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The Killing Star  By  cover art

The Killing Star

By: George Zebrowski,Charles Pellegrino
Narrated by: Jay Snyder
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Publisher's summary

The opening chapter of an incredible adventure that includes the destruction of Earth by ten thousand relativistic bombs launched by an alien race. This science fiction thriller follows the desperate struggles of the remnants of humankind to survive in a hostile universe.

©1995 Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely terrifying!

Imagine yourself taking a stroll through Manhattan, somewhere north of 68th street, deep inside Central Park, late at night. It would be nice to meet someone friendly, but you know that the park is dangerous at night. That's when the monsters come out. There's always a strong undercurrent of drug dealings, muggings, and occasional homicides.

It is not easy to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys. They dress alike, and the weapons are concealed. The only difference is intent, and you can't read minds.

Stay in the dark long enough and you may hear an occasional distance shriek or blunder across a body.

How do you survive the night? The last thing you want to do is shout, "I'm here!" The next to last thing you want to do is reply to someone who shouts, "I'm a friend!"

What you would like to do is find a policeman, or get out of the park. But you don't want to make noise or move towards a light where you might be spotted, and it is difficult to find either a policeman or your way out without making yourself known. Your safest option is to hunker down and wait for daylight, then safely walk out.

There are, of course, a few obvious differences between Central Park and the universe.

There is no policeman.

There is no way out.

And the night never ends.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The best Sci-Fi you never read

I have no idea how I missed this one back in the 90's. Let me assure you, it is not dated in any way (except for the dates on a few discoveries that seem not to have occurred!).

It's a profoundly great book that everyone with even a twinkling of interest in speculative fiction should read.

If you haven't yet, then I envy you. I wish they had done a sequel.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable Listen

Not what I was expecting, which isn’t a bad thing. Just beware that this particular man vs. alien story is less phew-phew-phew and more chin stroking musefest.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • JK
  • 09-09-22

A story truly about the hubris of man.

Hard sci fi at its finest. I discovered this book through the youtube channel quinn's ideas. I'm thrilled I discovered it.

I feel science fiction like this and other works from noteworthy authors are the grimm fairy tales of modern society. Telling a riveting story while also weaving in a warning to us all.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great

A little hard to follow at first, but it was truly great. Story was awesome, and so was the narrator. Same guy from Hyperion!

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Existentially Frightening and Original

Most concepts explored in this title seem quite plausible, which only adds to the existential fear inherent to a first contact story. The Dark Forest solution to the Fermi paradox is not explicitly referenced, but this definitely falls within its scope. I wish there was a sequel!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

like a short version of the dark forest

pretty good if you like thus look at the 3 body problem series by cixin

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

reads like a text book

sucks quite a bit. no character development. I did not like it in the least. how many more words do I need to write to let you know not to buy this

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Characters of the finest cardboard parade around outdated storytelling

Enough of the speculative science and and sociology has proved incorrect to render this book rather dated. The storytelling is also rather clumsy and ham fisted. The book is mostly interesting as an early example of the “Dark Forest”, solution to the Fermi Paradox and little else

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Extremely dark but realistic view on aliens

This book pulls no punches. It also has some really accurate and interesting hard scifi. Not to mention awesome ideas like cloning tech, and using it to bring back dinosaurs, pharohs, and supposedly, jesus, and the buddah. The last two are main characters even.
All sorts of awesome stuff.

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