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Forest 404
Audiobook
Published January 21, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 24, 2021
I listened to this through Netgalley with massive thanks to the publishers, Penguin Random House UK for an honest review. And I couldn’t recommend this high enough!
An audiobook like no other! Consider a world where data space was limited and many of the old sights, sounds and data was on the chopping board, to be erased from time forever. And Pan, an archivist, comes across an old soundscape of a beautiful Forest... and it all goes from there.
The old ‘Slow times’, the cataclysm that changes it all and a catapult into fast times where we join Pan in her story. A world that’s futuristic and without all the biological beauty that we see today.
Fantastically acted by the narrators and brilliantly put together. Probably one of the most fun audiobooks I’ve ever listened to and it was so clever. Getting to know this strange future world was wonderful, very immerse and so addicting.
Forest 404 was a wonderful fusion of fiction, story, non fiction and beautiful soundscapes. The accompanying real world podcasts were informative and really great to listen to. I adore this idea of combining fiction with non fiction - it was so novel and I could listen to these type of audiobooks fiction/non fiction mix forever! With each different podcast on a different topic with a different expert in their field, it was a great accompaniment to the corresponding episodes.
And I loved the soundscapes. A chance to listen to the longer versions of the snippets we heard in the main story episodes. They were a beautiful compilation of nature and really great to listen to. Relaxing and a chance to close your eyes and mentally wander through the natural world. Bliss!
The plot is fast paced, enthralling and difficult to put down. You just want to know how it will all pan out (unintended pun.. I’ll get the door..) but it was fantastically done and I really enjoyed it. Really brilliant!
An audiobook like no other! Consider a world where data space was limited and many of the old sights, sounds and data was on the chopping board, to be erased from time forever. And Pan, an archivist, comes across an old soundscape of a beautiful Forest... and it all goes from there.
The old ‘Slow times’, the cataclysm that changes it all and a catapult into fast times where we join Pan in her story. A world that’s futuristic and without all the biological beauty that we see today.
Fantastically acted by the narrators and brilliantly put together. Probably one of the most fun audiobooks I’ve ever listened to and it was so clever. Getting to know this strange future world was wonderful, very immerse and so addicting.
Forest 404 was a wonderful fusion of fiction, story, non fiction and beautiful soundscapes. The accompanying real world podcasts were informative and really great to listen to. I adore this idea of combining fiction with non fiction - it was so novel and I could listen to these type of audiobooks fiction/non fiction mix forever! With each different podcast on a different topic with a different expert in their field, it was a great accompaniment to the corresponding episodes.
And I loved the soundscapes. A chance to listen to the longer versions of the snippets we heard in the main story episodes. They were a beautiful compilation of nature and really great to listen to. Relaxing and a chance to close your eyes and mentally wander through the natural world. Bliss!
The plot is fast paced, enthralling and difficult to put down. You just want to know how it will all pan out (unintended pun.. I’ll get the door..) but it was fantastically done and I really enjoyed it. Really brilliant!
January 11, 2021
An interesting, impressive and immersive multimodal mix of drama, factual discussion and soundscapes that tell the story of Pan, a data archivist, who comes across recordings of rainforests which don't exist in the futuristic world where she lives. Like her quasi-namesake Pandora , this sets off a chain of thrilling events.
This was originally a series on the radio and you can tell because at the end of every section you would get credits which frankly I could do without in this audiobook version. However, I listened to an ARC which I received from Netgalley so the proper version may not have this.
Overall, Forest 404 is an innovative concept that has an important message about saving the world for future generations without being too preachy. I would recommend to everyone but if you like Doctor Who, you will definitely like this especially as Pearl Mackie (Bill) is the voice of Pan.
This was originally a series on the radio and you can tell because at the end of every section you would get credits which frankly I could do without in this audiobook version. However, I listened to an ARC which I received from Netgalley so the proper version may not have this.
Overall, Forest 404 is an innovative concept that has an important message about saving the world for future generations without being too preachy. I would recommend to everyone but if you like Doctor Who, you will definitely like this especially as Pearl Mackie (Bill) is the voice of Pan.
January 21, 2021
‘Can you feel loss for something you've never known?’
My thanks to Penguin Random House U.K. Audio for the audiobook edition via NetGalley of ‘Forest 404’ written by Timothy X Atack. It is performed by Pearl Mackie, Pippa Haywood, and Tanya Moodie with additional material by its creators.
‘Forest 404’ is a science fiction thriller that originally was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2019 and is now being released in an audiobook edition. It consists of 28 tracks: there are the central 9 episodes, each followed by a podcast about the episode and then individual soundscapes that allow a sense of immersion in the characters’ aural experiences. It concludes with a ‘making of’ documentary.
As for the plot - Pan lives a few centuries from now where a data crash has wiped out most records of life from before the 23rd century. She is an archivist whose job is to sort through old sound recordings that survived from before the crash - from The Slow Times. She has to decide which sounds will be retained and which deleted forever.
When she finds an old recording of a rainforest, Pan has no idea what it is because forests no longer exist. She is haunted by these sounds and feels compelled to discover how the forests died. Yet there are agents of the new world order who vehemently oppose such curiosity.
This was an incredible listening experience that was also extremely thought provoking in terms of the ecological and social issues it raised. I found Pan a fascinating character. Given that the Greek God Pan is linked to nature, it felt a fitting name for a character seeking the lost forests.
I found the podcasts informative and the soundscapes exceptional. I was especially haunted by the birdsong that formed an ongoing motif in the music composed for the broadcasts. The closing documentary revealed that its original recording made in Sumatra was an important inspiration for Timothy X Atack when he came across it in the BBC sound archives.
I really cannot recommend this highly enough. It is science fiction at its best, raising fascinating questions about the future within a compelling narrative.
My thanks to Penguin Random House U.K. Audio for the audiobook edition via NetGalley of ‘Forest 404’ written by Timothy X Atack. It is performed by Pearl Mackie, Pippa Haywood, and Tanya Moodie with additional material by its creators.
‘Forest 404’ is a science fiction thriller that originally was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2019 and is now being released in an audiobook edition. It consists of 28 tracks: there are the central 9 episodes, each followed by a podcast about the episode and then individual soundscapes that allow a sense of immersion in the characters’ aural experiences. It concludes with a ‘making of’ documentary.
As for the plot - Pan lives a few centuries from now where a data crash has wiped out most records of life from before the 23rd century. She is an archivist whose job is to sort through old sound recordings that survived from before the crash - from The Slow Times. She has to decide which sounds will be retained and which deleted forever.
When she finds an old recording of a rainforest, Pan has no idea what it is because forests no longer exist. She is haunted by these sounds and feels compelled to discover how the forests died. Yet there are agents of the new world order who vehemently oppose such curiosity.
This was an incredible listening experience that was also extremely thought provoking in terms of the ecological and social issues it raised. I found Pan a fascinating character. Given that the Greek God Pan is linked to nature, it felt a fitting name for a character seeking the lost forests.
I found the podcasts informative and the soundscapes exceptional. I was especially haunted by the birdsong that formed an ongoing motif in the music composed for the broadcasts. The closing documentary revealed that its original recording made in Sumatra was an important inspiration for Timothy X Atack when he came across it in the BBC sound archives.
I really cannot recommend this highly enough. It is science fiction at its best, raising fascinating questions about the future within a compelling narrative.
January 6, 2021
Part fiction, part podcast, part soundscape, presented in 9 x 3-part episodes.
The Fiction
Pan is an archivist, living in the future. Her job is to sort through old data, recorded before the crash, and decide whether it should be retained or deleted. When she comes across a recording of a rainforest, she doesn’t know what to make of it, as forests don’t exist in the 24th century.
Performed by actors who will be familiar to those who watch BBC dramas, unlike most audiobooks the fiction is semi-dramatized. The recording is supplemented by ambient sound effects. The performances are of a high standard.
Audibly, Forest 404 is harder to follow than standard audiobooks: this performance includes more sotto voce and a wider range of vocal tempo. For this reason, it requires careful listening.
This sci-fi thriller was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It has a Young Adult/New Adult feel, which put me in mind of a mainstream Saturday primetime TV series.
The Discussion Pieces
Each talk supplements ideas raised in the preceding episode of fiction/dramatization.
Experts and informed enthusiasts across a range of disciplines discuss topics including healthy ageing, the impact of nature on mental health, and artificial intelligence. They pose questions such as how close are we to the extinction of the human race? And, what is the environmental cost of data storage?
Given the complexity of some of the concepts discussed, all the pieces are accessible and engaging.
The Soundscapes
The soundscapes range from rainforest to ocean, and emphasise the importance of preserving biodiversity.
Gorgeous and uplifting! At times, I had to stop whatever I was doing and turn towards the speakers in a kind of rapture. For full immersion, I recommend you listen via high quality earphones.
The production is impressive.
Overall:
While the drama didn’t particularly engage me, the discussion pieces, soundscapes and high production values drew me in.
I applaud the project’s concept and innovative presentation. Only through such novel ways of communication can we address the message to the broadest possible audience, and have any hope in combating the anthropogenic threats of climate change, environmental destruction and unsustainable resources use.
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK Audio for the ARC.
The Fiction
Pan is an archivist, living in the future. Her job is to sort through old data, recorded before the crash, and decide whether it should be retained or deleted. When she comes across a recording of a rainforest, she doesn’t know what to make of it, as forests don’t exist in the 24th century.
Performed by actors who will be familiar to those who watch BBC dramas, unlike most audiobooks the fiction is semi-dramatized. The recording is supplemented by ambient sound effects. The performances are of a high standard.
Audibly, Forest 404 is harder to follow than standard audiobooks: this performance includes more sotto voce and a wider range of vocal tempo. For this reason, it requires careful listening.
This sci-fi thriller was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It has a Young Adult/New Adult feel, which put me in mind of a mainstream Saturday primetime TV series.
The Discussion Pieces
Each talk supplements ideas raised in the preceding episode of fiction/dramatization.
Experts and informed enthusiasts across a range of disciplines discuss topics including healthy ageing, the impact of nature on mental health, and artificial intelligence. They pose questions such as how close are we to the extinction of the human race? And, what is the environmental cost of data storage?
Given the complexity of some of the concepts discussed, all the pieces are accessible and engaging.
The Soundscapes
The soundscapes range from rainforest to ocean, and emphasise the importance of preserving biodiversity.
Gorgeous and uplifting! At times, I had to stop whatever I was doing and turn towards the speakers in a kind of rapture. For full immersion, I recommend you listen via high quality earphones.
The production is impressive.
Overall:
While the drama didn’t particularly engage me, the discussion pieces, soundscapes and high production values drew me in.
I applaud the project’s concept and innovative presentation. Only through such novel ways of communication can we address the message to the broadest possible audience, and have any hope in combating the anthropogenic threats of climate change, environmental destruction and unsustainable resources use.
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK Audio for the ARC.
February 3, 2021
Have you ever thought, “What happens if ‘The Cloud’ gets filled up?” What happens to your digital data after you’re gone? The generations which are now on the back half of their life did not grow up with smartphones where every photo and every whim of thought gets uploaded to…where? What happens to all that data? Set a few hundred years in the future, Forest 404’s main character Pan is a low level auditor, combing through audio files and deciding what to delete. The story begins as we listen to Pan give a cursory review of and delete forever Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma, and the recording of Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon. Imagine “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” slipping away into oblivion as irrelevant noise that’s just taking up space.
Pan comes across an audio file, Forest 404, which is a specific recording of forest sounds. It’s like nothing she’s heard before. It comes from the “slow world,” a state of existence she doesn’t understand because it was before the great cataclysm. She and everyone else now live in the fast times. The sounds haunt her so much that she smuggles the file out so she can bring it home and continue listening to it.
The real action begins when Pan’s best friend Daria, a member of the Convocation, the police system, wants to wipe Pan’s memory when she finds out about the file. The fictional part of the book is off to a great start. I’m hooked.
Unfortunately, this is also where the format fails for me. Out of five and a half hours of audio, only about two and a half hours is actual story. Because it’s brief, it has no room for subplots. It’s straight forward, more like an episode of the Twilight Zone. Instead of chapters, it is dramatized into “episodes” and we get credits for direction, music, and acting at the end of every single twenty-minute episode. Then we get a six-to-eight-minute non-fiction podcast that relates to the episode we just heard. It included everything from Circadian Rhythms to bioethics to a poem. It is like having the author’s source material forced on you. After the podcast follows another five or six minutes of audioscapes that are also related to the episode. So, it could be six minutes of frogs or people’s voices at the beach. There are apps for this that people utilize to go to sleep…just saying. So, for me, the format broke up the flow of the story creating instead a short story with lots of background and tangents which I found tedious.
Without spoiling the fictional sections, I can tell you it has heavy artificial intelligence influences. I’ll grant you that the story alone is ok, if not terribly original. People have been predicting the world would be taken over by AI for decades in both utopian and dystopian literature. Possibly most well-known is Asimov who wrote his short story Hardwired back in 1950 which was made into I, Robot in 2004. Asimov gives credit to a book of the same name from 1939 in influencing his sympathetic robot. It actually goes back as far as the 19th century in literature. Although organic, Shelly’s Frankenstein could be considered an artificial lifeform. In Forest 404 the most interesting thing about the interaction between humans and AI is the lack of it. While curiously original, it doesn’t make for much drama in storytelling.
I suspect I would have been more forgiving of the story if it weren’t for the narrators. Pan is played by Pearl Mackie, better known for her part as Bill Potts in Dr. Who. She and the other actors all have thick south London accents. Mackie especially speaks quickly and is difficult to follow. Think Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady before she has speaking lessons. Unless you are British, you may struggle to understand them. Other than that, the production values are good and I didn’t have to strain to hear any part of the recording.
Overall, Forest 404 is not an audiobook so much as it is a production about the environment and ethics of artificial intelligence. Uniquely suited to the audio format because it is about audio files, it’s not something in which I would have gone out of my way to invest my time.
My Ratings
Story: B-
Narration: D
Read this full review and more on That's What I'm Talking About: https://twimom227.com/2021/02/listen-...
Pan comes across an audio file, Forest 404, which is a specific recording of forest sounds. It’s like nothing she’s heard before. It comes from the “slow world,” a state of existence she doesn’t understand because it was before the great cataclysm. She and everyone else now live in the fast times. The sounds haunt her so much that she smuggles the file out so she can bring it home and continue listening to it.
The real action begins when Pan’s best friend Daria, a member of the Convocation, the police system, wants to wipe Pan’s memory when she finds out about the file. The fictional part of the book is off to a great start. I’m hooked.
Unfortunately, this is also where the format fails for me. Out of five and a half hours of audio, only about two and a half hours is actual story. Because it’s brief, it has no room for subplots. It’s straight forward, more like an episode of the Twilight Zone. Instead of chapters, it is dramatized into “episodes” and we get credits for direction, music, and acting at the end of every single twenty-minute episode. Then we get a six-to-eight-minute non-fiction podcast that relates to the episode we just heard. It included everything from Circadian Rhythms to bioethics to a poem. It is like having the author’s source material forced on you. After the podcast follows another five or six minutes of audioscapes that are also related to the episode. So, it could be six minutes of frogs or people’s voices at the beach. There are apps for this that people utilize to go to sleep…just saying. So, for me, the format broke up the flow of the story creating instead a short story with lots of background and tangents which I found tedious.
Without spoiling the fictional sections, I can tell you it has heavy artificial intelligence influences. I’ll grant you that the story alone is ok, if not terribly original. People have been predicting the world would be taken over by AI for decades in both utopian and dystopian literature. Possibly most well-known is Asimov who wrote his short story Hardwired back in 1950 which was made into I, Robot in 2004. Asimov gives credit to a book of the same name from 1939 in influencing his sympathetic robot. It actually goes back as far as the 19th century in literature. Although organic, Shelly’s Frankenstein could be considered an artificial lifeform. In Forest 404 the most interesting thing about the interaction between humans and AI is the lack of it. While curiously original, it doesn’t make for much drama in storytelling.
I suspect I would have been more forgiving of the story if it weren’t for the narrators. Pan is played by Pearl Mackie, better known for her part as Bill Potts in Dr. Who. She and the other actors all have thick south London accents. Mackie especially speaks quickly and is difficult to follow. Think Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady before she has speaking lessons. Unless you are British, you may struggle to understand them. Other than that, the production values are good and I didn’t have to strain to hear any part of the recording.
Overall, Forest 404 is not an audiobook so much as it is a production about the environment and ethics of artificial intelligence. Uniquely suited to the audio format because it is about audio files, it’s not something in which I would have gone out of my way to invest my time.
My Ratings
Story: B-
Narration: D
Read this full review and more on That's What I'm Talking About: https://twimom227.com/2021/02/listen-...
April 17, 2021
This is an Episodic podcast so you can listen in your own order. It is beautifully narrated, in a peaceful and paced way that makes you want to stop and just listen. It is all first person, each characters’ inner voice is heard for most, if not all, of each episode, so you get solid perspectives from the characters. Very effective for the content. First you have the story, then the science behind the key aspect of each episode and then the soundscape used in each story.
The story is set in the future when digital space is precious. So, there are people assigned to review what has been saved digitally and choose if files have any value anymore. Pan (Pearl Mackie from Doctor who) is one of the reviewers and one day she gets caught up in a recording of the rainforest – we know it is of the rainforest but she has no idea what it is just how it makes her feel. This situation is classed as dangerous and this behaviour is described as a virus, 'rapture' where a recording becomes an obsession. Her focus on the recording stops her from doing her job. The only way to remove the infection is to erase it from her memory.
There is a group called the 'collocation' or 'hands' who watch and deal with infections. What are they? We are not told but they appear to be ‘other’ possibly alien. Pan’s questions the need to stop the population from listening to music or recordings? We are not told but you need to listen until the very end to find the answers with Pan.
Each episode is followed by an explanation of why we need the sounds discussed or how the future is predicted to be shaped as it is in the story. There are reputable experts/scientists who are interviewed (as expected in a BBC production) and links given for those who wish to research further.
There are only two key voices we hear throughout the story. It's a clean and simple narrative that makes it easier to keep the thread. Each perspective changes our understanding of the previous episode and fills in any gaps. I was so tempted to skip the research explanations/soundscapes and just follow the story then go back and listen in order, but I am glad I did not as they do add to your understanding.
This is a modern narrative for our current age and concerns itself with the environment, technology, and the universal question of why humans are the ones who are at the top.
A fabulous gift for any young adult. I was given a free copy by netgalley.com for my fair and honest review.
The story is set in the future when digital space is precious. So, there are people assigned to review what has been saved digitally and choose if files have any value anymore. Pan (Pearl Mackie from Doctor who) is one of the reviewers and one day she gets caught up in a recording of the rainforest – we know it is of the rainforest but she has no idea what it is just how it makes her feel. This situation is classed as dangerous and this behaviour is described as a virus, 'rapture' where a recording becomes an obsession. Her focus on the recording stops her from doing her job. The only way to remove the infection is to erase it from her memory.
There is a group called the 'collocation' or 'hands' who watch and deal with infections. What are they? We are not told but they appear to be ‘other’ possibly alien. Pan’s questions the need to stop the population from listening to music or recordings? We are not told but you need to listen until the very end to find the answers with Pan.
Each episode is followed by an explanation of why we need the sounds discussed or how the future is predicted to be shaped as it is in the story. There are reputable experts/scientists who are interviewed (as expected in a BBC production) and links given for those who wish to research further.
There are only two key voices we hear throughout the story. It's a clean and simple narrative that makes it easier to keep the thread. Each perspective changes our understanding of the previous episode and fills in any gaps. I was so tempted to skip the research explanations/soundscapes and just follow the story then go back and listen in order, but I am glad I did not as they do add to your understanding.
This is a modern narrative for our current age and concerns itself with the environment, technology, and the universal question of why humans are the ones who are at the top.
A fabulous gift for any young adult. I was given a free copy by netgalley.com for my fair and honest review.
February 27, 2022
My first ever experience with a NetGalley audiobook, Forest 404 was written by Timothy X Atack, starring Pearl Mackie, Tanya Moodie and Pippa Haywood, with original music by Bonobo. Set in the 24th Century in a world where technology has taken over and the people couldn't recognise a tree if it was staring them in the face, we follow Pan, a young woman who works clearing out old data to save space. But one day, she finds some files she can't bring herself to delete and this changes the course of humanity forever.
I'm going to get 2 things out of the way here. The first is that I gave this five stars and it is one of the best things I have ever listened to. The second? Well it's the only negative I have. As I mentioned before, I got this as my first ever audiobook from NetGalley, but it isn't an audiobook? It's a podcast. You can go right now, wherever you listen to podcasts, and grab it from there. Which I won't lie, was a life saver for me cause the NetGalley app can't be downloaded to iPhone 6's so it meant I could still listen to it out and about, but it does mean this wasn't what I expected going in. Each episode has an intro and an outro, which works great on podcasts but is a little odd when you think you're listening to an audiobook and that each "file" is a chapter. But that is the only negative I have, and it's really NetGalley's fault, not the artists, so let's move on.
This podcast is absolutely fantastic. It's beautiful. It's well written. It's atmospheric. I was completely and totally absorbed. I was listening to this whenever I could, going on more walks than usual just to be out in nature whilst I listened to it. It is just... gorgeous. In terms of how it's laid out, we get 9 story episodes, each about 25 minutes long, and accompanying each of these story episodes are one "pod-talk" each and one soundscape each, both sitting somewhere between 5-15 minutes long. Both of which are linked to what was just talked about in their respective episodes. The thought and detail which has been put into combining these together into one flowing story has paid off as it's done brilliantly and I really enjoyed each and every episode and how they interwove.
Now I'm going to review the three sections separately. Starting backwards, first off are the soundscapes. These are all sounds of nature, from various different locations with differing local fauna and landscapes. These are so beautiful to listen to, they really made me feel at peace and as though I was actually sitting there, in a rainforest, or on the streets of St Petersburg. They also do link into the plot of the storyline for their respective episode which adds another element to them as you listen.
Next are the "pod-talks". These are short episodes where an expert has been brought in to discuss a topic that was mentioned in the main episode. This can vary from talking about whale songs, why trees live so long to discussing what death actually means for us in the digital age. In the background the beautiful theme music by Bonobo still plays, which for many of us allows the podcast as a whole to be tied together, but I know this would annoy some people and take their attention away from the expert so I thought I would mention it. I personally am not a fan of music in the background when someone is talking, but this was quiet enough and neutral enough that it didn't bother me at all. Each of these experts really brought the topics mentioned in the story back into modern day life, thinking about how these are impacting us in our daily lives and how they may actually become what Pan is describing to us in the future. As someone who usually listens to non-fiction science podcasts I really appreciated this section.
And finally, the pièce de résistance, the story episodes. Throughout these, the music by Bonobo is interwoven, but also combined with beautiful sound effects that really bring the world and it's surroundings to life depending on where they are. It adds another dimension to the story and interweaves the importance of music throughout. Pearl Mackie, who I know from playing Bill Potts in Doctor Who, acts Pan brilliantly, with so much raw emotion in her voice and so much pure humanity. Tanya Moodie perfectly plays a cold and detached business woman in our sci-fi world, and Pippa Haywood, who plays a 300+ year old woman from the "slow times" (i.e. our time) must've had such a sore throat after this but performance-wise it was worth it because that gravelly voice perfectly showed the impacts of time on a person as well as allowing her to be both uncaring and deeply caring about the events around her. The story itself is incredibly interesting, and I gasped out loud a few times (and then looked around to make sure no one else was there to hear me!) with different plot points and story lines. It's so deeply interwoven throughout, with us returning to specific events and also learning more about this version of future Earth as we progress. The worldbuilding was fantastic, I can still envision the picture of this city that I built in my minds eye, and is evocative of so many of our modern day infrastructure. The script is beautifully done, it's narrated to the listener, mainly by Pan, as though it's a confessional. And despite this more limiting narrative method I was still completely invested in ever single character, in all of this world's intricacies. I can't praise this enough.
One extra point from the NetGalley file that I liked that the podcast did not is that there was an extra 30 min discussion with the director of the podcast, talking about how she worked with Timothy X Atack and really took on board all of his ideas as well as giving a little background to the production. It was a really interesting extra that I appreciated.
Another point that I found after researching a little more about this podcast is that not only is the voicing cast all women, which I adored, but also 2 of the 3 women are BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic, it's the British version of BIPOC), with both Pearl Mackie and Tanya Moodie being Black women. These women were all perfect for the roles they played and I think the casting was done wonderfully.
And now, just before the end, one other tiny little negative. I know. I know. I said there was only one at the beginning of this, but I swear this is teeny tiny. It's that you can't speed up this podcast. For all the audiobooks and podcasts I listen to, they're always sped up. All of them. With this one I couldn't do that. I needed the original pacing, I needed the music to be as it was originally composed. Which is a testament to the entire production team! But I do just want to warn you going in, as I had been expecting to speed this one up.
Overall, if it wasn't obvious from how LONG this review is, I adored this podcast/audiobook/I don't know but I don't care cause I loved it! It has been over a fortnight (2 weeks non-UK peeps) since I finished listening to this and the concept and the storyline and the soundscapes are still in my head! (Damn it Pan!). It is one of the most beautiful productions I've ever heard and I'm so glad that I picked it up! Please listen to this!! If you enjoy sci-fi, care about the environment, and like listening to well crafted audio, this is one for you!
I'm going to get 2 things out of the way here. The first is that I gave this five stars and it is one of the best things I have ever listened to. The second? Well it's the only negative I have. As I mentioned before, I got this as my first ever audiobook from NetGalley, but it isn't an audiobook? It's a podcast. You can go right now, wherever you listen to podcasts, and grab it from there. Which I won't lie, was a life saver for me cause the NetGalley app can't be downloaded to iPhone 6's so it meant I could still listen to it out and about, but it does mean this wasn't what I expected going in. Each episode has an intro and an outro, which works great on podcasts but is a little odd when you think you're listening to an audiobook and that each "file" is a chapter. But that is the only negative I have, and it's really NetGalley's fault, not the artists, so let's move on.
This podcast is absolutely fantastic. It's beautiful. It's well written. It's atmospheric. I was completely and totally absorbed. I was listening to this whenever I could, going on more walks than usual just to be out in nature whilst I listened to it. It is just... gorgeous. In terms of how it's laid out, we get 9 story episodes, each about 25 minutes long, and accompanying each of these story episodes are one "pod-talk" each and one soundscape each, both sitting somewhere between 5-15 minutes long. Both of which are linked to what was just talked about in their respective episodes. The thought and detail which has been put into combining these together into one flowing story has paid off as it's done brilliantly and I really enjoyed each and every episode and how they interwove.
Now I'm going to review the three sections separately. Starting backwards, first off are the soundscapes. These are all sounds of nature, from various different locations with differing local fauna and landscapes. These are so beautiful to listen to, they really made me feel at peace and as though I was actually sitting there, in a rainforest, or on the streets of St Petersburg. They also do link into the plot of the storyline for their respective episode which adds another element to them as you listen.
Next are the "pod-talks". These are short episodes where an expert has been brought in to discuss a topic that was mentioned in the main episode. This can vary from talking about whale songs, why trees live so long to discussing what death actually means for us in the digital age. In the background the beautiful theme music by Bonobo still plays, which for many of us allows the podcast as a whole to be tied together, but I know this would annoy some people and take their attention away from the expert so I thought I would mention it. I personally am not a fan of music in the background when someone is talking, but this was quiet enough and neutral enough that it didn't bother me at all. Each of these experts really brought the topics mentioned in the story back into modern day life, thinking about how these are impacting us in our daily lives and how they may actually become what Pan is describing to us in the future. As someone who usually listens to non-fiction science podcasts I really appreciated this section.
And finally, the pièce de résistance, the story episodes. Throughout these, the music by Bonobo is interwoven, but also combined with beautiful sound effects that really bring the world and it's surroundings to life depending on where they are. It adds another dimension to the story and interweaves the importance of music throughout. Pearl Mackie, who I know from playing Bill Potts in Doctor Who, acts Pan brilliantly, with so much raw emotion in her voice and so much pure humanity. Tanya Moodie perfectly plays a cold and detached business woman in our sci-fi world, and Pippa Haywood, who plays a 300+ year old woman from the "slow times" (i.e. our time) must've had such a sore throat after this but performance-wise it was worth it because that gravelly voice perfectly showed the impacts of time on a person as well as allowing her to be both uncaring and deeply caring about the events around her. The story itself is incredibly interesting, and I gasped out loud a few times (and then looked around to make sure no one else was there to hear me!) with different plot points and story lines. It's so deeply interwoven throughout, with us returning to specific events and also learning more about this version of future Earth as we progress. The worldbuilding was fantastic, I can still envision the picture of this city that I built in my minds eye, and is evocative of so many of our modern day infrastructure. The script is beautifully done, it's narrated to the listener, mainly by Pan, as though it's a confessional. And despite this more limiting narrative method I was still completely invested in ever single character, in all of this world's intricacies. I can't praise this enough.
One extra point from the NetGalley file that I liked that the podcast did not is that there was an extra 30 min discussion with the director of the podcast, talking about how she worked with Timothy X Atack and really took on board all of his ideas as well as giving a little background to the production. It was a really interesting extra that I appreciated.
Another point that I found after researching a little more about this podcast is that not only is the voicing cast all women, which I adored, but also 2 of the 3 women are BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic, it's the British version of BIPOC), with both Pearl Mackie and Tanya Moodie being Black women. These women were all perfect for the roles they played and I think the casting was done wonderfully.
And now, just before the end, one other tiny little negative. I know. I know. I said there was only one at the beginning of this, but I swear this is teeny tiny. It's that you can't speed up this podcast. For all the audiobooks and podcasts I listen to, they're always sped up. All of them. With this one I couldn't do that. I needed the original pacing, I needed the music to be as it was originally composed. Which is a testament to the entire production team! But I do just want to warn you going in, as I had been expecting to speed this one up.
Overall, if it wasn't obvious from how LONG this review is, I adored this podcast/audiobook/I don't know but I don't care cause I loved it! It has been over a fortnight (2 weeks non-UK peeps) since I finished listening to this and the concept and the storyline and the soundscapes are still in my head! (Damn it Pan!). It is one of the most beautiful productions I've ever heard and I'm so glad that I picked it up! Please listen to this!! If you enjoy sci-fi, care about the environment, and like listening to well crafted audio, this is one for you!
January 7, 2021
I enjoyed the narrators voice and the soundscapes in this highly unusual audio book. However, I got a bit muddled with it all and I think I would have found it easier to follow if I had been able to listen to the story in one go, then the soundscapes, and then the pod talks. The pod talks were really interesting. As a whole, unfortunately it didn't really work for me. Thank you to Timothy X Atack,,Net Galley and Penguin Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
February 6, 2021
This audio book is presented as a series with a podcast and audio scape following each episode. The book looks at a post-apocalyptic world where no one remembers nature. Each podcast that follows the episode mentions some facts about something related to a subject discussed. The audio play uses well-known actors. It’s engaging, and the voice actors and production with the audio is excellent.
April 14, 2021
Definitely one to listen to through the headphones. The sound engineering is spectacular. This makes you feel and think and appreciate the diversity of species currently held within nature.
January 20, 2026
what a fantastic podcast! the plot and voice acting were spectacular. I would love to see an actual production of this! great themes on technology and nature.
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