World Engines: Destroyer cover art

World Engines: Destroyer

A post climate change high concept science fiction odyssey

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World Engines: Destroyer

By: Stephen Baxter
Narrated by: Christopher Ragland, Penelope Rawlins
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About this listen

 Hundreds of years in the future, on a stagnating and almost empty Earth, a space shuttle pilot from the early days of the 21st century is awoken from the cryogenic sleep he entered after a devastating accident.

As he comes to terms with this new world, he begins to realise that their history does not match what he remembers - and that only he may be able to stop the coming catastrophe destined to destroy the planet.

Until he meets a young woman who seems to have a drive of her own, and a plan...©2019 Stephen Baxter Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Space Opera Time Travel Fiction Aviation

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Critic reviews

This is space opera on a vast scale, backed up by Baxter's customary impressive research as he seamlessly weaves planetary exploration, genome reconstruction, climate change, artifi cial intelligence and much more into the compulsively readable narrative. The opening volume of a projected series, it's Baxter at his very best.
It's another triumph for Baxter. A page turner that not only fascinates on an intellectual level, but on a science fiction thriller level too.
You can rely on Stephen Baxter to come up with solid science fiction that does everything you'd expect a bit of classic sci-fi to do.
Hard SF science smarts... yet is great fun too.
All stars
Most relevant
If you're familiar with Baxter, then you probably have an idea of what to expect. Relatively simple plot and characters, with a bigger focus on ideas and themes. Many of typical Baxter tropes show up, or are at least discussed: Future societies, realistic space travel, alternative universe, AI and so on. The story itself is a satisfying romp around the solar system, examining these themes on the way.

Both narrators are excellent, some of the accents are slightly dodgy, but certainly still entertaining. I'm not sure why there are two narrators though, they alternate seemingly at random for different chapters, despite us following the same characters for the entire book. Both narrate well though, so this didn't unduly bother me.

Strongly recommended to Baxter fans. Newcomers should be aware that this is the sort of book with long technical discussions and exposition dumps.

Baxter continues to deliver the goods.

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As a resident of Birmingham U.K. Walsall is not a suburb of Birmingham, in fact historically it's a part of Staffordshire 8 miles north-west of Birmingham.

Fascinating book.

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As a whole, I loved this book. However, there was a bit in the middle what made me feel like it was too similar to one of Stephen Baxter's previous books. But, in the end, the storey diverged and the plot took a different path. Persevere through it and you will be rewarded by an excellent first part of the storey. I cannot wait for the next book in the series.

Great book

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Sorry but this was a truly boring listen,there was nothing engaging from start to finish,maybe there was some profound message hidden away and I totally missed it but for me this book was utterly pointless

What was the point!!

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The main narrator does not exactly bring the characters to life, but she does an OK job. There are a lot of pronunciation mistakes and reading slip ups which should have been picked up in editing, but not quite enough to spoil the experience.

Workmanlike narration

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