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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)
All stars
Most relevant
Despite being full of technical stuff dated in the 50s, the issues and ideas are still relevant and the story telling is timeless. Very well read, with good voice acting across the range of characters. A funny and thought provoking book.

Still great, don't worry about it being dated

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Ok, 3 stars is not a bad review, it just means I think it’s good but neither great nor amazing.

This is his first novel from 1952, and I think it shows. It’s an interesting idea and interesting that it occurred to him we might lose our purpose the more automation takes over back then already. However, I think his imagining of what that might look like is quite short sighted.

Also, there was no thought behind what evolution women might have gone through in the time between his own culture and that of this book. We don’t know how much time passed, but it can’t have been long because women went from being home makers and the occasional secretary to being homemakers and the occasional secretary. But of course, the homemaker suffered under the rule of the machines too. What’s left to do, but watch tv if the machines do all the clothes and dishwashing, cooking and whatever else?

I’m glad I didn’t read this novel of Vonnegut’s first. I might have been put off. Putting all that aside, though, it is a good thought experiment on human enterprise.

The narrator was fantastic! Great subtle accents and a good speed, that one could accelerate manually without losing quality.

Dated? Great narrator!

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What a wonderful book! Funny and serious at the same time it explores what should we value about modern life. Vonnegut writes in a very clear understandable manner that allows the reader to fall fully into his way of thinking, which is laced with heart felt wisdom and insight. Highly recommended!

Absolute Brilliance!

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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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