Classic Audiobook Collection

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Snowball by Poul William Anderson ~ Full Audiobook [scifi] Mar 15, 2023

Show notes

Snowball by Poul William Anderson audiobook.

Genre: scifi

In a quiet Massachusetts college town, physicist Simon Arch and his equally brilliant wife, Elizabeth, are chasing a theoretical hunch about dielectrics when they accidentally create something that should not exist: a cheap, stable material with an astronomical dielectric constant. A block the size of a book can store staggering amounts of energy - and, worse (or better), the recipe is simple enough that anyone with basic chemicals and a kitchen oven can make it. Simon imagines patents, progress, and a cleaner world powered by compact energy storage. Then the idea escapes the lab. A teenage hot-rodder sees an engine-free future. Entrepreneurs smell instant fortunes. Utilities, fuel companies, and politicians realize their control of power itself is slipping away. As homemade capacitite spreads like gossip, the modern economy begins to wobble, and Simon finds himself trapped between personal pride, public need, and the accelerating consequences of an invention that cannot be recalled. Snowball is a sharp, fast-moving classic of social science fiction about technology's unintended ripple effects, and how quickly a miracle can become a crisis when it belongs to everyone.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:35:55) Chapter 02

(01:07:21) Chapter 03

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Sentiment, Inc. by Poul William Anderson ~ Full Audiobook [scifi] Mar 15, 2023

Show notes

Sentiment, Inc. by Poul William Anderson audiobook.

Genre: scifi

When young engineer Colin Fraser falls hard for Judy Harkness, a rising actress with big-city ambition, their long-distance courtship feels like the start of a steady, ordinary future. Then, without warning, Judy announces a whirlwind engagement to Matthew Snyder, a wealthy older man she barely tolerated, and her personality seems subtly, frighteningly off. Colin cannot accept that love can flip so cleanly, so he follows the trail to a sleek, secretive outfit with an innocuous name: Sentiment, Inc. There he encounters Dr. Robert Kennedy, a brilliant researcher whose work suggests that emotions are not as untouchable as people like to believe. If feelings are built from networks of associations, what happens when those associations can be rearranged on command? As Colin digs deeper, his personal heartbreak turns into a confrontation with a technology that could redefine consent, loyalty, and even identity. Part psychological puzzle, part classic science-fiction thriller, Sentiment, Inc. asks how much of the heart is truly ours - and what a society might become if desire itself could be engineered.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:13:19) Chapter 02

(00:33:00) Chapter 03

(00:55:11) Chapter 04

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Inside Earth by Poul William Anderson ~ Full Audiobook [scifi] Mar 15, 2023

Show notes

Inside Earth by Poul William Anderson audiobook.

Genre: scifi

This story takes place in the not so distant future. Earth has been conquered and is a subjugated planet, the much too humanoid new rulers now extract heavy taxes, control industry and reproduction and interfere in every aspect of life. Rumors of their brutality and vicious massacres increase every day. Obviously, they must be thrown out and rebellion seethes among the patriots. But on the other hand, others are not so eager to get rid of the overlords: the terrible nationalistic wars have been stopped, famine is long gone and health care is almost universally available. Still, the elite intellectual portion of the earth's population plot to remove the heavy heel of the oppressors from their necks and let earth be free again. But time and again the attempts for freedom have been crushed the Valgolians mainly because national, ethnic, religious and racial prejudices and hatred among the earthlings keep the conspirators from working together. Obviously, no conqueror wants his subjects to revolt against his rule. Obviously? This one would go to any lengths to start a rebellion!

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:21:32) Chapter 02

(00:36:44) Chapter 03

(00:54:35) Chapter 04

(01:05:21) Chapter 05

(01:17:15) Chapter 06

(01:30:13) Chapter 07

(01:49:53) Chapter 08

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The Chapter Ends by Poul Anderson ~ Full Audiobook [scifi] Mar 15, 2023

Show notes

The Chapter Ends by Poul Anderson audiobook.

Genre: scifi

Set tens of thousands of years in the future, The Chapter Ends finds Earth reduced to a quiet backwater - a beautiful, half-forgotten cradle of humanity where a few million people live simple lives while the wider human civilization thrives among the stars. That fragile peace shatters when offworld authorities decide that Earth must be cleared, a decision driven less by sentiment than by distant, cold interstellar politics. Sent to oversee the final evacuation is Jorun, a star-traveler and psychotechnician whose implants and training let him read the currents of belief, fear, and loyalty in the people he has been ordered to move. On the ground, he meets Julith, a young woman pulled between curiosity about the greater universe and love for the only world she has ever known. And he faces his hardest case in Kormt, an old local leader whose stubborn refusal to leave is not mere defiance, but a worldview rooted in soil, memory, and the meaning of home. As departure day approaches, Jorun must decide what can be persuaded, what must be honored, and what is lost when a civilization turns the page on its own birthplace.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 1

(00:11:56) Chapter 2

(00:24:52) Chapter 3

(00:42:33) Chapter 4

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A Fool There Was by Porter Emerson Browne ~ Full Audiobook [drama] Mar 15, 2023

Show notes

A Fool There Was by Porter Emerson Browne audiobook.

Genre: drama

Two friends were asked by their respective fathers on their death beds to promise to marry a special girl, who lived across the street and who they had been very fond of since childhood. Once they reached young manhood, one of these fulfilled his father's wish. The story takes off from there, and, while all three continued to be very close to one another as they grew older, the married man was sent abroad on business, allowing his friend to take care of his wife and child while he was away. While overseas, the married man fell into temptation. Many twists and turns, as well as surprises were to follow, rendering the reader curious as to how it would all turn out

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:21:20) Chapter 02

(00:35:41) Chapter 03

(00:53:10) Chapter 04

(01:07:24) Chapter 05

(01:13:55) Chapter 06

(01:37:40) Chapter 07

(02:01:04) Chapter 08

(02:26:55) Chapter 09

(02:33:29) Chapter 10

(02:51:56) Chapter 11

(03:07:30) Chapter 12

(03:18:07) Chapter 13

(03:32:57) Chapter 14

(03:54:13) Chapter 15

(04:15:22) Chapter 16

(04:26:53) Chapter 17

(04:45:49) Chapter 18

(05:08:29) Chapter 19

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Apology by Plato ~ Full Audiobook [philosophy] Mar 15, 2023

Show notes

Apology by Plato audiobook.

Genre: philosophy

Plato's Apology is not an apology in the modern sense, but a powerful courtroom defense in which Socrates speaks for himself before an Athenian jury. Set during the famous trial that threatens his reputation, freedom, and life, the book presents Socrates as an unshaken seeker of truth, answering charges that he corrupts the young and disrespects the city's gods. Through a speech that is at once logical, provocative, and deeply personal, he examines the rumors that have followed him for years and explains why his relentless questioning of politicians, poets, and craftsmen has made him both admired and feared. Rather than pleading for sympathy, Socrates turns the trial into a meditation on wisdom, virtue, justice, and the duty to live an examined life. Plato captures the tension between the individual conscience and the demands of society, showing how dangerous honesty can become in a world that prefers comfort to self-scrutiny. Clear, dramatic, and surprisingly vivid, Apology remains one of the most influential portraits of moral courage ever written, and an essential introduction to Socratic thought.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 1

(00:36:59) Chapter 2

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The Canadians of Old by Philippe Aubert de Gaspe ~ Full Audiobook [history] Mar 15, 2023

Show notes

The Canadians of Old by Philippe Aubert de Gaspe audiobook.

Genre: history

In his mid-70s, Philippe Aubert de Gaspé took on the project of recording the culture and heritage of French Canada, especially that of the late 1700s, the world of his youth. The result, published in French in 1863, was the historical fiction 'Les Anciens Canadiens (literally, “The Canadians of Old”).

In this book, inspired by the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott, Aubert de Gaspé collects the customs, traditions, folk tales, superstitions, and songs of the Quebec people, weaves in memories of life in his own ancestral home, and sets all this within the momentous historical events that transformed Canada in the 18th century. Much of the book is historically accurate, based sometimes on the author’s own experiences and sometimes on memories passed on to him by eyewitnesses.

For example, the account of being sent to debtor’s prison came from the author’s own experience.

The fantastic ghost story of “La Corriveau” was based on the true story of a murderess whose body was on public display in iron chains (a “cage”) for weeks after her execution. That initial incident had already blossomed into material for lurid legend; Aubert de Gaspé was the first to incorporate this legend into a work of literature.

The book’s storyline hinges on the British Conquest of Quebec in 1759 and the ensuing trauma caused to French Canada. Fictional characters are intertwined with historical figures such as a famous shipwreck survivor and specific military officers.

This book is an engaging window on cultural history and one of the first great works of French Canadian literature.

The English translator of this edition, Charles G. D. Roberts, was himself a distinguished author. He has been called “the father of Canadian poetry.” - Summary by Bruce Pirie

*Warning: Listeners may be offended by some of the racial labels and depictions. Words that were considered acceptable in the nineteenth century may be offensive today.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:18:29) Chapter 02

(00:41:39) Chapter 03

(01:09:37) Chapter 04

(01:31:59) Chapter 05

(02:14:21) Chapter 06

(03:01:11) Chapter 07

(03:33:45) Chapter 08

(03:49:25) Chapter 09

(04:16:16) Chapter 10

(04:52:23) Chapter 11

(05:18:31) Chapter 12

(05:46:19) Chapter 13

(06:23:16) Chapter 14

(06:56:04) Chapter 15

(07:27:01) Chapter 16

(08:21:02) Chapter 17

(08:50:47) Chapter 18

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The Variable Man by Philip K. Dick ~ Full Audiobook [scifi] Mar 14, 2023

Show notes

The Variable Man by Philip K. Dick audiobook.

Genre: scifi

In the middle of a desperate interstellar war, Earth is gambling its survival on perfect prediction. Military planners and weapons magnates rely on vast statistical systems to forecast every battle, every treaty, every human choice, reducing the future to a set of manageable probabilities. Then a glitch rips open time itself and delivers an impossible outsider: Thomas Cole, a plainspoken, early-20th-century repairman with a talent for improvisation and a stubborn belief that any machine can be fixed if you understand its parts. To the strategists, Cole is a dangerous anomaly - a 'variable man' who does not belong in their equations and therefore threatens the fragile certainty that keeps their war machine running. As rival factions scramble to capture, study, or eliminate him, Cole is forced to navigate a world of cold logic, corporate ambition, and escalating violence, where being unpredictable can be both a weapon and a death sentence. Philip K. Dick spins a tense, idea-driven chase through a future obsessed with control, asking what happens when one ordinary human being becomes the one factor no system can account for.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:31:16) Chapter 02

(01:11:56) Chapter 03

(01:54:26) Chapter 04

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The Eyes Have It & Tony and the Beetles by Philip K. Dick ~ Full Audiobook [scifi] Mar 14, 2023

Show notes

The Eyes Have It & Tony and the Beetles by Philip K. Dick audiobook.

Genre: scifi

Aliens have invaded the earth! Horrible one celled creatures disguised as normal human beings ! Well, at least that is what it seems to the author. Yes, The Eyes Have It is a whimsical story, making gentle fun of certain writing styles, but only a topflight science-fictionist like Philip Dick , we thought, could have written this story, in just this way. Tony and the Beetles takes place far in the future when Earth's enormous colonial empire is well established but the question is, how long can it last? 10 year old Tony grows up fast when history catches up with the human race. A sobering look at human history .. and our probable future. Two very different stories but both entertaining.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 1

(00:08:40) Chapter 2

(00:26:09) Chapter 3

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The Defenders by Philip K. Dick ~ Full Audiobook [scifi] Mar 14, 2023

Show notes

The Defenders by Philip K. Dick audiobook.

Genre: scifi

The terrible destruction of total nuclear war between the Western and Eastern Blocks has succeeded in sterilizing the surface of the earth. No living creature can now exist there and all humans on both sides, have fled to the hives built miles below the surface where they constantly work to produce the war materials necessary to carry on the battle. For 8 years now, the actual fighting between these super powers has been conducted by robots known as Ledeys since only they can sustain the terrible levels of radiation caused by the constant bombardment. They are the Defenders, standing between the combatants far below and ultimate victory or defeat. Life is hard in the tunnels, but liveable, while it is lethal on the surface. The ledeys keep the generals informed on everything through vids and pictures; but how can this continue? what will happen? Who will win?

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 1

(00:13:49) Chapter 2

(00:27:59) Chapter 3

(00:48:10) Chapter 4

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