A Million Suns

An Across the Universe Novel

By: Beth Revis

Narrated by: Tara Carrozza

Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's Summary

Godspeed was fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos.

It's been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. And everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceship Godspeed. But there may just be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He's finally free to enact his vision - no more Phydus, no more lies.

But when Elder discovers shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a puzzle that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier, unable to fight the romance that's growing between them and the chaos that threatens to tear them apart.

In book two of the Across the Universe trilogy, New York Times best-selling author Beth Revis mesmerizes us again with a brilliantly crafted mystery filled with action, suspense, romance, and deep philosophical questions. And this time it all builds to one mind-bending conclusion: They have to get off this ship.

Also listen to the first book, Across the Universe.

©2011 Beth Revis (P)2012 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

"A fast-paced, action-packed follow-up...that explores not only the nature of authority and loyalty but fear of the unknown and fulfilling one's personal destiny." (LA Times)

"Setting and plot are the heart and soul of this ripping space thriller, and they're unforgettable." (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) 

"Revis just might make straight-up sci-fi cool again." (Booklist)

Why did they change the narrators?

What did you like best about A Million Suns? What did you like least?

Loved the story, hated the two new narrators, especially Lucas Salvano.He talks with NO emotions at all. His voice was the perfect sleeping aid, couldn't get over 5 min. Finally I bought the book and stopped listening. Why do you change the narrators in the middle of a series??

Male reader in mid 40's

Any additional comments?

Yes, I knew this was teen / young adult going in. I really enjoyed the first book and thought it was extremely well done and crossed beyond the Teen/YA boundary to hold it's own in the more mature market as well.

I however was not as pleased with this second book. The whole tone changed a little bit making me wonder if an editor worked hard with Revis to make the first book appeal to a larger audience, but didn't work as hard on this second book. Its feel became a lot more teen based and the whole scavenger hunt thing didn't appeal to me that much.

Again, I know I'm reviewing a teen/YA book, so please bear this in mind with my review. If you are a teen/YA reader, it may very well appeal to you. But for the slightly older crowd (for me anyhow) I did not like this book as much as the first and it seemed to drag on.

The narrators changed also, which never helps with the flow of a book series.

I have to wait how long for book 3??

I'll make this short. I assume you've read the first book in the series, so you understand about the frozen scientists traveling to a new planet in a ship full of worker bees. Elder is the leader of the worker bees (the citizens of the ship). You might remember from the first book that something was not quite right. A BIG problem was revealed at the end. In this second book, Elder works to find a solution to the problem, all the while unveiling all kinds of exciting twists and turns in the plot.

Should you read book 2?

No!

You have to wait until January to read it, because when you are finished you are going to tear your hair out wanting to read the next book. So yes, of course you should read it (or listen to it, in this case), but do yourself a favor and pace yourself. Book 3 comes out in January 2013. Why not read both at the same time? :-)

More Annoying Than Thrilling

I liked the first book - with the caveat that I had to suspend disbelief quite a few times. Others have describe a plot so holey as to be swiss cheese, and I felt the same way. This book really frustrates with those plot holes.

i think this would have been a much better series had the author taken her time and really figured out the story better (or had more proactive editors watching plot holes). The best way to describe all 3 books is that the villain is patently obvious in each one by the reasons why they are doing what they are tends to not be as obvious.

But this second book was frustrating enough that I spent most of my time rolling my eyes at the way it was written. Characters do inexplicable things, for no particular reason, all to push the plot. Stupid cliches, such as 'mystery within clues' etc., are just so pointless when there is so much at stake. Then let's not mention having a boyfriend who runs the entire place and not telling him about rapes so he can fix it. Or him suddenly deciding he's not upset his gf was nearly rapted and friends killed by the same guy (after the rapist is taken care of by the leader doesn't know it).

Let's face it - this is filler and an attempt to find a story to bridge to the third book. To me, this story only needed to be two books.

The narrators were fine. They put a lot of emotion into their storytelling.

Not crazy about the male narrator!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The male narrator's voice is a great sleep aid! There's never any inflection in his voice. He bored me.

What did you like best about this story?

Everything! The story is wonderful! I feel like I can't listen fast enough to get to what happens next.

Would you be willing to try another one of Tara Carrozza’s performances?

Sure. I liked her narration.

Could you see A Million Suns being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Absolutely! I would love to see how this story is portrayed on film. As far as the cast, goes... I think I'd like to see some unknowns play the lead characters.

ntgammon

loved it! I didn't want to stop listening. the whole series is great! Beth Revis has the best imagination!

Great second book in a trilogy

I can't really process right now how much I loved this story. It is like a dream, a really good one. The two performers are GREAT, they delivered such intense emotions into their reading. Koodo to the production for choosing such remarkable actors to read this enchanting story. Beth Revis is a surprisingly talented writer and this book of hers is gifted with the same talented performance. Naturally, I can't wait to get the third and last audio book of the trilogy.

Annoying

The story itself was ok. Definitely not as good as the first. There were parts in the book that repeated itself just to fill pages it seemed. Amy herself throughout the whole book was very annoying she was very one sided and she was quite selfish. It made me slowly start to hate her. In the end she was being such a brat I had to take a break. She annoyed me greatly. She was being a child and not thinking of others opinions.

Decent Follow up

What made the experience of listening to A Million Suns the most enjoyable?

I sped up the book to 2x speed. I don't really like it when the company switches narrators from book to book, but when I sped it up I didn't really notice the difference. There were times the male narrator had an interesting accent, but he really got into his performance in the really intense portions. The female narrator was just as good as the girl in the first book, and I quickly breezed through this.

Would you be willing to try another book from Beth Revis? Why or why not?

Yes. These books are a bit predictable, but they're easy to follow and I enjoy all the literature references in the mystery. I like Beth Revis straightforward way of telling a story. She doesn't really jump around in time, which makes it easy to multi-task while listening.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. It was relatively short, and at first it felt like it was just repeating and going into more depth what we had learned in the first book. As it went on, a new mystery popped up that had seeds lain in the first book. It also expounded on some of the more mature themes and story points from the first book, which I found interesting.

Thumbs up!

Loved it, I couldn't stop! A lot more happens and you find out about all the lies and it's to good.