Audio only
Length15m
About this audiobook
"The Nine Billion Names of God" is a 1953 science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. The story was among the stories selected in 1970 by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the best science fiction short stories published before the creation of the Nebula Awards. It was reprinted in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964.
In a Tibetan lamasery, the monks seek to list all of the names of God. They believe the Universe was created for this purpose, and that once this naming is completed, God will bring the Universe to an end. Three centuries ago, the monks created an alphabet in which they calculated they could encode all the possible names of God, numbering about 9,000,000,000 ("nine billion") and each having no more than nine characters. Writing the names out by hand, as they had been doing, even after eliminating various nonsense combinations, would take another 15,000 years; the monks wish to use modern technology to finish this task in 100 days.
They rent a computer capable of printing all the possible permutations, and hire two Westerners to install and program the machine. The computer operators are skeptical but play along. After three months, as the job nears completion, they fear that the monks will blame the computer (and, by extension, its operators) when nothing happens. The Westerners leave slightly earlier than their scheduled departure without warning the monks, so that it will complete its final print run shortly after they leave. On their way to the airfield they pause on the mountain path. Under a clear night sky they estimate that it must be just about the time that the monks are pasting the final printed names into their holy books. Then they notice that "overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out."
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.2 (10.6K)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, StoryGraph, Amazon
GenreScience Fiction, Literary Classics
Length15 mins
Narrated byPeter Coates
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJun 3, 2025
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The Nine Billion Names of God - Intro
2The Nine Billion Names of God
3The Nine Billion Names of God - Outro
More from Arthur C. Clarke
2010: Odyssee IIArthur C. Clarke10h 50m4.1 (74.4K)$28 · $0.00
Who's There?Arthur C. Clarke12m4.0 (156)$1 · $0.00
The PossessedArthur C. Clarke14m3.6 (90)$1 · $0.00
Publicity CampaignArthur C. Clarke9m4.2 (17)$1 · $0.00
ReverieArthur C. Clarke6m3.2 (79)$1 · $0.00
Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Toshikazu Kawaguchi Book SetToshikazu Kawaguchi18h 55m4.5 (1.4K)$40 · $0.00
PRIMAL 2055 - EscapeJack Silkstone6h 47m4.4 (232)Free
The War of The Worlds (A Sci-Fi Classic)H. G. Wells8h 15m4.5 (11.2K)$1.99 · $0.00
GenesisRick Partlow10h 50m4.5 (2.2K)$20 · $0.00
The Galaxy, and the Ground WithinBecky Chambers9h 56m4.5 (55.2K)$29 · $0.00
TimelessR. A. Salvatore12h 30m4.5 (8K)$33 · $0.00
Thud!Terry Pratchett12h 29m4.4 (108.4K)$8 · $0.00
Anne of Green GablesLucy Maud Montgomery10h 54m4.4 (1.3M)$12 · $0.00
Science Fiction & Fantasy CollectionH. P. Lovecraft16h 32m4.5 (2.7K)$2 · $0.00
The Twilight Zone Companion, Second EditionMarc Scott Zicree16h 46m4.5 (1.8K)$28 · $0.00
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (Annotated)H. Beam Piper8h 23m4.5 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
Philip K. Dick: SF Boxed SetPhilip K. Dick29h 38m4.5 (608)$1 · $0.00
Magician's EndRaymond E. Feist17h 5m4.4 (21.7K)$40 · $0.00
Good OmensNeil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett12h 14m4.4 (1M)$29 · $0.00
The Emperor's FistJay Allan8h 37m4.5 (272)$26 · $0.00
The DispossessedUrsula K. Le Guin13h 26m4.4 (189.3K)$33 · $0.00
1984George Orwell11h 31m4.3 (6.2M)$1.20 · $0.00
Lost ValleyWalt Browning7h 47m4.3 (5.4K)$20 · $0.00
AgincourtBernard Cornwell16h 18m4.3 (41.4K)$40 · $0.00
Frankenstein (The Uncensored 1818 Edition) (Annotated)Mary Shelley9h 25m4.3 (1.7M)$3 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
These Precious DaysAnn Patchett11h 14m4.5 (45.2K)$29 · $0.00
Pride & Prejudice (Annotated)Jane Austen15h 10m4.7 (13.3K)$2 · $0.00
The Jeeves and Wooster Stories: The Complete Collection (33 Books)P. G. Wodehouse21h 57m4.7 (2.8K)$15 · $0.00
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn21h 56m4.7 (8.9K)$46 · $0.00
This Side of Paradise - The Original 1920 Edition (Annotated)F. Scott Fitzgerald11h 30m4.6 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition (An F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic NovelFrancis Scott Fitzgerald4h 45m4.6 (9.3K)$18 · $0.00
The Complete Histories / History Plays of William Shakespeare (Annotated)William Shakespeare29h 42m4.6 (2.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m4.7 (359)$29 · $0.00
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Twelfth Night (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography (Annotated)William Shakespeare, Sidney Lee16h 38m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Henry V (The Play, Historical Background and Analysis of the Character in the Play)William Shakespeare, William Hazlitt8h 50m4.6 (1.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
H. P. LOVECRAFT Ultimate Collection: Novellas, Short Stories, Poetry & Essays (Annotated)H. P. Lovecraft12h 28m4.6 (2.3K)$2 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust16h 8m4.5 (10.6K)$1.99 · $0.00
Lessons in TruthH. Emilie3h 50m4.6 (1.4K)$4.70 · $0.00
TORAH - Bilingual Edition: English/Hebrew (Annotated)Max Margolis, JPS28h 26m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
Betty Crocker picture cooky bookBetty Crocker, Inc. General Mills2h 13m4.5 (6.5K)$1 · $0.00
The Complete Tales of Beatrix PotterBeatrix Potter3h 36m4.5 (75K)$3 · $0.00
Anne of Green GablesL. M. Montgomery11h 1m4.5 (1.2M)$2.30 · $0.00
Crime and Punishment (The Unabridged Garnett Translation) (Annotated)Fyodor Dostoevsky24h 25m4.5 (15.4K)$1.99 · $0.00
You may also like
Light in the DarknessHeino Falcke10h 40m4.1 (711)$29 · $0.00
Dreams of a Final TheorySteven Weinberg9h 29m4.1 (3.7K)$20
The Hidden Power of AI for Financial GrowthNora V. Halden3h 33m5.0 (1)$2.30 · $0.00
PYTHON UNLOCKEDTheo Vantage3h 20m$10
RepluggedSatnam Bains13h 47m$14 · $0.00
AI: From the Breakroom to the BoardroomMatthew Fischer3h 8m4.5 (132)$14.99
The Golden BitcoinMichael A. Duniec6h 43m5.0 (1)$14.99 · $0.00
Ship Machine Learning Web Apps with PythonNathan Jansen8h 26m$5
From Model Building to MLOpsNadia Ferreiro13h 33m$65
Who Wrote the Bible? : a Book for the PeopleWashington Gladden9h 46m4.0 (69)$2 · $0.00
YOUR FIRST SEVEN DAYSKIM URCHALA33m$3
Introduction manual to S&OPCristina Peña1h 34m4.4 (15)$23 · $0.00
The History of AstronomyKidsChoice41m$12 · $0.00
The Machine Learning Engineer's PathPriya Quill7h 34m$5
CLAUDE CODE MASTERY 2026Smart Alden6h 5m$8.50 · $0.00
How to Make $10K/Month with Enablement & Automation (2025 Edition)Gus Gonzalez33m5.0 (12) Only with Ultra
Quantum Mechanics for Applied NanotechnologyMarcus Lawn18h 20m$10
The AI Operations PlaybookJasper Livingstone5h 17m$11.50 · $0.00
Practical SQL; Query & Manage DatabaseStephen Hart5h 56m$7 · $0.00
MRI MachinesHarold M.Stevens2h 43m$10.50 · $0.00