Unexpectedly funny

Hard to write a review without spoilers but the style and storytelling was very engaging, and I wasn’t expecting the humour.

The narration was also the best I’ve come across so far and really enhanced the story, Another reviewer commented the brief bit of Scottish accent is terrible. It is - but it’s the monologue of an English man who can’t do a good Scottish accent either so I don’t see the problem.

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Great novella and brilliantly narrated!!

Excellent world building which is typical of Adrian Tchaikovsky and why he is becoming so renowned in the science fiction/horror/space genres. I loved the book it's really well written and packs so much into a short story. It is very dark in places yet also very funny in places and the fact he narrates it himself is a big plus.
As an avid sci-fi/fantasy reader of 30+ years I can honestly say Adrian is a true master of his craft

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Not too bad - perhaps you'll guess where its going

This starts off very well. Well written, easy to pick up and put down as a story. A lot of retrospective story telling. Thats good but also kind of a problem if you start asking yourself why. It could be seen as a bit allegorical. But on occasion, and looking back on it you are not sure quite where you are relative to a key moment in the narrative. The problem comes if you guess where the story is going and you are left with a sort of query over the main characters personality development. The twist is spelled out before the end but it was pretty clear as a strong possibility quite early on to me. I think if you don't suspect the course the story runs you will like it more than me! Worth a listen, some interesting bits in it, but not something to fuss over.

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Enjoyable play on Grendel in Beowulf

Equal parts hilarious, horrific and a fascinating sci fi location that engages the imagination and makes me hope for further novels set in the Artefact — great premise! A reader doesn’t need to know a thing about Beowulf to thoroughly enjoy this but if you are familiar with it, you’ll get even more layers of enjoyment out of an English astronaut named Gary Rendel (with G Rendel the name tag on his spacesuit). Excellent reading by the author

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3 people found this helpful

Short but good

It’s a short story/ novella. Interesting enough.
I quite liked Tchaikovsky’s narration, pretty good considering he isn’t a pro.

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Monologue of consciousness

The world building is just a constant monologue of the main character where it’s providing 3-5 comparisons for every event and the thoughts keep deviating from the actual story. I’m one hour in and there was not much going on just endless monologue

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Short, funny, enjoyable and weird

It was nice reading something less than 9 hours plus.
Enjoy the main character...to a point. With his many humorous quips.
Saw the possibility of more stories in that Universe, but not with the ending.

Now off to find more stories from Adrian 😊

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The author should read more of his titles

I enjoyed his narration far more than one of his professional narrators. Story was interesting and amusing. I don’t think I have read or listened to any of his books that I haven’t enjoyed.

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1 person found this helpful

Essence of Grendel

Humorous and despairing in equal measure but an enjoyable short yarn. Man’s futility against the cosmos on display in the usual great prose from Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Adrian is also a great narrator for this tale.

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Best thing I've heard on Plus

This feels a lot like a classic sci-fi novela but in the modern era and the author does a great job of reading it.

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