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  • Host

  • By: Peter James
  • Narrated by: Matt Reeves
  • Length: 20 hrs and 40 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (244 ratings)
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Host cover art

Host

By: Peter James
Narrated by: Matt Reeves
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Summary

How far would you go to live forever? 

Brilliant scientist Joe Messenger believes that people can be made to live forever. Knowing the human body can be frozen indefinitely, Joe devises a way of downloading the human brain into a supercomputer called ARCHIVE. 

But Joe's wife, Karen, is worried by his preoccupation with ARCHIVE, which seems to be developing signs of a distinct and sinister personality of its own. 

Then, just as Joe is on the brink of a scientific breakthrough, a series of macabre accidents befall him and his family - and Joe finds himself facing the terrifying consequences of his own obsessions. 

Also from multimillion-copy best-selling author of the Roy Grace novels: 

  • Possession 
  • Dreamer 
  • Sweet Heart 
  • Twilight
  • Prophecy 
  • Host 
  • Alchemist 
  • Denial 
  • The Truth 
  • Faith 
©2018 Peter James (P)2018 Orion Publishing Group

Critic reviews

"Easily James's best book to date; a thought-provoking menacer that's completely technological and genuinely frightening about the power of future communications." (Time Out)
"Compulsive...I cannot remember when I last read a novel I enjoyed so much." (Sunday Telegraph)

What listeners say about Host

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

A Veritable Phoenix!

How apt it is that this particular book should be resurrected a quarter of a century after its original publication and brought into digital audio life! This old boy wheezes into life showing its age both in terms of it being set in the early 90s and taking some hours to really warm up and get into top gear. There is life in this old dog yet though as once it eases its creaking joints into motion it is a good fun techno thriller of the type only the previous century seemed to produce. Ignoring some strange notions like the idea that the entire contents of a human brain could be stored in as little as a single terabyte of data or indeed that mag tapes of the day could hold as much as that it is a decent story.

It's all set around the notion of cryogenics and the idea that we can cheat death by being frozen until medical science evolves far enough to cure us of our ills or even allows us new bodies of some kind. It's a decent story of its time and does bear many of the hallmarks of James's other thriller / mystery books, including a setting that will be familiar to followers of DI Grace.

Matt Reeves does a decent job of dusting off these old words and injecting new vigour into them though while he had a decent range of voices he did tend to make Blake in particular sound a little too feminine which confused me at times.

All in all this is a decent read if you are patient with it and accept that it isn't going to feel quite as fresh as it probably did when first published.

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

The stupidest scientist in literature?

The idea behind the book is basically a hot item, the threat of AI, but there are so many other threads overlapping.
Within the first 2 chapters it was pretty clear which way the story was going to go and it was unbearable how stupid and naive the main character was. And him a super scientist.
The language was another sore spot. It reminded me of the passages we used in English learning text books in the 60’s. simplified, graphic and irrelevant. ‘ John sees a tall man. He is wearing a funny hat’ kind of thing.
The bad guys are really bad and the good guys are really dumb....

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8 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Hated it

I jumped out after 3 hours bored beyond measure
It was indulgent the very worst book I've ever wasted my monthly subscription on.
If i wanted a PhD in a scientific, biological technical life l'd have gone to university and suffered lectures
Money back please Audible if you're bothered about a long term customer!

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Be careful with AI

I enjoyed the book and if you gloss over some of the cracks in the storyline this made for a very chilling perspective on this technology. Perhaps AI won’t manifest in quite this way but the story infers the gravity of what could be if this weren’t managed very carefully… (are we really capable of doing so? I doubt it). It seems these days despite the ‘high tech’ world we live in there are and will always be blunders and misuse

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1 person found this helpful

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

Keep with It

After a slow start this book turns into ana amazing read/listen. Keep persevering through and each time you think you have reached the end it keeps going fantastic

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Stick with it

A little slow and with jargon overload to start with but worth sticking with it to the end

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

fabulous

another addictive book by Peter James, loved every second of it, wanted it to last forever! Thank you

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

gripping stuff

loved the intensity of the book from state to finish. many twists made me hooked.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Clever plot

Clever plot but I expected a slightly tidier ending. Eg I thought an eternity stuck in a virtual world with JS.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Just WOW!!!

Didn’t think it was going to be for me however I stuck with it as Peter James is one of my favourite authors. Do you enjoy a book with this story line? Im not sure but after an hour I was trapped by the improbability of this happening whilst thinking one day it probably will

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