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Emergency Skin

Forward collection

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Emergency Skin

By: N. K. Jemisin
Narrated by: Jason Isaacs
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About this listen

2020 Audie Award Winner for Best Science Fiction

Audible narration by Jason Isaacs (Star Trek: Discovery)

What will become of our self-destructed planet? The answer shatters all expectations in this subversive speculation from the Hugo Award - winning author of the Broken Earth trilogy.

An explorer returns to gather information from a climate-ravaged Earth that his ancestors, and others among the planet’s finest, fled centuries ago. The mission comes with a warning: A graveyard world awaits him. But so do those left behind - hopeless and unbeautiful wastes of humanity who should have died out ages ago. After all this time, there’s no telling how they’ve devolved. Steel yourself, soldier. Get in. Get out. And try not to stare.

N. K. Jemisin’s Emergency Skin is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

©2019 N. K. Jemisin (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Dystopian Fiction First Contact Genetic Engineering Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Funny Witty Thought-Provoking Global Emergency

Critic reviews

“Emergency Skin, by the award(s)-winning Jemisin, is part of a sensational project called Forward, which brings together six writers, each telling a story about Earth’s imagined future.” --Spine Magazine

“Narrator Jason Isaac’s voice is the perfect mix of insistent, pedantic, and scornful…This brief but clever tale is truly best enjoyed on audio.” (AudioFile - Earphones Award Winner)

“The tale is a fascinating experiment in story structure…Thoughtful and interactive.” (LOCUS)

“This is exactly how I like my techno-anxiety…Happy bingeing!” (Audible, an October Editors Pick)

All stars
Most relevant
alot of the text is one side of a conversation, which I thought worked very well. enjoyable and interesting short story.

told from an interesting perspective

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The narrator really brought this story to life, particularly the later part where we were introduced to the character of the old man.

Enjoyable and thought provoking

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I just really enjoyed this. I loved the premise of the plot, I loved how the story was told. Solid bit of sci-fi, albeit it short.

Solid bit of sci-fi

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I did really enjoy this idea and the POV it was told from. The execution and performance by the narrator was fabulous.

Fantastic idea.

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When earth, mentioned in polution, was no longer able to support it's growing population, the wealthy, the powerful, the 'best of the best', flew away to found new woods and shape them to be better. They left everyone else behind to die. Centuries into the future, a young soldier is sent back to Tellus - their new name for Earth - to try to recover something essential which was fast running out and was known to have been plentiful in that planet. He goes alone in this dangerous task but with an A.I.implant to guide and instruct him - and it is from this 2nd person point of view that we learn the story; the voice of the young soldier himself is never heard.

The writing format is unusual but very effective, if a little clunky at times. The A.I.'s comments and outbursts are often amusing in context and the whole is a clever indictment of present day politics. Narrator Jason Isaacs does an excellent job of providing voice both for the A.I. and for the others encountefed. Well paced and nicely modulated, also, his was a good performance.

A fun, far futuristic short story, which pokes fun at present day circumstances, if a little over hopeful about the furure. Nothing wrong with that: we all need a little more hope in our lives.

"The babble of the rabble."

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