The City at World's End

A little dated, but still good.

(5 stars)

Debryanread

The city at the end of the world is an incredible story about a man and his people being thrust into the distant future, to a dieing earth. If you enjoy a good sci-fi novel, this is a good book to look for. compelling narrative, wonderful story telling, and a constant feeling of every emotion of the characters. With out a true and true antagonist, this novel breaks boundaries on who a hero can be. Some issues I had with the novel come with problems of the time. Our main character is relatively old minded when it comes to women, even though he's portrayed as a forward thinking man. Some of the science, of course, has changed over time and some situations can be a little silly looking back, and an over use of 'things' made some larger then life situations and objects feel... mondaine and boring. All in all though, I feel it's a wonderful book for all ages to read.

Absolutely Fantastic!

(5 stars)

Croc

I was deeply uplifted by this work. To the selfless people who brought it to us, many thanks. Your work was near perfect. I worked on Reagan's campaign in 1980. Not since then have I felt the buoyant sense of "morning in America." This work captures that spirit almost perfectly. My God people, how did we drift from our path? We need authors who don't reach to the gutter of "if it bleeds, it leads." We desperately need a return to the optimistic genius of the great age of good old SciFi. To hell with today's media and its constant drum beat of doom. Let us throw them on the scrap pile of history and resume our place as the imaginers of great things. Bravo Librivox! swanp

Depressing

(0.5 stars)

Ruby

This book started well and had so much promise. Perhaps if it had been written more recently its potential could have been realised. In short The City at World's End is just plain depressing. The mc is a depressing pessimist, the setting is depressing, the writing is depressing. Nonetheless I pushed on until chapter six when the author threw down this line regarding the mc's irritation at his fiancé because of the "inability of the female mind to grapple with the essentials of a situation". Now I get that the book was written in a different era, when a woman's place was in the home. But really! Did the author have to present all the women in his book as hysterical simpletons? The really frustrating thing is I'm going to keep encountering this. I'm dependent on audiobooks for a lot of my reading, and I can't afford to buy them. So it's off to the public domain I go. And apparently there are two roles for women in public domain sci fi (on the rare occasion the author notices that there is more than one sex) - the helpless female, and the sex symbol. Sigh. This has been a depressing review of a depressing book.

It was great but...

(4 stars)

Glumerlink

I fell in love with this book and the reader's voice was amazing. From the start the story is fairly straightforward and predictable but I feel that must only be because of how much time has passed since its creation. If I was to describe it in all but a few words I would describe it as "a great story with odd, sexist overtones." Though it is worth remembering it is a story from a different time. I would definitely recommend people give it a read!

(3 stars)

Dated of course but pretty good Science Fiction. if you can get past the dated reference towards women it's not bad at all. I kept thinking how silly these people were passing up a chance to be moved to a new fertle world with a string sun and warmth rather than living on a dying earth just because they don't want to change. The illogical mob fighting against relocation from a dying earth to a great new perfect world. Sad comments on humankind of this era.

Great book and nice voice

(5 stars)

Mike Q.

This was my first full book on this app. I tried a few others but couldn't get into the voice. The gentlemen who reads this book has a nice clear and relaxing voice. He changes voices for different characters but it's not overly done. I would like to thank the narrator for making this recording. He allowed me to experience a story I wouldn't have read on my own. The story it's self is a great tale of human survival and has good pace. It's a real thinker :)

Worth listening to

(4 stars)

Aaron V

This book won't rank as one of the top books I've ever read, but it is definitely worth listening to. For the most part it is well paced, and kept me mostly interested, except for maybe right around the initial court scene. Also, when the other comments made complaints about gender roles, I thought, "Surely, it won't be THAT bad", but though few instances in quantity, they were so outlandish in quality that I found them pretty amusing. Also, maybe it's because I'm not from that time period, but I had a hard time sympathizing with and understanding the middletowners POV.

A Simple, Thoughtful Listen

(3.5 stars)

Tom G.

Pros: Insight into earlier stages of the flourishing imagination of the western mind concerning science, space travel, and aliens makes this story exciting to listen to. The narration is fantastic. Cons: Many of the characters expressed deep xenophobia that felt foreign to modern western thought, making the characters feel distanced and hard to relate to, even cheesy. Perhaps most unsettling was the belittling formulation of the women characters. Still, it is a snapshot of the ambition of the scientific and imaginative western mind from the 50's.