Eversion
By: Alastair Reynolds / Narrated By: Harry Myers
Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
A rave review… uhm, sans spoilers, of which there COULD be many…!
Once upon a time, a behemoth of an audiobook bookseller, now owned by a crazed gazillionaire having a total Midlife Crisis, had a sale. ‘Twas on shorter audiobooks. TIP: If ya wanna try out an unfamiliar genre or an unfamiliar author? What could be better than a small investment of your time and an even smaller investment of your hard-earned shekels?
This is how I wound up coming across Permafrost by hitherto unknown to me Alastair Reynolds. Had never even HEARD of the man (Cuz I do indeed live under a rock…), but dang! the Publisher’s Summary was compelling as heck. And dude, I think it was, like, $4.99 or something. How COULD I go wrong (Tho’ twouldn’t have been the first time the PS woulda led me astray). Anyhoo! I gave the little audiobook a Listen, and after a week of Boos! it was a resounding Yesssss! I dunno when an ending had me Ugly-Sobbing so hard, it was THAT good.
Fast forward to needing an audiobook for Big Sis and me to get into. Well, the aforementioned story was so grand it had me hitting Alastair Reynolds offerings, and I chose Eversion as I was still a trifle iffy. It’s a standalone novel to Listen to as opposed to having to dive into a series. I mean, he’d totally knocked m’ socks off… for a short audiobook, but could he carry 10-hours worth of story?
I am here to tell you that Yesssss! he can and most definitely does!
1800s, in the frigid waters off the coast of Norway, Silas Coade is the ship’s doctor. Immediately we see him in action, fearful of the procedure he’s about to undertake yet knowing he has no options if the man, Coronel Ramos, is to survive a head injury. He cranks a hole into the man’s skull, letting the brain bleed flow out. It’s touch and go, and various crew members are wary and tetchy cuz they neeeeed Ramos healthy and back on duty, and couldn’t the good doctor just let Ramos rest and get back to it? What’s all this Dangerous Surgery stuff?!
Still, all goes well, and now Coade has a boon companion. Which is a good thing cuz things are about to get mighty dicey as the crew discovers The Edifice, a construct that Russian financier Topolsky has been searching for. Right away, things start to go awry, the Europa, another sailing vessel, is discovered crashed with no survivors, and baaaad things happen. Such as? Well, Silas is crushed, with one persnickety Ada Cossile standing over him, muttering rude things.
End of story, yes? Nope, cuz Eversion is being crafted by Reynolds, lovingly, cleverly. The very next chapter has Silas Coade alive again, on a steamer, with the pretty-much same crew, looking for the Edifice. Again with Topolsky wigging out; again with baaaaad things happening.
Go through this in a couple different eras, a couple different types o’ vessels, pretty-much same crew? And more dire things occurring, but with little clues and highly-involved nuances being added, and we the Listeners are in for a grand and suspenseful tale. What is going on, exactly?
Cuz, seriously. What I just wrote is ALL I can tell you. I refuuuuuse to add Spoilers in an attempt to explain just how freakin’ good this is (I KNOW! NOT like me at ALL). All I can add is that there’s some stellar hard SciFi here that is only served better by some of the most humane elements, the BEST character development ever. Well, maybe I’ve seen Just As Good in, say, Permafrost.
When Big Sis and I got together to chat our way through the Kudos, I aaaaalmost started my Kudos with: Narrator Harry Myers, ALSO hitherto unknown to me, is beYONd spectacular. The ships’ crews are a diverse lot, and Myers bips and bops throughout whipsmart interactions between them, no slipping of accents, no missed opportunities to infuse emotion into emotionally-evocative conversations. Fatigue, fear, confusion. The irrepressible Ada Cossile’s terse yet wry observations and counseling never stinted on. Myers just does a simply STELLAR (>Grooooan< Forgive the pun…) job. What a performance, and he was so good that both Big Sis and I hit that Behemoth Seller’s site to look for more of his performances. Alas, LitRPG isn’t really my Thing, but I shall go back and scroll a wee bit more closely for standalones. THAT good, I tell you!
Ya know, when Big Sis is Googling her erudite hindquarters off, when she’s hitting Wikipedia (CanNOT say for what lest a twist be spoiled), when she’s in absolute tears cuz something is just so gosh-danged BEAUTIFUL? Friend Accomplice, that’s saying a LOT! You think I’M a tough critic? Try peeving her off, and then you’ll see what roasting is. That said? Delight her, stimulate her senses, dazzle her with Mathematics, and throw in an absolutely drop-dead gorgeous ending, and that author has just earned a fan for life.
Wonderful audiobook!
Just stunning. Just lovely.
Just Wow…!
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