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The Word Exchange

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The Word Exchange

By: Alena Graedon
Narrated by: Paul Michael Garcia, Tavia Gilbert
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In the not-so-distant future, the forecasted 'death of print' has become a reality. Bookstores, libraries, newspapers, and magazines are a thing of the past, as we spend our time glued to handheld devices called Memes that not only keep us in constant communication but have become so intuitive as to hail us taxis before we leave our offices, order takeout at the first growl of a hungry stomach, and even create and sell language itself in a marketplace called the Word Exchange.

Anana Johnson works with her father, Doug, at the North American Dictionary of the English Language(NADEL), where Doug is hard at work on the final edition that will ever be printed. Doug is an intellectual who fondly remembers the days when people used e-mail to communicate - or even actually spoke to one another. One evening, Doug disappears from the NADEL offices, leaving a single written clue: ALICE. It's a code word he and Anana devised to signal if one of them ever fell into danger....

Joined by Bart, her bookish NADEL colleague (who is secretly in love with her), Anana's search for her father will take her into dark basement incinerator rooms, underground passages of the Mercantile Library, meetings of a secret society designed to save the written word, the boardrooms of the evil online retailing giant Synchronic, and ultimately to the hallowed halls of the Oxford English Dictionary - the spiritual home of the written word. As Anana pieces together what is going on, and Bart falls victim to the strange 'word flu' that is spreading worldwide, the very future of language is at stake....

Read by Tavia Gilbert and Paul Michael Garcia

(p) 2014 Blackstone Audio©2014 Alena Graedon Dystopian Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Mystery Science Fiction Women Sleuths Women's Fiction Detective Technology Thriller Suspense
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Critic reviews

Clever, breathless and sportively Hegelian . . . THE WORD EXCHANGE combines the jaunty energy of youngish adult fiction (boyfriend trouble, parent conflicts, peer pressure and post-collegiate jitters) with the spine-tingling chill of the science-fiction conspiracy genre (Liesel Schillinger)
Graedon's spectacular, ambitious debut explores a near-future America that's shifted almost exclusively to smart technologies, where print is only a nostalgia . . . it's as full of humanity as it is of mystery and intellectual prowess
[A] remarkable first novel, combining a vividly imagined future with the fondly remembered past . . . exquisite
A wildly ambitious, darkly intellectual and inventive thriller about the intersection of language, technology and meaning
Alena Graedon's spectacular debut is a story for our age of 'accelerated obsolescence.' A genuinely scary and funny mystery about linguistic slippage and disturbance, it's also a moving meditation on our sometimes comic, sometimes desperate struggles to speak, and to listen, and to mean something to one another.To borrow Graedon's own invention, THE WORD EXCHANGE is 'synchronic'--a gorgeous genre mashup that offers readers the pleasures of noir, science fiction, romance and philosophy. It's an unforgettable joyride across the thin ice of language (Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove)
Imaginative, layered, and highly original, THE WORD EXCHANGE is an engagingly creepy story of technology gone wrong and a clever meditation on the enduring mysteries of language and love (Karen Thompson Walker, author of THE AGE OF MIRACLES)
Wow! This highly addictive future noir is also terrifyingly prescient. Set in a parallel New York filled with language viruses, pneumatic tubes, and heartbreak, Alena Graedon's book is luminous and haunting at every turn. I will never look at words in quite the same way-and neither will you. (Reif Larsen, author of THE SELECTED WORKS OF T.S. SPIVET)
Can you imagine a future without books, newspapers or magazines? Alena Graedon has done just that - her debut novel conjures up a scarily plausible dystopian future, where print is dead and intuitive handheld devices are the only method of communication.
In Graedon's dystopian future, face-to-face interfacing is finished and even email is a fading memory; when the man working on the last-ever dictionary goes missing, his daughter sets out to find him and discovers murky anti-literate corporate forces and outposts of word-loving outlaws.
The idea of technology taking over our lives to such an extent that we can no longer function without it was an interesting premise, and one that most of us will be able to relate to. (Louise Jones)
All stars
Most relevant

What disappointed you about The Word Exchange?

There was no protagonist. The main character just panicked her way through the book while every other character explained what was going on or seemed to have a more interesting time. The plot had merit but wasn't done with any sense of tension or flare or entertainment.

If you didn't want to read the whole thing just read the 2 paragraph sermon given by one of the main male characters in the final section of the book - it explains the "what if" scenario that drove the author to write this.

That scenario is good, this book is not.

Would you ever listen to anything by Alena Graedon again?

Not unless it had universal 5 star reviews.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

There is a certain type of voice artist for whom everything has to be delivered with maximum intensity and faux-sincerity. Add to this that the character she was reading was a wet, pathetic passenger on a far from compelling journey.

Another thing to note - the male voice artist had nothing to work with and delivered a flat performance as a result.

Pro-tip : if you're going to have 2 different voices take on chapters of your book and record those chapters in isolation make sure they're pronouncing words the same way. A company in the story "Hermes" was pronounced by him as "Her-meez" and by her as "Urr-mez". Took me a while to figure out they were referring to the same thing. Given that the word has an H at the beginning, I'll leave you to decide which the correct pronunciation is.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

The incredible urge to stop listening. I never stop listening. Somehow I made it through to the end and feel more stupid as a result.

Any additional comments?

The plot : mobile phones make you stupid, and only dictionary writers can save us.

Solid concept, bad story, terrible narration

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If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

I have no idea

What will your next listen be?

Robert Galbrath: Cormoran Strike book 2

What didn’t you like about Tavia Gilbert and Paul Michael Garcia ’s performance?

I did not enjoy any aspect of the narration

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment and boredom.

Any additional comments?

I listen to Audible books for company whilst gardening or sewing - this book was like an unwelcome visit - I was very happy when it ended.

Tedious

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The idea behind this is great! I found it very interesting and carried my interest for a good part of the book. Then it just started to become a bit thin. The lead character didn't seem to develop and became annoying and I ended up not really caring what happened to her.

A real shame, this could have been excellent.

Great idea, not brilliantly executed.

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