Sapiens is a thrilling account of humankind's extraordinary history from the Stone Age to the Silicon Age and our journey from insignificant apes to rulers of the world. For more, visit www.ynharari.com.

Listening Length

15 hours and 18 minutes
Author

Yuval Noah Harari
Narrator

Derek Perkins
Audible release date

30 April 2015
Language

English
Publisher

Random House Audiobooks
ASIN

B00VY26M78
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	15 hours and 18 minutes
Author	Yuval Noah Harari
Narrator	Derek Perkins
Audible.com.au Release Date	30 April 2015
Publisher	Random House Audiobooks
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00VY26M78
Best Sellers Rank	30 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 1 in History of Civilisation 1 in History of Civilization & Culture 1 in Anthropology (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

5 star		78%
4 star		15%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Science and making it up as we go along

Reviewed in Australia on 3 November 2018

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This is a profound book. I took over 30 pages of notes.

This is the best book I've read on our 'imagined orders', money, religion, politics, law etc, their clash with the discoveries of science, and how we try to find meaning in it all.

The author says that liberalism is the dominant religion today, I would say it's consumerism. Either way, or another way, can't wait to get into the authors next book

14 people found this helpful

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Matthew Dilnot

Wish I had read this book 20 years ago. But then we didn't know what we know now.

Reviewed in Australia on 31 December 2019

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A wonderful book which plots out succinctly the history of sapiens in a manner which is palatable, giving the highlights from a broad range of literature.

There are some errors in the book which are disappointing as it may undermine your faith in the rest of the book and there is a reasonable dollop of the authors opinion. By and large though I feel the author is pragmatic in his writing at the risk of upsetting many, which makes the book even more enthralling. No holds barred as they say.

It should be mandatory reading for most schools if not just for encouraging educated debate.

Thank you Yuval for this wonderful book. I will make reference to it regularly for many years I imagine.

Matt

6 people found this helpful

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Sapiens=History book=Exciting

Reviewed in Australia on 17 December 2020

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Sapiens Brief History Of Humankind

Firstly I want to tell you that this is a history book. You might think that this is a boring book, but it's actually a fascinating book with lots of important events such as 2011 Egyptian evolution.

Throughout this amazing book, I learned that we, Homo Sapiens, had so many things in the world and how they survived against all the other types of humans. Because of this book, I started thinking that we have to stop doing some crazy war to take someone’s happiness and not achieve anything, and we know that from all those histories of the war.

One thing that I really liked about this book is that unlike the other boring history books Sapiens is more like an action book, to be honest. I got this feeling of excitement when I was reading this book because I was curious about what is gonna happen and why the event has occurred.

One thing I prefer for you to do is get a notebook or something that you can take the note and maybe get a dictionary as there some really hard scientific words.

I bet that you have never read something like this before. I believe that this is a great book because whilst learning history you will have so much excitement and everything.

I recommend this book to people aged 13 and over. I am 12 right now and I get a bit confused about some bits in this book.

Now you have read my whole review but I don’t think everyone will love this book as there are some hard words and scientific diagram but this will make you get A+ in History

2 people found this helpful

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dr c

And we humans think we’re unique!

Reviewed in Australia on 16 November 2020

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What an information packed journey through human history - pity history was not taught like this at schools and universities. Harari glides the reader easily through understanding our homo sapien species evolutionary history, the periods of how we lived and why (such as the hunter gatherer, the agriculturist, the scientist) and the relative benefits or otherwise to mankind of our development ( which often have not led to greater happiness or less cruelty). Given that we are just extensions of the animal kingdom we are subject to the control of many factors outside of our control - so not so great after all. In fact in the not so distant future we are likely to be another species. A masterful read.

2 people found this helpful

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Rob

A Mentally Stimulating Read

Reviewed in Australia on 20 February 2021

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The early chapters were excellent and well-grounded. I found a few of the later chapters didn't have quite the same degree of logic or research evidence (they did have these, just not to the same extent), which didn't stop them being interesting, but did mean that I didn't get as much out of them as I couldn't accept their conclusions as readily. Nevertheless, this is a wide-ranging and important book and one everyone should read to understand human behaviour at a deeper level.

2 people found this helpful

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Bard C. Papegaaij

Interesting read, lacking depth in some places

Reviewed in Australia on 4 December 2015

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An ambitious and interesting overview of the history of Homo Sapiens. The tone is light and sometimes flippant, but the topics covered aren't, and the author raises some very important questions about our place in the scheme of things, and our future development.
I did find the book actually a bit disappointing towards the end; the first 2/3 were a fascinating read, with great insights, fresh perspectives, and well-written reflections on where we came from and how we got here. After that, however, the tone set in the first part of the book didn't work for the topics being discussed, and the narrative was lacking in the kind of surprising insights that made the first part such an enjoyable read.
Certainly a book I would recommend reading, but ultimately not as satisfying as it at first promised to be.

11 people found this helpful

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M A Cosgrove

No understanding of Humanism

Reviewed in Australia on 20 November 2021

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Sapiens contains some interesting reflections on human history, but scattered throughout the book are sections that are fanciful or just plain wrong. In particular, Harari has no idea what modern Humanism is. Claiming that there are three branches of Humanism, two of which are religious and the third including the Nazis is deeply offensive. Humanism is a compassionate, rational and scientific world view that values human flourishing and seeks to minimise the suffering of humans and other sentient creatures. It is the complete antithesis of Harari’s representation.

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Dr Robbie Lloyd - Community Builder and Advocate for Empowerment of People With Disability and Mental Distress

Interesting viewpoint, but too mechanistic

Reviewed in Australia on 27 January 2018

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This is a brilliant storytelling exercise, devoid of cheesy hopefulness. But is core mechanistic assessment of life leaves you feeling bleak. So too does an objective assessment of today's politics, transglobal capitalism and environmental destruction. Many he's onto something? Just despair...

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Harvinder Singh

Fake print

Reviewed in India on 7 September 2018

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The paper and print quality are very poor. Sending fake printed books in the name of special collector's edition and that too without colours. I found a better book through different vendor as compared to this Harsh Books.

620 people found this helpful

Eff

Assertions, assertions, assertions... Evidence, please.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 September 2018

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'Sapiens' is a short telling of the entire human history, from pre-anatomically modern humans through the agricultural and scientific revolutions and to the present. Or so it attempts to be.

Unfortunately, this enormous task is the book's own undoing. There is no room for any indepth discussions about the various complex issues, and no room to discuss the evidence. The book is filled with assertion after assertion, and virtually nothing to back them up. I looked in the reference section and I was shocked to see how few citations there were. Such a massive subject derserves ten times more citations. If you think you're getting a good scientific description of the facts, don't buy this book. This book is essentially his opinions, and not much else.

Any person who has strong knowledge within any of the subjects in the book will quickly realise that Harari is not an expert on much of what he writes about. He does not just make many claims. He makes many wrong claims. And many, many more misleading ones. It's one of those books that are popular with the layman, but not so much with the expert.

When he leaves the topic of evolutionary biology, premodern history, and starts talking about modern history the book gets slighter better. Or is that just because I'm not as well-versed in those topics? Do I just not see his errors there, just like a layperson would not see his errors in his account of evolutionary biology, intelligence research, and more? I won't know. The problem is I can't put much trust in him, because there are so many things wrong or misleading stuff elsewhere. And he doesn't provide sufficient evidence.

Even in the better parts of the book, it is ultimately somewhat dull. Not much new to learn for me, unfortunately. There are so many books about humans, many of them much better than this.

I wouldn't claim that this is the worst book ever, obviously. But to say that it is overhyped is to put it mildly. If you want to read a story, then perhaps you might find it interesting. If you want a factual account that is supported by an honest look at the available evidence, then go somewhere else.

701 people found this helpful

Connor

A brief speculation about the history of humankind

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 February 2019

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Harari has a knack of weaving complex and interesting concepts into stories, which allows the reader to feel smarter for having understood him. The book is very interesting and despite its length, can be zipped through due to its easy reading style.

Unfortunately, I also have to agree with many of the one star reviewers, that the books downfall is the almost constant speculation he engages in, without providing further evidence.

As an example, he states 'the creators of the cave paintings at Chauvet, Lascaux and Altmira almost certainly intended them to last for generations.'

This kind of statement is endemic of the sloppy thinking he engages in, where he will assume something for the sake of the narrative.

This wouldn't be a problem if it were in isolation, but it is a pattern repeated throughout the book, where he will base a conclusion off an assumption, then proceed to build a whole story off it. This relegates the book to a speculation rather than a historical account.

I would also advice Christians that he is rather condescending about religion in general and Christianity in particular. He describes Christianity as a 'myth' to be put in the same category as belief in Odin or in Wood Spirits. AS a Non-Christian I was annoyed over his presumptive anti-theism so I have no doubt that many believers will find him infuriating.

To sum up, this is an interesting and infuriating speculation of the humankind. Take it all with a shaker of salt.

163 people found this helpful

Over-rated book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 December 2018

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If you are a believer, this book is a total waste of time. It is not at all a history of humankind, as it follows the scientific route. Yet to find scientists who can provide something which, when they are dating something, confirms without any shadow of a doubt that it was there at the beginning!

128 people found this helpful

Andrew Terhune

Don't be fooled. This book is opinion masquerading as science.

Reviewed in the United States on 29 September 2018

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If you want to learn about the author's feelings and musings about modern society cloaked in the history of our species, this book is for you. If, however, you, as I did, want to learn something scientific about the progress of our species unspoiled by a political screed, search for something else. Rarely have I felt that I misspent money on a book. In this case, I did. Too bad because it might have been an interesting read. I could go on, but it's not worth more of my time.

1,552 people found this helpful

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Sapiens Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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