Nick Sagan - Idlewild (2003)

Read by Clayton Barclay Jones, Beth McDonald
8:04 unb  64/44 mono  221 MB

Idlewild, the debut novel by Nick Sagan -- the son of the late astronomer Carl Sagan -- is a cyberpunk thriller set in a prestigious high-tech school in Michigan, Idlewild IVR Academy, where the students spend most of their time immersed in virtual reality.

He wakes alone, nameless, in a strangely bucolic day-after-tomorrow world. His amnesia is near-total; he cannot remember his name and doesn't recognize anything around him, but he knows with absolute certainty that someone has tried to kill him – and will surely try again.

Not knowing who, if anyone, he can trust, he reacquaints himself with eight companions, all of whom are being trained (for what?) at an esoteric academy run by a cryptic superintendent named Maestro. As he tries to discover the identity of the person who wants him dead, he quickly begins to unravel a series of sinister truths, which make it clear that the ramifications of his search are far greater than he could ever have imagined. Much more than his own life is at stake.

Idlewild takes the best of its genre and transcends it, creating a story that will appeal to readers far beyond the traditional science fiction fan base.

Sagan -- who has penned numerous television scripts, including screenplays for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager -- has written a story reminiscent of his father's classic novel Contact. Both look at Earth, and humanity, for that matter, as a kind of grand experiment of apprentice deities -- only in Idlewild, the gods are a group of desperate scientists. Why are we here? Where are we headed? Nick Sagan's vision is dark, stylish and, ultimately, completely enthralling