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Cowl
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
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Cowl
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Summary
Neal Asher's Cowl is set in the far future. The Heliothane Dominion is triumphant in the solar system after a bitter war with their Umbrathane progenitors. But some of the enemy have escaped into the past, intent on wreaking havoc across time. The worst of these is Cowl, an artificially forced advance in human evolution but one who is no longer human.
Polly, desperate to obtain funds to support her habits, is unprepared for her involvement with Nandru Jurgens, a Taskforce soldier, and the killers pursuing him. Nor can she resist the alien 'tor' which she feels impelled to attach to her arm. But she must learn fast, as she is dragged back through time, not least that to the denizens of some earlier eras, she is little more than a convenience food.
Initially the fragment of tor imbedded in Tack's wrist sums up his value to the Heliothane - a point brought home to him with bloody abruptness. But as a vat-grown programmable killer employed by U-gov, he is no stranger to violence. His long journey into the lethal world of the Heliothane is only beginning, the extent of his mission just becoming apparent.
Meanwhile, hunting throughout time and the alternates, Cowl's pet, the tor beast, grows vast and dangerous. And the beast continues to feed.
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What listeners say about Cowl
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
- Jenette Hale
- 13-04-18
Awesome storyline and exceptional narration!
Another excellent storyline from the master, I sincerely hope there is much more to come from this alternate to the polity !
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Porl
- 21-06-22
good book but perhaps not Asher's strongest work.
This is a great idea of a story and not particularly difficult to follow but unlike Asher's polity universe which is amazingly well crafted and a credible future of humanity this seems a little more difficult to put down on paper and temporal paradoxes are always difficult to sell !
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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
- Count Wilhelm
- 23-11-18
Phenomenally confusing, fantastically narrated
Really fantastically narrated by Peter Noble, but a difficult story to keep track of occurrences, names and all the rest.
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1 person found this helpful
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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
- Anonymous Coward
- 21-10-18
The story is mind bendingly complicated but...
Definitely worth persevering. I love the story and love the performance. Time travel is always complicated I guess 🤪
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- DENNIS
- 14-04-19
EXCELLENT BOOK SPOILED BY POOR NARRATION
TIME TRAVEL ON A UNIVERSE SPANNING SCALE WITH LOTS OF TWISTS AND TURNS ALONG THE WAY.BIG FAN OF NEAL ASHER'S WORK.DON'T LIKE THIS NARRATOR HIS VOICE IS VERY ONE TONE.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Stuart
- 22-09-19
Interesting idea, appalling execution
The plot is an interesting concept, which is all that manages to get the second star in my rating.
And that's that last good thing I'll say about this book.
If you write a book about time-travel, you need to be very careful and have a way to deal with the inevitable paradoxes. The author's approach is to either ignore it, or try to hide the main points behind so much drivel that you don't notice.
The writing is everything bad sci-fi cliché can be. It seems Asher was more concerned about trying to cram as many sci-fi sounding words in as possible, rather than develop the characters or a coherent storyline. There are only so many times we need to hear the word "carapace", (which seems to be a sci-fi favourite), "enclave", and "abutment". Then there are the "nictitating membranes" and "quadrate dendritic forms".
Then there was the narration. Peter Noble seems to be doing a William Shatner impression, with random.......pauses in the......sentences, for dramatic........effect. And so, so slow. Speeded up to 1.5x speed it was almost tolerable.
Then there were the accents. Awful, inconsistent, and (in my opinion) unsuitable for the characters.
Unless you're a hardcore Neal Asher fan, don't waste your credit.
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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
- paul sparks
- 02-10-18
Interesting and engaging but not great
I am a big fan of Neal Asher and have got all his library including short stories, some of his books are outstanding and some are very readable but lack the impetus, this is a good book and worth adding to any persons library but it is not his best
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1 person found this helpful