World Engines cover art

World Engines

A post climate change high concept science fiction odyssey

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World Engines

By: Stephen Baxter
Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins, Christopher Ragland, Damian Lynch, Stephanie Racine
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About this listen

Trapped on an alternate Earth, the combined crews of a crashed Russian spaceship, a British expeditionary force and a group of strays from the future must work together to survive, escape and discover what led them to this point. All are from parallel universes where small changes in history led to different realities, and the tensions between the groups are rising.

But some changes were not small. The solar system has been altered, changed, shaped in the various realities, and the World Engineers - unspeakably powerful, completely unknown - are still active. Why have they populated this planet with humanity's ancestors and dinosaurs? What is on the moon of Saturn that gives off such an odd light? And even if they can be found, can they be stopped - and should they be?

Malenfant, Deidra and the rest of their party must find a way off the planet, back into space, and into the many dimensions seeking the answer....

©2020 Stephen Baxter (P)2020 Orion Publishing Group Fiction Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Space Opera Solar System

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All stars
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His science is brilliant yet he explains it as if to teenagers which is a little tedious. If you read his books you know how in depth he goes so absolutely no need to explain basics so much. The story writing is not his strong point to me either. The readers are good if you just accept them. That said don’t dare to miss any of his books!!!

You know Stephen Baxter, right?

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Love the book. The narration keeps swapping who's reading the same character - annoying.

Good book, irritating production

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Sorry to say I have given up. in the first book, the first half laboured on setting the scene. in this book the middle has stalled trying to develop the characters. maybe its not his strong point because the concept of the story is brilliant.

Getting boring

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Struggled to finish what should have been a great talking book. The story and setting were imaginative. Stephen showed off his history knowledge and ideas effectively and the characters were interesting and relatable enough. However, the pacing is some of the worst and most self indulgent I have ever come across. This because of the almost constant branching off into bloated expositions of scientific ideas. He should have stripped out half of the lengthy fan boy science explanations and told a story (it's a concept also know as a novel Stephen...). It could be a five star book but given this I feel three is generous. never mind hard science fiction it's hard going!

bloated with science pedentry

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It's a good story, I did enjoy it, but I had a distinct feeling that I heard it all before. I have read a bunch of Stephen Baxter's books in the past, and this felt very much like a rewrite of a previous story. Every time I heard the term "Jonbar Hinge" I thought. No, not again. That is not the only thing. There were plenty of other things, the whole premise of the book.

My advice. If you have never read Stephen Baxter before. Great, go for it. But, if you have, you might find yourself a bit frustrated as soon as you hit a parallel.

Stephen. If you are reading this. Please give us something completely fresh. No more rehashes of old ideas.

It's a bit deja vu

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changing the narrator's was annoyibg. mid book as well as sex of narrator. why do that?

annoying narration

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But I found the sciences were a tad half researched /explained / understood by the author where we actually know this stuff. A step up from the long earth series though.

Great performance

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I've been listening to audio books almost daily for more than 10 years and can list on one hand how many I've actually 'put down'. After enjoying the first book I was extremely excited to listen to the next in the series. The underlying premise was great, a mystery of planetary scale to solve to which this book almost entirely seems to ignore. Instead focusing on describing the xeno-biological minutiae of the planet they have landed on for several hours. The only thing kept me listening for hours was the draw of some insight into the larger mystery that just didn't come - it may have by the end of the book but there just isn't enough to hold my interest until it does.

The sequel really doesn't live up to the first boo

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a long winded week story with and ending as bad as lost. I will be returning

34hrs wasted

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