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Aurora

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Aurora

By: Kim Stanley Robinson
Narrated by: Ali Ahn
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About this listen

Our voyage from Earth began generations ago. Now we approach our destination. A new home. Aurora.

Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, Aurora is the work of a writer at the height of his powers.

©2015 Kim Stanley Robinson (P)2015 Hachette Audio Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction

Critic Reviews

A rousing tribute to the human spirit. (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE)
[Robinson is] a rare contemporary writer to earn a reputation on par with earlier masters such as Isaac Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke. (CHICAGO TRIBUNE)
Humanity's first trip to another star is incredibly ambitious, impeccably planned and executed on a grand scale in Aurora. (SPACE.COM)
This is hard SF the way it's mean to be written: technical, scientific, with big ideas and a fully realized society. Robinson is an acknowledged sf master-his Mars trilogy and his stand-alone novel 2312 (2012) were multiple award winners and nominees-and this latest novel is sure to be a big hit with devoted fans of old-school science fiction. (BOOKLIST)
All stars
Most relevant  
A little repetitive in places but a masterpiece none the less.
Would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in Sci fi.

a good read/listen

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not anti space as some suggest, rather just addressing the real issues of trying to settle in places other than our home planet. excellent narration.

great lessons

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A cool story, entertainingly read. Definitely drags at times, seeming a bit repetitive, but keeps moving along. KSR certainly knows his way around Sci Fi. The message is a bit bleaker than I had hoped for, but an interesting take on the space exploration/colonisation genre.

Good

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Ever since reading Niven, Clarke and Anderson I've enjoyed obsessing over the humdrum everyday minutiae of a hypothetical interstellar voyage. Even though this one ends sadly, the content pushed all my need-to-know buttons without, as Niven would put it, locking the gate to the playground. KSR at his finest and, like his other epic works, worth the slog, every minute of it.

A Luxuriant Profusion of Detail

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Decent voice acting but hindered by a story that loses its way and bad audio post processing that makes it sound over compressed for most of the book.

Hmmm

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Another pen stroke of genius by Kim Stanley Robinson. Evocative imagery, intricate science and beautiful composition.

Genius

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Combines realistic science with perceptive societal observation embedded in breathtaking innovative narrative. Wow! Read it!

Visionary epic tale

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Not just a fantasy Sci Fi
This was surprisingly deep with human phsychology and philosophical currents running throughout the book. Heavily centered around the human needs and problems of interplanetary travel, settlement and life.


The Interplanetary travel, is on a ship which is a moving planet, a living biome. The ship is a cyborg, a conscious AI quantum computer with biological components.
Humans are a variable entity living as a symbiote within the living biome.

Their destination planet Aroura, was a beautiful planet like earth but.....

It is a very philosophical book that looked at fear, history, hate, anger, animal pack mentality, conflict and religion, but also gives a very scientific and engineering viewpoint.

A bit too political for me, possibly as I was looking for an uplifting escapism book rather than one that was fixated with human obsessions and conflicts. But I could see alot of people who are obsessed with politics and activism really liking this book.

This book is more anti space travel than pro space travel. A view I don't personally share.

The naration was excellent.
The ship is the narrator with clearly defined change in voices when other characters speak.

The naration was excellent.
The ship is the narrator with clearly defined change in voices when other characters speak.

Live as if you are already dead.- Japanese proverb quoted in book.

Heavily political and anti space travel.

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i went in with an expectation that the book didn't give me. I wanted a book about humans overcoming difficult challenges in colonisation on a alien planet and prevailing. but this is not really an optimistic book and it's too loaded down with the author's anti-space rhetoric.

not what I wanted

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I enjoy a detailed story but a lot of this felt like I was listening to a text book.

Overly indulgent

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