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Dust

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Dust

Written by: Elizabeth Bear
Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
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Hugo Award winner Elizabeth Bear has been called one of the best science fiction authors of her generation. In Dust she skillfully spins a classic science fiction trope - the lost generation ship - into a complex and compelling tale of fallen angels, secretive family politics, and sexual taboo.©2007 Elizabeth Bear (P)2008 Recorded Books, LLC Adventure Fiction Genre Fiction Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Technothrillers Thriller & Suspense Technology Thriller
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What the critics say

"Extraordinary ... [a] brilliantly detailed, tightly plotted, roller-coaster ... replete with a fantastic cast of characters." ( Booklist, starred review)

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This Elizabeth Bear story is loaded with fascinating Science Fiction-flavored intrigue where competing once-human societies on a far-future globe-sized spacecraft wage war.. and an average serf girl in a caste-organized conventionally "human" cohort ("The House Of Rule") rescues an enemy symbiote-empowered shapeshifter princess from the opposing side (The "Exalts").. developing a friendship and incestuous (?)/lesbian(?) relationship. Maidservant 'Rien' eventually takes on a symbiote of her own - at the behest of a Spiritual Being/AI entity/"Angel" known as 'Jacob Dust' - in a fascinating transformative process.. and enlisted to help repair their vessel so it can continue its mission to find a new home world.
The vocabulary/prose is capable, the nanotechnology-heavy colony is fascinating, and Bear's ethereal/spiritual cultural concepts are imaginative.. but I found the plot matter overly artsy, the writing style borderline pretentious, and the unusual female-female relationship exploration uncaptivating.

Reader Alma Cuervo didn't particularly impress, either. To be certain, her timbre, cadence, and voice-acting are commendable.. but she tends to overenunciate and her tone is occasionally melodramatic. Recorded Books Inc. cast the project "adequately".

I toto, I give 'Dust' - Book One in the Jacob's Ladder series of books 6 stars out of 10. If you're a fan of both Fantasy-SciFi & Women's Literature you might enjoy it more than I did (I'm not big on religious-flavored Fantasy or quasi-romantic BFF relationships among females).
I don't regret spending the time on the listen, but I can't recommend investing a Credit on it if it leaves the 'Plus' catalog.

Well-conceived. Not For Me.

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How is this writer so highly rated? The book is a never ending drawl of breath, empty of action, devoid of motivation, vacant of compelling characters. There are characters. But there is no reason to care about any of them, including the ones portrayed as suffering. Even those are insufferably boring in their suffering. Well after 3 full chapters and it's completely opaque as to what is going on, what is happening, why are we here? Not willing to give it 5 more hours of my life and neither should you.

After more than two hours pure tedium, surrender

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