the characterization of the main figures in the story has left me astounded and inspired.

the omitting of several interactions of some key players from the books caught me off guard, but was of great importance to the overall flow of the story and its performance.

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Excellent

Ayn Rand is one of those rare literary geniuses that is too far ahead of her time & too damned clever for her own good. In this age of tribalism & stupidity we need her voice more than ever & this story is as close to perfect as it gets.

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Pretentious but provocative

This book is certainly a worthy listen, especially with the narrator's performance. He really brings the characters to life, from the despicable ellesworth toole (spelling?) to the fascinating dominique franken. I always knew who was speaking, and felt like a fly on the wall to some historic events.

While the story itself was sometimes a bit much, with the characters feeling more like a parody and the story a bit preachy, it was still thought provoking, and has led me to much further reading. Also, remember that it was written in the 40s, where people did talk more like they do in this book.

If you are looking for something a bit more than fiction but less than a documentary, something to challenge your own thought processes and life motivations, I highly recommend this book!

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1 person found this helpful

the Fontainehead

brilliant narrator, story is not too bad but mainly as a romantic tail. I couldn't stop listening to the story. the narrator has done an exceptional job!

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Good but I should have waited

I guess this is always the fear when you buy an old abridged novel, that the unabridged version is just around the corner - sure enough this is the .



As with Atlas Shrugged the reader does get bashed by the message but what did you expect.



While I don't agree with Rand, or Objectivism totally, she sure makes you think.



Buy the unabridged version.

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4 people found this helpful

great book

I enjoyed the story listened a couple of time. there's a lot of messages.
it's the first story book I've listened to so I may have under marked it.
I liked the character's too.
The narrator was good although sometimes I wasn't sure who was meant to be talking

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Into the core

............ . . . . . . . . . . . . ........ ..... .. . .... ...

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The version is abridged, with no reference thereto

Nowhere does it state that this is an abridged version. I started to follow the text with my printed copy and found sentences and even series of paragraphs omitted. I would not have bought the audiobook had it been made clear it is not the full version.

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Adolescent nonsense

I came to this tale expecting substance and challenging ideas, in view of how influential it has been for the evolution of politics in the second half of the 20C. Instead it turns out to be shallow, unengaging and predictable. The characters in a Marvel comic have more depth in them. Barbara Cartland's romantic novels appear like great literary milestones in comparison. I got to the end of chapter 2 but could face no more.

The ethical values which it embodies are centred around teenage solipsism, self-regard and the individual as a law unto himself. Definitely himself and not herself by the way.
Greatly admired by Alan Greenspan, the favourite book of Mike Pompeo and Mr Trump. On reflection, maybe high expectations were misplaced.

No complaints about the narrator. Poor chap having to drag himself through this dull mud.

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Short Version

This is a shortened version from the orginal 700+ pages-long book, so it isn't useful when trying to read the book while reading it ate the same time. Listening to the audiobook while reading the actual book helps me read faster as I go along with the audiobook's speed, and if playing on an iPod (and maybe on iTunes, I haven't tried), you can set the velocity of the audiobook faster or slower, which helps improve either your understandng of the story or your reading pace.
This audiobook file, although it isn't bad, it is not what I was expecting. At any moment before using my initial credit, did I know this was not what I was looking for as it was never specified to be a summarised version, and so I had to spend an extra credit on buying the complete file, which I thought at first was just another version, but now I know the difference was the other file, was the complete version and this just a shortened one which was no use.

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2 people found this helpful