The Generation cover art

The Generation

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The Generation

By: Holly Cave
Narrated by: Imogen Church
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About this listen

Are you who they say you are?

London, 2052. An ID tag is embedded in the flesh of your neck. Your every move is tracked. Your genes tell the State nearly everything about you. Everything you were. Everything you are. Everything you will be. For Freya, Kane and the rest of this fledgling generation, the battle to break free of their genetic horoscopes will not be without bloodshed....

Holly Cave was born in Devon, UK, in 1983. She has a BSc in biology and an MSc in science communication from Imperial College London. She spent four years working at the Science Museum in London. After a career break to travel the world, Holly became a freelance writer and now writes about science for nonexpert audiences alongside her fiction work.

She lives in rural Buckinghamshire in a wisteria-draped pub (yes, pub) with her husband and her dog, Cooper. The Generation is her debut novel (although she wrote a number of unpublished works with her father on his typewriter in the 1990s). The Generation has been shortlisted for the 2015 Mumsnet and Janklow & Nesbit novel award.

©2015 Holly Cave (P)2016 Audible, Ltd Fiction Genetic Engineering Science Fiction Technothrillers Thriller & Suspense Thriller Technology England

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All stars
Most relevant
If you are in any doubt about the way things have gone on since 2019 read this!
It’s so close to the NWO that this isn’t far off the world they want us in. This could be our future .

For some reason I didn’t get into the first bit but glad I didn’t stop, so worth the listen, I’m going to listen again.

This is so close to our future .brilliant!

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🧡 Listen to this for the dystopic* dread and thrilling premise, for the Gattaca-esque world it creates. If you enjoy revelling in the open-floodgates, worst case scenario of tech invading our lives then this is one to try. And that’s me. So why not 4 or 5 stars?

💚 This was good. I vacillated between rating it 3 or 4 stars. It reminded me of John Marrs’ The One (also a Netflix series), with its invasive love connections. But ultimately it felt rushed. It skims over rather than dives into issues. It has too many characters and not enough action. Ultimately, I’m being critical because I liked it, but wanted to love it. Nevertheless, it’s worth a listen, especially while it’s on Audible’s Plus catalogue.

*Ps. dystopic is not a word but should be.
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🎧 I think this could have benefited from an additional cast member. Imogen Church is excellent with her sinister sultriness - she always is - but another voice could have added a dimension of action, a liveliness, I feel it lacked.

🎧 I was lost at times, forgetting which character was speaking. The chapter headings could have offered me a lifeline but were not inputted completely.

Gattaca meets The One

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It didn’t quite work as a dystopian novel. Although there are scenes of state abuse and over policing, it somehow didn’t quite feel as oppressive as many contemporary situations, and the big reveal at the end didn’t quite have the punch you’d want. Having said that, it is a really good read and the characters were engaging and felt real, I was keen to listen to it and was gripped by the story. I did leave me wanting there to be something like a sequel or for it to be longer to give more time for works building, as although the characters had to deal with struggles, I didn’t quite get the sense of huge peril that other books in the genre get across. That is a sign though of enjoyment, as I wanted very much to read more, rather than less!

Did enjoy this a lot but….

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This kept me really engaged. I was really surprised at how quickly it flew by. Overall the performance was ok but I found a few of the voiced characters a bit grating and sometimes sentences were weirdly chopped in half.
My biggest query having come to the end is about the disregard by the author of the concept of medical ethics.

Interesting take on genetic futures

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Good holiday listen. A good cautionary tale. Quite sad in parts, but that's the reality of living in a dystopia.

Enjoyed

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Such a delight to listen to a British woman read an British woman’s novel with solid scientific research and even at times an educational approach to genetics and physics. A fabulous exploration of ethics and the impact of health research. Note: I wasn’t sure where the author was taking me re LGBTQ politics to start with, rest assured it makes sense in the end, and is sensitive to inclusiveness.

Hard science with mood

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A fairly standard sci-fi idea but done quite well and entertaining, as others have said the voices characters are annoying at best but once you're in to it it's easier to get past that!

some dodgy narration but interesting story

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This book is a philosophical exploration of the nature or nurture debate couched in the genre of science fiction. I found it an enchanted and gripping read. The narration felt lively and accurate and enhanced the text.

Nature or nurture

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A fun quick listen with a lovely message. As I listened it did feel like a modernised view of 1984. There were some elements that I would have liked to have had more details on but I enjoyed the pace of the book.

Modern take on 1984

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Until the last couple of chapters it’s a book that needs a thorough edit to give it flow and pace and make it easier to listen to

Good idea and plot

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