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The Deluge

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The Deluge

By: Stephen Markley
Narrated by: Corey Brill, Danny Campbell, Gibson Frazier, Stephen Graybill, Soneela Nankani, Joy Osmanski, Melissa Redmond, Aida Reluzco, André Santana, Neil Shah, Aven Shore, Shakira Shute, Pete Simonelli, Shaun Taylor-Corbett
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About this listen

 A New York Times Notable Book
“This book is, simply put, a modern classic. If you read it, you'll never forget it. Prophetic, terrifying, uplifting.” —Stephen King

From the bestselling author of Ohio, a masterful American epic charting a near future approaching collapse and a nascent but strengthening solidarity.

In the first decades of the 21st century, the world is convulsing, its governments mired in gridlock while a patient but unrelenting ecological crisis looms. America is in upheaval, battered by violent weather and extreme politics. In California in 2013, Tony Pietrus, a scientist studying deposits of undersea methane, receives a death threat. His fate will become bound to a stunning cast of characters—a broken drug addict, a star advertising strategist, a neurodivergent mathematician, a cunning eco-terrorist, an actor turned religious zealot, and a brazen young activist named Kate Morris, who, in the mountains of Wyoming, begins a project that will alter the course of the decades to come.

From the Gulf Coast to Los Angeles, the Midwest to Washington, DC, their intertwined odysseys unfold against a stark backdrop of accelerating chaos as they summon courage, galvanize a nation, fall to their own fear, and find wild hope in the face of staggering odds. As their stories hurtle toward a spectacular climax, each faces a reckoning: what will they sacrifice to salvage humanity’s last chance at a future? A singular achievement, The Deluge is a once-in-a-generation novel that meets the moment as few works of art ever have. Dystopian Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction Emotionally Gripping Feel-Good Scary

Critic reviews

"Each narrator is distinctive and unique, and their styles are sometimes very different. But over so many hours those differences balance out and lend credence to a narrative that spans the globe, and years into the future. Together, these fine performers bring substance to the novel’s human drama and its urgent environmental message."
All stars
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Deluge is speculative fiction based on current political/economic trends and a lot of research i.e. the writer bugging scientists for info. Set mostly in the near future, it deals with different aspects of how to climate crisis will develop through the lens of multiple characters.
It's the sort of book I been looking for for a while now, in part to help me mentally clarify (and prepare for) what is probably going to happen in the next decade or so. I think this book has it fairly spot on. It's not the easiest listen, but if you're anything like me and have been paying attention that won't come as a surprise to you. It is entertainingly written, maybe a little long but I was generally engaged throughout.
Someone mentioned audio issues (crappy sound quality) which unfortunately are noticeable in the 1st chapter but most of the rest of the book is better, so it wasn't an issue for me.

The book I've been looking for for a while now.

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Stellar performance of a phenomenal book. It’s technical but absolutely gripping all the way through. Everyone needs to be reading it and talking about it

A true masterpiece

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I loved this. Very long but never feels overstretched. Plausible and frightening. Action and scientific rigour. What more do you want?

Excellent, scary, epic

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This is the finest example we have yet of actually imagining our future. Imagining A FUTURE.
I found it far more realistic than ‘Ministry for the future’. And thus ultimately more Thrutopian. (Some call this novel of Markley’s a dystopia. That is clearly a mistake.)
This needs to be widely widely read / listened to. And to become a tv or film series.
It points us towards what we need. Towards our full selves. Towards what is coming. Towards us.

Simply the most important novel of our time

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A very credible imagining of the climate and societal breakdown in our near future, heavy going stuff but made very intriguing through the eyes of a range of recognisable characters. It offers much food for thought about why Western political systems are paralysed and unable to meet the challenge of the climate crisis.

Engrossing and compelling

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