A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe

By: Alex White

Narrated by: Charlotte Blacklock

Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's Summary

Firefly meets The Fast and the Furious in this science fiction adventure series that follows a crew of outcasts as they try to find a legendary ship that just might be the key to saving the universe.

A washed-up treasure hunter, a hotshot racer, and a deadly secret society.

They're all on a race against time to hunt down the greatest warship ever built. Some think the ship is lost forever, some think it's been destroyed, and some think it's only a legend, but one thing's for certain: whoever finds it will hold the fate of the universe in their hands. And treasure that valuable can never stay hidden for long....

Listen to the audiobook that V. E. Schwab called "A clever fusion of magic and sci-fi. I was hooked from page one."

©2018 Alex White (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Creative, fun, breathless. Seamless meld of sci-fi and magic.

That was delightful! High adventure spanning the galaxy, set in a reality where magic and tech flow onto one another. The landscape is vivid, the cast complex and snarky, and the stakes high. The narration is great, too! This is my kind of book. Can’t wait for the next one!

12 people found this helpful

Fun book once it gets going; iffy narrator

The story took awhile to really get going and, as other reviewers have said, even longer before the two main characters became likeable. Ms. Blacklock, though, did not do a great job as the narrator. She read clearly and rapidly enough, but she failed to establish different voices and accents for most of the characters, male and female alike. Nyla, in particular, was clearly intended by the author (based upon her phrases and words) to have a British accent, but as Ms. Blacklock completely missed that, Nyla just ends up sounding like an American who happens to call people "mate" and pepper her speech with incongruous Britishisms.

9 people found this helpful

A great blend of Fast and the Furious + Star Wars

This space opera takes off from the first minute and never slows down. Great characters, realistic relationships, intense action, and a well thought out ending make for a great listen. Don't miss out on this one.

7 people found this helpful

Brilliant!

I will admit that I am only on chapter 4 as I type this. But, this does not in anyway stop me from loving this book so much!

The setting is out of this world quite literally, but with a twist I will not ruin here. Amazing world building that makes me want to read more just on that alone. But then you meet our great cast of characters and it just makes the need to read more worse!

Also I want to give kudos to the narrator as well. She of course does the characters great, but her action scene narration just nails it as well.

Great book, can't wait for more!!

4 people found this helpful

Excellent storytelling.

The narration is flat, but the story itself is amazing. Don't let poor casting color your opinion of the plot.

4 people found this helpful

Weak mix of Technology and Magic

I hoped- made it all the way through- it just didn't get better. There is an LGBT relationship that was done quite well - not overdone, as many heterosexual relationships are portrayed. None of this could make it more interesting.

This series tried to mix technology and magic- frankly, it is un-necessary for a science fiction story. To take from Arthur C. Clarke: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" The Magic in this story just seems like a shortcut to avoid trying to deal with the "science" part of science fiction. Avoiding a spoiler- there is a plot point that does take advantage of the "magical" aspects- still doesn't seem strong enough. There was some exciting potential in the beginning as racing was included, but that aspect of the character and story potential was mostly neglected.

The narrator tried- wasn't great, and could not make something from otherwise weak source material (such as the awesome Ray Porter)- though I see potential in her performance.

If magic and science fiction appeals to you, this may be an attractive story. Otherwise, this is a story to avoid.

2 people found this helpful

Not a bad story

I would expect that I'd have enjoyed this more than I did. It was fun enough and relatively novel, magic and sci-fi in an interesting blend, but I found myself regularly losing interest.

The audiobook is frustrating because at least one character is *clearly* written as British (or whatever fantasy world equates to British here), with obvious Britishism regularly injected into the dialog—at one point they even pointedly express confusion about "the can" before realizing it means "the loo"—and yet the reader read every character with the same bland and indistinguishable American accent. For such a dynamic and colorful world, the reading was pretty blah. It may have contributed to my disinterest. It wasn't outright BAD reading but it wasn't very good either and ignoring obvious speech pattern cues is annoying.

I tried...

I really tried to get into this... but I just couldn't. I don't know if its the narrator, or the storyline that just docent engage me. I was hoping for a quest to find a starship... and I just ended up with all these characters I cant really tell apart and a storyline that I don't care about..

Closing in on the perfect Space Opera

This book constantly surprised me. It was everything I have been looking for in Science Fiction over the last 20 years. Since Heinlein left the scene there has been a gap in my mind. One that has been filled occasionally by tv shows like Firefly or almost in fiction like the Expanse series. Alex White is on the verge of something great here.

I found a few faults in the book. One was the 'save the galaxy' over the top story telling. The story was a little too grand and self important. Another was the too pervasive sentimentality. It seemed like every other page one of the characters was on the verge of finding that ever elusive love, realizing it, and then making the ultimate sacrifice. This worked well once or twice, but not twenty times.

What was great was the relationships built in this story. The strong female characters. The sense of humor. The complex story arc. The world building. All was well done.

1 person found this helpful

it was pretty good

This sci-fi tale blends science and magic pretty well. I was sad there wasn't more science interacting with magic and see the lack as a missed opportunity

Thoroughly enjoyable and a clever mix<br />

Good use of magic within science fiction, very nicely read.
Great story line and some good plot twists.

2 people found this helpful

Billed as Sci-Fi but only a magic wish

'They' didn't say it was a magic genre book. I don't like to read 'magic' books (unless by Larry Niven, of course). This was touted as Sci-Fi. It isn't!

2 people found this helpful