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Exordia

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Exordia

By: Seth Dickinson
Narrated by: Sulin Hasso
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About this listen

Michael Crichton meets Marvel’s Venom in award-winning author Seth Dickinson’s science fiction debut

"Viciously funny, vivid to the point of horror, and entirely profound."—Arkady Martine

"Magnificent. . . . A science fiction action juggernaut."—Tamsyn Muir

"Anna, I came to Earth tracking a very old story, a story that goes back to the dawn of time. It’s very unlikely that you’ll die right now. It wouldn’t be narratively complete."

Anna Sinjari—refugee, survivor of genocide, disaffected office worker—has a close encounter that reveals universe-threatening stakes. Enter Ssrin, a many-headed serpent alien who is on the run from her own past. Ssrin and Anna are inexorably, dangerously drawn to each other, and their contact reveals universe-threatening stakes.

While humanity reels from disaster, Anna must join a small team of civilians, soldiers, and scientists to investigate a mysterious broadcast and unknowable horror. If they can manage to face their own demons, they just might save the world.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor.com.

©2024 Seth Dickinson (P)2024 Macmillan Audio Adventure First Contact Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction Funny

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Critic reviews

"Dickinson brings the same richness of characterization that made his Baru Cormorant series (The Traitor Baru Cormorant, 2015) so compelling, but this one reads like a Michael Crichton thriller on psychedelics—in a good way."—Booklist, starred review

"Seth! Jesus f***ing christ, Seth, you can't f--king keep doing this to me, I have a kid who's going to get up at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning no matter how late I stayed up reading, again, it's been days, I can see time."—Max Gladstone, co-author of the New York Times Bestselling This is How You Lose the Time War

"Exordia is an avalanche: an inevitable, overwhelming, pell-mell landscape-scale transformation of a book. Dickinson uses science fiction as an ethical scalpel, and the results are breathtaking: viciously funny, vivid to the point of horror, and entirely profound."—Arkady Martine, Hugo Award-winning author of A Memory Called Empire
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Story: there were some novel ideas here, but I felt that the author went on far, far too long, labouring the point long past the moment at which the reader must have got the message. This book contains a complex weave of ideas, and there's a risk for an audiobook listener of not being able to keep track. This is a story where, if you're going to consume it, reading would be better than listening when it comes to keeping on top of what's going on (and I'd say the same about The Book of the New Sun, or anything by William Gibson).

The story also feels muddled. It starts with a light-hearted section about a New Yorker and her quirky alien room-mate...but then transitions into a military sci-fi tale with lots of philosophical overtones. Pop-culture references are thrown in, but it's not clear what purpose they serve, and only underlines the question: who is this book aimed at?

Also, the conclusion is inconclusive, and sets itself up for a sequel. So don't expect to have all your questions about this tale answered.

Narration: the narrator was consistently clear and easy to understand. However, she gave the impression of not being fully prepared, in that there were many instances where she put the stress in the wrong place, or mispronounced unfamiliar words.

Choice of narrator: this book has an American author writing in American English, and has among its main characters at least two who are American (and none who are British). So why did they choose an English narrator?

Summary: if you're interested, read the paper/e-book version. But it's not clear to me who the audience is supposed to be, and the story goes on long past the point at which it should (IMHO) have finished, while still not actually providing an ending.

Interesting ideas, but too long and muddled

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A rare kind of book that challenges and engages so much, that i can't listen more than half hour, but then can't wait for more. The whole idea about stories being a power, the alien morality, nature of good and evil, wrong vs right. Plenty of thoughts, shocking ending. Actually now that i think about it - shocking everything. I finished the book somehow after a month from picking it up, but now i feel emptiness because I don't have anything else like it.

Heavy but excellent

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I loved Exordia at times, especially the start but the middle dragged. Am I glad I stuck it out? I think so! It's a novel that needs effort and I applaud that, I just wonder if the effort was worth it.

I got to the end, I wish I knew how I felt

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There were moments when I was really into this and longv stretches where it lost me.

There are flashes of genius in the writing for sure and some really cool ideas but for me, it's missing a cohesive thrust through the story.

Lumpy

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I love the idea for this book and on occasions it really took flight, but overall there were many periods where the story dragged.
There were also some passages of maths/physics that I found impenetrable.

The narrator is very good, but I found it odd that only the Kurdish characters were voiced in their native accents.
The Americans were not, they're delivered in what I presume is the actor's natural English accent.
It pulled me out of the story sometimes as the rhythm of speech didn't really match the words being spoken.
I think this book might be better enjoyed read rather than listened to.
My understanding is that there will be a sequel and I wonder if this issue will be solved for the second book.

All in all, it's a great idea but it didn't work for me.

Interesting premise, but a real slog of a book

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