The Sunless Countries

Book Four of Virga

De: Karl Schroeder

Narrado por: Joyce Irvine, David Thorn

The Sunless Countries is the fourth novel in the Virga series of hard science fiction space opera adventures

In an ocean of weightless air where sunlight has never been seen, only the running lights of the city of Pacquaea glitter in the dark. One woman, Leal Hieronyma Maspeth, lives and dreams of love among the gaslit streets and cafés. And somewhere in the abyss of wind and twisted cloud through which Pacquaea eternally falls, a great voice has begun speaking.

As its cold words reach from space to the city walls—and as outlying towns and travelers' ships start to mysteriously disappear—only Leal has the courage to try to understand the message thundering from the distance. Even the city's most famous and exotic visitor, the sun lighter and hero named Hayden Griffin, refuses to turn aside from his commission to build a new sun for a foreign nation. He will not become the hero that Leal knows the city needs; so it is up to her to listen, and ultimately reply, to the voice of the worldwasp—because an astonishing disaster threatens Virga.

Take another trip to Virga.©2009 Karl Schroeder (P)2009 Macmillan Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Inventive and solidly enjoyable… Schroeder paints his unique world with deft touches while keeping the story moving briskly.” —Publishers Weekly, on The Sunless Countries

Schroeder, Irvine & Thorn deliver, with 1 glitch

Schroeder is a hard science fiction writer who builts fascinating worlds AND populates them with interesting characters. Joyce Irvine, who also narrates the other books in this series, has a unique voice that I absolutely love. David Thorn is also a very competent narrator.

I did find it annoying that Irvine and Thorn often switch off narration in the middle of a scene. Whenever they switched at a point that wasn't a chapter break, it distracted me for a couple of minutes.

Great Series Edge if Seat Stories

loved this series it make you want more. also read Ventus by the same author for more artificial nature and it's downfalls

More cerebral than other books in the series

I first read (correction: listened to) Karl Schroeder's Virga series as it was being released. Somehow, I missed this fourth book in the series, and so am returning after more than a decade. I liked how this book focused on a different set of characters and a part of the world that was barely touched on in previous books in the series. Here, the main action is set in a town named Sere that is located far from the large artificial sun that lights most of Virga. The people of Seer have adapted to the perpetual twilight and some of my favorite passages in the book describe what their lives are like. AND . . . tiny spoiler alert . . . there are some really great passages depicting how the protagonist, Leal, reacts when she sees sunlight for the first time.

A good part of the plot is driven by the politics of the city of Seer, which have become dominated by a group of refuseniks who deny that there is a greater universe outside of Virga. History teachers must only teach the curricula that is approved by the government, and books that do not conform are burned. This book came out in 2009 and while Schroeder is in fact a professional futurist, I'm sure he was just following in the venerable footsteps of Orwell and Bradbury, rather than actually foretelling the ascension of similar science denial we see now in 2023. Still, the echoes in current affairs were chilling for this reader, and it's thought experiments like this that keep me reading scifi.

In sum, I liked this book more than the third one, because this one focused on more cerebral questions and less on action sequences.

[I listened to this with narrators Joyce Irvine and David Thorn, both excellent. They co-narrated the previous audio book in this series, and there it made sense to have two narrators, as the action was moving between two different characters, one female and one male. That wasn't the case with this story, and I struggled to understand why the narrators were switching back and forth. It wasn't terrible, but it was a bit distracting.]

Ideas you may never have run into

Possibly the best of the series And some ideas about The evolution of intelligence that you may never have heard of before. Legitimately new ideas, in addition to fine operatic story, this is truly a joy.