Nightwings

By: Robert Silverberg

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

Robert Silverberg's enduring classic about one man's journey to find salvation for a planet on the brink of destruction.

"Roum is a city built on seven hills. They say it was a capital of man in one of the earlier cycles. I knew nothing of that, for my guild was Watching, not Remembering."

For 1,000 years, mankind has lived under the threat of invasion from an alien race. After the oceans rose and the continents were reshaped, people divided into guilds - Musicians, Scribes, Merchants, Clowns, and more. The Watchers wander the Earth, scouring the skies for signs of enemies from the stars. But during one Watcher's journey to the ancient city of Roum with his companion, a Flier named Avluela, a moment of distraction allows the invaders to advance. When the Watcher finally sounds the alarm, it's too late: the star people are poised to conquer all.

And so with the world in turmoil, the Watcher sets outalone for the Hall of the Rememberers, keepers of the past, where humanity's last hope for survival might be hidden.

©2013 Robert Silverberg (P)2014 Blackstone Audiobooks

I PUT ON A THINKING CAP

I WATCHED ROUM FALL A SECOND TIME
I don't know why RS never wrote Historical Fiction? He often puts European or Middle East history in his futures. In this book we go to Roum and Paris. I enjoyed the main character who is a Watcher. He is watching for an alien invasion that has been predicted. Watchers have been watching for hundreds of years and no invasion has happened. He uses equipment in which he does not understand the workings. He is given his life to this, but people don't take his job serious, since no invasion has happened.

WE WOULD CONQUER OUR CONQUERORS NOT WITH WEAPONS, BUT WITH LOVE
RS's very liberal side comes out in this book. Man has bankrupted Earth and gone from a leading planet to one of the poorest. A lot of people have been genetically changed. The title of the book involves genetically altered humans into fairy type creatures. One of the main characters is one. She has a very slight figure, is flat chested with a high squeaky voice and all the main characters fall in love with her. She can only fly a night, cause the solar winds are to hard on her during the day.

Rudnicki does a usually great job.

I PITY YOU, BUT I FIND IT UNGRACEFUL OF YOU TO PITY YOURSELF

Very interesting earth bound future

Overall a good Sci-Fi far future story.
The narrator is superb and the voice he made for each character are very distinct.
For times i was bored with the story, but for very short periods which seems to fly by.

Like listening to a Jack Vance story

The narrators voice is delightful to listen to. That story was entertaining and I really liked the Jack Vance feel of it. I found however the ending a bit disappointing.
Black stone are really excellent publishers of well written, entertaining literature.
We’ll worth the time spent listening.

Better read inside one’s own head

The narrator, with a breathy and gravely voice that would be best suited to voice over epic trailers, seems ill suited to this cast of characters. The characterisation of the “ flutey, high pitched” voice of the female gossamer winged flyer is so incongruent as to be farcical. The actual descriptions and narrative seem promising, but I couldn’t get past the first few minutes, due to the husky voiced narrator trying to emulate a sing song flutey voice with very lilting and odd phrasing’s. A book best read, and not listened too it seems. Or perhaps a softer gentler voice throughout. This narrator sounds like he wants to narrate a hard boiled detective noir, and drink whiskey and smoke cigarettes while he does it.

A tale for our times

Beautiful and thought provoking fable for the era we are living through today and for the future.

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good not great "apocalyptic"

in general i like Silverberg but i think this one fizzles at the end. a friend listened at same time and he felt basically the same as i do on all these points.

part one is the best section and contains the most interesting characters and aspects. it is the original short story/novella that won a hugo award and that is it's strength: it is an open-ended yet at least unified piece. there in lies the trouble, as he decided to continue or expand the story into a novel.

part 2 suffers from a slow down of the narrative and moves from the Rome(Roum) of part 1 into a journey to Paris(Perris) and while it has some interesting things, it really suffers from the absence of Avluela the Nightwing of the title, one of the more interesting characters.

Part 3 heads to Jerusalem(Jorslem) and picks up again with the help of the reappearance of Avluela but the novel ends with some interesting ideas that go undeveloped. The regeneration back to youth is good but I would have liked for that bit to come sooner and get worked with.

I like a lot of the stuff within the story, the guild structure of the society, the apocalyptic setting, the alien threat, the characters (especially in the first 1/3).

in fact there is a lot I like about this and if it had a re-worked middle, and a few things developed more at the end, it would have been very good. the main character Tomis, goes through some good development.

it reminded me of Canticle for Liebowitz, mainly for the setting that i at least envisioned, though it is very different and not of that caliber.

troublesome middle hinders this one i think.

A story worth every moment

With depth and near poetic moments, this story is a worthwhile investment of time. Again Stefan Rudnicki delivers a stellar performance of Robert Silverbergs story.

Females?

Reader needs to work on female voices, they are terrible. 4 words more, no.

Good story, wrong narrator.

First, let me say that I like Stefan Rudnicki. He has a deep, expressive voice and is an excellent narrator. I have other audiobooks he has narrated that I thoroughly enjoyed.

However, his distinctive, baritone voice is often inappropriate for most women's voices, and at worst, as in the character Avluela, distracting and annoying.

Still, the tale was worthwhile, and, so long as Avluela was absent, a good listen.