen comes a story of mankind's first contact and a warning about our future.

An alien AI has been sent to the solar system as representative of three advanced species. Its mission is to save the Earth's ecosystem - and the biggest threat to that is humanity. But we are also part of the system, so the AI must make a choice. Should it save mankind or wipe it out? Are we worth it? The AI is all-powerful and might as well be a god. So it sets up some conditions. Violence is now impossible. Large-scale destruction of natural resources is impossible. Food and water will be provided for those who really, truly need them. You can't even bully someone on the Internet anymore.

The old way of doing things is gone. But a certain thin-skinned US president, among others, is still wedded to late-stage capitalism. Can we adapt? Can we prove ourselves worthy? And are we prepared to give up free will for a world without violence? And above it all, on a hidden spaceship, one woman watches. A science fiction writer, she was abducted from the middle of the street in broad daylight. She is the only person the AI will talk to. And she must make a decision.

©2018 Steven Erikson (P)2018 Orion Publishing Group First Contact Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction

Critic Reviews

Steven Erikson has one of the finest minds alive. Nothing less could have produced The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Now, in Rejoice: A Knife to the Heart, Erikson shows us what he sees when he considers the future of humanity. He calls it a thought experiment. I call it an important book (Stephen Donaldson)
The aliens have come to save the Earth. From us... Steven Erikson, master of high fantasy, has delivered an SF novel with the highest of high concepts. And it's no fantasy. An El Nino of a book, dense, provocative, essential. (Stephen Baxter)
The SF book of the year, maybe the decade. Will make you long for an alien invasion. I loved it (Justina Robson)
All stars
Most relevant  
Part science fiction , part manifesto. A story wrapped in a treatise of mankind, or the other way round. A vision of our now, our past, our possible future. At times a lecture, yet always compelling. Fresh, brave. The writing is excellent but the gauntlet laid down will be too much for many.

What if?

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The narrators voice is great .. until she puts on accents and voices .. and then I was reminded of bad school plays. Sort of a verbal black face. The Australian accent was insane.
Not sure if I agree with previous reviewers about how good the lecture is.
It is totally a lecture but the point I left was having to sit through the human rights abusing Chinese dictators benign intelligent sympathetic portyal (he's referred to as leader) followed by the Russian leader telling us its the stupid westerners believing that the Ukrainians are not russians who are the problem that I couldn't go on.
A shame as I loved the Malazqn books of the fallen.

Unlistienable

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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.