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Proxima

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Proxima

By: Stephen Baxter
Narrated by: Kyle McCarley
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About this listen

The very far future: The Galaxy is a drifting wreck of black holes, neutron stars, chill white dwarfs. The age of star formation is long past. Yet there is life here, feeding off the energies of the stellar remnants, and there is mind, a tremendous Galaxy-spanning intelligence each of whose thoughts lasts a hundred thousand years. And this mind cradles memories of a long-gone age when a more compact universe was full of light...

The 27th century: Proxima Centauri, an undistinguished red dwarf star, is the nearest star to our sun - and (in this fiction), the nearest to host a world, Proxima IV, habitable by humans. But Proxima IV is unlike Earth in many ways. Huddling close to the warmth, orbiting in weeks, it keeps one face to its parent star at all times. The 'substellar point', with the star forever overhead, is a blasted desert, and the 'antistellar point' on the far side is under an ice cap in perpetual darkness. How would it be to live on such a world?

Yuri Jones, with 1,000 others, is about to find out... Proxima tells the amazing tale of how we colonise a harsh new eden, and the secret we find there that will change our role in the Universe for ever.

©2013 Stephen Baxter (P)2014 Tantor Media Science Fiction Fiction Mind-bending Interstellar Fantasy

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All stars
Most relevant  
The sheer complexity and believability of this story's universe is amazing. Inspired, intelligent ideas coupled with classic SF grit in all the right places. The sequel was in the basket before I was finished.

Big picture SF

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Loved the story, but the pronunciation of some words distracted. E.g Watter rather than water was particularly annoying as it cropped up a lot.

Great story, great performance

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Took me a while to get into. Narration was slow and some characters were just irritating. But as the story progresses it turns into a fascinating book. The sadness that surrounded Yuri for me was profound and CallU and Earthshine were really great elements.

The scope of the book is enormous with so many unique ideas.

I did find some frustrations with character interaction. Those became more obvious is Ultima but I don’t think they detract from the story too much.

It has the scale of Hyperion but for me was much more approachable.

Fantastic sci-fi

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A great story that really gripped me. I couldn't wait to listen to the next chapter. Characters were all believable and the science of the near future didn't sound far fetched at all.

A great Sci Fi listen

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Would you consider the audio edition of Proxima to be better than the print version?

Not really, beginning the listen but the reader is a bit irritating...

What was one of the most memorable moments of Proxima?

Just beginning but wanted to warn people who are influenced by the quality of voice of reader

What didn’t you like about Kyle McCarley’s performance?

He has an irritating aristocratic drawl. It sounds like he is reading the six o clock news. I am not usually this unkind in descriptions!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes but only to get the listen over and done with.

Any additional comments?

Story may well be okay. I'm biased from the first five minutes though.

Reader Kyle...not sure how I'm going to enjoy thi

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This was a difficult audiobook to get through as the performer's accent and attempts at other accents are truly distracting. The accents are so bad as to make you dislike when certain characters appear as their voices are so unpleasant to listen to.


The story has enough interest to keep you listening but the ending seemed rushed and condemns this audiobook to mediocrity.

Ho hum

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Only my second Baxter book after Time Ships, and that I read years ago. Wasn't disappointed, couldn't 'put it down' towards the end. Already have the sequel and would recommend. The narrator struggled with so many characters and accents but credit where credit is due, he did much better than I could have and I take my hat off to him, really first rate job on an incredibly challenging epic. I can't in good conscience pick fault, minor gripes and inconsistencies quickly became insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Well done indeed.

Epic!

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I didn't like the narrator but eventually accepted if not fully warmed to the voice.

The story was a slow start but I found I wasn't able to put down. Defiantly want to know more and to read more from the author. As to the story it was rich and beautifully woven . Plenty to revisit and develop in subsequent books.

Errr ... Slow but strong finish want to read more

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Book was a good listen. Interesting story and I will be getting the next part.
The performance for me was fine. I am not sure what others had issue with.
His accents were not the best but each character had a distinct voice and it was easy to follow who was who.
He couldn't pronounce water properly but that didn't effect the story for me.

Good book

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I found Kyle McCarley's pronunciation of some words mind boggling - or as he would probably say "Mond buuuggling". Fortunately since it was set over a century into the future I was able to convince myself it was a dialect of the time.

Spoiled by the narrator

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