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7th Sigma

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7th Sigma

By: Steven Gould
Narrated by: Fred Berman
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About this listen

Welcome to the territory. Leave your metal behind, all of it. The bugs will eat it, and they'll go right through you to get it. Don't carry it, don't wear it, and for God's sake, don't come here if you've got a pacemaker.

The bugs showed up about 50 years ago - self-replicating, solar-powered, metal-eating machines. No one knows where they came from. They don't like water, though, so they've stayed in the desert Southwest. The territory. People still live here, but they do it without metal. Log cabins, ceramics, what plastic they can get that will survive the sun and heat. Technology has adapted, and so have the people.

Kimble Monroe has chosen to live in the territory. He was born here, and he is extraordinarily well adapted to it. He's one in a million. Maybe one in a billion.

In 7th Sigma, Gould builds an extraordinary SF novel of survival and personal triumph against all the odds.

©2011 Steven Gould (P)2011 Audible, Inc. Adventure Science Fiction Fiction Survival

Critic reviews

"The story is compelling enough that I really did lose sleep to finish the book." ( The San Diego Union-Tribune)
" 7th Sigma offers further proof that good fiction isn’t necessarily about the originality of the tale itself, rather than about how it is told. Gould tells it well." ( Locus)
All stars
Most relevant
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and stayed up late at night as I did not want to switch it off. It is well read, with enough differentiation in the character voices to keep track of who is who. An easy voice to listen to without getting annoyed at the narrator. You need to have some idea of the setting to get into this book. Set in the future where an area known as the territory has been invaded by bugs that feed on metal, anyone who lives there has to live without anything metal. Ceramic guns, clay ovens for cooking, horses for transport etc. Despite being set in the future, the way of life feels like an old fashioned western at times. Lots of intrigue & different happenings to keep you interested, with a good main plot running throughout. Very different to Jumper but a similarly engaging writing style and great likeable characters with real feelings that you can relate to. I like the authors attention to detail and it is as believable as a book like this could ever be.

Enjoyable

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After having this in my Audible library for over a year I finally decided to finish it. I tried a few times and couldn't get past the first few chapters.

It's an odd story. It meanders along slowly like a winding stream. There doesn't seem to be a story line as such just various stories about things that happen to a teenage boy called Kimble. At one point the story jumps forward as Kimble is reminiscing about one 'job' but it's not until 2 chapters further that you find out the story is suddenly 3 years in the future.

I brought this book on my love of the Jumper series, mostly the excellent Reflex and Exo. I think that overall looking back the original ideas Steven Gould had about Kimble and the bugs are excellent but he hasn't managed to bring them together into a cohesive liquid script.

Maybe reading this in paper would be easier, but in Audible format it's so fragmented that I found myself having to rewind a minute or so to be able to pick the story up again.

Narration is brilliant. Very enjoyable and characters clearly recognisable.

Overall I give it a Good. Maybe one for a long journey so you can get your teeth stuck into it.

Strange story without direction.

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