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Mockingbird

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About this listen

In a world where the human population has suffered devastating losses, a handful of survivors cling to what passes for life in a postapocalyptic, dying landscape. A world where humans wander, drugged and lulled by electronic bliss. A dying world of no children and no art, where reading is forbidden. And a strange love triangle: Spofforth, who runs the world, the most perfect machine ever created, whose only wish is to die; and Paul and Mary Lou, a man and a woman whose passion for each other is the only hope for the future of human beings on Earth.

An elegiac dystopia of mankind coming to terms with its own imminent extinction, Mockingbird was nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Novel.

©2014 Walter Tevis (P)2016 Tantor Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Heartfelt Thought-Provoking Emotionally Gripping Dystopian

Critic reviews

" Mockingbird will become one of those books that coming generations will periodically rediscover with wonder and delight." ( The Washington Post)
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Food for thought. I've lost count how many times I've read / listened to this book. Brilliant.

Outstanding futuristic story

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I loved this and think it’s got a lot of truth in it - would be good for all ages

Brilliant and thought provoking

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Excellent story. Would make a great film or series. Really good narration. Very enjoyable tale.

Brave New World meets 1984

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🧡There are so many cultural touchstones for me in this whip smart dystopia. It’s got iRobot’s hyper-advanced AI running the world. There are the mind numbing drugs of Brave New World keeping people docile. And there’s something very Winston and Julia from 1984 about the way the two main human characters, Paul and Mary Lou, awaken to the reality of their existence. Plus the charm of Marty Mcfly getting to grips with a hoverboard in Back to the Future when they learn how to read.

💚 The plot is a slow burn, but the symbolism and the questions raised throughout are fascinating, tackling everything from the morality of advanced technology to the role of religion.
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SOUNDBITE

🎧 A thoroughly well-produced audiobook. Loved that there were two narrators for the three main characters, with Robert Fass doing double duty as the voices of Spofforth and Paul.

An absorbing thought experiment

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A world set in dystopian future that accurately predicted the steps we are taking right now in the 21st century.
At first it seemed like an interesting fleeting fancy of a fantasist: a world where humans take drugs to numb their feelings, where privacy is valued above all else and all tasks are fulfilled by robots. However, as the novel unravels it’s hard not to draw parallels between our own world and to not reflect on what the ultimate consequences of our actions are.
The concepts such as the age of the “Death of oil” and the administration of “numbing drugs” to deal with anxiety and stress of the urban lifestyle are extremely relevant today. We are currently in the period in history that author has imagined as a set up for his novel. Novels like “1984” and “541 Fahrenheit” are a bleak look at the extremes of what can happen if humanity continues on the path of selfishness and destruction and pride. “The mockingbird” puts it forward as an inevitable, simply a next step in human evolution - the dumbing down of senses and intellect.
Great novel, should be a compulsory part of school curriculum

A must read! A very accurate look at our future!

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