Browse Great First Listens by Category
Featured in Sci-Fi & Fantasy
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The Girl with All the Gifts
- Written by: M. R. Carey
- Narrated by: Finty Williams
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius". Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh. Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up.
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Amazing story and narrator
- By Christopher Gabrielli on 2022-05-04
Intensely great
Parts of this book may be too gross, violent, or intense for some readers, but if you can take some gore and intensity, I highly recommend this listen. It was wonderful! I will read it again. The writing is superior with interesting imagery and references and the prose are well crafted. The characters and story are unusually full, natural, beautiful, and touching while being quite unusual and intense. The ending is intensely good. I really looked forward to returning to this listen, and I watched the ever decreasing time remaining with mild sorrow. This is one of the rare books (one to two each year) that I force my family to read immediately so I can discuss it without spoiling it. The narration is near perfect with clear and strong characters and subtle emotional tones expressing each character's internal states. The pacing is also delicately varied, enhancing the text.
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Winter World
- Written by: A. G. Riddle
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Amanda Leigh Cobb
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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The ice is coming. It was the last thing we expected, but the world is freezing. A new ice age has dawned. Billions have fled the glaciers. A cataclysmic war is coming. In orbit, a group of scientists are running the Winter Experiments, a last-ditch attempt to understand why the planet is cooling. None of the climate models they build make sense. But then they discover an anomaly, an unexplained variation in solar radiation...and something else. Close to the burning edge of the sun, they catch a fleeting glimpse of something that shouldn’t be there....
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Stunning concoction of everything I love in a great story
- By Deanna on 2019-03-05
We're not alone ... but who else is out there?
I am a huge A.G. Riddle fan, especially when paired with the magical voice of Edoardo Ballerini, and Winter World was no exception to my adoration. Edoardo does an incredible job of embodying the charming robotics doctor who finds himself imprisoned for reaching too far into the future, and teams up with Amanda Leigh Cobb for a dual narration experience that is truly out of this world. There are aliens, spaceships, robots, drones, and even a little bit of love packed into a nonstop adventure that you won't want to end (which is perfect, since there will be a second novel in this series). Riddle is adept at blending the mystery and adventure of a thriller with the intrigue and imagination of a classic sci-fi novel, and I just can't get enough. Dive into this winter space odyssey, and you'll be hooked by his captivating style of storytelling.
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The Worldship Humility
- Written by: RR Haywood
- Narrated by: Colin Morgan
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Original Recording
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It’s been 120 years since the 50 or so worldships containing the few million survivors of the human species set off after the planet Earth was destroyed by a meteor. On the Worldship Humility, Sam, a 30-year-old Airlock Operative, is bored. Living in space should be exciting and full of adventure, except it isn’t, and he fills his time hacking 3-D movie posters and holographic adverts outside the stores in the retail zone. Petty thief Yasmine Emile Dufont is also from the WS Humility, but she is not bored....
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Colin Morgan as a narrator is not for me.
- By Martin Gauthier on 2019-08-03
Phenomenal character gallery
I absolutely loved this from start to finish. Colin Morgan's spot-on characterizations and the distinctive voices he gives to all the different characters of the story just hook you. His performance is brilliant. I am in awe quite frankly. I have never heard anyone perform a story quite like this. I quite fell in love with all the characters. Their fates move me. And I love this universe. Looking forward to more in the Code Series. Looking forward to Colin Morgan's brilliant voice acting to take us on those journeys too! In fact, I demand it!
More Great First Listens: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
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The Martian
- Written by: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.
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Well worth it for Wil Wheaton.
- By Gregory Russell Jr on 2020-01-14
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Book 1
- Written by: J.K. Rowling
- Narrated by: Jim Dale
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping on the doormat at number four, Privet Drive. Addressed in green ink on yellowish parchment with a purple seal, they are swiftly confiscated by his grisly aunt and uncle. Then, on Harry's eleventh birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news: Harry Potter is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. An incredible adventure is about to begin!
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Brilliant, as expected!
- By MajorBoothroyd on 2018-01-04
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We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
- Bobiverse, Book 1
- Written by: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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There's a reason We Are Legion was named Audible's Best Science Fiction Book of 2016: Its irresistibly irreverent wit! Bob Johansson has just sold his software company for a small fortune and is looking forward to a life of leisure. The first item on his to-do list: Spending his newfound windfall. On an urge to splurge, he signs up to have his head cryogenically preserved in case of death. Then he gets himself killed crossing the street. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself.
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Didn't think I'd like it, but I loved it
- By Eli on 2018-01-11
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Red Rising
- Written by: Pierce Brown
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children. But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet.
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The Greatest Narrative Experience
- By Joe Marshall on 2018-08-29
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The Martian
- Written by: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.
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Well worth it for Wil Wheaton.
- By Gregory Russell Jr on 2020-01-14
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Book 1
- Written by: J.K. Rowling
- Narrated by: Jim Dale
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping on the doormat at number four, Privet Drive. Addressed in green ink on yellowish parchment with a purple seal, they are swiftly confiscated by his grisly aunt and uncle. Then, on Harry's eleventh birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news: Harry Potter is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. An incredible adventure is about to begin!
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Brilliant, as expected!
- By MajorBoothroyd on 2018-01-04
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We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
- Bobiverse, Book 1
- Written by: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
There's a reason We Are Legion was named Audible's Best Science Fiction Book of 2016: Its irresistibly irreverent wit! Bob Johansson has just sold his software company for a small fortune and is looking forward to a life of leisure. The first item on his to-do list: Spending his newfound windfall. On an urge to splurge, he signs up to have his head cryogenically preserved in case of death. Then he gets himself killed crossing the street. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself.
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Didn't think I'd like it, but I loved it
- By Eli on 2018-01-11
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Red Rising
- Written by: Pierce Brown
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children. But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet.
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The Greatest Narrative Experience
- By Joe Marshall on 2018-08-29
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Artemis
- Written by: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Rosario Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.
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Not so great
- By plaj on 2017-11-28
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Ready Player One
- Written by: Ernest Cline
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days. When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune—and control of the OASIS itself.
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So much Fun!!
- By Joanne on 2018-01-07
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The Name of the Wind
- Kingkiller Chronicle, Book 1
- Written by: Patrick Rothfuss
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 27 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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This is a tale of sorrow, a tale of survival, a tale of one man's search for meaning in his universe, and how that search, and the indomitable will that drove it, gave birth to a legend.
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My Absolute Favorite!!!
- By Kitty_Kittenator on 2019-01-19
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Quantum Night
- Written by: Robert. J. Sawyer
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Experimental psychologist Jim Marchuk has developed a flawless technique for identifying the previously undetected psychopaths lurking everywhere in society. But while being cross-examined about his breakthrough in court, Jim is shocked to discover that he has lost his memories of six months of his life from 20 years previously - a dark time during which he himself committed heinous acts.
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Brilliant from start to finish
- By Vera on 2017-10-12
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The Fellowship of the Ring
- Book One in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
- Written by: J. R. R. Tolkien
- Narrated by: Rob Inglis
- Length: 19 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume in the trilogy, tells of the fateful power of the One Ring. It begins a magnificent tale of adventure that will plunge the members of the Fellowship of the Ring into a perilous quest and set the stage for the ultimate clash between the powers of good and evil.
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unreal!
- By Connor on 2017-10-31
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The Affinities
- Written by: Robert Charles Wilson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In our rapidly-changing world of "social media", everyday people are more and more able to sort themselves into social groups based on finer and finer criteria. In the near future of Robert Charles Wilson's The Affinities, this process is supercharged by new analytic technologies - genetic, brain-mapping, behavioral.
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Just One Damned Thing After Another
- The Chronicles of St Mary's, Book 1
- Written by: Jodi Taylor
- Narrated by: Zara Ramm
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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When Madeleine Maxwell is recruited by the St Mary's Institute of Historical Research, she discovers the historians there don't just study the past - they revisit it. But one wrong move and History will fight back - to the death. And she soon discovers it's not just History she's fighting....
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As expected, good enough, but not stellar.
- By Ben on 2018-01-15
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The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
- Wayfarers, Book 1
- Written by: Becky Chambers
- Narrated by: Patricia Rodriguez
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Firefly meets Mass Effect in this thrilling self-published debut! When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The Wayfarer, a patched-up ship that's seen better days, offers her everything she could possibly want: a small, quiet spot to call home for a while, adventure in far-off corners of the galaxy, and distance from her troubled past. But Rosemary gets more than she bargained for with the Wayfarer.
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poorly written and as subtle as a brick
- By Amazon Customer on 2019-08-22