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Slow Bullets

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Slow Bullets

By: Alastair Reynolds
Narrated by: Susan Duerden
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About this listen

A vast conflict, one that has encompassed hundreds of worlds and solar systems, appears to be finally at an end. A conscripted soldier is beginning to consider her life after the war and the family she has left behind. But for Scur - and for humanity - peace is not to be.

On the brink of the ceasefire, Scur is captured by a renegade war criminal and left for dead in the ruins of a bunker. She revives aboard a prisoner transport vessel. Something has gone terribly wrong with the ship.

Passengers - combatants from both sides of the war - are waking up from hibernation far too soon. Their memories, embedded in bullets, are the only links to a world that is no longer recognizable. And Scur will be reacquainted with her old enemy but with much higher stakes than just her own life.

©2015 Alastair Reynolds (P)2015 Tantor Adventure Hard Science Fiction Military Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Technothrillers Thriller & Suspense Fiction Thriller Technology War

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Critic reviews

"A fine example of the true science fictionist's art." (Michael Bishop, author of A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire)
All stars
Most relevant
It's hard to judge the story as it's all pretty much ruined by the narrator's weird intonations and delivery.

Weird narration.

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The narration sounds like Alexa reading a text, the intonation and stress on some words is just so off kilter I had to give up after half a chapter.

Had to give up

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I like Reynolds, as my bookshelves attest. He is wide of the mark on this one though. A very 'Meh' storyline. I struggled to finish which has only happened a couple of times before. The narrator was also a bit breathy for me. Heigh ho. It was free. Hope the author is back on form next time.

Not his best work.

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What did you like best about Slow Bullets? What did you like least?

Reynolds is a really good story teller and he makes the most of an interesting situation in this short story. Unfortunately, the narrator, Susan Duerden was not to my taste. She is, apparently, an accomplished actress, but in this instance contrives to adopt a vocal style reminiscent of a particular BBC anchor, who segues programmes with an awful, home counties, posh-voice that has a peculiar downward vocal inflection on the last syllable of every sentence. It's irritating, frankly.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Slow Bullets?

The opening when the protagonists meet.

How could the performance have been better?

By ensuring the actress wasn't so irritating.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

Probably not.

Any additional comments?

This is the first time I have been moved to criticise a Reynolds offering. I've enjoyed every one, but this one so far. The two outstanding reasons were the narrator and the length of the story, but it also has to be said this had the feeling of something written in a hurry, with shallow characters and a fairly linear plot. Having said that, Reynolds does manage to extract the maximum out of a static situation, but I'm sure he could have made a longer story if he had bothered to make his characters a little more interesting. Also, he could have developed the various strands of the story that were glossed over in the final chapter. The story idea is a good one, the implementation not so much and the narration just not for me.

Short, but interesting

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AR writes a good story and this was OK - not his best, but it was fine for a short story. Unfortunately, a reasonable story was let down badly by the breathy reader. I like to hear female voices when I am listening to a story more than listening to a man, but SD was so breathy and liked to narrate as if she were commentating on a Reality Program, every sentence laboured out and ending in a downward note. Someone let her know - this is not the right intonation for story telling. She read the odd sentence quite well, so I know she can do it. The producer must have been sleeping during the whole thing. Well back to the story - it was kind of out of date, sort of 1950s in style. It lacked real purpose and sharpness, but in the end - I would not send it back. Lets have some more of your good stuff AR!!!

Not up to his usual standards and the telling is i

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