Existence cover art

Existence

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Existence

By: David Brin
Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins, Robin Miles, L. J. Ganser
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £29.99

Buy Now for £29.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Best-selling, award-winning futurist David Brin returns to globe-spanning, high concept SF with Existence.

Gerald Livingston is an orbital garbage collector. For a hundred years, people have been abandoning things in space, and someone has to clean it up. But there’s something spinning a little bit higher than he expects, something that isn’t on the decades’ old orbital maps. An hour after he grabs it and brings it in, rumors fill Earth’s infomesh about an "alien artifact". Thrown into the maelstrom of worldwide shared experience, the Artifact is a game-changer - a message in a bottle, an alien capsule that wants to communicate. The world reacts as humans always do: with fear and hope and selfishness and love and violence. And insatiable curiosity.

©2012 David Brin (P)2012 Audible, Inc. First Contact Science Fiction Fiction

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Heart of the Comet cover art
The Practice Effect cover art
Kiln People cover art
Earthcore cover art
Proxima Rising cover art
Earth cover art
The Thousand Earths cover art
The Fossil cover art
Stars End: The Complete Series Box Set cover art
New Frontiers cover art
Children of Time cover art
Revelation Space cover art
Veiled Alliances cover art
Existence cover art
House of Suns cover art
Anathem cover art
All stars
Most relevant

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

It's a great story, well told

What was one of the most memorable moments of Existence?

I realised about 10 minutes in that this is his best book since "Earth". While Brin has been reasonably prolific in terms of output, I first discovered him via "Earth" and was then somewhat let down by other books which had a very different feel. If you liked "Earth" you'll absolutely adore this.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

Well delivered, good pace.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It's a long book and as it was so good I found myself almost wanting to 'ration' myself to a few hours a day while on holiday!

Best novel since "Earth"

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I like a book with alot more action and alot less philosophy i also found it quite annoying in places especially the rasta man !
So not my thing but some people might like it.

Not my thing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Kept me amused and coming back for more - got a little weary half way through with some of the inevitability of the story line and then picked up at the end with a lesson on life I guess you could say. Overall this was well worth listening to if you enjoy an intelligent tale of a possible future. I see from other reviews that I should try Earth next.

Not such a sad existence

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Don't bother. The end of the book is missing from the download.



Most dissappointing.



Shame that this was not seen by Audible.

Shame that the whole book is not on the download.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is absolutely fantastic. Actually, its IMPORTANT. But it took me a while to get into, and there are a few things I just had to decide to overlook (some of the language - ie it is set after some world-altering event called 'Awfulday', etc.), and in a way the book is a vehicle for the author to explore the theory and questions around artificial intelligence, alien life, and how humanity would react to first contact (which doesn't happen as you think it would!!). It is imaginative, and the further in you get, the more each thread of the story falls into place, and parts of the story that you thought may be 'filler' had intention from the start. It is my most recommended new read of the year, but you have to persevere - stick with it for rewards!

Stick with it...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews