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A Half-Built Garden

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A Half-Built Garden

By: Ruthanna Emrys
Narrated by: Kate Handford
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About this listen

A literary descendent of Ursula K. Le Guin, Ruthanna Emrys crafts a novel of extraterrestrial diplomacy and urgent climate repair bursting with quiet, tenuous hope and an underlying warmth. A Half-Built Garden depicts a world worth building towards, a humanity worth saving from itself, and an alien community worth entering with open arms. It's not the easiest future to build, but it's one that just might be in reach.

On a warm March night in 2083, Judy Wallach-Stevens wakes to a warning of unknown pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay. She heads out to check what she expects to be a false alarm—and stumbles upon the first alien visitors to Earth. These aliens have crossed the galaxy to save humanity, convinced that the people of Earth must leave their ecologically-ravaged planet behind and join them among the stars. And if humanity doesn't agree, they may need to be saved by force.

But the watershed networks that rose up to save the planet from corporate devastation aren't ready to give up on Earth. Decades ago, they reorganized humanity around the hope of keeping the world livable. By sharing the burden of decision-making, they've started to heal our wounded planet.

Now corporations, nation-states, and networks all vie to represent humanity to these powerful new beings, and if anyone accepts the aliens' offer, Earth may be lost. With everyone’s eyes turned skyward, the future hinges on Judy's effort to create understanding, both within and beyond her own species.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.

©2022 Ruthanna Emrys (P)2022 Macmillan Audio
First Contact Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Fiction Solar System
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Critic reviews

“This complex, complicated, gorgeous musing on the future of humanity and the power of connection, the things we owe to each other and the essential strength of consensus, deserves to be the first contact novel that defines a generation.”—Seanan McGuire

“A fascinatingly rich and original vision of our future world, explored at a moment of crisis; a vitally important exploration of the meaning of family and community; and a refraction of today's conundrums through a fresh interpretation of first contact.”—Malka Older

“Emrys’ fast-paced and fun story paints a picture of a future that’s imaginable within our lifetimes. Hers is a unique and ultimately hopeful vision of the world we might bequeath to our grandchildren.”—Karl Schroeder

What listeners say about A Half-Built Garden

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Complex, wholesome and wonderful

Nuanced aliens, complex approach to problem solving, hope about climate crisis, casual LGBT representation

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Old fashioned

This feels like old school sci-fi, mostly talking and not much action. I appreciated the low key action. My main problems was the people of Dandelion network come over as total arseholes at times so much so I was rooting for the Corporates. Thankfully things improve towards the end, but the ending felt rushed.

Narration was good.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Sow going but rightfully so

An absolutely beautiful and hopeful take on humanities future and first contact. So refreshing if not a bit slow at times... But that's what we need. Slow, thoughtful steps in order to build a brighter future.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A beautiful hopeful read

A beautiful proposition for a utopian future with an interesting view on gender roles and gender performativity. Simplistic in some ways, but only for the good of the utopia.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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The story goes nowhere and the characters are unlikable.

It started out okay and had its good points. For example, the idea that the an alien race would advise humans to dismantle their world for parts was novel, at least to me.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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did not finish

I tried, but I could not get past the preachiness. I rarely don't finish a book, but this one I just couldn't.

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