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Transition
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
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Brought the novel to life for me
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The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction - cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender. Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade....
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Spoiled by awful narration
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Interesting but thin on plot
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Why do I like this so much? ....
- By Alison on 07-06-13
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Overall
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Performance
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Count Sessine is about to die for the very last time.... Chief Scientist Gadfium is about to receive the mysterious message she has been waiting for from the Plain of Sliding Stones.... And Bascule the Teller, in search of an ant, is about to enter the chaos of the crypt.... And everything is about to change.... For this is the time of the encroachment and, although the dimming sun still shines on the vast, towering walls of Serehfa Fastness, the end is close at hand.
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Brought the novel to life for me
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Overall
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Performance
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Sharrow was once the leader of a personality-attuned combat team in one of the sporadic little commercial wars in the civilisation based around the planet Golter. Now she is hunted by the Huhsz, a religious cult which believes that she is the last obstacle before the faith's apotheosis, and her only hope of escape is to find the last of the apocalyptically powerful Lazy Guns before the Huhsz find her.
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The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction - cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender. Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade....
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For short-lived races like humans, space is dominated by the complicated, grandiose Mercatoria. To the Dwellers who may live billions of years, the galaxy consists of their gas-giant planets - the rest is debris. Fassin Taak is a Slow Seer privileged to work with the Dwellers of the gas-giant Nasqueron. His work consists of rummaging for data in their vast, disorganised memories and libraries. Unfortunately, without knowing it, he's come close to an ancient secret of unimaginable importance.
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Spoiled by awful narration
- By Martin on 05-12-17
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- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A man lies in a coma after a near-fatal accident. His body broken, his memory vanished, he finds himself in the surreal world of the bridge - a world free of the usual constraints of time and space, a world where dream and fantasy, past and future, fuse. Who is this man? Where is he? Is he more dead than alive? Or has he never been so alive before?
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-
Interesting but thin on plot
- By Stuart on 04-09-15
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- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
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A few spliffs, a spot of mild S&M, phone through the copy of tomorrow's front page, catch up with the latest from your mystery source - could be big, could be very big - in fact, just a regular day at the office for free-wheeling, substance-abusing Cameron Colley, a fully paid-up Gonzo hack on an Edinburgh newspaper. The source is pretty thin, but Cameron senses a scoop and checks out a series of bizarre deaths from a few years ago - only to find that the police are checking out a series of bizarre deaths that are happening right now. And Cameron just might know more about it than he'd care to admit.…
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Why do I like this so much? ....
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It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach's Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach. Prentice McHoan has returned to the bosom of his complex but enduring Scottish family. Full of questions about the McHoan past, present and future, he is also deeply preoccupied: mainly with death, sex, drink, God, and illegal substances.…
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PERFECT
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Performance
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Daniel Weir used to be a famous - not to say infamous - rock star. Maybe still is. At thirty-one he has been both a brilliant failure and a dull success. He's made a lot of mistakes that have paid off and a lot of smart moves he'll regret forever (however long that turns out to be). Daniel Weir has gone from rags to riches and back, and managed to hold onto them both, though not much else. His friends all seem to be dead, fed up with him or just disgusted - and who can blame them? And now Daniel Weir is all alone.
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Breathtaking
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Performance
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The war is ending, perhaps ended. For the castle and its occupants the troubles are just beginning. Armed gangs roam a lawless land where each farm and house supports a column of dark smoke. Taking to the roads with the other refugees, anonymous in their raggedness, seems safer than remaining in the ancient keep. However, the lieutenant of an outlaw band has other ideas and the castle becomes the focus for a dangerous game of desire, deceit and death.
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iain banks can do no wrong, apart from dying ...
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Walking On Glass
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Overall
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Performance
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Her eyes were black, wide as though with some sustained surprise, the skin from their outer corners to her small ears taut. Her lips were pale, and nearly too full for her small mouth, like something bled but bruised. He had never seen anyone or anything quite so beautiful in his life. Graham Park is in love. But Sara Fitch is an enigma to him, a creature of almost perverse mystery. Steven Grout is paranoid - and with justice. He knows that They are out to get him.
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Not his best and a little confusing
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The Saints of Salvation
- The Salvation Sequence
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Humanity welcomed the Olyix and their utopian technology. But mankind was tricked. Now these visitors are extracting a terrible price. For two years, the Olyix have laid siege to Earth, harvesting its people for their god. One by one, cities are falling to their devastating weaponry. And while millions have fled to seek refuge in space, others continue to fight an apparently unwinnable war.
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Same Old, But Less Engaging...
- By Mark H on 02-11-20
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The Quarry
- By: Iain Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Kit doesn't know who his mother is. What he does know, however, is that his father, Guy, is dying of cancer. Feeling his death is imminent, Guy gathers around him his oldest friends - or at least the friends with the most to lose by his death. Paul - the rising star in the Labour party who dreads the day a tape they all made at university might come to light; Alison and Robbie, corporate bunnies whose relationship is daily more fractious; Pris and Haze, once an item, now estranged, and finally Hol - friend, mentor, former lover and the only one who seemed to care.
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Excellent narration of Iain's last book
- By Bammosan on 15-07-13
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The Peripheral
- By: William Gibson
- Narrated by: Lorelei King
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Peripheral by William Gibson is a thrilling new novel about two intertwined futures, from the bestselling author of Neuromancer. Flynne Fisher lives down a country road, in a rural near-future America where jobs are scarce, unless you count illegal drug manufacture, which she's keen to avoid. Her brother Burton lives, or tries to, on money from the Veterans Association, in compensation for neurological damage suffered in a Marines elite unit.
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Somewhat disappointed
- By Doug on 01-08-16
Summary
On the Concern's books are Temudjin Oh, an un-killable assassin who journeys between the peaks of Nepal, a version of Victorian London and the dark palaces of Venice; and a nameless, faceless torturer known only as the Philosopher. And then there's the renegade Mrs Mulverhill, who recruits rebels to her side; and Patient 8262, hiding out from a dirty past in a forgotten hospital ward.
As these vivid, strange and sensuous worlds circle and collide, the implications of turning traitor to the Concern become horribly apparent, and an unstable universe is set on a dizzying course.
Critic reviews
"Peopled with deadly assassins who flit between worlds, and mysterious members of a powerful organisation known as the Concern, the latest book from Iain Banks would seem better suited to the extended moniker used for his more sci-fi-orientated novels, Iain M Banks. So why is it labelled under the same name that produced (The Crow Road) and (The Steep Approach To Garbadale)? Probably because, beneath the novel's more outlandish exterior, Banks grapples with plenty of realistic concerns.
Torture, foreign policy and power abuse are all woven into the story, while the consequences of such actions are considered maturely by the characters as they make their way towards a stirring conclusion.
Fans of Banks's more conventional work might be initially put off, but they shouldn't be; it's an engrossing, futuristic fable with plenty to say about the here and now." (The Metro)
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What listeners say about Transition
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Chris
- 26-11-09
Iain Banks on incredible form.
I've read all his books, and of course the Iain M Banks too. I was totally unprepared for this. It blew me away. What can I say without giving it away. It renewed my faith in Audio books. Peter Kenny has taken this genre to a new level with this book. All my friends are raving about it.
Frankly astonishing imagination. Love. it.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- David
- 25-12-09
Amazing
By far the best book I have 'read' for as long as I can remember. Challenging, thought provoking and surprising right to the end.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- James
- 03-03-11
Mediocre sound quality
A thouroughly enjoyable story, great sci-fi ideas with some scenes that require a strong stomach in the typical Banks style. Marred slightly by poor sound recording though it was still perfectly intelligible.
1 person found this helpful