METATROPOLIS

Projecting the social, cultural, technological, and environmental problems of today into fiction, this impressive group of writers imagines what happens when the world moves beyond cities as a locus of human civilization. The varying approaches of each novella help to account for the distinctive writing styles. The range of narrators also reinforces this variety as each one brings a unique narrative style to the production. Of the five narrators, all well chosen for the stories, Allessandro Juliani proves to be the best with his rendering of Scalzi's piece. In portraying the irresponsible, wayward protagonist, Juliani brings humanity and universality to Scalzi's worldview and the book as a whole as he reminds listeners that even in the future there will still be slackers. L.E 2009 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2008]