Thorns

Name: Thorns
Brand: Blackstone Audiobooks
Availability: InStock
Author: Robert Silverberg
ISBN: 9781504633765

Author: Robert Silverberg

Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki

Unabridged: 6 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Skyboat Media

Published: 07/14/2015

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction

Synopsis

Duncan Chalk is a monstrous media mogul with a vast appetite for other people’s pain. He feeds off it and carefully nurtures it in order to feed it to the public. It is inevitable that Chalk should home in on Minner Burris, a space traveler whose body was taken apart by alien surgeons and then put back together again—differently. Burris’ pain is constant. And so is that of Lona Kelvin, used by scientists to supply eggs for one hundred children and then ruthlessly discarded.Only an emotional vampire like Chalk can see the huge audience eager to watch a relationship develop between these two damaged people. And only Chalk can make it happen.

About Robert Silverberg

Robert Silverberg’s first published story appeared in 1954 when he was a sophomore at Columbia University. Since then, he has won multiple Nebula, Hugo, and Locus awards. He has been nominated for both awards more times than any other writer. In 1999 he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, and in 2004 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America gave him their Grand Master Award for career achievement. He remains one of the most imaginative and versatile writers in science fiction.

About Gabrielle de Cuir

Gabrielle de Cuir, award-winning narrator, has narrated over three hundred titles and specializes in fantasy, humor, and titles requiring extensive foreign language and accent skills. She was a cowinner of the Audie Award for best narration in 2011 and a three-time finalist for the Audie and has garnered six AudioFile Earphones Awards. Her “velvet touch” as an actor’s director has earned her a special place in the audiobook world as the foremost producer for bestselling authors and celebrities.

About Stefan Rudnicki

Stefan Rudnicki first became involved with audiobooks in 1994. Now a Grammy-winning audiobook producer, he has worked on more than five thousand audiobooks as a narrator, writer, producer, or director. He has narrated more than nine hundred audiobooks. A recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, he was presented the coveted Audie Award for solo narration in 2005, 2007, and 2014, and was named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices in 2012.

Reviews

Goodreads review by mark on February 07, 2016

severely damaged man and moderately damaged woman meet-cute within a futuristic sorta-kinda reality show produced by an aberrant emotional vampire. Thorns reads like a retro version of modern day obsessions in its depiction of a quasi-celebrity couple forced into romance and despair by a repulsive pr......more

Goodreads review by Tom LA on July 28, 2022

A bizzarre science fiction novel from 1967 that takes unexpected directions. Humanity has colonized the solar system and moved outward to begin exploring the far reaches of the galaxy. An interplanetary audience follows real-life stories of triumph and tragedy presented to them by Duncan Chalk, a sor......more

Goodreads review by Craig on April 14, 2025

...Sometimes spoiler avoidance is difficult... Pain is instructive. Thorns is a Silverberg novel from his amazingly productive year 1967; it's been called his first serious adult modern sf novel. It was nominated for both a Hugo Award for the best novel published that year (but lost to Roger Zelazny......more

Goodreads review by Sandy on January 17, 2013

Although Robert Silverberg had been a prodigiously published author prior to 1967, that year is often spoken of as being something of a watershed time for him. Before then, the author had written no less than two dozen sci-fi novels, starting with 1954's "Revolt on Alpha C," not to mention dozens up......more

Goodreads review by Kat on September 22, 2015

Excellent audio production. [URL not allowed]......more

Quotes

“Where Silverberg goes today, the rest of science fiction will follow tomorrow!” Isaac Asimov, praise for the author

Awards

Hugo Award
Nebula Award