House of Suns

By: Alastair Reynolds

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Six million years ago, at the very dawn of the starfaring era, Abigail Gentian fractured herself into a thousand male and female clones: the shatterlings. Sent out into the galaxy, these shatterlings have stood aloof as they document the rise and fall of countless human empires. They meet every 200,000 years to exchange news and memories of their travels with their siblings.

Not only are Campion and Purslane late for their 30-second reunion but they have also brought along an amnesiac golden robot for a guest. But the wayward shatterlings get more than the scolding they expect: they face the discovery that someone has a very serious grudge against the Gentian line, and there is a very real possibility of traitors in their midst. The surviving shatterlings have to dodge exotic weapons while they regroup to try to solve the mystery of who is persecuting them and why---before their ancient line is wiped out of existence forever.

©2008 Alastair Reynolds (P)2009 Tantor

Mind blowing galactic vision

Mr. Reynolds has created a masterpiece with a super human perspective of the potential for life in the galaxy, and beyond. I am awed By the perspectives he was able to capture so compellingly. I am now going to search for all of his other work!

Choppy audio

The story was good, the narration was excellent, but the audio was choppy in places, seeming to skip randomly on occasion.

Fascinating and original science fiction

Would you listen to House of Suns again? Why?

Yes. Excellent story, very well written and terrific narrator.

What other book might you compare House of Suns to and why?

A science fiction original. The story border lines science fiction fantasy, but for the fact that is believable coming across as plausible, and that it is very well written, it does not. It remains science fiction in its truest and most literary form.

Have you listened to any of John Lee’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

First. Really enjoyed listening to him, even though at least in this book, he does not make too much of an effort to change the voices of his characters. He has a limited repertoire in that sense, about three or four voices, but it does not matter to me at all.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Too long to do that. Intense enough at points, I needed a break. But couldn't wait to get back to it when I could.

Any additional comments?

Very happy to have discovered Alistair Reynolds. I'll be buying print copies of some of his books as well.

Enjoyable hard Sci-Fi novel.

Any additional comments?

I truly enjoyed this book. I really liked the fact that for a long while at the beginning of the book I didn't know what was going on and still found that I enjoyed the story and narrative.The universe the author creates is interesting and the flashbacks help bring the story into focus over time. Others have complained that there is not enough action in the story - and I admit after I was done with the book - I looked back and realized the same thing. But I still really enjoyed the read ... and getting lost in this world was fun. This was my first book by Reynolds - but will most likely not be my last. The is some hard profanity in this book although lightly used most of the time ( I estimate there were maybe 2 dozen F-Words in and 18 hour book )As for the Narrator, he does an excellent job on this book - and that may have contributed to how much I enjoyed listening to it.

Extraordinairy

I don’t often review books, but this one was truly extraordinarily! A book that makes you of the universe in a new light. Just wonderful!

Had the makings of greatness... until...

What made the experience of listening to House of Suns the most enjoyable?

This is an okay book. It is an extrapolation of Humanity out into the future, and explores some failings that persist even after perfection is achieved. It is a great "who-dun-it", with glorious landscapes and interesting characters... until the writer ran out of steam for the last fifty pages, and the story comes to a rather abrupt and bizarre end. I really liked it, right up to the last bit... but felt bereft when the unsatisfying ending just kind of fell flat. Would still read again for the story.

amazing imagination

it is an amazing story for the ages, you won't be able to put it down.

Great science, great fiction, great story

This is the 4th book of Reynolds’s that I’ve listened to with Lee as the narrator? And my favorite to date. I really enjoyed the plot and the tempo. I’m just getting a feel for the author’s style. Putting it so far in humanity’s future opened up many possibilities and storylines. The machine intelligences were particularly interesting. I’d enjoy hearing more from this universe.

Better

The scope of this novel is huge. The deep history and the thousands of years of story time makes for an epic sci-fi.

Not your conventional story

Great story with numerous twists and unexpected events, exploring interesting ideas and concepts. Well written and entertaining. A story I will remember