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The Second Sleep
- Narrated by: Roy McMillan
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
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The Second Sleep
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Chosen as a Book of the Year by The Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Mail on Sunday, and Express
WHAT IF YOUR FUTURE LIES IN THE PAST?
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'One word: wonderful. Two words: compulsive reading. Three words: buy it tomorrow. Four words: tonight, if possible.' STEPHEN KING
'A thoroughly absorbing, page-turning narrative.' SUNDAY TIMES
'Genuinely thrilling.' DAILY TELEGRAPH
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Dusk is gathering as a young priest, Christopher Fairfax, rides across a silent land.
It's a crime to be out after dark, and Fairfax knows he must arrive at his destination - a remote village in the wilds of Exmoor - before night falls and curfew is imposed.
He's lost and he's becoming anxious as he slowly picks his way across a countryside strewn with the ancient artefacts of a civilisation that seems to have ended in cataclysm.
What Fairfax cannot know is that, in the days and weeks to come, everything he believes in will be tested to destruction, as he uncovers a secret that is as dangerous as it is terrifying ...
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'[Harris] takes us on a thrilling ride while serving up serious food for thought.' SUNDAY EXPRESS
'A truly surprising future-history thriller. Fabulous, really.' EVENING STANDARD
'The book's real power lies in its between-the-lines warning that our embrace of the internet represents some kind of sleepwalk into oblivion. It's a provocative, tub-thumping sci-fi of which H. G. Wells might have been proud.' DAILY MAIL
'Harris' latest work intelligently warps historical fiction and tackles issues of religion, science and the apocalypse in the process. As he flexes his imagination, you will be left pondering as often as you are page-turning.' HERALD
'A brilliantly imaginative thriller' READER'S DIGEST
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What listeners say about The Second Sleep
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jonathan
- 14-06-20
Grown up storytelling in antithesis of YA
Really enjoyed this but it's dark and gets darker... The ending leaves you thinking, and then you work out who did what to whom and you feel angry and disappointed at the stupidity of human kind. Proper piece of writing worthy of classic status, if they ever make a film god help us, they'll ruin it, so much of the story is in the head not the page, so much that the protagonists do not know but that we can. Recommended.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- ziiigggg
- 18-07-20
Didnt live up to early expectation
The story started well with a priest travelling to a remote location in a future world centuries after an apocalypse. Early on, the main character finds an iphone, which is a huge mystery to him. Thereafter he meets interesting characters and has adventures which are humorous and entertaining as far as they go, but sadly the writer avoids what is most interesting about the whole idea. For me the real story would be about the characters finding out a lot about how we live now, and putting a global picture together of what the apocalypse consisted of. Instead we have a very local event, a mere handful of artifacts and a lot of confusing gobbledygook about nobel prize winners and laboratories which I never saw the point of. Nothing is said about buildings and cities and bridges and ships, all of which would be present in some form in the future in which the story is set. Just about worth a credit, but the first half is far better than the second, which rather descends into farce sadly.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Benjamin Sainty
- 05-03-22
Should've been 5 stars but sadly fell short.
Great idea, narrated very well. McMillan did a fantastic job portraying each character and really allowed them to come alive. The story started well and paced itself steadily for the first half... then it just seemed to unravel.
It really felt like the story was cut in half and an ending was hastily and clumsily tacked on, even to the point where I thought this was a cliffhanger for a second part to later be released but disappointingly, that isn't the case (so far)!
I've decided to give it a 3 star rating which may seem generous considering what I've just written, but I was entertained and engaged. The premise really has got me thinking deeply about what really would happen if there was a complete systematic failure of all modern technology. Also, as stated earlier, Roy McMillan's narration was fantastic and really has saved this from a lower score.
The world and lore that has been built so far has so much room to expand on, I feel like the book has done it a bit of a disservice and a series could EASILY be developed around it. Let's hope this isn't the last we've heard of Christopher Fairfax!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- anna hiscox
- 24-07-22
Not Harris at his best
Overlong and over detailed yet rushed ending . Certainly couldn’t count it as a thriller but well read which was the saving grace
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- John k
- 07-10-20
holy moly
started off strong . got a little weak in the middle . went to sleep once or twice by the end. Not Mr Harris's best work .
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- T
- 11-09-19
Good narration but ends too abruptly.
Narrator clear and easy to listen to.
Story great but ended all too soon just at it was starting to get good.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- nughman n.
- 13-09-19
Intriguing
A really intriguing premise and well narrated by Roy McMillan. Enjoyed it and recommend it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- k6chris
- 10-09-19
A most excellent story and telling.
A most interesting and ingenious story, well crafted and read with not insignificant skill. It is both my hope and expectation, that the ending, if indeed that is what it is, will in time become the start of a new chapter. I am left with both the glow of a story well told and the intrigue of adventures yet to come. I look forward to that telling. Ye will, I have no doubt, enjoy the telling of this and future stories also
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Claire
- 05-02-20
A good idea but slower than hoped
i struggled to really enjoy this. great idea but quite slow paced. the audio performance was very good through.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- JP
- 24-10-19
not one of his best
I am a fan of Robert Harris' books.
this is an interesting proposition but was slower than most of his books and the outcome at the end a bit if a let down.
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