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Player Piano

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About this listen

Kurt Vonnegut's first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. Paul's rebellion is vintage Vonnegut – wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality.

As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of Kurt Vonnegut's book, you'll also receive an exclusive Jim Atlas interview. This interview – where James Atlas interviews Gay Talese about the life and work of Kurt Vonnegut – begins as soon as the audiobook ends.

©1980 Kurt Vonnegut (P)2008 Audible, Inc. Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Satire Science Fiction Comedy

Critic reviews

"Mr. Vonnegut is a sharp-eyed satirist." ( The New York Times)
"One of the best living American writers." (Graham Greene)
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Full marks across the board for this one. Not only is this a wonderful example of Vonnegut's characteristially clear and evocative writing, but the story is so very relevant to the modern (2022) world. Substitute "algorithm" for "machine" and you have a bitingly funny and accurate picture of all that is oppressive about search engines and social media, written decades before the invention of home computers or the internet.

The performance is also outstanding. Christian Rummel captures every character (and there are a lot of them!) with a pitch-perfect voice, bringing them all to life in all their gloriously flawed eccentricity.

Definitely worth 11 hours of your time

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I used to be a great fan of KV in my youth and I was intrigued to return to him. Player Piano isn’t as polished as some of his later novels but it’s surprisingly fresh over 60 years on and I really enjoyed it. Excellent narration too.

Surprisingly fresh all these years on

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vonegut vision in player piano is immensely profound. the plot is engaging but the world is the true star of the novel, it's unsettling lyn accurate in many ways. I think Orwell reads vonegut...

brilliant

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The story was good, yet I felt towards the end it seemed somewhat rushed. I won’t go into specifics to avoid spoilers, but still worth a read.

Good voice actor, good story

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Another great Vonnegut book, narrated very well with good characters voices, a definite must listen.

Another great Vonnegut book.

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