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World Engines cover art

World Engines

By: Stephen Baxter
Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins, Christopher Ragland
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Publisher's Summary

In the year 2570, a sleeper will wake.... 

In the mid-21st century, the Kernel, a strange object on a 500-year-orbit, is detected coming from high above the plane of the solar system. Could it be an alien artefact? 

In the middle of climate-change crises, there is no mood for space-exploration stunts - but Reid Malenfant, elderly, once a shuttle pilot and frustrated would-be asteroid miner, decides to go take a look anyway. Nothing more is heard of him. But his ex-wife, Emma Stoney, sets up a trust fund to search for him the next time the Kernel returns.... 

By 2570 Earth is transformed. A mere billion people are supported by advanced technology on a world that is almost indistinguishable from the natural, with recovered forests, oceans, ice caps. It is not an age for expansion; there are only small science bases beyond the Earth. But this is a world you would want to live in: a Star Trek without the stars.  

After 500 years the Kernel returns, and a descendant of Stoney, who Malenfant will call Emma II, mounts a mission to see what became of Malenfant. She finds him still alive, cryo-preserved.... 

His culture-shock encounter with a conservative future is entertaining.... 

But the Kernel itself turns out to be attached to a kind of wormhole, through which Malenfant and Emma II, exploring further, plummet back in time, across five billion years.... 

©2019 Stephen Baxter (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group

What listeners say about World Engines

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Disappointing

The story could of been really entertaining the possibilities of the story line are numerous.
But at times I felt as if I were been treated as a child and listening to a childs book.
I did not like the narration the British accents were heinous.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful!

I have been searching for a great story for a while, especially after “we are legion, we are bob” and this really hit the spot, I wonder if the is a nod to Cixin Liu in here, you’ll see what I mean when you read it. Anyway, onto the next book. Oh, one more thing, why isn’t the manifold series available on Audible?

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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a Continuation of Manifold Series

Without giving much away this book is the continuation of the Stephen Baxter Manifold Series(if you've read them there is a few Easter eggs) and should be considered as book 4... I'm disappointed that the rest of the Manifold books aren't on Audible at the moment... Stephen Baxter's as normal is near perfect stories of the future

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3 people found this helpful

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Great story, average narration

The concept, plot, character building are all a tribute to the author. The story is a slow burn, so good for listening to while driving (or doing farm work in my case)
The narration on the whole is ok, but the narrator struggles to portray male characters without sounding cartoonish. Oddly, a male narrator is used in the first part of the audio book and is not heard again. This was confusing.

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