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Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
- Narrated by: Adam Sims, Ian Porter
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
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Summary
Information is everything in "Hard-Boiled Wonderland". A specialist encrypter is attacked by thugs with orders from an unknown source, is chased by invisible predators, and dates an insatiably hungry librarian who never puts on weight. In "The End of the World" a new arrival is learning his role as dream-reader. But there is something eerily disquieting about the changeless nature of the town and its fable-like inhabitants. Told in alternate chapters, the two stories converge and combine to create a novel that is surreal, beautiful, thrilling, and extraordinary.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
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What listeners say about Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Anthony
- 26-05-11
surreal
Well this is my 3rd Murakami from audible and I just love them. The story revolves around one main character whose whole existence becomes embroiled through dreams, fantasy and perhaps even reality at times with the "chubby girl" in pink, the General, the librarian and the Professor. All of whom seem to be forcing him towards his unknown destiny, when along the way he faces the terror of the inklings, the unicorns and other motley strange beasts. The story is strangely surreal but possesses such skill in the telling that every twist and turn is followed with great anticipation to the next junction in the road. It cannot be classed as exciting, however, once started the story carries you along in such a fascinating and imaginative way that it is impossible to put down.
16 people found this helpful
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- Welsh Mafia
- 22-07-11
No Sex or Belly Laughing.....
The familiar unfamiliar is all in place - another great read for those who have been on Planet Murakami before. If you have never experienced the all-encompassing, all engrossing world that is contained singly across Haruki Murakami’s œuvre then this would be the perfect starting point.
This novel also serves as the perfect working definition of that most difficult of definitions - Post Modernism and is thrilling, enthralling and hard to put down once you’ve started. Where the narrative leads is an essential part of the experience. As you read you start to engage and build meaning or simply enjoy the experience.
There are a couple of really first class set pieces, writing and scene setting of the highest quality and an immediacy in the tone and dialogue which at times is startling. Mind tricks are played and for the first time in my reading career I had a ‘flashback’ where an unexplained narrative thread is replayed through the later part of the story - really dazzling.
When Haruki Murakami deservedly wins the Noble Prize for Literature, everyone will be reaching for this book as the substantive starting point that lead to Stockholm - beat the crowd, join the throng give this one a try. The world’s best writer, the best!
12 people found this helpful
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- Sung
- 28-01-15
Another great Haruki Murakami book
I've always loved his books so I was very excited to pick this one up at audible. And of course he never disappoints.. I loved how the whole story comes together towards the end of the book.. A thoroughly enjoyable read!
5 people found this helpful
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- Mark G
- 11-06-13
Amazing
This is one of those rare books that takes you on a totally unique and unexpected journey. It was a wonderful journey, one of those I now feel slightly sad and bemused about because I will never again be able to experience for the first time. I hope you enjoy it.
4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- KG
- 13-04-13
Interesting and unabridged
Classic Murakami, these dystopian tales are intriguing and well-told. At first, the style of telling can be a bit hard to follow but gradually the separate strands become clear then merge. I enjoyed them, as I like the genre, but they can be difficult to engage with and I found myself listening in short bursts rather than losing myself in the tale over longer periods. Personally, I found the narration mechanical, like those "read it to me" computer-generated voices on some devices, but it does suit the story, so may not be irritating to others.
4 people found this helpful
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- Mr
- 13-07-13
simply a good book
The two stories are told magnificantly, starting off unconnected but merging in a wonderful finale.
3 people found this helpful
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- Susan Henderson
- 18-04-19
Wonderful world of MURAKAMI
This is one of my favourite MURAKAMI novels. I’ve read it several times.
I wanted to go through it again but this time listening only.
The chapters alternate between 2 different worlds and the performances really accentuate this very well. The whole mood is shifted back and forwards.
I love the way MURAKAMI merged two worlds like this. You can begin to feel them converge as we get nearer to the end. As always there is not a definite and tidy ending, leaving it up to the readers imagination to fill in the gaps. The plot is interesting and unveiled slowly enough to prevent us from becoming overwhelmed. details of calcutechs and inklings are in-depth but do not take over. The characters are all interesting and slightly flawed in one way or another but this makes them lovable. As always there is an undertone which asks deeper questions about what is important in life and how do we find meaning and purpose.
2 people found this helpful
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- Shelmo2
- 22-10-18
okay but struggled to get through it
Kafka and 1q84 two of my favourite books but for some reason this just didn't work for me. I found the narrator difficult to listen to which may have affected my enjoyment.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Kindle Customer
- 15-05-12
Makes a lot of sense in the end
Really good, different book. I didn't understand in the beginning what was going on, but the the two stories start making sense and in the end it's a thrilling moment to wait for the other world's caharacter decision. Some stuff I didn't get at all, but the whole is fascinating.
2 people found this helpful
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- Gustav
- 22-12-15
Bizarre but never without direction
This is the only Murakami book I've read, and I liked it a lot. The style reminds me of Twin Peaks, but never with the feeling that the author doesn't know what his strange visions mean. You get the feeling that there is a very real world just out of reach, and it up to you to break through the veil to see things for the way they really are.
1 person found this helpful
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- Ryan
- 07-03-12
Grown-up Hiyao Miyazaki
I really enjoyed this book, though, as you can tell from other reviews online, it's not a novel for every taste. Let me put it this way: if you like the films of Hiyao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke), and relish a few dashes of metaphysics, literary/movie/music references, and existentialism, then Murakami's mix of fantasy, surreality, and realism might speak to you. If not, you'll probably be frustrated with the listening/reading experience. (If you don't know Hiyao Miyazaki, then get ye to Netflix first, then come back here.)
On the surface, the book has two intertwining stories. One is about a 30-something loner guy with slacker tendencies and cyberpunkish skills who lives in Tokyo and takes a job with an eccentric scientist, a choice which soon sets off a cascade of strange consequences. This is interleaved with a second story, in which a man with no memory finds himself trapped in a fantastical, dreamlike town, trying to make sense of its fable-like inhabitants and his reasons for being there. As the novel progresses, the two stories begin to intersect. While "magic realism" is a genre that can really fly off the rails sometimes (see Mark Helprin's A Winter's Tale), Murakami keeps his story readable and grounded in a coherent flow of events.
This is one of those books where (in my opinion), you'll enjoy it more if you don't expect the author’s stew of ideas and imagery to make perfect sense or try to analyze his science and philosophy too much. Yes, there are a few logic holes and not everything in the surface-level plot gets resolved in an obvious way. Rather, this is a novel to read for its oddball characters, the vision of the writing, the strange-but-fitting twists and turns of the story, the humorous juxtaposition of the surreal and the everyday, and the existential questions under its fanciful trappings. If you had only 36 hours to live, what would you do with the time? I found the way Murakami chose to answer this question unexpectedly moving. Even with the end of the world coming, you might still have to do laundry...
I enjoyed the narration and voice-acting in the audiobook. The main character's voice reminded me of Spike from Cowboy Bebop, which (in my world) was a bonus.
35 people found this helpful
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- Joe Kraus
- 26-03-13
Still Haunting Me
Would you consider the audio edition of Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World to be better than the print version?
This was my first Murakami, and I've since read Kafka on the Shore. I enjoyed both, but this is the one that's lingered more in my imagination. I enjoyed listening to it, but it's been the 'aftertaste,' the lingering effect of its mystery, that I've especially enjoyed. I don't know whether I'll literally re-read it, but I've certainly done so already in my daydreams.
What about Adam Sims and Ian Porter ’s performance did you like?
The back and forth is striking. It's a feature I wasn't used to in an audiobook. I don't know how well others would pull it off, but they complement each other very well.
7 people found this helpful
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- Darwin8u
- 26-05-12
A TWISTED Carnival Mirror of the Mind
Left-brain/Right-brain; Up/Down; Awake/Asleep; Self/Shadow; Life/Death -- this novel is a twisted carnival mirror of the mind. So it is fitting that I both loved and hated it. I loved it for its absurd brilliance and hated it for its brilliant absurdity. Murakami's novels are always risking absurdity and death. He is adventurous, clever, silly and serious and he manages to pull it all off at once. The closest analogy I can make is the novel seems constructed to both produce the literary equivalence of consonance AND dissonance at the same time; two stories but three harmonics that seem to play with the arrival, rest, and resolution of my consciousness.
24 people found this helpful
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- MM
- 14-02-13
Murakami makes breaks from reality feel natural
Any additional comments?
Wow, this was an awesome listen. I became a Murakami fan after listening to "1q84" and this was my second Murakami title. I am just as impressed. I found the story riveting, and I couldn't wait to see what happened next.
From the very start, the main character is introduced in full disclosure of all his neurotic, quirky traits. The coin counting, the immediate racing worries regarding the elevator being stuck, and everything else just makes him likable. He isn't like me at all, yet he is relatable, because I have my own weird eccentric quirks and habits. He is not an obnoxious caricature of a person.
The story involves a break from reality of sorts, in which suddenly, strange phenomena is described and we learn of unusual brain implants that the main character had, which exposed him to the domino effect of all that occurs within the story. The tale jumps between the eccentric, colorful man we are first introduced to, to a flat, droll, somewhat lifeless man in a gray and eerie landscape. We begin to learn how these two men are connected, and there is much symbolism and concepts of what consciousness, souls, reality and existence really are.
I don't want to spoil it, so all I will say is, it is a great listen and a fantastic book. Also, the very last few sentences (the bird flying off into the sky lines) really hit me for some reason, tears ran down my cheeks, I felt an eerie understanding of the soul and was reminded of one of my favorite quotes, by Herman Hesse, "The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must destroy a world. The bird flies to God." That is one of my favorite quotes, and it felt strange to see something so reminiscent of it in the ending of Murakami's book, and it left me thinking about the story for days after finishing it.
4 people found this helpful
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- Kazuhiko
- 16-06-12
This was more SFish than his other books I've read
Murakami's books are often categorized in "Sci-Fi/Fantasy", but I believe that is mis-labeling. I have read (well, listened to) "Kafka on the shore", "1Q84", "Wind-up bird chronicle", and "Dance, Dance, Dance", and they are not SF, in my opinion - they have core elements other than SF.
However, this book actually reads like SF. The characters actually spend time trying to explain why all these can make sense scientifically (up to a point). But, to me, that's not Murakami's strength, and his effort to build "rational" aspects of the story was wasted as far as I was concerned. Despite this, I could enjoy many of the Murakami's usual funny, scary, sad, and sweet exchanges among the characters. I should also point out the contrast of the vastly different voice characteristics of the two narrators was effective in delivering the two parallel stories that converge towards the end. My favorite Murakami book is still "Kafka on the shore", but this book does add to my understanding of Murakami's paths and style.
4 people found this helpful
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- D. DeNoon
- 01-12-11
Classic Murakami, No Ultraviolence
No spoilers in this review -- important as this book is full of surprises.
It gives nothing away to say that there are two side-by-side realities in this novel, neither of which is the one we live in. Or think we live in, which is a major theme of Hardboiled Wonderland.
If you only read one Murakami novel, this may not be the place to start (I'd recommend Kafka by the Shore). But Murakami enthusiasts should love this one. So should those interested in depth psychology.
There's little actual violence in this one, at least compared to, say, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Not the same as no violence, but nothing that horrified me.
Without giving anything away, I should note that the ending of this book keeps opening up in your mind long after you finish the novel. In short, it's not over when you get to the end.
15 people found this helpful
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- Robert
- 23-01-13
Early Murakami and it feels that way.
While I’m not sure of the original publication date, the English title came out in 1991. Over twenty years old, this makes it one of Murakami’s earlier works and it feels that way.
While many of the author’s works might be considered fantasy, this one is more science fiction. Though, while I continue not to understand why many folks insist on always combining the two genres, this selection clearly has elements of both. There’s everything from unicorns to moving between worlds. How exactly, outside the author’s own “mind,” the latter takes place, I am not sure.
Beginning this new year, I decided to be more dedicated than ever to reading worthwhile books and not books just to pass (kill) time. Here, in this Murakami selection, I have failed miserably. For me, too much time is spent in the book with everyday character machinations and not enough time developing the mechanisms for reconciling the two worlds contained in it. Too much license is taken by the author to leave it to the reader’s own imagination. As a result, the books comes off as immature and not the product of a intelligent, well-seasoned writer portrayed in his later works.
Narration-wise, I believe the reading outperformed the writing.
13 people found this helpful
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- Marco
- 11-09-11
Murakami at his best
The favorite Murakami character, a regular man with no ambition to be noted, find himself in two bizarre words at the same time
5 people found this helpful
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- Audio Gra Gra
- 03-05-15
Ethereal
The first HM book that didn't draw me in and engage me. It has that familiar weird charm and hey this book even has an ending that I'm going to pass as a satisfying resolution (Murakami is often happy to leave loose ends reeeaaallly loose).
I still really enjoyed HM's writing and it kept me interested enough to get through the book in a week or so but putting fantasy aside, I couldn't buy into the insufficiently fleshed out story about the Data War between the Calcutecs and the Semiotecs. It was all just too vague and ethereal to me. This and the underground world of the Inklings that seemed to have no real point kept my engagement at arms length. I floated through this part of the story looking for something solid to hang onto but it was just all so wispy and aloof.
I finished the book feeling like maybe I'd rushed through reading it and I'd missed something blindingly obvious. I'll probably revisit this one in a few years to see if the second times a charm.
1 person found this helpful
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- Fox
- 01-02-13
Amazing writing style, excellent voice acting
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I would definitely recommend this book to a friend. The casual way in which Murakami illustrates the incredible and fantastical happenings is enthralling. Also, the dual voice actors really add to the contrast between alternating stories in alternating chapters.
What other book might you compare Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World to and why?
I think that the closest thing I've read would have to be Snakes and Earrings and I believe they are similar just by style and maybe Japanese voice. Things seem to just happen to the main characters rather than them playing a strong active role.
Have you listened to any of Adam Sims and Ian Porter ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I have not, but they did an excellent job with the characters of this book.
Who was the most memorable character of Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and why?
Its interesting because he is not anyone extraordinary, but I think the main character just because you are constantly witnessing the incredible happenings from his eyes.
1 person found this helpful