Audiobook Hawksbill Station by Robert Silverberg in the ListenBook app
Want to listen to the audiobook Hawksbill Station written by Robert Silverberg
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Book description
Hey, you won't believe the audiobook I just finished-Robert Silver Scholastic's Hawksbill Station. Picture this: a mid-21st-century sci-fi plot where, because politics got too dull, the justice system decides to send a gaggle of political prisoners to the late Cambrian era via time-travel. And not just anywhere-the place is called Hawksbill Station, a prison camp set among the first "trilobites, early marine life, and the occasional angry sea-urchin" that your granddad's geology book would have made a living from.
Now, let's unpack the premise: the newest arrival, a man who knows too much about something called "Up Front," deflects questions about his crimes and his knowledge with the kind of smoothness a barista would use to dodge the question of why the coffee tastes like regret. Naturally, the inmates, which include a former senator, a disgraced scientist, and a disgruntled poet, decide to play detective. Imagine a group of time-travelling prisoners with less patience than a colony of barnacles on a ship, trying to crack a conspiracy that would make even the most skeptical of us go "Hmm."
The audiobook itself is an exercise in vocal endurance. The narrator does a great job with the low-voiced grunts of the inmates, but when the story drags into an extended dialogue between the prisoners about the ethics of time-travel, the voice begins to sound like a bored teacher lecturing on a subject with no relevance to the rest of us. And the pacing? You might get a slight headache, because the book oscillates between a slow-moving exposition of the Cambrian setting and the sudden "plot-whip" that has the prisoners realizing the mastermind behind the time-travel scheme might be...a guy in a lab coat from the future? It's a little too much "Beneath the surface of the lake" with the occasional splash of "Hold on, you're still there."
Silverberg's prose is classic-long, descriptive, and occasionally a bit dense, which is a hallmark of his style. But when you're listening, that density can turn into a lull, especially when the narrator tries to explain how the Cambrian Era is basically the Jurassic of the 500-million-year-old world. The audiobook is 12 hours of pure, unfiltered, voice-over, and you'll realize you're either an extreme time-traveller or a very patient person. The novella version, which is a short-form version of this story, is a better option if you only have the time to listen to a few hours.
In a world where we're all searching for the next big dystopian thriller, Silverberg's Hawksbill Station feels like a satirical time-machine: the idea of using time-travel as a prison is a clever jab at the justice system, but the execution feels like a bit of a parody of itself. The audiobook's humor comes out of the way it highlights the absurdity-how do you even explain the concept of a "prison camp" to a 500-million-year-old creature? The narrator's deadpan voice helps the irony sit, but the story can be, at times, as confusing as a museum exhibit on trilobite fossils that you're told you can understand only if you've read the entire Earth's history.
All in all, if you're a fan of Silverberg's larger-than-life descriptions, are ready for an audiobook that will challenge your patience, and don't mind a few moments of awkward silence when the narration gets a bit too descriptive, Hawksbill Station is an intriguing listen. But if you're after something that feels fresh, tight, and punchy, consider the novella or perhaps another of Silverberg's more recent works. Either way, it's a reminder that even in the far future, people will still be trying to escape their political fates-by traveling back to a time before smartphones and even before the concept of "Up Front."
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Share your audiobook with friends
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Customise app with extensive options
Sleep timer with shake to reset, set custom notification sounds, and a few unique options
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