Main plot - Tiresome; Subplot - Cool!

I haven't been up to doing any reviews for awhile, but this one warrants some comment. I know it's name "Rollback", and the medical process that refers to accounts for 85% of the story. The 'rollback" is an super-expensive, complicated treatment to reverse the aging process back to 25 years old. I'm not giving away anything by explaining that the reason the "rollback" drives the story is because there's a really intriguiing subplot about alien contact from far away and - because of the elapsed time between messages and replies - they decide they need to keep one of the five main characters alive long enough to be able to continue deciphering and replying. The really great story line (well, up to the disappointing ending) comes from the alien contact narrative and the intriguiing and insightful conversations driven by the wife, who works for SETI and is a delightful character. The husband is a turd who, once regressed, can't keep it in his pants and cheats on his wife. Excruciating and unbelievably boring chapters are wasted as we are, basically, intended to believe that, well, of course anyone "rolled back" from 84 to 25 just couldn't help but need sex really, really bad and about how much he has fallen for another 25 year old girl at the university where the wife was once a household name. I think you can see where this is going. The fourth main character is the moneybags who pays for the procedures, a rather Trump-like and unappealing person. And the fifth is "Gunter", an absolutely delightful robot bought by moneybags to care for the wife. The conversations about alien life, intentions, evolution and such are the only thing that kept me listening. From those insights I feel like I learned some things - the rest was just awful.

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8 people found this helpful

He's Been Better- Characters Good

I liked where the story was going, the characters and the plot...and then he rushed the ending. What I really was interested in was only a few pages in the prologue rather than what I expected to be the thrust of the novel.

And way too easy to plot guess.

Wanna no brainer for a long car trip, this is it.

Want to read good Robert J. Sawyer? Don't read this.

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6 people found this helpful

Canadian heroine

Refreshing that main character is a smart women scientist and that the setting is Canada. Some clever ideas, especially that Coke and Pepsi merge in the future.

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5 people found this helpful

It was ok

This was ok for me. Not great, not bad, right in the middle. I'd say it was worth a listen.

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4 people found this helpful

Not Sawyer's best

I've enjoyed other Robert Sawyer books in the past ... but this one was annoyingly predictable and unrealistic.

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4 people found this helpful

Very underwhelming

Based on the plot it seems like an interesting audiobook. I have read stories by this author before and sawyer is a great writer. This one falls flat though... To many things going on and a lack of focus. The characters are many but they are all cardboard and are hard to care about in any way.

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2 people found this helpful

Immensely Entertaining

As per usual, RJS has me riveted to every word!

His stories are always intensely interesting, deeply thought-provoking, and immensely entertaining.

I’ve said it before and it’s still true: I can’t get enough!

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2 people found this helpful

Returned before finished

I have almost three hundred books in my Audible library. This is the second book that I have returned.

This is the second book by Sawyer I've read, the first was that one about the spider creatures who come to earth looking for a paleontologist. That was pretty good, even though the ending was sad.

This book was down right depressing to listen to, despite having an excellent narrator. The Alien message seems like nothing more than a excuse to put a married couple in a horrible situation.

This was a decent short story crammed into a full length novel.

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2 people found this helpful

Not up to Sawyer's typical standards

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The story was too artificial and forced. I was a little skeptical based on the synopsis, but I am a Sawyer fan so gave it a try. Only made it 1/3 of the way through before he lost me. In my opinion the premise probably doesn't lend itself to a 4 star experience.

What could Robert J. Sawyer have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The premise just didn't work for me. The underlying message that youth and physical appearance is to be valued above almost all else left me cold.

How could the performance have been better?

The quavering voices of the protagonists and the narrators attempt to portray them as noble yet somehow pitiable was a distraction.

What character would you cut from Rollback?

Couldn't really relate to any of the characters.

Any additional comments?

Struck me as an uninspired attempt to fulfill a contract.

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2 people found this helpful

A look into the future

Sawyer spins a tale that feels like an accurate depiction of the future of life extension and the human conditions faced. Laughed and cried and wondered.

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1 person found this helpful