Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Regarding Ducks and Universes
    Regarding Ducks and Universes
    Regarding Ducks and Universes
    Audiobook9 hours

    Regarding Ducks and Universes

    Written by Neve Maslakovic

    Narrated by Alexander Cendese

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    On a foggy Monday in 1986, the universe suddenly, without warning, bifurcated.

    Fast-forward to 35 years later: Felix Sayers is a culinary writer living in San Francisco of Universe A who spends his days lunching at Coconut Café and dreaming of penning an Agatha Christie-style mystery. But everything changes when his Aunt Henrietta dies, leaving Felix a photograph which proves that he was born before the bifurcation, not after, as he had been told. He has an ‘alter’ in Universe B.

    Panicked that his mystery novel may have been penned already by his alter, Felix crosses to San Francisco B and proceeds to flagrantly violate the rules of both worlds by snooping around his alter’s life. But when he narrowly escapes a hit-and-run, it becomes clear that someone knows he’s crossed over…and whoever it is isn’t happy about it. Now Felix must uncover the truth about his alter, the events of one Monday, and a wayward rubber duck before his time in both worlds runs out.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateNov 6, 2012
    ISBN9781469200873
    Regarding Ducks and Universes
    Author

    Neve Maslakovic

    Neve Maslakovic spent her early years speaking Serbian in Belgrade, in former communist Yugoslavia. After stops along the way in London, New York, and California, she has settled in Minneapolis-St. Paul, where she admits to enjoying the winters. She earned her Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Stanford University’s STARLab (Space, Telecommunications, and Radioscience Laboratory) and is a member of the Loft Literary Center. Regarding Ducks and Universes is her first novel, and she is hard at work on her second.

    Related to Regarding Ducks and Universes

    Related audiobooks

    Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Twitch Reflex

      Nov 30, 2021

      Twitch Reflex
      2 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Sep 1, 2022

      1. Here there’s no rainy season.Sun scalds my forehead,yet the pool is empty. Beside it,a toppled table, its glass surface shattered.The asphalt is too hot for bare feet. 2. Far away: white hillocksand white dunes under a deepblue sky. Swirling winds

      5 min read

    • Article

      Forgive Us Our Trespasses

      Jun 3, 2021

      Forgive Us Our Trespasses
      4 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      Roger's PROFANISAURUS

      Nov 19, 2020

      Roger's PROFANISAURUS
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Iľja Rákoš

      Dec 12, 2021

      As long as there are authors, translators, publishers large or small committed to the deliberate word deliberately committed to the page, and so many who still need those words on pages, legal or illegal, right, left, or center, we’ll find our feet a

      8 min read

    • Article

      Nick Laird

      Dec 15, 2017

      I was trying to write like an adult.I had children.I was at the end of something. As I waited at my table by the window for the coffee,I saw that the sirocco had depositeda scrim of dust on the sill overnight,and it was the dark red of powdered blood

      3 min read

    • Article

      Roger’s PROFANISAURUS

      Feb 2, 2023

      Roger’s PROFANISAURUS
      8 min read

    • Article

      Roger’s PROFANISAURUS

      Feb 2, 2023

      Roger’s PROFANISAURUS
      8 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Sep 1, 2023

      Table Talk
      10 min read

    • Article

      Maybe It Won’t Be That Bad

      Dec 9, 2019

      Maybe It Won’t Be That Bad
      4 min read

    • Article

      We’re Naked Underneath Our Clothes

      May 31, 2018

      A WRITING CLASSROOM is an intimate space, and so before I tell you about this night, years ago, when I was still what might be classified as a young professor, a fresh transplant to Indiana soil from the wilds of the Pacific Northwest via the red cla

      21 min read

    • Article

      Klara

      May 21, 2020

      Klara
      28 min read

    • Article

      La Otra Historia

      Jun 30, 2022

      La Otra Historia
      14 min read

    • Article

      The Notebook

      Dec 7, 2021

      As a child, my hand closed over a centipede,There was a penny in my mouth, and becauseYou are everyone in the dream, evenNonpersons, I was the badly scarredFlowering cherry and the moving shadowsOf its branches on the brick façade behind it.Artificia

      2 min read

    • Article

      Aughts

      Sep 11, 2017

      Aughts
      23 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Mar 1, 2024

      I was trying to look a little less like myselfand more like other humans, humans who belonged, so I put on a skort.Purchased in another life, when I had a husband and wrote thank-you notes and held dinner parties,the skort even had its own little poc

      6 min read

    • Article

      Where Is Black Life Lived?

      Jul 21, 2020

      Where Is Black Life Lived?
      6 min read

    • Article

      It’s Come to This

      Sep 1, 2021

      It’s Come to This
      16 min read

    • Article

      ‘The Divines’: Featured Fiction from Ellie Eaton

      Jan 19, 2021

      An excerpt from a debut novel Booklist calls "sharp and haunting." The post ‘The Divines’: Featured Fiction from Ellie Eaton appeared first on The Millions.

      13 min read

    • Article

      Six Poems

      Feb 28, 2023

      Dear C, At first Virgil’s poem is quite dull; equivocalnames of products at The Container Store: Elfa White Medium Drawer, Mesh NarrowRolling Cart (Medium Solution), Narrow Classic Mesh Box and the number of pirouetting starseach product attained. An

      5 min read

    • Article

      Roger’s Profanisaurus

      Oct 15, 2020

      Amber warning n. A log dropped in a partner’s bed; a subtle sign that a romantic relationship may just possibly be heading for trouble. Named in honour of Johnny Depp’s estranged squeeze, viz. Amber Heard = Douglas Hurd. and in local news… phr. Annou

      6 min read

    • Article

      Yellow City

      Nov 28, 2018

      Yellow City
      7 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Feb 28, 2023

      I want to write a poem about abortion.I’m driving to Rural King to get a key cut.I’m in rural Indiana. Then I’m in rural Michigan.I’m in Michiana. I’m driving to Niles.I pass the neon Pegasus sign outside a gas station,always off. I pass a man panhan

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Regarding Ducks and Universes

    3.5/5

    77 ratings14 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      There is much to like about Neve Maslakovic's 2010 sci-fi novel "Regarding Ducks and Universes." That title, for example. And I love the cover illustration, uncredited in the book, showing a little boy and a toy duck on the Golden Gate Bridge.I also love the premise of the story. Thirty-five years ago something happened to cause the universe to split, creating a duplicate of itself. This means that everyone alive on that date also has a duplicate, or an alter. It is possible to travel from one universe to another to see how different they have become, even after just 35 years. One universe, more environmentally conscious than the other, has eliminated books printed on paper. Microwave ovens don't exist in one universe. One universe has fewer hurricanes.Felix Sayers, born just months before "Y-day," decides to take a vacation to Universe B. Regulations supposedly forbid looking up one's alter in the other universe, but who can resist? Felix, an aspiring writer, wonders if Felix B has already written a book. "I was afraid of finding out he'd done a better job of living my life," Felix says.Complications multiply as soon as Felix enters the other universe, and it seems that someone is trying to kill him. He becomes involved with a team of researchers trying to discover why the universe split. They think Felix himself, though just an infant at the time, may have been responsible. Perhaps something to do with that duck.This sounds fascinating, right? Sometimes it is, but too often Maslakovic's prose just bogs down and takes some time to get moving again. Multiple universes would naturally be complicated, but sometimes the plot seems just more complicated than it needs to be. I enjoyed the book, but not nearly as much as I thought I would.
    • 4/5
      How would you feel if you were the catalyst for the universe splitting?Universe A and B were split by Professor Singh. One universe has the Golden Gate bridge still and books and cars while the other is the opposite. A more green affair which looks after what it has and makes the new products more efficient.But when this happened it was put down to Professor Singh splitting the Universes in a laboratory but what is the split was due to someting more mundane? What if Felix Sayer as a small baby was integral to the whole process?Both Felix A and B try to find out if that is the case. And if not can the universe be split further?Definately not a mainstream book which I think will sell better in ebook form than in paper format in the shops. Worth reading as it is fun and enjoyable - but not a headline seller I'm afraid.
    • 3/5
      Okay. I enjoyed the idea and the overall style but found that the plot lacked any urgency which made me not really care. The mystery wasn’t a proper mystery even by the book’s own standards so I didn’t consider it one either, which left the whole thing feeling rather passive and meandering. The only character which much depth was Felix and I didn’t really like him.
    • 3/5
      This had some interesting ideas about multiple universes and the consequences of connecting them but I also found the main character a bit annoying and the pace was a bit slow.
    • 3/5
      This novel contains some interesting ideas about parallel universes and chains of cause and effect leading from tiny events to trigger massive indirect consequences. But I found the characters a bit irritating and just not very interesting and this made this harder to read than I anticipated. So overall a bit disappointing. 3/5
    • 3/5
      Overall, it was a nice read. A bit heavy on trivial observations by the main character. I have a feeling that a lot of these observations would have been more meaningful if the significance had been explained. Since I'm originally from the Bay Area, the setting was especially enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      This was entertaining in many different ways. First, the story/premise was intriguing. That neither universe matched our San Francisco was amusing. The characters were fun, and that there was a bit of a mystery added interest. On the whole, it was a nice romp, and it gave me a new term: yapbut, which, though I can't find the page I marked with the actual definition (bookmark fell out, which is entirely annoying ): Imagine the universes that one event could have created) means something like yet another possible bifurcation universe time/theory. Anyhow, I liked the book. Tags: alternate-history, bookcrossing, didn-t-want-to-put-it-down, fantasy, places-i-have-been, read, rollicking-good-fun, will-look-for-more-by-this-author
    • 4/5
      I wasn't sure what to expect when this came up as a monthly read for the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Club. I'd never heard of the book or author. But I'm always interested in trying new things and though I'd give it a try. And I'm really glad I did.

      Set in an alternate-history where a science experiment duplicated the universe with the two universes being connected and people able to go between them. People born after the split were unique but those from before have an alter, an identical person in the other universe. When Felix A crosses to universe B in hopes of seeing if his alter is working on the same life goal he finds himself in the middle of a race to discover if he was the cause of the incident.

      A really fun, enjoyable story, though I wouldn't call it laugh out loud funny, it was at times deep and philosophical, at others fun and light-hearted. I hope the author revisits this universe(s) as I could see a lot of potential for more. Plus I want to know what happens with Bean.

      I recommend this to anyone who wants a light adventure with a hint of something deeper behind it.
    • 3/5
      All the trappings were there for a good read - unique premise, decent writing, and potentially interesting characters and main plot. I'd say the overall experience was uneven. I found the beginning required a bit of an effort to click into, but the story picked up and I was glad to have stuck with it.

      Mostly, I kept waiting for something to happen while the premise was explained and the alternate universes were described. Hanging out with Felix, the main character, as he fretted and moved about wasn't that interesting. A few more good sub-plots would have helped. I liked many elements of the novel, but not enough to say it with an exclamation mark. My praise goes to the novelty of the bridging between multiple universes, and the clarity of explanations behind the premise. I hope Neve Maslakovic continues writing fiction rooted in theoretical physics - the world needs more of that.
    • 5/5
      This is an outstanding book! Very easy to read and seamlessly transfers from chapter to chapter without jumping around. This is a hard book to put down; I literally had to take my Kindle with me to work so I could continue reading this book! I would have given this book 5 star for being such a fun book to read, except for the few inconsistencies' that I noticed. It's not that the beginning differs from the end in any way (if you haven't read this book, stop reading this comment here **SPOILER ALERT**) like if Felix was born just after Y-Day, he would still have an Alter! He thought he didn't have one because he was born just after Y-Day, but obviously he would have had an alter because he was still in the womb. He wouldn't have an alter if he was born about 10 months AFTER Y-Day, not on the day. Other than that, this is an awesome read! Better than Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy!
    • 4/5
      When the universe split into two in 1986, those who existed already found out they had an alternate being in the other universe. Felix, in Universe A, has just found out that his birthday was altered by his parents, now realizes that he has an alter and is on his way to Universe B to find out if Felix B has achieved Felix A's lifelong goal of writing a mystery novel. Felix soon finds himself embroiled in a mystery of his own; someone is trying to kill him. Add to that a rivalry between research students and a wealthy corporation and a boss that will not let up about sourdough, and you get a mad dash around San Fransisco to find out what happened on the day the universe split.Regarding Ducks and Universes is a rare breed: a fun, intellectually stimulating, sci-fi mystery. While the mystery aspect of the book doesn't seem fully developed, the philosophy behind the book is intriguing. What if we had alternates in other universes? Would they be just like us, or would they have chosen to pursue other avenues such as career choices, life partners, or hobbies? How much of what we are is in our genes and how much is a product of our environment. Maslakovic attempts to answer these questions in an entertaining way. Those readers who are looking for something new in sci-fi should check this book out.
    • 3/5
      Felix is a character that you can relate to in the fact that he's just a regular guy from San Francisco A who just happens to have a great deal of importance in the quest to figure out why the universe split into two when he was only six months old.Teamed up with a Bi-History scientist, a Private Detective, and a troublesome boss who is demanding that he break inter-universe regulations and bring back some famous sour-dough starter from Universe B, Felix battles the inconvenient (and life threatening!) meddling of two cut-throat marketers and his own Alter in a Agatha Christie style mystery on-the-go to find the truth that will change the very history of the Universes.Although the initial character/world building is slow to illustrate the idea of multiple universes, the end result is a second-half that is jam packed with quirky personalities and twists that starve you for the next move and the next detail. It's a nice mix of scientific theory, mystery, culinary how-to and humor that brings realism and plausibility to the detailed plot.Overall, it's a book that takes an interesting dive into the world of 'What if?' that has you contemplating the possibilities in this universe.**(Disclaimer: I received an ARC copy of this novel for review.)
    • 3/5
      What if the fact that you sneezed, went to a job interview or dropped something (or didn't drop it) would create a separate universe where your life would go on differently? What if it were possible to visit the other universe? And what if you had an 'alter' - an alternative copy of yourself in the other universe?The main character of this story, Felix Sayers, a culinary writer (and wanna-be mystery-novel writer) from Universe A goes off to visit Universe B with a purpose (apart from sight-seeing): to find out if his counterpart in the Universe B has written, is writing or is planning to write the mystery novel that he, Felix A, wants to write himself. And if that purpose being not very legal, and also getting temporarily quarantined due to an inter-universe pet bug weren't enough, Felix finds out that he, or more exactly, his past. is an object of interest to quite a lot of people...After somewhat slow first few chapters as we become acquainted with the whole A and B Universe idea, the things start to get interesting, and by the end of the book you're as eager as Felix Sayers himself (the one from Universe A) to get to the bottom of things. If you like light science fiction/mystery/humor this is the book for you.(Disclaimer: I received an ARC copy of this novel for review.)
    • 4/5
      We all assume from birth that we are one of a kind, but how would we react if we suddenly found out we weren't an original? There is someone out there with your name, your look, your interests running around? This is how Felix feels when he suddenly learns of Felix B. In the world Felix lives in, "alters", are common for older people in his world. But he recently found out he was old enough to have this doppelganger in a parallel universe (Universe B). As Felix takes a trip to this alternate universe (a commonplace activity), he not only learns about the differences in the worlds but learns there could be more to his history than he ever could have believed possible. Take a wild trip with a could have been actress, a college student, an almost-dog, and the Felixes on a ride through reality that could leave your head spinning. Maslakovic takes a well known theory on multiple universes, adds his own twists and weaves a tale that will leave you on the edge of your seat.