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Slow Bullets

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Slow Bullets

By: Alastair Reynolds
Narrated by: Susan Duerden
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About this listen

A vast conflict, one that has encompassed hundreds of worlds and solar systems, appears to be finally at an end. A conscripted soldier is beginning to consider her life after the war and the family she has left behind. But for Scur - and for humanity - peace is not to be.

On the brink of the ceasefire, Scur is captured by a renegade war criminal and left for dead in the ruins of a bunker. She revives aboard a prisoner transport vessel. Something has gone terribly wrong with the ship.

Passengers - combatants from both sides of the war - are waking up from hibernation far too soon. Their memories, embedded in bullets, are the only links to a world that is no longer recognizable. And Scur will be reacquainted with her old enemy but with much higher stakes than just her own life.

©2015 Alastair Reynolds (P)2015 Tantor Adventure Hard Science Fiction Military Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Technothrillers Thriller & Suspense Fiction Thriller Technology War

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Critic reviews

"A fine example of the true science fictionist's art." (Michael Bishop, author of A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire)
All stars
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I generally like Reynolds. Like all writers he has his better volumes and then the lesser works, this being one of the latter.

Feels very much like a story meant for publishing in a magazine devoted to stories written by fledling science fiction authors.

I didn't care for tha main character nor of her motivations. She seemed petty and vindictive. The combination of future spaceflight capability and then of having to scribe information on walls like in a medieval monastery was... ...unsurprising.

Seems some Brit authors have a love of combining far future and their historic surroundings and/or their country's historic past.

Hamilton, Banks and Reynolds to name a few. They all revert to this trope every now and then. I find it less than satisfying, though. Seems a bit too easy. Seems like one doesn't feel like science fiction, but fantasy and then they dredge up the regressed culture. And it always, always ends up lookin like ancient Britain.

I kinda expect that people would retain some kind of capability for investointi and creativity and would be able to figure out at least something new. Same goes for SF authors.

Anyway, read and listened better.

Then again to quote Monthy Pyhton "Could be worse. Could be stabbed."

Not his best

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struggled to finish it and to many plot holes and to many unanswered questions.

boring and hard to finish

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I like Reynolds, as my bookshelves attest. He is wide of the mark on this one though. A very 'Meh' storyline. I struggled to finish which has only happened a couple of times before. The narrator was also a bit breathy for me. Heigh ho. It was free. Hope the author is back on form next time.

Not his best work.

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AR writes a good story and this was OK - not his best, but it was fine for a short story. Unfortunately, a reasonable story was let down badly by the breathy reader. I like to hear female voices when I am listening to a story more than listening to a man, but SD was so breathy and liked to narrate as if she were commentating on a Reality Program, every sentence laboured out and ending in a downward note. Someone let her know - this is not the right intonation for story telling. She read the odd sentence quite well, so I know she can do it. The producer must have been sleeping during the whole thing. Well back to the story - it was kind of out of date, sort of 1950s in style. It lacked real purpose and sharpness, but in the end - I would not send it back. Lets have some more of your good stuff AR!!!

Not up to his usual standards and the telling is i

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I like sci fy books and have listened to lots of others from this great writer but I must admit this is not his best by far, nothing really wrong with it but debated a few times if I could be bothered to finish it, which I did

Ok but not blown away

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The narration sounds like Alexa reading a text, the intonation and stress on some words is just so off kilter I had to give up after half a chapter.

Had to give up

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Interesting experiment. Nothing groundbreaking. As long as it is free it is worth a listen to.

Ok but indeed not his best

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I don’t usually pay attention to reviews that complain about the narration, especially as there’s an obviously misogynistic tendency on many reviews and usually I can get past any slight accent issues or sub par performance and get used to it by the end of the book.

This time no such luck; incredibly irritating- sounds like a voiceover from an advert trying to be unusual just to get your attention!

I persevered but have finished the book now and it was irritating to the very end. Not worth it - save yourself the bother and read it on kindle!

Distracting narration

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A jumble of half ideas topped off with an annoying narrator. At least it was free.

Meh

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Story was so-so but further degraded by what sounds like an "Alexa" doing the narration.
Even the narrator did not seem to "get into" the book.
The story was humourless with un-engaging shallow characters.
It may have been lifted by a better audio performance but not by much.

Maybe OK with a better narrator

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