Listen free for 30 days
-
Last Year
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £23.39
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Burning Paradise
- By: Robert Charles Wilson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cassie Klyne, 19 years old, lives in the United States in the year 2015 - but it's not our United States, and it's not our 2015. Cassies world has been at peace since the Great Armistice of 1918. There was no World War II, no Great Depression. Poverty is declining, prosperity is increasing everywhere; social instability is rare. But Cassie knows the world isn't what it seems. Her parents were part of a group who gradually discovered the awful truth: That for decades - back to the dawn of radio communications - human progress has been interfered with, made more peaceful and benign, by an extraterrestrial entity.
-
-
Interesting plot
- By *Angela* on 10-06-15
-
A Bridge of Years
- By: Robert Charles Wilson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A secluded Pacific Northwest cottage becomes a door to the past for Tom Winter, who travels back to the New York City of 1962, followed by a human killing machine that he alone must stop.
-
Blind Lake
- By: Robert Charles Wilson
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robert Charles Wilson, says The New York Times, "writes superior science fiction thrillers." His Darwinia won Canada's Aurora Award; his most recent novel, The Chronoliths, won the prestigious John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Now he tells a gripping tale of alien contact and human love in a mysterious but hopeful universe.
-
-
Give It A Go
- By Gavin Jones on 20-09-19
-
The Doors of Eden
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lee and Mal went looking for monsters on Bodmin Moor four years ago, and only Lee came back. She thought she’d lost Mal forever, now miraculously returned. But what happened that day on the moors? And where has Mal been all this time? Mal's reappearance hasn’t gone unnoticed by MI5 either, and their officers also have questions. Julian Sabreur is investigating an attack on top physicist Kay Amal Khan. This leads Julian to clash with agents of an unknown power – and they may or may not be human. His only clue is grainy footage, showing a woman who supposedly died on Bodmin Moor.
-
-
I gave up after Ch3
- By Barrymx5 on 22-10-20
-
The Dark Clouds Shining
- By: David Downing
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
London, 1921: Ex-Secret Service spy Jack McColl is in prison serving time for assaulting a cop. McColl has been embittered by the Great War. He can't stomach spying for the British Empire anymore. He's also heartbroken. The love of his life, radical journalist Caitlin Hanley, parted ways with him three years earlier so she could offer her services to the Communist revolution in Moscow. Then his former Secret Service boss offers McColl the chance to escape his jail sentence if he takes a dangerous and unofficial assignment in Russia, where McColl is already a wanted man.
-
The Long Walk
- By: Stephen King, Richard Bachman
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the near future, where America has become a police state, 100 boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. The game is simple - maintain a steady walking pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings and you're out - permanently.
-
-
Excellent
- By Metaltoe on 12-04-17
-
Burning Paradise
- By: Robert Charles Wilson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cassie Klyne, 19 years old, lives in the United States in the year 2015 - but it's not our United States, and it's not our 2015. Cassies world has been at peace since the Great Armistice of 1918. There was no World War II, no Great Depression. Poverty is declining, prosperity is increasing everywhere; social instability is rare. But Cassie knows the world isn't what it seems. Her parents were part of a group who gradually discovered the awful truth: That for decades - back to the dawn of radio communications - human progress has been interfered with, made more peaceful and benign, by an extraterrestrial entity.
-
-
Interesting plot
- By *Angela* on 10-06-15
-
A Bridge of Years
- By: Robert Charles Wilson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A secluded Pacific Northwest cottage becomes a door to the past for Tom Winter, who travels back to the New York City of 1962, followed by a human killing machine that he alone must stop.
-
Blind Lake
- By: Robert Charles Wilson
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robert Charles Wilson, says The New York Times, "writes superior science fiction thrillers." His Darwinia won Canada's Aurora Award; his most recent novel, The Chronoliths, won the prestigious John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Now he tells a gripping tale of alien contact and human love in a mysterious but hopeful universe.
-
-
Give It A Go
- By Gavin Jones on 20-09-19
-
The Doors of Eden
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lee and Mal went looking for monsters on Bodmin Moor four years ago, and only Lee came back. She thought she’d lost Mal forever, now miraculously returned. But what happened that day on the moors? And where has Mal been all this time? Mal's reappearance hasn’t gone unnoticed by MI5 either, and their officers also have questions. Julian Sabreur is investigating an attack on top physicist Kay Amal Khan. This leads Julian to clash with agents of an unknown power – and they may or may not be human. His only clue is grainy footage, showing a woman who supposedly died on Bodmin Moor.
-
-
I gave up after Ch3
- By Barrymx5 on 22-10-20
-
The Dark Clouds Shining
- By: David Downing
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
London, 1921: Ex-Secret Service spy Jack McColl is in prison serving time for assaulting a cop. McColl has been embittered by the Great War. He can't stomach spying for the British Empire anymore. He's also heartbroken. The love of his life, radical journalist Caitlin Hanley, parted ways with him three years earlier so she could offer her services to the Communist revolution in Moscow. Then his former Secret Service boss offers McColl the chance to escape his jail sentence if he takes a dangerous and unofficial assignment in Russia, where McColl is already a wanted man.
-
The Long Walk
- By: Stephen King, Richard Bachman
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the near future, where America has become a police state, 100 boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. The game is simple - maintain a steady walking pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings and you're out - permanently.
-
-
Excellent
- By Metaltoe on 12-04-17
-
The Bastard
- The Kent Family Chronicles, Book 1
- By: John Jakes
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set against the colorful tumult of events that gave rise to our fledgling nation, this novel of romance and adventure introduces Phillipe Charboneau. The illegitimate son of an English nobleman, Phillipe flees Europe and, as Philip Kent, joins the men who set our course for freedom. The Bastard is the first volume in the Kent Family Chronicles, a series of novels that details one family's journey in the early years of the American nation.
-
-
Wonderful book
- By Shena on 25-07-21
-
Empire Games
- Empire Games, Book 1
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rita Douglas is plucked from her dead-end job and trained as a reluctant US spy. All because she has the latent genetic talent to hop between alternate time lines - and infiltrate them. Her United States is waging a high-tech war, targeting assassins who can move between worlds to deliver death on a mass scale, and Rita will be their secret weapon.
-
-
Disappointed
- By Amazon Customer on 13-11-19
-
Machine
- A White Space Novel
- By: Elizabeth Bear
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Doctor Jens. The first part of her job involves jumping out of perfectly good spaceships. The second part requires developing emergency treatments for sick aliens of species she's never seen before. She loves it. But her latest emergency is also proving a mystery: two ships, one ancient and one new, locked in a dangerous embrace, a mysterious crew suffering from an even more mysterious ailment, a shipmind trapped in an inadequate body, much of her memory pared away, a murderous virus from out of time.
-
-
Brilliant
- By C and/or A on 14-03-22
-
Soon
- The Beginning of the End
- By: Jerry Jenkins
- Narrated by: Steve Sever
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the aftermath of World War III, world leaders resolve as never before to eliminate war. The global conflict killed millions and wiped out entire countries. All nations agree to eradicate the most serious threat to world peace: religion.
-
Beyond the Hallowed Sky
- Lightspeed Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Ken MacLeod
- Narrated by: Elliot Chapman
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a brilliant scientist gets a letter from herself about faster-than-light travel, she doesn't know what to believe. The equations work, but her paper is discredited - and soon the criticism is more than scientific. Exiled by the establishment, she gets an offer to build her starship from an unlikely source. But in the heights of Venus and on a planet of another star, a secret is already being uncovered that will shake humanity to its foundations.
-
-
Old fashioned
- By R. Maines on 08-01-22
-
The Prince of Bagram Prison
- By: Alex Carr
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Army Intelligence reservist Kat Caldwell is teaching Arabic at a military college in Virginia when the order comes: retired spy chief Dick Morrow needs to find a CIA informant who has slipped away from his handler in Spain and may be heading to Morocco
-
Inhibitor Phase
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miguel de Ruyter is a man with a past. Fleeing the 'wolves'—the xenocidal alien machines known as Inhibitors—he has protected his family and community from attack for forty years, sheltering in the caves of an airless, battered world called Michaelmas. The slightest hint of human activity could draw the wolves to their home, to destroy everything...utterly. Which is how Miguel finds himself on a one-way mission with his own destructive mandate: to eliminate a passing ship, before it can bring unwanted attention down on them.
-
-
The sublime Reynolds and Lee do it again!
- By Simon. M on 28-08-21
-
Ring of Fire I
- By: Eric Flint - editor
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 18 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The battle between democracy and tyranny is joined, and the American Revolution has begun over a century ahead of schedule. A cosmic accident has shifted a modern West Virginia town back through time and space to land it and its 20th century technology in Germany in the middle of the Thirty Years War. History must take a new course as American freedom and democracy battle against the squabbling despots of 17th century Europe.
-
Bone Silence
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quoins are accepted currency throughout the thousands of worlds of the Congregation. Ancient, and of unknown origin and purpose, people have traded with them, fought for them, and stolen quoin hordes from booby-trapped caches at risk to life and limb throughout the Thirteen Occupations. Only now it's becoming clear they have another purpose...as do the bankers who've been collecting them.
-
-
Great ending to this trilogy
- By JP on 08-02-20
-
Salvation Lost
- By: Peter F. Hamilton
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 15 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 23rd century, humanity is enjoying a comparative utopia. Yet life on Earth is about to change forever. Feriton Kane’s investigative team has discovered the worst threat ever to face mankind, and we’ve almost no time to fight back. The supposedly benign Olyix plan to harvest humanity, in order to carry us to their god at the end of the universe. And as their agents conclude schemes down on earth, vast warships converge above to gather this cargo. Some factions push for humanity to flee, to live in hiding amongst the stars, although only a chosen few would make it out in time.
-
-
Would make for Fantastic TV
- By Kie on 04-11-19
-
Relic
- By: Alan Dean Foster
- Narrated by: Marc Thompson
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once Homo sapiens reigned supreme, spreading from star system to star system in an empire that encountered no alien life and thus knew no enemy.... save itself. As had happened many times before, the most primal human instincts rose up, only this time armed with the advanced scientific knowledge to create a genetically engineered smart virus that quickly wiped out humanity to the last man. That man is Ruslan, the sole known surviving human being in the universe.
-
-
Garbage
- By Charles on 06-02-19
-
When the Sparrow Falls
- By: Neil Sharpson
- Narrated by: Jake Fairbrother
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the future, AI are everywhere - over half the human race lives online. But in the Caspian Republic, the last true human beings have made their stand, and now the repressive one-party state is locked in perpetual cold war with the outside world. Security Agent Nikolai South is given a seemingly mundane task: escorting a dead journalist's widow while she visits the Caspian Republic to identify her husband's remains.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Bougle on 23-08-21
Summary
Two events made September first a memorable day for Jesse Cullum. First, he lost a pair of Oakley sunglasses. Second, he saved the life of President Ulysses S. Grant.
In the near future of Robert Charles Wilson's Last Year, the technology exists to open doorways into the past - but not our past, not exactly. Each "past" is effectively an alternate world, identical to ours but only up to the date on which we access it. And a given "past" can be reached only once. After a passageway is open, it's the only road to that particular past; once closed, it can't be reopened.
A passageway has been opened to a version of late 19th-century Ohio. It's been in operation for most of a decade, but it's no secret on either side of time. A small city has grown up around it to entertain visitors from our time, and many locals earn a good living catering to them. But like all such operations, it has a shelf life; as the "natives" become more sophisticated, their version of the "past" grows less attractive as a destination.
Jesse Cullum is a native. And he knows the passageway will be closing soon. He's fallen in love with a woman from our time, and he means to follow her back - no matter whose secrets he has to expose in order to do it.
More from the same
Author
Narrator
What listeners say about Last Year
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- carl
- 25-06-17
Very enjoyable
Not amazing and not quite what I expected but it kept me comming back for more if there was a book 2 I think I'd buy it!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kevin
- 18-03-18
Wrong focus
If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?
Robert Charles Wilson completists & western fans
Has Last Year put you off other books in this genre?
No
What three words best describe Scott Brick’s performance?
Excellent, involving & professional
Any additional comments?
I felt it had an interesting idea but then focused on the wrong things. It developed characters that weren’t relevant & followed a storyline that didn’t take advantage of the concept
-
Overall
- Spaceowl
- 22-10-17
Return to form for Wilson
After a few dodgy titles, this feels like a return to form for Wilson. Good story, good narrator and good production, in all highly recommended.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jenny
- 09-03-17
Excellent - really enjoyed this
This is a terrific novel. It's sort of like Westworld with time-travel. There are crimes to be solved, a love interest, great character development and a race against time before the passage from the future to the past closes forever.
I really, really enjoyed it. People from our century landing in 1879, stunning them with our inventions (iPhones, helicopters etc) and exploiting them, of course. The 1879ers are by turns outraged, bemused and generally entertained by 21st century notions of inclusivity and tolerance. Perfect ending for a sequel.
Of course, part of the appeal for me is Scott Brick, probably the most brilliant narrator I have ever listened to. If you haven't read The Passage trilogy, well, you have a treat in store.
Highly recommended. Pure pleasure.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Pree Bee
- 05-05-18
didn't think I would like it...
I didn't think I would like it, however I had spent the credit so I better at least try an hour.
and then I was hooked. not only is the writing interesting but the concept was even more so. the ethics and philosophy behind time travel, corporations, how science is used, when people think they are doing good but are actually doing harm were all very interesting and emails topics to me. I wanted to go deeper into it.
the lighter parts, ie. there sharing of future music with ppl from the 1880s was so enjoyable. I would have wanted to hear more on it. the simple use of language change from the 1880s to now was also so fun to see as the main character and Elizabeth interacted as well as others.
Scott Brick did an amazing job narrating. one of my favs.
I'm giving it 4 stars, because... I want more. and the ending left me hanging. sequel?
17 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Jayde
- 01-02-18
Interesting at least
Don't know if I read it wrong or what but this was not what I expected. I thought I was getting a story about time travel into different versions of the past.
This story is from the perspective of one of the people in the past where a time portal has been set up and a city has been built around it. There is no time travel taking place. Only the interaction of people from the future with people from the past in a specific setting for a specified time.
With that said... This was an excellent read. Enjoyed the story and the premise was good and believable.
The narrator did a good job as well. Well written and well read.
17 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Mark S Bowley
- 19-12-18
Shitty ending
Ughhh... this book was great... Slow at times but fast at others it would have been nice to have some closure no spoiler alerts but there really is none
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- kwdayboise (Kim Day)
- 18-04-17
Great Action in a Time Travel Story
It’s ironic that what is probably the least likely of science fiction tropes, time travel, also offers some of the richest possibilities in the genre, with the possible exception of alternate history, which runs along the same lines but can only go one direction.
Robert Charles Wilson has created in this latest book a future universe in which time travel to the past has become possible, though the source of this boon is mysterious and debated. Some believe the mirror-like path to the past was created by a combination of academic and industrial knowhow. Others suspect that humans from the far future brought the technology with them and those future humans are now captives in Area 51.
In any case, the window is now in the hands of a corporation which runs Futurity City. The corporation profits in multiple ways. People from the current timeline can pay a hefty fee to travel back to the past to spend time there. The man who runs the city also works with the “locals” in the past, promising them modern technology such as medical cures for five years of access to that timeline. Although it’s thought that the timelines being visited are alternate realities, so that changes can’t affect the future, it’s been decided that five years is the maximum allowable time to avoid creating distortions in history. Through these contacts a great deal of gold from the past also manages to make its way into the corporation’s coffers.
Jesse Collum is a security guard, a local working in Futurity City, who has been assigned guard duty for a visit from President U. S. Grant. He manages to stop a gunman who has brought a weapon from the future, something forbidden, to attempt to assassinate Grant. An investigation into the origins of that gun takes Jesse into his own past in San Francisco where he learns some ugly secrets about Futurity City as it begins to crumble.
Wilson has written some amazing action scenes into this book with a broad variety of heroes and villains, some from the future but many from his own time period.
The setting allows Wilson to explore social differences between the 1870s and the future. To Jesse’s eyes the future does not seem much better with the exception of medical advances, and to many other locals the future, with it’s mingling of races, feminism, and gay marriages sounds like a horror. So the reader is also challenged to face and assess modern progress with a “ripping read” as they say for a reward.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- yael
- 25-05-19
What Westworld should have been
I've thoroughly enjoyed this novel.
I've been contrasting it with Westworld (the movie and the series) in my mind, and in my opinion this novel is in its own class. While it deals with similar themes, it does so with a breadth and attention while being less showy and pretentious, and taking the time to build its characters to have much more depth than Westworld. While both have unpleasant psychopaths as characters, here we have only a relatively minor one.
It does start pretty slow, but it really grips you. Also, while I haven't checked every detail, it seems to be meticulously researched. As all good science fiction does, it takes its basic premise (unlikely as it seems) as a given and explores the characters reaction to it, and more - the response of our own culture and of the past culture to it.
I also liked that the story is self contained, I'm not sure much more could be gained by expanding it into a series.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- NMwritergal
- 09-12-16
I RCW keeps writing for years to come
I discovered Robert Charles Wilson some 25 years ago and have read all his books--I started with Memory Wire (loved it). It's a pity his earlier books aren't on audio. Some of his books I like and some I love, but he's about the only author (in any genre) who I can count on to at least deliver a book I enjoy, and when you read/listen to about 300 books a year, this is a pretty big deal.
This one I liked. It has his usual melancholy tone, characters fully developed, plot about more than action/adventure--though there is always that. He's always thinking deeply about something in his writing (technology, social issues, psychological issues, etc.) and then builds a story around it.
I appreciate that a piece of the story is always about a relationship--which is NEVER something stupid like insta-love and uses none of the horrible romance tropes.
Ok, I'm now going to listen to Bridge of Years, which I read in 1991 or so when it first came out. I recall liking that one very much...
20 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- jennifer wilson
- 05-07-18
meehhh
the description about the story is not exactly how it ended up going. It could have been so much more with the storyline. But it wasn't. Really didn't like the ending at all. I wouldn't recommend wasting the hours it takes to listen to this story.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- J. Billings
- 30-04-18
a book that reaches far beyond it's premise
As someone who can't stand most historical fiction, I was surprised at how engaging this book was. it's worth a try even if the synopsis doesn't sound appealing.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Andrew Pollack
- 13-01-17
Time Travel w/o Paradox Issues
Suppose you could go back and change things and it didn't matter? What are the ethics of a time travel theme park? As always, Wilson explores the concept from the standpoint of human society interacting with something new. There's a solid plot and great characters here struggling with their own lives in the midst of the mix of old and new. What does our modern society look like to someone from the US just after the Civil War? How do our 21st century expectations fare in the era of the wild west? Come visit the past -- but best you get your immunizations first, watch where you eat, and stay on the marked paths.
As always, Scott Brick does a great job with the narration. No cliffhangers here. This story comes to a conclusion but leaves plenty of room for a follow-up. I look forward to that very much.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Gregory T. Anderson
- 22-05-17
A Neat Concept But Poorly Executed
Would you try another book from Robert Charles Wilson and/or Scott Brick?
As for the author, I really don't think so. He takes what is a rather unique application of the "Alternate Universe" and bogs it down with extraneous details and rather boring plot developments.
The narration was good and unobtrusive, but it didn't blow me away. However, I don't think I would avoid the narrator to the same degree I will probably avoid the author.
What character would you cut from Last Year?
The wealthy proprietor, August Kemp, was pretty flat and unbelievable, making important decisions with no explanation of his motivation.
Any additional comments?
1.) It felt like really important details and explanations were missing… Perhaps edited out by the publisher? If that's the case, you can't really blame the author, but he really needs to find a new publisher.
2.) This is obviously the beginning of a Series, but, unless this introduction is seriously revised and reworked at some point in the future, I sure don't see that as being a successful endeavor.
6 people found this helpful