Forest 404

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

‘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.

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!

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 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.