By: Warren Ellis
Narrated by: John Hodgman
Categories: Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies
4.5 out of 5 stars 4.3 (165 ratings)
Crooked Little Vein
Narrated by: Todd McLaren
Michael McGill is a burned-out private detective who suddenly becomes enlisted by an army of presidential goons to retrieve the Constitution of the United States, but not the one we all know about. This would be the real Constitution (the one with invisible amendments), created by some of the Founding Fathers as a fall back for their great experiment.
Ignore the prude
By shawn on 01-14-08
Dead Pig Collector
Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
From the wicked imagination of award-winning writer Warren Ellis comes Dead Pig Collector, a love story with a classic Ellis twist. So while it might be a love story, it's also about killing people and disposing of their bodies in the most efficient manner possible.
More interesting than I was expecting
By T. L. Walker on 05-24-15
Cunning Plans
Talks by Warren Ellis
Narrated by: Sam Devereaux
Cunning Plans collects several of NYT best-selling author Warren Ellis' lectures on the nature of the haunted future and the secrets of deep history, given in recent years at events in London, New York, Los Angeles, and Berlin.
Excellent thought-provoking talks, but...
By Ray Hecht on 08-11-18
Dimension of Miracles
By: Robert Sheckley
Dimension of Miracles is a satirical science fiction novel first published by Dell in 1968. It's about Tom Carmody, a New Yorker who, thanks to a computer error, wins the main prize in the Intergalactic Sweepstakes. Tom claims his prize before the error is discovered and is allowed to keep it. However, since Tom is a human from Earth without galactic status and no space traveling experience, he has no homing instinct that can guide him back to Earth once his odyssey begins - and the galactic lottery organizers cannot transport him home.
Easily The Best Title I've Encountered on Audible
By Niels J. Rasmussen on 07-02-13
After On
A Novel of Silicon Valley
By: Rob Reid
Narrated by: Sean Kenin, January LaVoy, Felicia Day, and others
Meet Phluttr - a diabolically addictive new social network and a villainess, heroine, enemy, and/or bestie to millions. Phluttr has ingested every fact and message ever sent to, from, and about her innumerable users. Her capabilities astound her makers - and they don't even know the tenth of it. But what's the purpose of this stunning creation? Is it a front for something even darker and more powerful than the NSA?
By Mike Hart on 05-01-18
By: Nick Harkaway
Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
In the world of Gnomon, citizens are constantly observed and democracy has reached a pinnacle of "transparency". Every action is seen, every word is recorded, and the System has access to its citizens' thoughts and memories - all in the name of providing the safest society in history. When suspected dissident Diana Hunter dies in government custody, it marks the first time a citizen has been killed during an interrogation. The System doesn't make mistakes, but something isn't right about the circumstances surrounding Hunter's death.
Excellent, challenging, not a "beach read"
By Mark Hancock on 12-09-18
True Stories from Secret Rooms
By: John Hodgman
After spending most of his 20s pursuing a career as a literary agent, John Hodgman decided to try his own hand at writing. Following an appearance to promote one of his books on The Daily Show, he was invited to return as a contributor. This led to an unexpected and, frankly, implausible career in front of the camera that has lasted to this very day, or at least until 2016. In this audiobook, Hodgman explores the strangeness of his career, speaking plainly of fame, especially at the weird, marginal level he enjoyed it.
Medallion Status is excellent
By Greg on 11-08-19
By: William Gibson
Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
A corporate mercenary wakes in a reconstructed body, a beautiful woman by his side. Then Hosaka Corporation reactivates him, for a mission more dangerous than the one he's recovering from: to get a defecting chief of R&D-and the biochip he's perfected-out intact. But this proves to be of supreme interest to certain other parties-some of whom aren't remotely human.
Where've you been all my life?
By Michael on 01-18-11
By: Martha Wells
Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
All Systems Red is the tense first science fiction adventure novella in Martha Wells' series The Murderbot Diaries. For fans of Westworld, Ex Machina, Ann Leckie's Imperial Raadch series, or Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. The main character is a deadly security droid that has bucked its restrictive programming and is balanced between contemplative self-discovery and an idle instinct to kill all humans.
I just wish all four stories were one book...
By Garrett Stone on 11-05-18
Alien III
An Audible Original Drama
Narrated by: Tom Alexander, Barbara Barnes, Michael Biehn, and others
4.5 out of 5 stars 16,195
Father of cyberpunk William Gibson's original script for Alien III, written in 1987 as a sequel to Aliens, never made it to our screens, although it went on to achieve cult status among fans as the third instalment that might have been after being leaked online. This terrifying, cinematic multicast dramatisation - directed by the multi-award-winning Dirk Maggs - is the chance to experience William Gibson's untold story and its terrifying, claustrophobic and dark encounters between humans and aliens, as a completely immersive audio experience.
Audio Dramatization of the Movie that never was
By Alan on 05-31-19
All-New Tales
By: Neil Gaiman (author and editor), Al Sarrantonio (editor), Joe Hill, and others
Narrated by: Anne Bobby, Jonathan Davis, Katherine Kellgren, and others
The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.
By Nicole on 05-24-17
Teixcalaan, Book 1
By: Arkady Martine
Narrated by: Amy Landon
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident - or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court. Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion.
By James on 04-13-19
Exhalation
By: Ted Chiang
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Dominic Hoffman, Amy Landon, and others
From the acclaimed author of Stories of Your Life and Others - the basis for the Academy Award-nominated film Arrival: a groundbreaking new collection of short fiction. In these nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories, Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity's oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine.
Masterful and singular
By Brian on 05-15-19
John Hodgman completes his vision with That Is All, the last book in a trilogy of Complete World Knowledge. Like its predecessors, That Is All compiles incredibly handy made-up facts into brief articles, overlong lists, and beguiling narratives on new and familiar themes. It picks up exactly where More Information left off - specifically, at page 596 - and finally completes Complete World Knowledge, just in time for the return of Quetzalcoatl and the end of human history in 2012.
Great Highs, Weird Lows
By Mathew on 12-04-12
By: Tamsyn Muir
Narrated by: Moira Quirk
Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap out of the audio, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy. Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse.
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!
By JulieG on 10-03-19
Fall; or, Dodge in Hell
By: Neal Stephenson
Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
Fall; or, Dodge in Hell is pure, unadulterated fun: a grand drama of analog and digital, man and machine, angels and demons, gods and followers, the finite and the eternal. In this exhilarating epic, Neal Stephenson raises profound existential questions and touches on the revolutionary breakthroughs that are transforming our future. Combining the technological, philosophical, and spiritual in one grand myth, he delivers a mind-blowing speculative literary saga for the modern age.
Tedious & Mannered 2nd Half
By Barry McWilliams on 06-24-19
True Stories from Painful Beaches
John Hodgman - New York Times best-selling author, semifamous personality, deranged millionaire, increasingly elderly husband, father, and human of Earth - has written a memoir about his cursed travels through two wildernesses: from the woods of his home in Massachusetts, birthplace of rage, to his exile on the coast of Maine, so-called Vacationland, home to the most painful beaches on Earth.
Not your typical coming of age story
By Tiffany Pearce on 11-02-17
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits
By: David Wong
Narrated by: Christy Romano
In a prosperous yet gruesomely violent near future, superhero vigilantes battle thugs whose heads are full of supervillain fantasies. The peace is kept by a team of smooth, well-dressed negotiators called The Men in Fancy Suits. Meanwhile a young girl is caught in the middle and thinks the whole thing is ridiculous. Zoey, a recent college graduate with a worthless degree, makes a reluctant trip into the city after hearing that her estranged con artist father died in a mysterious yet spectacular way.
Insufferable characters and disjointed themes
By BadAndy on 04-10-17
A smart, tight, provocative techno-thriller straight out of the very near future - by an iconic visionary writer.
Some people call it "abyss gaze". Gaze into the abyss all day and the abyss will gaze into you.
There are two types of people who think professionally about the future: Foresight strategists are civil futurists who think about geoengineering and smart cities and ways to evade Our Coming Doom; strategic forecasters are spook futurists, who think about geopolitical upheaval and drone warfare and ways to prepare clients for Our Coming Doom. The former are paid by nonprofits and charities, the latter by global security groups and corporate think tanks.
For both types, if you're good at it, and you spend your days and nights doing it, then it's something you can't do for long. Depression sets in. Mental illness festers. And if the abyss gaze takes hold there's only one place to recover: Normal Head, in the wilds of Oregon, within the secure perimeter of an experimental forest.
When Adam Dearden, a foresight strategist, arrives at Normal Head, he is desperate to unplug and be immersed in sylvan silence. But then a patient goes missing from his locked bedroom, leaving nothing but a pile of insects in his wake. A staff investigation ensues; surveillance becomes total. As the mystery of the disappeared man unravels in Warren Ellis's Normal, Adam uncovers a conspiracy that calls into question the core principles of how and why we think about the future - and the past, and the now.
©2016 Warren Ellis (P)2016 Macmillan Audio
Gun Machine
Unfamiliar Fishes
Lafayette in the Somewhat United States
D.F. Matthews
Clayton, DE, US
This was a struggle and I really wanted to like it more. Nothing engaged me about the story. A collection of good ideas that never cultivated into anything.
It's over?!
The story was good, I would have given it four, possibly even five stars, except that it felt like it was just getting started, and it was over! The book feels cut short, when it could have been carried on well beyond the last page. Hope it continues as a series, because this left me hanging.
M. A. Lewis
Delightfully, wickedly fun
Loved it! Great story, great read, will listen again! You should listen. Go now! Go!
I.G.
A hint of crazy, dark, foreboding, and funny
Excellent performance, interesting story, with the futurist themes Ellis is best known for. Great read.
Beverly Lynn Sterling
San Diego, CA USA
Thank you, Warren Ellis...time to disconnect...
As always, his vision of the future is thought provoking, wry, horrific & possible.
Ben A
Great performance, standard Ellis
It seems like Ellis wrote this with something gnawing at him. He had a bunch of interesting thoughts clanging around in his skull and had to get them out. What that amounts to is the book "Normal."
Warren Ellis's stories, in particular this book and Crooked Little Vein, feature protagonists encountering characters who expound on various topics of interest. Each of these characters then gives a little TED talk about "how the world works" from their perspective, or something of particular significance to mankind. If you're ready for that, this is entertaining.
However, if you're looking for a lot to happen, you'll most likely be disappointed. For a rather short listen, this book is good enough for me and John Hodgman performs the text admirably.
D. Kassiday
Excellent and Disturbing
Normal is an outstanding new novel by Warren Ellis and a superb performance by John Hodgman. Wow. Listen to this now.
Transmet meets Cuckoo's Nest
Warren Ellis is not only a legendary illustrated novelist, but proves to be a very capable and engaging novelist as well. John Hodgman is a national treasure and does this novel justice.
Ray Hecht
Warren Ellis on apocalypsism? Yes please!
I could listen to Warren Ellis riff about End-of-the-World scenarios all day... and I'll take any narrative excuse at all to explore these Big Ideas. In true Ellis fashion, it's mind-boggingly smart and at once too short. Much to ponder. Also, often funny in that fucked up way.
Matthew Bullock
"The only God I have is Danger Mouse". Best line in the whole book I say.
interesting and convoluted
typical of a Warren Ellis book with great research and well thought out storyline. definitely one to listen to a few more times.
Nick Gonzo the Gonzo
A peek inside something larger.
A wonderful book, but I found it strangely lacking. It was a glance into something fascinating that I wish I could have spent more time inside. The world needed us to stick around for a bit longer.
Good but a bit short and unsatisfactory
The narrator is a bit too soft in his voice; makes it hard to hear him when taking the train.
The story is classic Warren Ellis with the usual bunch of weird characters and philosophical monologues.