A great story slightly let down by the audio

I've not read or listened to a Neal Stephenson book I didn't thoroughly enjoy and this was no different, but as others have noted this was let down by the audio quality, audio glitches, and the mind jarring pronunciation of "Primer" as "Prim-er" which bugged my British brain every-time it was said. However still worth a listen and I would recommend this unless a better recording became available.

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2 people found this helpful

An enticing adventure in an original world!

The voice artist is very impressive with a different voice for each character and beautiful nuances. The story is set in a very strange juxtaposed world of old world colonies and new world technology, so it required white a lot of concentration to immerse myself in the world being described.

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In two minds...

I chose this recording because I had enjoyed 'Cryptonomicon' by the same author and Neal Stephenson is certainly very inventive and imaginative, creating an entire alternative future world. Some parts of the story jogged along quickly and we made good progress together but at other times the pace slowed to a tedious crawl. Although I laughed out loud once or twice at this book I also found myself looking forward to the end - not so I could find out what happens, just so I could stop listening!

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A juicy classic

Cool, Dazzling, ingenious often satisfyingly brutal.. a feast for the mind and the senses as I've come to expect from Neal Stephenson. An exploration of memetics and the boundary between information technology and physical engineering with both levity and severity which keeps the tale whipping on.. so long since I read Snow Crash I didn't get the references (and cross over characters??) at first !
The narrator is talented and emotive but the audio quality is extremely low and has some alarming bit-crushy anomalies towards the end which made me think the digital file may have been salvaged from an ancient wreaked hard drive ..

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the book's good

But the narration suffers a serious flaw: "primer" is pronounced as "primmer" throughout.



I love the book, own it on paper as well, and the narrator has a lovely voice.

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6 people found this helpful

Ended suddenly without much resolution

Hmm not my favourite Neal Stephenson story and cringed everytime the narrator said 'primmer'

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A fine book with poor production

The publisher needs to re-record this great early Stephenson title. The sound production here is not up to today’s standards and the narration is, in many places, ruined by mispronunciation (It’s primer as in timer NOT primmer as in trimmer - a major flaw here) and some terrible if not bizarre accent choices.

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Overwrought

As other reviews have said, the production value is poor. I think the narrator does a fine job, but the sound is gritty and cuts out in places. My bigger issue was the story. I have read Stephenson before so I knew the plot would be overly complex, but this went a little too far. It starts slow, gathers steam and then plunges right off a cliff. It isn’t hard to follow, it’s just so overwrought that you have to really dig deep to want to try. I finished it, but I can’t say it was worth it.

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I love the story but...

.. was wildly irritated every time the othewise excellent narrator said "primmer" for "primer". Aaargh. I know it's a tiny thing but it was constantly distracting as it's a word that is said rather often.

That aside ("primmer" - bleugh) it's a cracking listen and full of wild flights of nano-tech fancy. Although I did get a bit bored in the company of the drummers. The New Victorian enclave was so much more fascinating.

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12 people found this helpful

Brilliant, but perhaps a stretch too far.

Midway through the book, I started to think it was the greatest thing I'd ever read. But then the parts with the drummers and the fucking and Hackworth's fugue state came along, and I felt a tad let down.

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1 person found this helpful