Dark Eden

By: Chris Beckett

Narrated by: Oliver J. Hembrough, Jessica Martin

A marooned outpost of humanity struggles to survive on a startlingly alien world. John Redlantern, one of the 532 degenerating descendants of two marooned space explorers, will break the laws of Eden, shatter the Family, and change history. He will be the first to abandon hope, the first to abandon the old ways, the first to kill another, the first to venture into the Dark, and the first to discover the truth about Eden....

Chris Beckett is a university lecturer living in Cambridge. He has written over 20 short stories, many of them originally published in Interzone and Asimov's. In 2009 he won the Edge Hill Short Story competition for his collection of stories, The Turing Test.

©2013 Chris Beckett (P)2013 Audible Ltd

Critic reviews

"A classic theme, beautifully told" (Sunday Telegraph)

"Brilliantly brought to life by Chris Beckett, a dazzlingly inventive science-fiction writer... superbly well paced and well written, packed with ideas" (A.N Wilson, Reader's Digest)

"Human plight and alien planet are both superbly evoked in a captivating and haunting book" (Daily Mail)

"Dark Eden is an incredible novel" (SFBooks)

"Dark Eden is stunningly written" (SciFiNow)

"... a strong contender for science-fiction novel of the year...There's no justice if Dark Eden, with its beautiful, terrifying planet, slowly revealed, fails to bring Beckett awards." (Sunday Times)

"... a superior piece of theologically nuanced science fiction... I for one would relish reading a sequel" (Guardian)

Great character piece, fascinating world, poor end

The book starts a bit slow and it's a very unusual kind of story, but you get into it fairly quickly. The bulk of the book is a great character study, with very real young people in it, but the end fell apart. Even without changing the plot, the end could have been written better.

Much of the subject matter is too adult for the rest of the book. That's not to say it didn't belong there. I think it was well treated and necessary for the story. The problem is that in every other respect it would be a great bit of young adult science fiction -- the adolescent exploration of a new environment, the rebellion against the enforced status quo, etc. are all staples of good YASF; but there's just too much content that I'd say most parents would want to wait for late teens (at least) before being comfortable with the kids getting to deep into.

The story was well read, and the subject matter well treated for all that.

slow start but engaging eventually

Slow start but engaging eventually. at first it seemed like a novel aimed at young adults. it slowly turned into something more engaging. stock at it!