Evolved
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Evolved
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Narrated by:
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Joel Leslie
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Written by:
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N.R. Walker
About this listen
In 2068, androids are an integrated part of human life. Big Brother no longer just watches from the shadows. It's in every household.
Lloyd Salter has OCD issues with noise and mess, and he's uncomfortable with human interaction. When his ex claimed the only thing perfect enough to live up to his standards was an android, Lloyd dismissed it. But two years later, after much self-assessment, he thinks he may have been right.
SATinc is the largest manufacturer of androids in Australia, including the Fully Compatible Units known as an A-Class 10. Their latest design is the Synthetic Human Android UNit, otherwise known as SHAUN. Shaun is compatible to Lloyd's every need; the perfect fit on an intellectual and physical basis.
But Lloyd soon realizes Shaun's not like other A-Class androids. He learns. He adapts. Sure that SATinc is aware Shaun functions outside of his programmed parameters, Lloyd must find a way to keep Shaun safe. No one can know how special Shaun is. No one can know he's evolved.
Contains mature themes.
©2018 N.R. Walker (P)2018 TantorWhat listeners say about Evolved
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Leo
- 2019-04-05
I loved it
I was hooked from the start and although it was predictable I just couldn’t stop listening. I think it was the love and romance. For some reason they just pulled my heart strings hard enough to keep me listening. I definitely recommend this audiobook!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Cheri Champagne
- 2020-05-07
Strangely Delightful
It's so weird, but I really liked this book. I was a bit scared to read it, not knowing what to expect, but I found Shaun so endearing.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2024-02-13
Surprisingly wonderful
I was apprehensive about this one, it had been sitting in my library for quite a while as I kept glancing over the synopsis and chosing something else. NOW HOWEVER, I know that its actually such a good story! I think it's well written and very captivating. And at some point I may have cried real tears. I definitely recommend it! I may even go buy a physical copy of it
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Alisa
- 2023-04-22
Entertaining
Joel Leslie is great as usual. the story was very interesting, I really enjoyed the book
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2024-06-17
Geez the feels you'll feel for these characters
I wasn't sure at first, but the author makes you care for them right from the get go. then you just get to hang on for the ride.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Benitha Kwizera
- 2024-01-23
Guilt Inducing. for all the right reasons
Is it just me or does Shaun possess more personality in his little finger than most humans out here have in there entire body?
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2022-10-07
Excellent!
I wish I hadn’t waited so long to listen to this one! Such a great story and I love listening to Joel Leslie speak!
I highly recommend this one!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2023-09-02
Evolved indeed.
LOVED it!! Excellent narration. Oh boy, this was a gooder, definitely recommend it!! I think the length was perfect, I loved the closeness and respect they have for each other.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2023-07-30
No OCD
The author uses the trope of "OCD" but doesn't actually know what the disorder actually is. It could have been a good book if they had actually used it, but instead, they went with the colloquial definition of 'they just like things *really* clean and *really* precise'.
There is a scene (in the first few chapters of the book, so no spoilers) where the android prepares the guy his dinner, basically a microwave dinner, and he doesn't watch in anxiety or hide biting his nails or such, He's just chilling, then checks it out to see if it's done with his precision. This Is Not OCD.
Someone with OCD has a Compulsion that drives an Obsession and they would get anxiety if that compulsion is not followed. I mean, there is variation, but that is the basics.
It sure would be nice if an author would do some basic research into a disorder before they wrote a book with a major plot point based on that disorder! N. R. Walker is doing a Major disservice to the community by misrepresenting the community this way.
I highly recommend reading "Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green or "Beard with Me" by Penny Reid for a more accurate read on OCD
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Blythe
- 2019-07-22
Disappointing and really annoying narrator
Whether or not this book sounds interesting to you, I'd say skip the audiobook and go for the print version (or at least check a sample listen first), because the narrator had an extremely uncertain wavering voice that made him sound super nervous all the time, which was very offputting. He sounded uncertain and nervous about everything for 8 straight hours, and if I had to hear him quaveringly say "oh boy" one more time I was about to delete the book entirely.
As for the book itself, meh. This book mostly disappointed me in that the POTENTIAL of the plot was so great, and sadly so very unfulfilled. I picked it up in a sale because I'm a sucker for books about androids evolving intelligence. There are two major themes to the book: androids developing real emotions and intelligence; and gay android sex scenes. While I'm okay with reading the latter particularly if relevant to the plot, the former is what interested me about the book so I was disappointed to find that the former is really just a paper-thin plot device to excuse writing a lot of the latter. Kind of like watching a porn movie hoping to get the backstory of the pizza delivery guy I guess.
There were lots of potentially interesting hooks that COULD have been a really interesting philosophical discussion about android intelligence and android rights, but they were all just sort of passed over without explanation or examination. For example, the AMA - Android Moral Authority - is somehow a thing that exists and apparently has a really surprising amount of authority to the point that they can raid locations, rapidly mobilize response teams, and get people arrested for mistreating androids - but how or why would this be the case? Like, the tech described in the book isn't that many decades from where we are now and there is NO indication or obvious reason that we are going to develop anything like the AMA unless there's some significant incident that brings it into being - but no explanation or mention of such in the book. Then there's the whole philosophical issue of how it could possibly be moral to design an android to be totally physically dependent on a human being they had no say whatsoever in choosing and who is undoubtedly going to die long before the android, leaving it completely helpless and incapable of being appropriately fulfilled. How is the supposedly powerful AMA okay with this either?
Then the characters in general - Lloyd goes and buys himself Shaun, an android sex toy, it doesn't occur to him he'll develop any type of feelings for Shaun, and then within a WEEK, when they've done very little other than read books and have sex, he's decided that he's in love? Just so much of the relationship building didn't seem to make any sense and was all hugely rushed. Shaun is actually much more likeable than Lloyd but the fact that probably none of his emotions are even a choice, since he's programmed to be entirely dependent on Lloyd, make the whole situation rather creepy if you accept he's really become a self-aware and intelligent being, a creepiness that is entirely ignored by all characters in the book.
I could mention also the highly dubious technobabble such as the fact that androids apparently need to be connected to the internet to CHARGE ... wut ... but let's not even go there because there are so many other questions about the rest of the book that the technological dubiousness of the setting is just icing on the cake. And DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED that a major premise of the book is that Lloyd's favourite FAVOURITE book EVER is ... MOBY DICK? Seriously? Has Walker ever actually read Moby Dick? Because I have, and the idea that this book out of all the books in the world is what the protagonist has chosen to be his favourite read-and-reread-and-read-with-boyfriends book is possibly the most mind-bogglingly unbelievable plot point of all.
Then, after a remarkably short passage of time (maybe 10 days?) there is a CRISIS, which neither Lloyd nor Shaun are much use at predicting, coping with, or avoiding; the whole thing is magically resolved in a technically very questionable way on several fronts, and the whole ending seems very deus ex machina and a huge loss of possible character development and elaboration of the worldbuilding.
So anyway, read this book if you think you'll enjoy a lot of gay human-on-android sex scenes but give it a miss if you're actually looking for a book about the evolution of android intelligence or a societal structure in which this might happen.
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