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Dust

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Dust

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 Science Fiction Adventure Hard Science Fiction Genre Fiction Metaphysical & Visionary Technothrillers Thriller & Suspense

Critic reviews

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

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I guess I'm just not up to the level of this space fiction. I've listened and read - and still just didn't "Get it". The reader was great but I had real difficulty following the narrative. This may be a super book for those immersed in space fiction - but it wasn't for me. I have read another of Elizabeth Bear's book and like it.

Not my si-fi grade

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This was my first audio book, as well as my first Elizabeth Bear book. The writing was exquisitely well crafted; her prose was simply wonderful to listen to and, because of this, I plan to read it as well. The story was compelling, leading the reader on to understand the complexities of "the world" that was the stranded generation ship, with its ship mind/AI fragmented into pieces, the "angels". Very ingenious and well done. Without burdening the reader with endless technical descriptions, she illuminates the characters and brings them into vivid focus. The narrator was perfect.

A throughly well crafted story

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Dust is a mildly interesting variation on the generation ship theme. A lost and damaged interstellar space ship circling an unstable star sets the backdrop for a band of space travelers that have "evolved" well beyond human. The timeframe is far future with sophisticated AIs, nanotech, and genetic engineering capable of growing human wings. We begin some time after the accident that has precipitated current events. The ship's crew has bifurcated into two competing groups (former officers and engineers) with an almost Medieval orientation. The original AI has been forced to divide into multiple entities responsible for maintaining unique elements of the ship while at the same time assisting different groups in an attempt to reintegrate and take back total control of the vessel. We follow the journey of two women as they traverse the ship in an attempt to prevent an all out war.

The characters are not well developed and largely unremarkable, except for perhaps the AIs. The whole story has the feel of a shotgun wedding between a sci-fi setting and a vampire romance tale with a hint of homo-erotic innuendos along the way. One gets the feeling that effort was required to prevent choosing a fantasy fork as the story progresses. The ending is less climatic and moreso satisfaction that everything works out, sort of.

The narration is passable, but the flat affect for most of the story does not lend itself for much opportunity to display much in the way of range.

Generation ship sub-genre tale

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This was quite an odd book. Set in a disabled generation ship that has been stuck in a dying binary star-system for over half a millennium, the human population has devolved into two highly unequal classes, who have further divided into two primary, opposing factions. Simultaneously, the ships AI has fractured into several, strangely anthropomorphic and oddly possessive entities referred to as "Angels" who seem to represent alphas (males?) who are each trying to be the ultimate AI that takes the ship forward in the future. At it's most basic, the story is a complex fable about the divisions between science and religion. However, it also explores power in interpersonal relationships to a great extent. In summary: I think the book is trying to address an awful lot issues with an awful lot of symbology at once. The premise is very good, the world is very cleverly crafted, the visual narrative is very rich, and some the characters were, sadly, a little flat. The flow can shift abruptly at times, which makes it a bit challenging for an audio book and may result in some rewinding. It was not until about 2/3 of the way into the book that it really started to gel but after that it seemed to flow better. It's good enough that I'm going to read the second book.

A Challenging Book, may be trying to do too much.

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I've read some of her newer books and I love the fact that they are full of context of different types of personalities and people and progressive thoughts such as including people of different genders and different sexualities and different identifications... And I didn't know if that was going to be true in one of her older books... still there it's just much more subtle... The world wasn't really ready for it back then. this trilogy though is very good it's very well done and it's interesting how whoever chooses the readers for these books... I just really appreciate the thought that goes into their choice for readers.

I didn't really know what this book was about when I started it and I didn't kind of understand how to take it in... kind of similar to Firefly in the sense of mixing genres and sometimes it's hard to get your brain around... but it's very well done here and the reason that it's done is actually explained by the story which makes it a lot better for me.

so it seems to be taking place on a starship in the distant future but at the same time everyone seems to be living at the feudal level... like there are the ruling class and then there are the fiefs, etc. it's got a lot of religious vernacular in it but it's capitalizing on the idea that any distant technology will be perceived as magic... And that is really evident here. I really wasn't certain if I was going to enjoy this but I really ended up getting sucked in and I'm definitely going to read the other books in this series to see how it all turns out.

I recommend that you read it especially if you like any crossover between fantasy and science fiction 🥰

it starts slow but stick with it!

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