The Age of Miracles: A Novel [Unabridged] [Audible Audio Edition]

by Karen Thompson Walker (Author), Emily Janice Card (Narrator)

Editorial Reviews

Audie Award Nominee, Science Fiction, 2013

With a voice as distinctive and original as that of The Lovely Bones, and for the fans of the speculative fiction of Margaret Atwood, Karen Thompson Walker's The Age of Miracles is a luminous, haunting, and unforgettable debut novel about coming of age set against the backdrop of an utterly altered world. "It still amazes me how little we really knew... Maybe everything that happened to me and my family had nothing at all to do with the slowing. It's possible, I guess. But I doubt it. I doubt it very much."

On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life - the fissures in her parents marriage, the loss of old friends, the hopeful anguish of first love, the bizarre behavior of her grandfather who, convinced of a government conspiracy, spends his days obsessively cataloging his possessions. As Julia adjusts to the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues.

Product Details

• Audible Audio Edition
• Listening Length: 9 hours and 3 minutes
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Unabridged
• Publisher: Random House Audio
• Audible.com Release Date: June 26, 2012
• Whispersync for Voice: Ready
• Language: English
• ASIN: B008EPCBS2
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (655 customer reviews)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

190 of 220 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The miracle is life itself April 26, 2012

By kacunnin TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Karen Thompson Walker's THE AGE OF MIRACLES is an extraordinary novel about a young girl struggling with the inevitable changes in her life. Eleven-year-old Julia is going through the same things all of us do as we grow up - her parents are confusing and contradictory, her best friend seems to have forgotten she's alive, and the boy she's had a crush on since forever is as inconstant as the moon (as Shakespeare would say!), acting like her friend one day and a complete stranger the next. Add to all this the changes in her body, the drama at the bus stop, and new challenges at school, and you get a real glimpse into what it's like for a girl on the edge of maturity. Walker's insight into female coming-of-age is remarkable.

And then, on top of it all, there's the novel's setting - THE AGE OF MIRACLES takes place during a genuine catastrophe of astronomical proportions. For some inexplicable reason, the Earth's rotation has begun to slow down, meaning the length of the day is increasing little by little until the periods of darkness and light are so long that it takes multiple twenty-four hour periods just to see the sun rise. The ramifications of this are profound, both on the people in Walker's world and on the world itself. When it's revealed that the Earth's magnetic field has shifted, it becomes very clear that things will never be the way they once were.

The best part of THE AGE OF MIRACLES is Julia's story, and only a small part of that story has to do with the so-called "slowing" of the Earth's rotation. In a way, the science-fiction aspect of the novel is merely a backdrop to the very real and identifiable coming-of-age story. Since the novel is narrated by sixth-grader Julia, we never get any real information on the scientific basis of the "slowing" or the physics of its implications. In structure, the novel reminded me of the recent film ANOTHER EARTH, which was ostensibly about the discovery of a new planet that was a mirror image of our Earth, but was really the story of how one young woman came to terms with guilt. Like the film, AGE OF MIRACLES is ostensibly about the changes our planet must face as its rotation continually slows, but it's really about the changes a young girl must face as she grows up in this ever-changing world.

Walker's thesis is that we can't predict what the future will bring - try as we might to prepare for disaster, things will happen that are unexpected and uncontrollable. Julia's mother hoards canned food, people argue about whether to live "by the clock" or by the rising and setting of the sun, neighbors turn against each other, and the rotation of the Earth continues to slow. And Julia continues to grow up. THE AGE OF MIRACLES is a beautifully written novel that offers a very real insight into the changes we all experience as we live our lives. The miracle is that in spite of everything, we keep on living. I recommend THE AGE OF MIRACLES without reservation. It is a novel you will not soon forget.

152 of 184 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A few miracles short. May 4, 2012

By Kerry Nietz VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

As someone who reads a lot of speculative fiction, I have to say that "Age of Miracles" was just okay for me. The writing was solid, the voice good, the characters were likable, and you genuinely wondered how it was all going to turn out in the end.

The premise--an ever-slowing Earth--was excellent. One I've not seen portrayed before. I really appreciated the hints of science, and the places where the book speculated on the possible results of such an occurrence.

What we don't get, though, is a possible reason for this calamity. What we also don't get, ultimately, is a satisfactory ending. At its best, "Miracles" reads like some of Ray Bradbury's more melancholy works. (Not a bad thing--I'm a big Bradbury fan.) But what Bradbury brilliantly achieves in a short story, seems stretched here to fill an entire novel.

There are a number of blind leads (discovered planets, experimental foods, etc.) and even the title itself seems, in the end, a bit deceptive. I understand that it refers to age of the main character, but with a title like that you'd expect, perhaps, a more layered meaning.

"Age of Miracles" is an interesting read with some neat ideas, but if you're an avid sci-fi reader, it probably isn't for you.

133 of 173 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the Miracle I'd Looked For May 10, 2012

By Jacques Talbot VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I wanted to like this book--I expected to like this book--but somehow I can't.

What we have here is a science-fiction themed coming-of-age story that narrates a year or so in the life of an 11- or 12-year-old girl. If I'd understood that this is a book for children / young adults when I started reading it, I might not be as disappointed as I was.

Age of Miracles is definitely not for adults. The writer's voice is too earnest, the science too soft, the plot and point of view explicitly adolescent.

I did find things to like about this book. On the whole, it is quite readable. The premise of the book is an interesting one, and Thompson is a writer who understands rhythm and cadence. Her voice is strong and consistent (if a bit stilted). The main character, a thoroughly unremarkable, somewhat timid woodland creature of a girl, is well-realized and persuasive; her concerns, thoughts, and actions rang true. I expect many readers, like me, will readily identify with her and want to care about what happens next to her. Sadly, not much does.

The book is readable, and yet somehow hollow and unsatisfying. The back story--that the earth's rotational spin is slowing down--would seem fertile ground for exploration, yet the devastation and chaos that would surely ensue remain stubbornly in the background and unbelievably muted. If the protagonist is well-developed, the same cannot be said of the supporting cast. They are either overtly one-dimensional or so mysterious as to remain shadow figures.

There is a flat, dead aspect to everything about the book. Perhaps that is intentional, a literary tip of the cap, as it were, to nihilism, apathy, resignation. If so, I don't think it serves the writer or reader well. I can appreciate the author exploring the idea that there are situations that come from out of the blue, that aren't anyone's fault, that have no solution. But if everyone has emotionally checked out and nothing much happens, who cares?

Who cares?