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The Ophelia Network

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The Ophelia Network

By: Mur Lafferty
Narrated by: Khristine Hvam
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About this listen

In an authoritarian America, personal freedoms are at risk, information is being controlled, and legal citizens suddenly find themselves being deported. A growing resistance movement is active, angry, and looking to strike back. And a TV show for kids may be the key.

Enter Celeste Montgomery and Bailey Vance. Celeste is an intern for the show that features Bailey singing and dancing with puppets. While Bailey teaches the kids about geography, Celeste is planting codes into the script, songs, background, whatever she can do to pass messages for the resistance.

Celeste doesn't know who these messages are from or who they're for. But she’s certain about one thing—if the scheme is uncovered, it will be her head on the chopping block.

Only the government got to Bailey first. And Celeste has no idea whose side he’s on.

©2022 Mur Lafferty (P)2022 Audible Originals, LLC. Domestic Thrillers Political Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Espionage Political Fiction
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I thought this had a good story line. The narration full one of the characters was horrific. That’s all I can say it needs to be narrated. It would probably have been a good story apart from that.

Sound

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I found this story to be very strange and not my cup of tea.

I found it hard to keep on track with what was going on and the silly voices drove me nuts.
Sorry, it was a no from me 👎🏻

Strange

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The story was cool, but the overly enthusiastic voices were a bit weird… I didn’t really enjoy listening to the narrator voice. The voice actor is very talented though!

Interesting…?

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I came to this story expecting quality, knowing Mur Lafferty as an author and more from the exceptional SciFi podcast "Escape Pod" (do yourself a favour and go check them out for a wonderfully diverse selection of audio shorts all of the very best quality).

At first I was put off by the childrens' show character presenting the beginning of the story, but do stick with it; there's due purpose and justification, and the last line delivered by the same character really made me smile.

That element aside, the story as a whole is compelling and mysterious. Metaphor abounds, and the ending is likely to leave the reader satisfied. There's a grounded sense of realistic near-futurism that lets the story really sink it's claws into the listener.

I must reflect that whilst listening I felt validated about certain decisions I've made about excluding select technologies from my life, and also that I considered the ways in which those technologies are still nevertheless present. I particularly enjoyed the costuming, funnily enough. Fans might enjoy the jocular little tip of the hat to the Star Wars franchise, for which Lafferty has written (which you can find right here on Audible too!).

***Moderate spoiler below***

I really appreciate that The Ophelia Network concludes with hope for the all-too-possible dystopia it describes. I adore science fiction, but it can so frequently leave one feeling depressed and despondent. This story doesn't do that, and at the same time it doesn't wrap everything up in a happily-ever-after.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable listen, as I rightfully anticipated from this solid author.

From initial wariness to joy, I stayed up til 4am!

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Loved it. When it started I thought it was a kids story because of the voice but it's not. It's a conspiracy story. Short and interesting enough to hold my interest, I'd like to have more from this author

A Great Story

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A very serious topic, well crafted, I felt the ending was a little rushed which was disappointing

Very on point

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It was a fun ride but man-when the writer wanted to end the story it was done so abruptly I nearly missed it.

We’ll that escalated quickly.

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