Anvil of Stars

A Sequel to The Forge of God

By: Greg Bear

Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies

Length: 20 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

The Forge of God described the destruction of Earth itself by self-replicating robots, Von Neumann machines designed to use the planet's mass to create more robotic creatures and spread throughout the Galaxy. Only a few humans have survived, aided by a mysterious alien race known only as “The Benefactors”, who arrived at Earth too late.

Now the small group of human survivors is determined to track down the criminal race who launched the planet killers. Humanity is given a starship by The Benefactors, and driven only by revenge they set out to find the unknown beings who are responsible for the destruction of Earth, and many other worlds.

©1992 Greg Bear (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Great story

Where does Anvil of Stars rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This book has some interesting ideas about technology and how advanced alien races would defend themselves. It ranks amongst the top ten SciFi books I've read so far.

What did you like best about this story?

The action parts where stuff is happening and techno babble is on rapid-fire.

Starts off ssssllllloooowwww.

The Forge of God was a page-turner. It's hard to believe Anvil of Stars is by the same author. The first six hours of the book is agonizing. It is virtually all angst and neurosis of the main character, Martin. What do his lovers mean to him? How is his affair with the boy different from his affair with the girl? What does it mean to be a leader of young adults on a mission to avenge mankind? In terms of plot, very, very little happens in the first six hours. I could literally say it in a sentence, so I will: In the fifth year of their mission, the children think they have discovered the killers of mankind, and launch the attack. You might think I'm leaving out a ton of plot turns and twists, but I'm not. You could say I've left out a training exercise (boring) and apparitions seen by a few of the crew (even more boring). And of course the ship divides as planned, but that's it. I'm not going to bother with the last two installments. In fact, I've already read the Wiki summary. The narrator is good, and even though I found his "voice" for at least one of the characters irritating (an uptalker? you know, when everything they say rises in inflection like a question?), I would have to say his narration kept the otherwise moribund story on life-support. Sadly, when nothing of consequence had occurred by the end of the first six hours, my interest expired, and the plug had to be pulled.

Long winded, but worth it

Very long and winding story. Very different than Forge of God. If I didn't know better, I'd think this was written by a different author. Took me several months to get through, because finding my place again was difficult each time, do to very long chapters. Great dialogue and character development. Hard to track at times. Conclusion well worth the wait. 👍

R-rated Enders Game

What disappointed you about Anvil of Stars?

Barely related to first book. More intent on interjecting sex into the story than Sci-Fi content.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No book 3

Somewhat less pointless than the first book

What happens if you mix Forever War with Lord of the Flies? This thing, apparently. While it carries over many of the weaknesses of Forge of God - most notably terribly annoying characters - Greg Bear remembered that a novel ought to have an actual plot, and so included one this time. Even if it is more than a little contrived. There is also somewhat more character development this time around. I'll also have to add that the "society" depicted on the ship is pretty cringe, including the whole Peter Pan motif and the religious subplot. On the plus side, I felt it evoked a decent "space exploration" feel, and the aliens depicted were interesting. Unfortunately, the narration tends towards the overly dramatic and theatrical at times, and is way too quiet at others - the narrator sometimes yells at the audience, and sometimes is a barely audible whisper. If I have to fast-forward because you're annoying me, or rewind because I couldn't understand what you said, you're not doing a very good job. It's a pity, too, because otherwise the narration could have been quite good. The book works well enough as a stand-alone, so if this series interests you at all, skip the wholly forgettable Forge of God and just get this one instead.

The best sci-fi book i've ever read!

Truly this is an underrated masterpiece- and I don't use that term lightly or often.
Two aspects of the novel keep me returning to it in both audiobook and print form: the insights into the realistic applications of warfare between civilizations and the murky morality in revenge over the span of lightyears and centuries.

Great story, but the underage sex is VERY akward

Any additional comments?

Loved the first book int he series. Same reader, he does a stellar job in this one too. But holy cow, the steady stream of sex between the underaged characters is super akward and uncomfortable, not to mention totally not needed. I felt myself cringing listening to the description of a couple 15 year olds getting busy.

Good

This story left me with much pause for thought. It is great story . I would recommend it as an important Science Fiction work.

such a dramatic change of pace from forge of God.

the first 12 or so hours of this book were so slow. I was not expecting such a focus on characters sexual relationships and social problems. the climax of the novel is fun if you can sit through the first 75% of the novel. the ending felt rushed and incomplete being the last book of the series.

a little slow getting started and never picks up

I was hoping that this novel would be more like slant where a slow start builds to an interesting and more dramatic finish however the story meanders and I found the characters less engaging than the ones from Queen of Angels, slant, or blood music. It was interesting to see what happened with the crew after the destruction of Earth, but it felt like Michael Moore did the sequel to a Roland Emmerich movie.

20 years on and still brilliant!!

After I read 'Eon', almost 25 years ago, I immediately became a hooked on the science fiction of Greg Bear and read them all!. 'Anvil of Stars' was always my favorite and I was so pleased to see so many of his older books suddenly available in Audible. I downloaded this one immediately! Do you need to read 'The Forge of God' first? Well... yes... probably best... if only for continuity, but this really is a stand alone story. With echoes of 'Lord of the Flies' and 'Enders Game' it mixes the super science and colossal scope from the likes of Alistair Reynolds and Peter Hamilton with the social and moral plight of a group of children (reminding me of Orson Scott Card) as they journey to avenge the desctuction of the Earth. Loved it!

I’d rather read a book on tax law

This is without a doubt the worst book I’ve ever read/listen to... I tried both in an effort to give it a chance.

The characters are lifeless and uninteresting, and the dialogue gives the impression it was done by a monkey smashing a keyboard.

After the Forge of God, this is an utter disappointment. I strongly recommend that anyone that might have done the first book leave it at that. This will only be a waste of time.

modern classic well read

approached one of my favourite books from the 1990s with apprehension, but was very pleased; unabridged, the reader did very well, different characters (and species) get distinctive recognisable voices, interesting story well paced

rambling story line

the story reads like a TV series, I found the dialogue dry at times and a little cliche.

One of the few i listen every few years A+

It is a mix of lord of the files, aliens encounters and capital punishment, ie how can you be sure. Particularly interesting aliens introduced, that form never seen elsewhere, its well narrated too.