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Summerland

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Summerland

By: Hannu Rajaniemi
Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
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About this listen

An awe-inspiring account of the afterlife and what happens when it spills over into the world of the living. The new novel from the most exciting new voice in the genre since Neal Stephenson.

Loss is a thing of the past. Murder is obsolete. Death is just the beginning.

In 1938, death is no longer feared but exploited. Since the discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, a metropolis for the recently deceased.

Yet Britain isn't the only contender for power in this life and the next. The Soviets have spies in Summerland, and the technology to build their own god.

When SIS agent Rachel White gets a lead on one of the Soviet moles, blowing the whistle puts her hard-earned career at risk. The spy has friends in high places, and she will have to go rogue to bring him in.

But how do you catch a man who's already dead?

Read by Antonia Beamish.

©2018 Orion Publishing Group Limited (P)2018 Hannu Rajaniemi Science Fiction Fiction

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Some great world building, a pre WW2 spy drama with a working afterlife and ghosts that can can control willing mediums. This book was fun and left me hoping the author would return to this world again in future novels.

Narration was good other than when narrator lowered their voice to represent whispering, these sections were often inaudible when listening with earbuds.

Great story, problems with narration.

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Sure the style is new and interesting, the history twist is fun, but it did not draw me in enough to get past the other problems I had when listening. It came in too many bits and I kept losing my way with the threads and plot. Perhaps if I knew more about the spy genre or history I would understand. But by the end I was just waiting for it to finish. So great ideas as I expected, but I did not get absorbed in the new world enough. This is not enough to put me off another Hannu Rajaniemi book, as I know there will be more great things from this author.

Not like the last book at all.

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Antonia Beamish reads this fantastically. Engaging and passionate and well paced. The story its self is very interesting, it's a great concept and a good story but I think it could be so much more.

A good idea you could do more with

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It’s a great story, interesting characters- thought provoking
The narrator got less wooden as she got into the book, i didn’t mind in the end

The story

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I've read & listened the Quantum Thief multiple times and enjoyed it a lot. I was expecting similar high standard from this book and was gravely disappointed. The characters are paper thin and the 'plot' more plausibly found from a student essay that a book from awarded author.

Narration wasn't completely awful, but not very good either. Really annoying was her habit of emphasizing unusual/special words, which are plenty in Rajaniemi's novel. It broke the illusion of these strange things being normal in the imaginary world of the novel.

All around terrible

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