A Time of Changes

Parker, a veteran audiobook narrator, reads this Nebula Award-winning novel in a slightly stilted, forthright manner. He has perfect diction and unimpeachable phrasing, and uses pacing and intonation to add interest and variety. On an unknown planet, Kinnall Darival inwardly rebels against the Covenant of Borthan, with whom he takes refuge after his brother inherits the throne. The Covenant teaches that the self is to be despised. Kinnall's struggles and his relationship with his bondsister, Halum, and an "Earthman" are the focus of the story. Psychologically intense, Parker's presentation neither adds nor detracts from Silverberg's work. S.C.A. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine


I am Kinnal Darival and I mean to tell you all about myself. Thus begins Robert Silverberg's Nebula-winning novel. The line is uttered by a character from a future human culture that has successfully shed all reference to the self. In this culture, referring to one's self is considered obscene and worthy of punishment. While his main character explores and discovers the value of the individual, Silverberg paints a rich, detailed, and fascinating picture of this new world. Keith Bradbury performs the first-person narrative with convincing skill, unfolding the foreign world layer by layer while demonstrating Darival's desire for individuality. S.D. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine