The Games

The Games

  • by Ted Kosmatka
  • Narrated by Scott Brick
  • 11 hrs and 42 mins
  • Unabridged Audiobook
4.53 (15
Ratings.
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Publisher's Summary

This stunning first novel from Nebula Award and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award finalist Ted Kosmatka is a riveting tale of science cut loose from ethics. Set in an amoral future where genetically engineered monstrosities fight each other to the death in an Olympic event, The Games envisions a harrowing world that may arrive sooner than you think.
Silas Williams is the brilliant geneticist in charge of preparing the U.S. entry into the Olympic Gladiator competition, an internationally sanctioned bloodsport with only one rule: No human DNA is permitted in the design of the entrants. Silas lives and breathes genetics; his designs have led the United States to the gold in every previous event. But the other countries are catching up. Now, desperate for an edge in the upcoming games, Silas's boss engages an experimental supercomputer to design the genetic code for a gladiator that cannot be beaten.
The result is a highly specialized killing machine, its genome never before seen on earth. Not even Silas, with all his genius and experience, can understand the horror he had a hand in making. And no one, he fears, can anticipate the consequences of entrusting the act of creation to a computer's cold logic.
Now Silas races to understand what the computer has wrought, aided by a beautiful xenobiologist, Vidonia João. Yet as the fast-growing gladiator demonstrates preternatural strength, speed, and - most disquietingly - intelligence, Silas and Vidonia find their scientific curiosity giving way to a most unexpected emotion: sheer terror.

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What the Critics Say

“Modern SF started with something like E. E. Smith’s The Skylark of Space and progressed to Jack Williamson’s The Legion of Space, then to Heinlein’s classics, and on through the work of Larry Niven, John Varley, Greg Egan, Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow—and now, writers like Ted Kosmatka.” (Jonathan Strahan)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful

Great techno thriller with elements of horror

I love this book. Reminiscent of Michael Chriton it explored some big themes as well as keeping the story grounded in a future not far from our own. The ideas where excellently presented. The creature and the AI that made it was terrifying in what it could do, but what It represents a some total of all our fears as a humans that we possess the power to destroy ourselves if don't think through the ramifications of our creations.
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- Davey Blie

Brilliant!

Really loved this production. The story is as fascinating as it is horrifying. I really recommend people listen to this audiobook, even if you aren't traditionally in to sci fi as I think it transcends the genre and is a great listen all in itself. Scot Brick, as always, puts in a sterling job narrating the book and he really adds to the story. I only wish it were longer! :)
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- Roberto

Book Details

  • Release Date: 13-03-2012
  • Publisher: Random House Audio