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The Clockwork Rocket

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The Clockwork Rocket

By: Greg Egan
Narrated by: Adam Epstein
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In Yalda's universe, light has mass, no universal speed, and its creation generates energy. On Yalda's world, plants make food by emitting light into the dark night sky. And time is different: An astronaut might measure decades passing while visiting another star, only to return and find that just weeks have elapsed for her friends. On the farm where she lives, Yalda sees strange meteors that are entering the planetary system at an immense, unprecedented speed - and it soon becomes apparent that more of this ultra-fast material is appearing all the time, putting her world in terrible danger. An entire galaxy is about to collide with their own. There is one hope: A fleet sent straight towards the approaching galaxy, as fast as possible. Though it will feel like weeks back home, on board, millennia will pass before the collision, time enough to raise new generations, and time enough to find a way to stop the ultra-fast material. Either way, they have a chance to save everyone back on the home world.

©2013 Greg Egan (P)2013 Audible, Inc. Fiction Science Fiction Space Opera Interstellar
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read several Egans. first experience with an audiobook. harder to follow the finer details this way. author is both audacious & meticulous, as usual what the characters lack in relatability the story more than makes up for in the sheer magnitude and self-consistency of the world and science he has built. Well worth a read, although unsure how much farther 2 sequels can stretch its ideas, will definitely pick up the sequel in print

spectacular concepts, characters lack substance

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Good audio book , but I would really need to listen to Chap 21 first . it has no spoilers if you stop the chapter at before the credits . And it explains the fictional science used in the book a little . I'm surprised it not a preface .

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Would you ever listen to anything by Greg Egan again?

Yes

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

Confusion and bewilderment

Any additional comments?

I simply could not get my head around the basis of the plot.

What!

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Greg Egan is normally a master at having the maths and physics in the book so you can follow along and to also wind this into a real personal story.

This all felt forced. I needed more details (diagrams perhaps) on the physics and the story line was contrived and I could not get to like the characters.

Overall, I kept wanting the story to move on so I could get it finished.

While I want to know the full story in the trilogy, this was so bad I will not be reading the other books.

The narrator was also terrible. The intonation could even be the reason why the characters fell flat. Some of them were made to sound like dimwits.

Not like his usual quality

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