jacey | Booklog 19/26: Robert J Sawyer: The Downloaded – Downloaded #1

Full cast audio recording featuring Brendan Fraser, Luke Kirby, and Vanessa Sears

A bunch of astronauts have been uploaded into a quantum computer and their bodies cryogenically frozen for a centuries long trip to colonise a far distant star system. When the captain, Letitia Garvey, and the crew’s doctor are downloaded back into their bodies after half a millennium they discover that they are still on Earth but Earth-as-was is no longer viable following some unspecified disaster. The astronauts are the dole survivors of humanity – until, that is, a larger group of timer-served prison inmates are also downloaded. How is their new polarised society going to survive – or is it going to survive? The whole thing is told in a series of audio-interviews by three major characters, the captain, the doctor and the leader of the ex-criminals, Roscoe Koudoulian, plus a few side characters. But for the longest time we don’t know who is asking the questions. Gradually the whole picture builds, and a potential solution is offered. The voices work well. There are a few background sound-effects but not too many as to disrupt the narrative (which is often the case with full cast recordings).