Quietus

By: Tristan Palmgren

Narrated by: Thomas Judd

Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

A transdimensional anthropologist can't keep herself from interfering with Earth's darkest period of history in this brilliant science fiction debut.

In medieval Italy, Niccolucio, a young Florentine Carthusian monk, leads a devout life until the Black Death kills all of his brothers, leaving him alone and filled with doubt. Habidah, an anthropologist from an alien world racked by plague, is overwhelmed by the suffering. Unable to maintain her neutrality, she saves Niccolucio from the brink of death.

Habidah discovers that neither her home's plague nor her assignment on Niccolucio's ravaged planet are as she's been led to believe. Suddenly the pair are drawn into a worlds-spanning conspiracy to topple an empire larger than the human imagination can contain

©2018 Tristan Palmgren (P)2018 Audible, Ltd

An unexpected gem

I kept thinking I was going to be bashed over the head with some religious message but it just wasn't like that. It took a while to get to its conclusion but the writing was good enough to get me there. The story dodged enough tropes to make it feel fresh.

Excellently read too!

Awesome

Damn good Sci-Fi! One of my favorites since The 3-Body Problem. Very character driven in the best way.

Luminous, Intelligent and Captivating

This work should be a Hugo nominee this year: it's that good. And as an audiobook- even better.
The description of the story is intriguing in itself. If you are reading this, it was interesting enough to attract your attention. Yet describing the story outline can't even begin to convey the rich enjoyment of listening to the audiobook as it unfolds.This particular quality of literate and fully satisfying science fiction is very hard to come by. And it is never the most highly rated by the public: when everyone has an equal vote, it can't be. But if you relish Kim Stanley Robinson and other equally intelligent science fiction writers, try Quietus.

To Tristan Palmgren,Thomas Judd, and the production team: congratulations, and thanks for the masterpiece. I've been reading mostly science fiction for 50 years, so am understandably bored by its mediocre iterations. By now, only the most deeply enjoyable experiences can galvanize me enough to try to write a review. I hope my fellow hunters-of-excellence will fully understand what I mean to convey. Quietus is a rare marvel, and a sumptuous example of the art of science fiction.

Mystery after mystery and eventually.. Meh

This book thinks its much smarter than it actually is. It starts out solid but slow, and then tries to keep you hooked by giving you answers that pose more questions. The thing is, it get increasingly unhinged and drawn out as it goes on. To accommodate this, the characters get increasingly dumb and their motivations are harder and harder to follow, and a lot of built-up plot lines and hyped-up revelations end up being irrelevant. I will not be listening to the sequel.

A very good 1st book

I really liked the originality of the ideas and the subject matter. Until I was mostly halfway through when I the thought came to me that most of the book was just a set up for one or two chapters at the end of the book. Slightly disappointed but I still enjoyed the ride you probably will too!

A Unique view of a Multiple Universe Empire

The setting is an Empire which spans multiple universes. Among these universes, Communication, Trade, Travel and Expansion are controlled by an 'Amalgamation' of AI's. The Humans of this Empire are highly technologically enhanced to be able to control their minds, bodily functions, their senses, tools and communication. They are also being afflicted by an unknown and undetectable plague which affects their technology and eventually kills them. To learn to cope with this plague, the AI's use teams of Anthropologists to study primitive universes which are also suffering their own plagues. The story follows one such team studying the Black Plague in medieval Italy. The team is not allowed to interfere with the society - only to observe. To insure this rule, they are not allowed to have any knowledge of a cure. The team leader is stricken by the horror of suffering and her inability to do anything about it. She breaks the rules and saves a monk from death by wolves, starvation and freezing. Thus begins the unfolding of a mysterious conspiracy and events which shake the Empire to it's core! This is a very well thought out story that will keep you guessing to near the end. At one point, I thought it would wind up being some kind of 'Matrix' type virtual reality universe but it goes way beyond that. Character development is good. World building is excellent. In fact, the trip through this primitive, plague ridden world in contrast to high technology was very engaging for me. The exposure of the multi-faceted conflict and resolution has really great timing. Nothing boring for me. There are also subtle hints; a single word or sentence, that will clue you in to what's coming. All well placed to make me feel smart! The narrator quickly fades into the background. I didn't notice anything but the story he is telling. I feel that is the mark of an excellent narrator and story. In all, I really enjoyed this unique take on the 'multi-verse' thing.

Refreshingly different than most new SF

Loved the way he handled multiverse. Pretty good character and world dev. Best though, it's unique. Differentiated everything else I've read lately, and I'm a full grown 54 year old adult. Appreciate sci fi that's not also YA.

Excellent blend of Sci-Fi & historical speculation

Interesting story, with interesting speculation on AI.
Well executed, with a good narrator.
The next book, "Terminus" is even better

Outstanding Premise...

Story and performance 4 stars but 3 stars overall, what gives? 1st click on my name, I give honest reviews. 2nd I agree with all of the reviewers on this book through the whole spectrum save one.
The first half of this book seems like one long info dump, hours and hours of what seemed like an almost complete absence of dialog and action, which was exacerbated by one of the characters being a monk who had a vow of silence. I very nearly quit on it, I hated it. "SHOW DON'T TELL!" kept raging through my mind! BUT the narrator did such an outstanding job with the "text book" that his acting allowed my to plow through and keep listening, That was the review I disagreed with, the narrator single handedly saved the first half of this book, he was fantastic, (I just didn't 5 star love him) he was absolutely 4 star great.
Then as though a switch had been flipped, the second half became a real book with dialog and everything! So the story was great, outstanding premise, and at some points poor execution that I almost quit on which leads to a 4 star story and 3 star overall. Perhaps one of the most impressive things about this book is the quality of reviewers it received, click on them, every one has many reviews which means it's not just Tristans friends skewing the results, impressive, not sure I've ever seen that before. Finally my recommendation, Yes it is worth a listen. If you are looking for a great sci-fi sans all the space battles defiantly give this one a try.

Bailed after 8 or so chapters - boring narrator

I think this may be better is read, not listened to. The story could go somewhere and perhaps be interesting but the monotone, boring narration ruined it. My complaint has nothing to do with his British accent, he just has no emotion or excitement at all. zip. You can barely tell one character from another. Gave up. Boring.