Across the Universe

By: Beth Revis

Narrated by: Lauren Ambrose

Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder....

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, 300 years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end 50 years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

©2011 Beth Revis (P)2011 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Entirely original, deeply compelling, and totally unputdownable--I've found a new favorite!" (Carrie Ryan, New York Times best-selling author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth)

"A murder mystery, a budding romance, and a dystopian world gracefully integrated into a sci-fi novel that blows away all expectation." (Melissa Marr, New York Times best-selling author of Wicked Lovely)

"A horrifying and deliciously claustrophobic masterpiece that's part sci-fi, part dystopian, and entirely brilliant." (Kiersten White, New York Times best-selling author of Paranormalcy and Supernaturally)

It was alright

The best word to describe this book is beautiful. The book cover is beautiful, the writing is beautiful, and even the narration is beautiful. Upon listening to the first two chapters, I was pulled into the story with genuine interest. However, as beautiful as the writing is, I cannot recommend the audiobook and even if I had read the book I’m not sure if my opinions would be any different.

Amy and her parents are cryogenically frozen on a spaceship called Godspeed heading towards a new planet. Or at least Amy was frozen. Her cryo chamber is mysteriously opened 50 years earlier than planned and the ship is no where near there destination. Once woken her long freeze, Amy discovers that she is the only person on the ship from Earth and life is very different from what she’s used to.

On Godspeed, everyone is similar in appearance, brown hair and medium colored skin. There are no cultures, ethnicities or religions. This is all to prevent disputes and keep peace on the ship that is traveling millions of miles across space. That said, I found it very strange that the narrator for Elder, long time ship resident and the ships future leader, had a distinct accent. This is horrible but a little distracting when trying to picture his character without a culture. In addition, I found his narration very grating and I really disliked listening his parts. I did enjoy the narrator for Amy and her parts kept me interested.

As stunning as the writing is, and it really is gorgeous, the story was consistently depressing. The genre is dystopian so things are expected to in a state of disarray. However, as a reader I need a little bit of joy in a story to stay inspired and to keep a sense of hope for the characters. The characters and their situation began to wear on me. I was annoyed by their actions and I can’t say that I liked or related to any of them.

I hate to give Across the Universe a bad review as Revis truly did a good a job but this book was just not for me. I need a story where I can rally behind the characters and root for them and in the end I couldn't care less about Amy and Elder’s fate. Fans of dystopian novels might really like Across the Universe and I encourage everyone to try it as many readers did thoroughly enjoy the book.

A Million Suns (Across the Universe #2) releases in February 2012 and once again the cover is absolutely beautiful.

Take off!

Would you listen to Across the Universe again? Why?

It was a great read...listen... the performance was great!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Across the Universe?

It was great when she woke up from being frozen.

What about Lauren Ambrose’s performance did you like?

Each chapter is from a different point of view. Male/Female

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Take_Off

Any additional comments?

A great book and would be fun for 15-90 year olds to read.

Don't judge the book by its cover

I judged this book by its cover, so even though the summary sounded interesting, I saw two people on the cover who looked like they were about to kiss and I blanched. Nope. Not interested in a love story right now. Pass. Eventually, I needed to use up some Audible credits and finally decided to download Across the Universe.

First, let me clear up the misconception. This is not a love story. The picture on the cover has no relevance to the story, and I have no idea why the cover artist designed it like that. The closest scene to the cover image is when Elder first notices Amy in cryogenic sleep. He gets very close to her face to observer her. It wasn't much more to it. He was just looking at her, not kissing her. I must not be the first person to be turned off by the cover, because I noticed that Beth Revis has since changed the cover image.

The book was great. Beth and her parents are put in a cryogenic sleep so they can be the first colonists on a new planet that will take 300 years to travel to. Here's something freaky: She thinks she's going to go into an immediate sleep, but it turns out, she's awake during the whole ordeal. What a nightmare!

Meanwhile, there are people living on the ship. Their jobs are to keep life on the ship going and to maintain the ship so it arrives on the planet safely. The workers on the ship will never make it to the planet. Their lives are purely on the ship. Elder is a kid who is training to be the ship's ruler (called the Eldest). He discovers the room with the cryogenic scientists and notices a young girl his age. Soon after, someone opens Amy's compartment, and she's awaken too early. There is no way to put her back in a frozen state so she thinks she'll never make it to the planet and never see her parents again. She's pretty mad about it. Being from Earth, she also notices that the ship's government system is a little strange and somewhat suspicious. She encourages Elder to snoop around an ask more questions. What they uncover is pretty exciting and the conflicts that ensue were great.

I would have given the book five stars, and here is why I didn't. There were too many scenes where a character started to do something and then stopped for no reason. It was kind of like, "Oh, I'm going to open this box now" and just when he reaches for the box, he thinks, "Well, maybe I shouldn't open the box. No, I'm not going to open the box." Those scenes were incredibly annoying and frustrating. In the real world, when you are faced with a conflict full of mysteries, and the answers are all right in front of you, you're going to check it out. You're not going to wait until later, forget about it, decide not to, or remember that someone didn't want you to. Most of the book went smoothly, though, and most was thoroughly enjoyable.

great choice

loved this book i listened to i the last two days it overall really good

Great Start but Slows a Bit

I was very intrigued by this book at first. What a great premise! But it seemed I was always waiting for something to happen. And the characters seem to come together out of convenience rather than anything really substantial. I dislike it when character A falls for character B just to further the story, and there was a bit of that going on here. The female narrator was GREAT. She really brought her character's frustration to life. The male narrator was just OK.

Imagine a world without stars

Would you listen to Across the Universe again? Why?

Yes the plot was very creative. And I enjoyed the two narrators.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Across the Universe?

There was so many but I think I loved all the twists and turns.

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

No

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There were some funny parts.

Any additional comments?

This is my first audiobook and my first sci-fi book. idk if it was the narrator or the plot or the world or a combination of all those things but I loved this book. will be checking the next one out soon! :)

Great mix of sci-fi, distopia, mystery and a little romance.

The start hooked me in immediately with a very detailed description of cryogenics. The plot slowed down a little and got cheesy, but then around halfway it picks up again and gets very interesting, very fast. It starts off seeming like a teen romance murder mystery in a sci-fi setting, but there are a lot of surprises that keep you focused till then end. I would highly recommend this very intriguing hybrid of genres book.

Even my husband enjoyed it!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Definitely. It's an interesting listen. It kept my husband and I entertained on a long car ride.

What other book might you compare Across the Universe to and why?

I'm not much of a sci-fi reader, so this story was different than most I've read. I think that's why I loved it so much.

Mixture of my two favorites!

This book was so intriguing and reminded me of a mixture of Passenger and The Give, which was a great combination. If you like either of these books or movies you'll definitely like this book. It has some very interesting concepts in regards to the culture among the people aboard Godspeed. It was so fascinating learning about this whole new culture.

good book but for kids

I really liked this book but it did have a rather unfinished ending. I guess it's the fashion these days with the young adult books.