From Audible:
Neal Stephenson’s monumental series of novels that blows through 17th- and 18th-century Europe like a hurricane of history, science, intrigue, and adventure – is now finally available in unabridged audio. Part historical fiction, part scientific exploration, and part swashbuckling adventure, The Baroque Cycle appeals to fiction lovers of all types.
With the author’s help, we’ve divided the entire legendary cycle into seven riveting audiobooks and added brand-new, exclusive audio introductions recorded by Stephenson for each book. The complete saga is performed by Audible favorite Simon Prebble.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
This is not the first unabridged version released. There was an unabridged version released on about 50 cassettes done by a narrator (Robert Sams?) who is utterly fantastic — a perfect match for Stephenson. I really wish they could have licensed and re-released that recording. It’s weirdly hard to find any legit reference to it on the net.
Still, excellent news. I tried twice to read these books and kept putting them aside for other things. As audio books, I found them fascinating.
The license has obviously run out on a lot of Recorded Books releases and so forth. They’re all weirdly hard to find, too.
The only other version I know of is this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Quicksilver-Baroque-Cycle-Vol-1/dp/0060721618
It’s from Harper Audio, and was Abridged but still 20 hours long or so. I think Simon Prebble read that one, too. Didn’t know about the Recorded Books version.
Cryptonomicon was released as an audiobook by Fantastic Audio way back, in a version labeled “Unabridged Excerpts”. Audible has released their own version of that one, too: 43 hours long, read by William Dufris.
For those of us still on dialup (yes, that would be me), any CD version? I know that Audible often partners with a CD maker (e.g., Brilliance Audio)…sure hoping so!
Hello Fred! Yes, Brilliance Audio is publishing them as well. We just received a hardcopy of the first volume from them.
attn 3 Mr Straight.. the Robert sams version can be downloaded for free on demonoid or http://www.bolt.org