Diaspora cover art

Diaspora

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Diaspora

By: Greg Egan
Narrated by: Adam Epstein
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Behold the orphan. Born into a world that is not a world. A digital being grown from a mind seed, a genderless cybernetic citizen in a vast network of probes, satellites, and servers knitting the Solar System into one scape, from the outer planets to the fiery surface of the Sun. Since the Introdus in the 21st century, humanity has reconfigured itself drastically. Most chose immortality, joining the polises to become conscious software.

Others opted for gleisners: Disposable, renewable robotic bodies that remain in contact with the physical world of force and friction. Many of these have left the Solar System forever in fusion drive starships.

And there are the holdouts. The fleshers left behind in the muck and jungle of Earth - some devolved into dream-apes; others cavorting in the seas or the air; while the statics and bridges try to shape out a roughly human destiny.

But the complacency of the citizens is shattered when an unforeseen disaster ravages the fleshers, and reveals the possibility that the polises themselves might be at risk from bizarre astrophysical processes that seem to violate fundamental laws of nature. The Orphan joins a group of citizens and flesher refugees in a search for the knowledge that will guarantee their safety - a search that puts them on the trail of the ancient and elusive Transmuters, who have the power to reshape subatomic particles, and to cross into the macrocosmos, where the universe we know is nothing but a speck in the higher-dimensional vacuum.

©2013 Greg Egan (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Solar System Fiction
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Schild's Ladder cover art
Distress cover art
Quarantine cover art
Anathem cover art
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) cover art
Children of Time cover art
Snow Crash cover art
Ubik cover art
Andromeda Nebula cover art
Existence cover art
Revelation Space cover art
Quicksilver cover art
Flashforward cover art
House of Suns cover art
Fiasco cover art
Red Mars cover art

Editor reviews

It's the late 30th century, and mankind has splintered into diverse beings: the human fleshers, the Gleisner robots, and the artificially intelligent polises. Polis orphan Yatima has traveled back to Earth as an interstellar disaster is about to destroy the planet, beginning a monumental struggle for survival. Greg Egan explores issues of human identity in a future world. It's a heady concept that is grounded by Adam Epstein, whose sober and clear-headed approach - as well as his judicious use of accents to delineate the characters - makes Diaspora a fascinating exploration of human existence.

What listeners say about Diaspora

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    23
  • 4 Stars
    16
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    8
Performance
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    13
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    11
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    11
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    26
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    4

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A+ Scifi

Had to play on 1.2x as the narrator was very bored. Amazing book. Wow.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

interesting trip

there were a lot of complaints about the narration in the reviews, which made me hesitant to buy this one, but I think you get used to it and also narration gets better for sure. it doesn't help that the first chapter is pretty abstract or technical :) don't regret the listen, story is pretty epic. Greg egan has a new fan

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful book

This is a Hard science fiction book. So be prepared for alot of dense physics and complicated concepts.
That said, it is one of the best sci-fi novels I've ever read. it's scope is mind bogglingly epic and the world building is superb.
The civilization and technology are extremely well thought out and beautifully written. I would it give it 10 stars if I could.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Hard science fiction as its best

I would have given the book 6 stars if I could. It pushes the limits of the genre. it pushes the limits of what's possible by systematic thinking in literary form. A book that tries to encompass a posthuman scape stretching from horizon to horizon. Sci fi as hard and precious as diamond.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Love the story, don't like the preformance

I'd read this book before listening to it, and I knew I love it still I struggled to get into this. I can't suggest this as a way of getting acquainted with the book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Senility simulator

I feel this is exactly how some elderly folk experience 21st century life; unable to grasp the concept of what is being said, but still finding comfort in hearing a friendly voice. This is HARD sci-fi. It's not so much a story, rather a logarithm unravelling exponentially.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars

Have to defend the Narrator

I don't usually leave reviews but looking through the others, I feel I had to defend Adam Epstein. I thought he gave a good performance, he made all the characters distinct from each other and I felt is tone fit the book overall. If you are interested in buying the book here, do it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Difficult but worthwhile

Very technical, hard Sci-Fi. Some understanding of quantum physics is essential to make sense of the key underlying concepts. Great inspiring plot though with many twists and turns.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Why didn't I read the reviews! Awful narration.

Downloaded this via iPad and the strength of Greg Egans previous work. But the reader....soulless, monotone, and dull. I tried, I really did, but with a voice this uninteresting I actually forgot I was listening to it after a while...like an airport announcement in the background, you hear, but you're not listening.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Impossible to listen to the narrator

I have read and enjoyed the book previously and wanted the audiobook. The reader has a repellent, monotone delivery and I couldn't cope with more than 30 minutes before returning it for a refund.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful