Book description
Only Human: A Symphony of Sass, Science, and Seriously Questionable Decisions
Let's be honest - Sylvain Neuvel didn't exactly follow the traditional path to literary stardom. Dropping out of high school at 15 and somehow ending up with a linguistics PhD is either brilliant rebellion or cosmic-level cheating. Probably both. The man who once sold ice cream in California and furniture across Canada now writes about aliens and giant robots, which seems like a lateral career move at best. But hey, at least his girlfriend thinks he has too many toys, so there's that.
Only Human, the third installment in the Themis Files, drops our heroes back on Earth after a decade-long interstellar timeout. Rose Franklin - she who found the giant metal hand in South Dakota and accidentally became humanity's best hope - returns to find her old crew staging an epic falling-out. It's like high school reunions, but with more existential threats and significantly better dialogue.
The beauty of Neuvel's work lies in his ability to make conversations between characters as thrilling as any space battle. These aren't your typical sci-fi heroes bonding over shared trauma; they're brilliant, flawed humans who've been through hell and decided to make it interesting. When your friends start turning against each other, you know things are about to get delightfully complicated.
What sets this apart from your garden-variety alien invasion tale is Neuvel's background in linguistics. This isn't just about big robots punching bigger aliens - it's about the beautiful mess of human communication, misunderstanding, and the occasional breakthrough that saves the world. The man literally writes about translation while building action figures, which is either method writing or evidence that he never really grew up. Thankfully, neither did his characters.
The audiobook format works brilliantly here, capturing the interview-style narrative that made the series famous. You're not just reading about these characters - you're eavesdropping on their most intimate, world-altering conversations. It's like having access to the most fascinating therapy session in the universe, if therapists carried alien technology and had trust issues.
Only Human manages to be both a satisfying conclusion and a reminder that saving the world doesn't necessarily make you good at saving relationships. Rose and crew face their greatest challenge yet: each other. In space, no one can hear you bicker - but on Earth, everyone definitely can.
Black Walnut
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Honey
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Natural Mess
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Forger
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Playing a wide variety of audio formats
Works on all devices with iOS 13 and newer
Huge amount of features for a small price
Frequent updates to add new features and improve existing ones
Advanced playback controls
Live sound processing
Changing the timbre of the reader's voice and noise reduction
Translated into more than 20 languages
If you love listening to fiction audiobooks, ListenBook has features to make the process easier.
Edit book data: title, author, cover
Use equalizer to make the sound comfortable for you
Adjust the playback speed
Enjoy dark and light app themes
Supported formats: MP3, M4B, AWB, FLAC, OGG audio files and many more (must be DRM free)
Auto-Bookmarks make it easy to find your place
AirPlay support allows redirection of audio output.
VoiceOver support
Dark mode for night owls
Convenient bookmarking system helps you mark the most important places.
Unlimited bookmarks for each audiobook
Put your own cover on the wager
Share your audiobook with friends
Lock-screen control
Customise app with extensive options
Sleep timer with shake to reset, set custom notification sounds, and a few unique options
Auto rewind depending on paused time, customize rewind times to your liking
Removing background noise from recordings made in classrooms and meetings
Changing the timbre of the reader's voice for a better listening experience