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    The Machine Stops
    The Machine Stops
    The Machine Stops
    Audiobook1 hour

    The Machine Stops

    Written by E.M. Forster

    Narrated by Jerome Lawsen

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The Machine Stops is a science fiction story. It describes a world in which almost all humans have lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual lives in isolation in a 'cell', with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Most humans welcome this development, as they are skeptical and fearful of first-hand experience. People forget that humans created the Machine, and treat it as a mystical entity whose needs supersede their own. Those who do not accept the deity of the Machine are viewed as 'unmechanical' and are threatened with "Homelessness". Eventually, the Machine apocalyptically collapses, and the civilization of the Machine comes to an end.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthor's Republic
    Release dateDec 23, 2016
    ISBN9781518939464
    Author

    E.M. Forster

    Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) was an English novelist, short story writer and essayist best known for his books A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924). The only child of parents Edward and Lily Forster, young Edward lost his father to tuberculosis before he turned two. Lily and Edward subsequently moved to a country house in Hertfordshire called Rooks Nest, which served as a model for the eponymous house in the book Howards End. Edward inherited a considerable sum of money that allowed him to embark on a career as a writer. He attended Tonbridge School in Kent and then went to King's College in Cambridge where he joined a secret society known as the Apostles, several members of which later helped form the Bloomsbury Group, a literary/philosophical society that boasted such early members as Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes and Vanessa Bell. Upon graduation, Forster went abroad - often escorted by his mother - and wrote of his travels extensively. Upon his return, he set up residence in Weybridge, Surrey where he would write all six of his novels. All of his books were written between 1908 and 1924 and his last, A Passage to India, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. Forster was a homosexual and while he never married, he did have several affairs with male lovers during his lifetime, including a forty-year romance with married policeman Bob Buckingham, at whose home he collapsed and died at age 91 of a stroke. Forster explored his struggle with his own sexuality in his book Maurice. Forster was extremely critical of American foreign policy during his lifetime and rebuffed efforts to film adaptations of his novels due to the fact that the productions would likely use American financing. After his death, however, several of his books were made into films and three of them - A Room with a View, Howards End and A Passage to India are among the most highly regarded films of the late 20th century.

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    Reviews for The Machine Stops

    4/5

    74 ratings5 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a prescient masterpiece that accurately describes lockdown life. The warning to not worship the manmade and to build wisely is appreciated. Although some find the reading horrid and slow, the overall consensus is that this book is amazing considering when it was written. It explores themes of isolation and broken relationships, making it a worthwhile read.

    What did you think?

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    • 5/5
      Not entirely sure how this can be reviewed so poorly by previous person. Considering when this was written, it's a masterpiece.
    • 5/5
      A prescient author is this Forster. Incredibly accurate description of lockdown life in 2020.
    • 1/5
      The story is fine, but this reading is horrid. Random pauses (like William Shatner) and an overall slow reading make it hard to listen to.
    • 5/5
      Amazing that this was written so long ago and so much has come true. Let us hear the warning not to worship the manmade and build wisely.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      Very boring. Narrator reads so very slowly, even with speed boost. It's a story about isolation and a broken relationship. Nothing interesting happen in the book. Skip it.

      1 person found this helpful