Love this, quite unusual. A really interesting modern audiobook.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this publication.

This is an Episodic podcast so you can listen in your own order. It is beautifully narrated, in a peaceful and paced way that makes you want to stop and just listen. It is all first person, each characters’ inner voice is heard for most, if not all, of each episode, so you get solid perspectives from the characters. Very effective for the content. First you have the story, then the science behind the key aspect of each episode and then the soundscape used in each story.
The story is set in the future when digital space is precious. So, there are people assigned to review what has been saved digitally and choose if files have any value anymore. Pan (Pearl Mackie from Doctor who) is one of the reviewers and one day she gets caught up in a recording of the rainforest – we know it is of the rainforest but she has no idea what it is just how it makes her feel. This situation is classed as dangerous and this behaviour is described as a virus, 'rapture' where a recording becomes an obsession. Her focus on the recording stops her from doing her job. The only way to remove the infection is to erase it from her memory.
There is a group called the 'collocation' or 'hands' who watch and deal with infections. What are they? We are not told but they appear to be ‘other’ possibly alien. Pan’s questions the need to stop the population from listening to music or recordings? We are not told but you need to listen until the very end to find the answers with Pan.
Each episode is followed by an explanation of why we need the sounds discussed or how the future is predicted to be shaped as it is in the story. There are reputable experts/scientists who are interviewed (as expected in a BBC production) and links given for those who wish to research further.
There are only two key voices we hear throughout the story. It's a clean and simple narrative that makes it easier to keep the thread. Each perspective changes our understanding of the previous episode and fills in any gaps. I was so tempted to skip the research explanations/soundscapes and just follow the story then go back and listen in order, but I am glad I did not as they do add to your understanding.
This is a modern narrative for our current age and concerns itself with the environment, technology, and the universal question of why humans are the ones who are at the top.
A fabulous gift for any young adult. I was given a free copy by netgalley.com for my fair and honest review.

Pan lives in future times. She is in a world we would barely recognise. Her job is to review data files and delete the unnecessary. There’s a cost to keeping data and the world is burning up. We listen to her as she finds voices that no longer mean anything, that’s Obama who goes into the recycle bin. Those people who remember the tapes being wiped by the BBC in the 60s feel the pain. Pan points out in her monologue that data used to be stored on servers and no one was keeping score. Anyone who has any redundant email accounts that sit there somewhere in the cloud is culpable and some day this data will be binned.

When Pan(Pearl Mackie) discovers the sounds of a rainforest she has no reference point. These sounds belong in the Slow World and pre cataclysm over two hundred years ago. She decided to keep the files but is betrayed by her friend Daria(Tanya Moodie) who tells the state. Their answer to this is to excise her memory forcibly but it won’t be silenced and we follow Pan as she attempts to make sense of the residual dreams.

As she explores her known world and tries to work out what the sounds might mean she learns more and about the Slow Times and why she is so moved by them. Why can she see trees in her dreams when there are non left in the world? When she meets Theia (Pippa Heywood) all becomes clear.

We discover with Pan and the alternate characters who each narrate their own version of the unfolding events. It’s done really well so we don’t anticipate too much and there is a suitable shock and readjustment as the episodes progress. The editing and interaction between the characters is superb and as they say ‘immersive’.

Alongside the very deep and moving drama is the accompanying hugely atmospheric soundscape can be accessed in its purity as separate files. There are also accompanying talks about the issues raised in each episode which add

My first ever experience with a NetGalley audiobook, Forest 404 was written by Timothy X Atack, starring Pearl Mackie, Tanya Moodie and Pippa Haywood, with original music by Bonobo. Set in the 24th Century in a world where technology has taken over and the people couldn't recognise a tree if it was staring them in the face, we follow Pan, a young woman who works clearing out old data to save space. But one day, she finds some files she can't bring herself to delete and this changes the course of humanity forever.

I'm going to get 2 things out of the way here. The first is that I gave this five stars and it is one of the best things I have ever listened to. The second? Well it's the only negative I have. As I mentioned before, I got this as my first ever audiobook from NetGalley, but it isn't an audiobook? It's a podcast. You can go right now, wherever you listen to podcasts, and grab it from there. Which I won't lie, was a life saver for me cause the NetGalley app can't be downloaded to iPhone 6's so it meant I could still listen to it out and about, but it does mean this wasn't what I expected going in. Each episode has an intro and an outro, which works great on podcasts but is a little odd when you think you're listening to an audiobook and that each "file" is a chapter. But that is the only negative I have, and it's really NetGalley's fault, not the artists, so let's move on.

This podcast is absolutely fantastic. It's beautiful. It's well written. It's atmospheric. I was completely and totally absorbed. I was listening to this whenever I could, going on more walks than usual just to be out in nature whilst I listened to it. It is just... gorgeous. In terms of how it's laid out, we get 9 story episodes, each about 25 minutes long, and accompanying each of these story episodes are one "pod-talk" each and one soundscape each, both sitting somewhere between 5-15 minutes long. Both of which are linked to what was just talked about in their respective episodes. The thought and detail which has been put into combining these together into one flowing story has paid off as it's done brilliantly and I really enjoyed each and every episode and how they interwove.

Now I'm going to review the three sections separately. Starting backwards, first off are the soundscapes. These are all sounds of nature, from various different locations with differing local fauna and landscapes. These are so beautiful to listen to, they really made me feel at peace and as though I was actually sitting there, in a rainforest, or on the streets of St Petersburg. They also do link into the plot of the storyline for their respective episode which adds another element to them as you listen.

Next are the "pod-talks". These are short episodes where an expert has been brought in to discuss a topic that was mentioned in the main episode. This can vary from talking about whale songs, why trees live so long to discussing what death actually means for us in the digital age. In the background the beautiful theme music by Bonobo still plays, which for many of us allows the podcast as a whole to be tied together, but I know this would annoy some people and take their attention away from the expert so I thought I would mention it. I personally am not a fan of music in the background when someone is talking, but this was quiet enough and neutral enough that it didn't bother me at all. Each of these experts really brought the topics mentioned in the story back into modern day life, thinking about how these are impacting us in our daily lives and how they may actually become what Pan is describing to us in the future. As someone who usually listens to non-fiction science podcasts I really appreciated this section.

And finally, the pièce de résistance, the story episodes. Throughout these, the music by Bonobo is interwoven, but also combined with beautiful sound effects that really bring the world and it's surroundings to life depending on where they are. It adds another dimension to the story and interweaves the importance of music throughout. Pearl Mackie, who I know from playing Bill Potts in Doctor Who, acts Pan brilliantly, with so much raw emotion in her voice and so much pure humanity. Tanya Moodie perfectly plays a cold and detached business woman in our sci-fi world, and Pippa Haywood, who plays a 300+ year old woman from the "slow times" (i.e. our time) must've had such a sore throat after this but performance-wise it was worth it because that gravelly voice perfectly showed the impacts of time on a person as well as allowing her to be both uncaring and deeply caring about the events around her. The story itself is incredibly interesting, and I gasped out loud a few times (and then looked around to make sure no one else was there to hear me!) with different plot points and story lines. It's so deeply interwoven throughout, with us returning to specific events and also learning more about this version of future Earth as we progress. The worldbuilding was fantastic, I can still envision the picture of this city that I built in my minds eye, and is evocative of so many of our modern day infrastructure. The script is beautifully done, it's narrated to the listener, mainly by Pan, as though it's a confessional. And despite this more limiting narrative method I was still completely invested in ever single character, in all of this world's intricacies. I can't praise this enough.

One extra point from the NetGalley file that I liked that the podcast did not is that there was an extra 30 min discussion with the director of the podcast, talking about how she worked with Timothy X Atack and really took on board all of his ideas as well as giving a little background to the production. It was a really interesting extra that I appreciated.

Another point that I found after researching a little more about this podcast is that not only is the voicing cast all women, which I adored, but also 2 of the 3 women are BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic, it's the British version of BIPOC), with both Pearl Mackie and Tanya Moodie being Black women. These women were all perfect for the roles they played and I think the casting was done wonderfully.

And now, just before the end, one other tiny little negative. I know. I know. I said there was only one at the beginning of this, but I swear this is teeny tiny. It's that you can't speed up this podcast. For all the audiobooks and podcasts I listen to, they're always sped up. All of them. With this one I couldn't do that. I needed the original pacing, I needed the music to be as it was originally composed. Which is a testament to the entire production team! But I do just want to warn you going in, as I had been expecting to speed this one up.

Overall, if it wasn't obvious from how LONG this review is, I adored this podcast/audiobook/I don't know but I don't care cause I loved it! It has been over a fortnight (2 weeks non-UK peeps) since I finished listening to this and the concept and the storyline and the soundscapes are still in my head! (Damn it Pan!). It is one of the most beautiful productions I've ever heard and I'm so glad that I picked it up! Please listen to this!! If you enjoy sci-fi, care about the environment, and like listening to well crafted audio, this is one for you!

This audio book is presented as a series with a podcast and audio scape following each episode. The book looks at a post-apocalyptic world where no one remembers nature. Each podcast that follows the episode mentions some facts about something related to a subject discussed. The audio play uses well-known actors. It’s engaging, and the voice actors and production with the audio is excellent.

I’ve listened to Forest 404 twice now. The first time on the radio when it came out, listening to each part separately and fascinated by the story, mildly interested by the talks and uninterested in most of the soundscapes. The second time on a bad chronic illness day, curled up in bed with my headphones on, letting the entire thing flood into my ears in one go. The whole audio experience of Forest 404 made that day more bearable because it’s a beautiful piece of ear theatre that made my soul happy.

The story itself is beautifully written, with twists and turns that feel very real and resonate differently but just as authentically when you know what’s coming. The acting is wonderful; it feels intimate and urgent. Important. I can’t over-emphasise how spectacular the acting is: the whole story is narrated by three women, who all bring something different and beautiful to the story: you can’t imagine it without any one of them. (On a side note, my interest in Forest 404 was initially sparked when I noticed that Pearl Mackie, who played Bill in Doctor Who, was the main character, and she is utterly perfect.)

The talks that come after each episode are also really enjoyable. Some more than others, of course, but the idea of juxtaposing fiction with fact in this way was really interesting to me. They’re brief and simple, but engaging, and having a different expert give each one is a nice way of providing a little variety, particularly if you’re listening to the whole production in one go.

And then there are the soundscapes. I’m pretty sure I didn’t listen to most of them the first time around, if I listened to any at all. This time I absolutely loved them. First you listen to a chapter of the story, and then you listen to a little talk about something that’s more or less relevant to that chapter, and then you get this lovely… pause. And you lie there, curled up in your warm bed, and okay everything hurts and you can’t even face the thought of getting out of bed to go to the loo, but somehow when there are singing birds and chirping insects and bleating sheep in your ears, and a stillness behind it all, it isn’t quite as bad. In fact, the sound design in the whole production of Forest 404 is beautiful and it’s incredibly easy to become immersed in the story.
I absolutely love Forest 404 and I’ll definitely be listening to it again at some point. The sound of it is wonderful, the story is fun and exciting and interesting, the acting is stellar, and the whole experience is a beautiful thing to put into your ears.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

This was a bit too spooky for my liking, I'm sure it will appeal to most though. It was incredibly atmospheric.

An audiobook like no other! Consider a world where data space was limited and many of the old sights, sounds and data was on the chopping board, to be erased from time forever. And Pan, an archivist, comes across an old soundscape of a beautiful Forest... and it all goes from there.

The old ‘Slow times’, the cataclysm that changes it all and a catapult into fast times where we join Pan in her story. A world that’s futuristic and without all the biological beauty that we see today.

Fantastically acted by the narrators and brilliantly put together. Probably one of the most fun audiobooks I’ve ever listened to and it was so clever. Getting to know this strange future world was wonderful, very immerse and so addicting.

Forest 404 was a wonderful fusion of fiction, story, non fiction and beautiful soundscapes. The accompanying real world podcasts were informative and really great to listen to.

I adore this idea of combining fiction with non fiction - it was so novel and I could listen to these type of audiobooks fiction/non fiction mix forever! With each different podcast on a different topic with a different expert in their field, it was a great accompaniment to the corresponding episodes.

And I loved the soundscapes. A chance to listen to the longer versions of the snippets we heard in the main story episodes. They were a beautiful compilation of nature and really great to listen to. Relaxing and a chance to close your eyes and mentally wander through the natural world. Bliss!

The plot is fast paced, enthralling and difficult to put down. You just want to know how it will all pan out (unintended pun.. I’ll get the door..) but it was fantastically done and I really enjoyed it. Really really brilliant!

‘Can you feel loss for something you've never known?’

My thanks to Penguin Random House U.K. Audio for the audiobook edition via NetGalley of ‘Forest 404’ written by Timothy X Atack. It is performed by Pearl Mackie, Pippa Haywood, and Tanya Moodie with additional material by its creators.

‘Forest 404’ is a science fiction thriller that originally was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2019 and is now being released in an audiobook edition. It consists of 28 tracks: there are the central 9 episodes, each followed by a podcast about the episode and then individual soundscapes that allow a sense of immersion in the characters’ aural experiences. It concludes with a ‘making of’ documentary.

As for the plot - Pan lives a few centuries from now where a data crash has wiped out most records of life from before the 23rd century. She is an archivist whose job is to sort through old sound recordings that survived from before the crash - from The Slow Times. She has to decide which sounds will be retained and which deleted forever.

When she finds an old recording of a rainforest, Pan has no idea what it is because forests no longer exist. She is haunted by these sounds and feels compelled to discover how the forests died. Yet there are agents of the new world order who vehemently oppose such curiosity.

This was an incredible listening experience that was also extremely thought provoking in terms of the ecological and social issues it raised. I found Pan a fascinating character. Given that the Greek God Pan is linked to nature, it felt a fitting name for a character seeking the lost forests.

I found the podcasts informative and the soundscapes exceptional. I was especially haunted by the birdsong that formed an ongoing motif in the music composed for the broadcasts. The closing documentary revealed that its original recording made in Sumatra was an important inspiration for Timothy X Atack when he came across it in the BBC sound archives.

I really cannot recommend this highly enough. It is science fiction at its best, raising fascinating questions about the future within a compelling narrative.

What becomes of the world when nature is just a distant memory?
What is our relationship and responsibility to the past?
Who do we become when we lose this connection?

'Forest 404' is a fascinating audio book/drama series which asks such weighty questions. Originally released as a podcast on BBC Sounds, it's being released for purchase on January 21st.

The series considers our ties to nature and what happens when they are severed. In the future world of the drama, a cataclysmic event has taken place. The 'slow times' of our present are gone and forgotten, replaced by the 'fast times'. Pearl Mackie (of Doctor Who fame) plays an archivist who trawls through data to free up more virtual space, which is at a premium. She encounters recordings which carry significance for us, such as audio of Barack Obama, which she callously identifies as unknown and therefore irrelevant before deleting them from existence. In this reality, it's all about society's forward momentum and there's no time to dwell on what came before, let alone stop long enough to miss it. That is until Pam, Mackie's character, encounters a recording that captivates her, an alien remnant of history, although sinister forces would rather she forget it.

The cast is small, rounded out by Tanya Moodie and Pippa Haywood. The story is narrated mostly via inner monologue and it's a gripping enough, with satisfying twists and turns, with bucketloads of contemplation and musing. The series is composed of nine episodes of story, with nine accompanying talks from experts on related themes, and nine soundscapes which allow the listener to enjoy some of the sounds of the natural world, the ambient noises which we stand to lose. Each soundscape ominously and symbolically distorts towards its ends. The talks cover a diverse range of fascinating issues and act as valuable primers in topics such as circadian rhythms, artificial intelligence and the longevity of trees.

As well as helping curious minds to grapple with the big environmental and technological issues which are only becoming more pressing, there's much else that interested me about this world. It’s a straightforward existence in which everything is clear cut. The two main characters agree to be friends, citing a specific model which details the terms of their relationships and makes their expectations clear. A lot has been lost if not discarded in this society and no room has been left for such things as ambiguity, let alone something so spontaneous and sprawling as the natural world. If a clear reason for something can't be articulated, it has little use.

It's a depressing listen, offering as it does a eulogy to nature, but there are glimmers of hope.

Brand new concept to me and I really enioyed it.

These episodes come in sets of 3. One scifi story, 1 podcast chatting about the episode and why they took that direction, and 1 audio experience.

The story was great. Narrators fantastic - clear, quick when excited but it helped build the experience.

Its totally different from anything I've listened to before and found it very enjoyable.

An interesting, impressive and immersive multimodal mix of drama, factual discussion and soundscapes that tell the story of Pan, a data archivist, who comes across recordings of rainforests which don't exist in the futuristic world where she lives. Like her quasi-namesake Pandora (I can't be the only one who has made that connection. It must be deliberate), this sets off a chain of thrilling events.
This was originally a series on the radio and you can tell because at the end of every section you would get credits which frankly I could do without in this audiobook version. However, I listened to an ARC which I received from Netgalley so the proper version may not have this.
Overall, Forest 404 is an innovative concept that has an important message about saving the world for future generations without being too preachy. I would recommend to everyone but if you like Doctor Who, you will definitely like this especially as Pearl Mackie (Bill) is the voice of Pan.

I enjoyed the narrators voice and the soundscapes in this highly unusual audio book. However, I got a bit muddled with it all and I think I would have found it easier to follow if I had been able to listen to the story in one go, then the soundscapes, and then the pod talks. The pod talks were really interesting. As a whole, unfortunately it didn't really work for me. Thank you to Timothy X Atack, Net Galley and Penguin Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Part fiction, part podcast, part soundscape, presented in 9 x 3-part episodes.

The Fiction:
Pan is an archivist, living in the future. Her job is to sort through old data, recorded before the crash, and decide whether it should be retained or deleted. When she comes across a recording of a rainforest, she doesn’t know what to make of it, as forests don’t exist in the 24th century.

Performed by actors who will be familiar to those who watch BBC dramas, unlike most audiobooks the fiction is semi-dramatized. The recording is supplemented by ambient sound effects. The performances are of a high standard.

Audibly, Forest 404 is harder to follow than standard audiobooks: this performance includes more sotto voce and a wider range of vocal tempo. For this reason, it requires careful listening.

This sci-fi thriller was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It has a Young Adult/New Adult feel, which put me in mind of a mainstream Saturday primetime TV series.

The Discussion Pieces:
Each talk supplements ideas raised in the preceding episode of fiction/dramatization.

Experts and informed enthusiasts across a range of disciplines discuss topics including healthy ageing, the impact of nature on mental health, and artificial intelligence. They pose questions such as how close are we to the extinction of the human race? And, what is the environmental cost of data storage?

Given the complexity of some of the concepts discussed, all the pieces are accessible and engaging.

The Soundscapes:
The soundscapes range from rainforest to ocean.

Gorgeous and uplifting! At times, I had to stop whatever I was doing and turn towards the speakers in a kind of rapture. For full immersion, I recommend you listen via high quality earphones.

The production quality is impressive.

Overall:
While the drama didn’t particularly engage me, the discussion pieces, soundscapes and high production values drew me in.

I applaud the project’s concept and innovative presentation. Only through such novel ways of communication can we address the message to the broadest possible audience, and have any hope in combating the anthropogenic threats of climate change, environmental destruction and unsustainable resources use.

My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK Audio for the ARC.

I thought this was really interesting but how well it works as a whole will be up for debate among listeners.

The things I liked: the voice actors, the bird sound, the story itself. The pod talks in between the episodes that were full of insight and questions about where our world is going and if it should be going there at all.

I never listen to audiobooks at their regular speed, but when I sped this up it warped some of the sound effects.

Listening all at once made the intro for each section a bit annoying. I also didn't like the spoilers for the next 'episode'. While I like the idea of the soundscape I think this actually took me out of the story. I would have preferred to do story first soundscape after and then listen to the pod talks. I do appreciate this is just my view and also that the project might not have been conceived as a traditional audiobook. I'm glad I gave this a go even if I didn't love every element.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the audio in exchange for an honest review.