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A BETTER PARADISE: Volume One (An Aftermath)

A Better Paradise, Book 1

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A BETTER PARADISE: Volume One (An Aftermath)

By: Dan Houser
Narrated by: Ray Porter
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About this listen

The first novel from Dan Houser, writer of the Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto series

Everyone tries to escape from paradise. Mark Tyburn dreams of building the perfect video game. Kurt Fischer dreams of being a rich and successful executive. Daisy Tyburn dreams of having the ideal father. John Tyburn Smith dreams of fitting in. NigelDave just dreams of becoming human.

Set in the near future, A BETTER PARADISE tells the story of the ill-fated development of an ambitious but addictive video game project that goes very wrong. As the software they developed starts to produce unexpected and disturbing results, the project is shut down and abandoned. Until now.

©2025 Dan Houser (P)2025 Audible, Inc. Adventure Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Technothrillers Thriller & Suspense Dream Emotionally Gripping Software
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This is awful, that is awful, he is awful, she is awful, they are awful, we are awful. What was awful was the almost unbearable overuse of the word awful at every turn. Also, the phrase, “at all” too was heavily overused.

I’ve not listened to the podcasts, I came straight to the book although they don’t materially extend the story it seems. The book is a good concept, but feels so drawn out in the telling, rehashing the same established backstories over and over it feels with only small meaningful advances & contributions to the overall story in each chapter.

Also, did I mention the excessive use of the word awful? We were awful. I was awful. What happened was awful. My children are awful.

Awfully repetitive.

Nice concept, repetitive vocabulary

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Nothing wrong with the performance but there is nothing to the story. This is a subject that I like but found the book incredibly repetitive, to the point that I had to check I hadn't accidentally rewound. More about politics and arguments in an software company than AI. Could have been condensed to 20 pages.

Didn't like it.

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Really enjoyed this actually. It’s a bit monologue-y, but it builds a really interesting contemporary, all be it pessimistic, view of AI in a sci-fi context. Look forward to the next part.

The actor doing the narrative is well known and liked, but I found his characterisation a bit cartoony, and his Scottish accent really drifted into Irish in some of the later chapters!

Contemporary sci-fi with social commentary

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