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The Wall

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The Wall

By: John Lanchester
Narrated by: Will Poulter
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About this listen

Nominated for the Booker Prize 2019.

Narrated by BAFTA-winning actor Will Poulter.

Kavanagh begins his life patrolling the Wall. If he's lucky, if nothing goes wrong, he only has two years of this, 729 more nights.

The best thing that can happen is that he survives and gets off the Wall and never has to spend another day of his life anywhere near it. He longs for this to be over; longs to be somewhere else.

He will soon find out what Defenders do and who the Others are. Along with the rest of his squad, he will endure cold and fear day after day, night after night. But somewhere, in the dark cave of his mind, he thinks: wouldn't it be interesting if something did happen, if they came, if you had to fight for your life?

John Lanchester's thrilling, hypnotic new novel is about why the young are right to hate the old. It's about a broken world you will recognise as your own-and about what might be found when all is lost.

©2019 Orlando Books Limited (P)2019 W.F. Howes Ltd Fiction Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Emotionally Gripping Scary

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All stars
Most relevant  
Very engaging dystopian sci-fi dealing with contemporary issues like immigration and global warming, this along with the decent world-building and an interesting well developed central character give it a very real feel not unlike Children of men (the film not the book). Will Poulter's performance is understated but always kept me hooked.

Engaging dystopian tale.

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Will Poulter embodies the young conscript, Kavanagh, in this dystopian near-future fable which is all too plausible. From the start, John Lanchester instills a sense of the loneliness and cold felt on The Wall, a structure that came into being after some unnamed change, pitting those on and behind the wall against those outside of the wall, the others. The larger society, like the change, is not elaborated on and this adds to the overall feel of the story. A cracking good tale and beautifully performed.

The Wall an audible experience.

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Genuinely feels as if the author wrote himself into a corner and simply decided to stop. It is a shame because overall I the story is intriguing and I enjoyed the narration. It kept me gripped. Unfortunately the author leaves too many threads loose and doesn't furnish us with the answers we need like who are the Others? What was the Change? How did it come about? How does the story end? I enjoyed listening to the book but the 'end' is truly disappointing and awful.

I am going to check the reviews thoroughly before I buy another book by this author.

Half a book

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I loved this book so much. I wanted to know all about the wall and why it was there and wanted to keep reading to see what happened next. I was almost disappointed with the ending but I think it was just because I didn’t want it to end. I’d have loved it to be longer.

Excellent

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Couldn’t resist the reference to a game of thrones. There is a flavour of the Night Watch about the Defenders, the cold, the isolation but the others beyond Lanchester’s Wall are mortal, and scarily credible.
There is quite a similarity to “The Road” as well, particularly in the latter part, but without the crushing despair. Comparatively, it is cheerful. If you enjoyed “The Road”, you will probably enjoy this, the opposite is not necessarily true.
The voice of the Story is Cavanagh, a new defender and he tells the story with an economy of language that both gives the story richness, and also prevents it dragging. Every phrase tells you something, either about Cavanagh, his colleagues or the Wall, and in such a way that you don’t notice that you,be spent an hour listening to what is basically a description of a lump of concrete. He sums it beautifully as “Concrete, Water, Wind, Sky, Cold” with differing emphasis, to the extent that such simple prose becomes the most evocative poetry.
Will Poulter reads the story beautifully with feeling that adds an extra dimension to the printed word.

Cormac McCarthy meets John Wyndham with a pinch of George RR Martin

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I enjoyed the overall setup and it makes for a good average sci fi. Let down by some cheesy or cliched dialogue and some strange character plot decisions that wouldn’t happen in real life. Lacks a sense of humour and feels like it’s trying to be profound a number of times and backfires.

Good setup

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This book is a disturbing view of the future if humans refuse to acknowledge the damage we are continuing to inflict of the world. The characters are quite superficial but to me that didn’t matter. It was the descriptive narrative of events and consequences that were fascinating.

Bleak Yet Absorbing

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Enjoyed this book but would have loved a bit more background on the world its set in, what happened and wheres it going? Really interesting idea and felt really at onebwith the characters.

Interesting idea

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The best kind of science fiction is the one that uses the futuristic setting to raise questions about the human condition and human soul. The Wall perfectly fulfils this and it can be rightfully be described as a "1984 of our days", because it shows us a possible future that is at the same time very realistic, and totally frightening. Something that we would do better to avoid it ever coming to pass.
I'm not giving this book 5 stars only because I felt kinda let down by the ending.

A harrowing tale of a possible future

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Narration is perfect, clear and casted perfectly for the character. Written perfectly, amazing characters. I hope there's more to come. Very British. It's definitely going to be a t.v. series or film one day, but the book is always better

Loved it

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