I generally like Robinson. I have listened to Infinity, NPC and The Others and l thought they were excellent (The Others was a little far-fetched but still fun). All those books were interesting, fast paced and entertaining. Tether was none of those things. I can’t really put my finger on why I hated this book so much but I forced myself to listen to it. I got to the last 30 minutes and just gave up. It’s a dumb book with no plausible premise and roundly horrible. Characters are horrible, story is horrible, narrator is fine but he has little to work with. Alter by Robinson was way worse than Tether and I had to return that book after listening only 30 minutes. I get the impression that Tether was written as a revenue source more than as an expression of Robinson’s talent. I think he may need to slow down and stop churning out so much dross. I never write reviews but I’m writing this one to beg the author to do better next time!