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Dark Matter  By  cover art

Dark Matter

By: Michelle Paver
Narrated by: Jeremy Northam
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Publisher's Summary

January 1937. Jack Miller has just about run out of options. His shoes have worn through, he can't afford to heat his rented room in Tooting, and he longs to use his training as a specialist wireless operator instead of working in his dead-end job. When he is given the chance to join an arctic expedition, as communications expert, by a group of elite Oxbridge graduates, he brushes off his apprehensions and convinces himself to join them.

As the young men set sail from a gloomy Britain on the verge of war, Jack feels the overwhelming excitement of not knowing what lies ahead. Little can he imagine the horrors that await him in their destination, Gruhuken, a place that cannot escape the savage echo of its past.

©2010 Michelle Paver (P)2010 Orion Publishing Group Limited

What listeners say about Dark Matter

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible!

Dark Matter is in the best tradition of the 'creeping dread' British horror genre, in the manner of M.R. James. The first person narrative is nuanced and very compelling. The novel is a well-researched fictional history of an expedition in the 1930s to a haunted Norwegian bay, far above the arctic circle. Beyond the main stories are themes of poverty, class and hero worship which give the story incredible depth.

The narration by Jeremy Northam is flawless.

46 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Horror Story!!

An Exhibition to the high artic seems fated to end poorly even before it starts. An uneasy Norwegian captain who knows more than he will acknowledge; all but three of the team struck down before even landing; and gruesome artifacts of other unsuccessful enterprises found on the bay shore at which the team plans to overwinter, all seem to point at the reality that nobody wants to acknowledge: this place is haunted. Shortly after the team arrives uneasiness sets in and through some unfortunate circumstances Jack is to be left for a short time alone to man the station. This is in October 1937 and the sun has already set for the last time of the season. Events are told through the entries in Jack's journal and slowly we watch Jack lose control as terror seeps into every action and every perception. How long can he hold the fort until the others come and save him? He has a radio, dogs and even has a visitor but ultimately the winter is setting in and the ice will soon settle the question of his rescue. Meanwhile every month comes the moonless sky and the nothingness that threatens to consume him.

This is a wonderful piece of horror fiction that slowly ratchets up the tension and uneasiness. It is unsettling yet compelling and was a true “page turner” that I almost listened to completely in one sitting. As I read I wondered: “which is more horrifying: the ghost we see or the ghost we create in our minds?”, “How much of our sanity is linked to the things we call reality – light, color, other people, sound?”, and “Are their things that we don’t understand or want to acknowledge that exist beyond this reality?” Jack must balance these questions with other forces pulling on him, such as rationality, duty, loyalty, honor, and love.

I felt the length and the pacing of the story were perfect. In these days where every novel is part of a trilogy or massive in length, it was refreshing to encounter a tight little story as complete and satisfying as this one. I highly recommend this for fans of horror or psychological thrillers. To me this story had elements of “The Shining”, “The Thing”, and “The Turn of the Screw.”

19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Ominous, dark, creepy and wondrous

This is a grand and at the same time deeply claustrophobic adventure. The setting, between the great wars, is perfect for the precise and scientific exploration of haunting and horrid, menacing presence.

Dark Matter succeeds as an intelligent, evocative and visceral ghost story and its central metaphor remains strong and intact, evolving and gaining depth as the deeply personal narrative unfolds.

Jeremy Northam is superb and reveals how great and majestic a craft narration can be.

18 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars

Not as good as it could have been

Great idea, great characters, good narrator, slow story, I kept wanting to jump ahead. It held my attention well at first but I struggled to pay attention to the narrator about half way through.

14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

dark, intimate

Jeremy Northam is superb in his narration. Most of the text is in the main character's mind, rather than spoken aloud. Northam's take on this book really brought to light the idea that the character is speaking to himself. The narration brought this book to life.

14 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely an amazing writer-VERY creepy!!!

Would you listen to Dark Matter again? Why?

YES.YES.YES. If you are looking for a creepy, atmospheric haunting with strong character development and an engaging, original story then grab this one!!! This author KNOWS scary. Her ability to write had me absorb every word, the atmosphere she creates is incredible and the fear that accompanies isolation and darkness is executed perfectly in her writing.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Jack is a reclusive, defensive ass...yet I bet anyone could relate on some level, I did.

What about Jeremy Northam’s performance did you like?

Best narrator I've heard yet! He carries the words well, perfectly.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The bear post.....oh God and the window checking. I don't want to spoil anything!!!

Any additional comments?

I picked this book based on reviews and I couldn't be more satisfied. I even loved the ending----how many horror writers can successfully pull those off??? I'm a big critic that way. This author has just made it to my top #2 and trust me I read a LOT of horror!!! SO GOOD!

13 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

One of the great ghost stories of all time

I am not sure when this book was originally published but the feel of it is from the old school of literature where drawing a mental picture of events and building the story with beautiful detail was necessary. By the time you finish this book you feel like you have been more than a reader, but a member of the expedition. Some people felt that the book was dull and drawn out, I felt that the plot development in this story was as good as it can get, it is not an action story, and if you go into it looking for that kind of story you will be disappointed, what you are getting is great literature and a chilling story, really there are some sections of the story that are able create a ripping amount of tension. The narration is fantastic as well adding to the tension that builds to a bold climax. The author has a great talent of describing the scene and bringing the reader into the story.
Highly recommend.

11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Thoroughly Ingrossing.

Wonderfully creepy and surprisingly claustrophobic tale. Narration is superb. Very well written. I highly recommend this book to anyone with a love of ghost stories.

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent and haunting.

I have never read anything by Michelle Paver before so this was a pleasent surprise. A chillng ghost-story set in the most desolate and isolated enviroment imaginable and with characters that really feels alive. I'm usually not very fond of novels written in diary-form but Michelle Paver's prose pulls it through all the way to the ghastly ending.

I recommend the book to anyone interested in good ghost-stories and will certainly look up her other works as well.

10 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

A good ghost story

This was a pretty good ghost story. Not a ton of action, but the plot builds up nicely to the end. Story is well written with plenty of details and flow to keep you listening well after you stop your car. Recommended.

8 people found this helpful

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Gillian
  • 11-09-10

Wonderful audio performance

?Dark Matter?, Michelle Paver?s hotly anticipated adult novel, describes itself as a ghost story, and that it most definitely is, but it is also a poignant love story. Set firmly in the class-ridden society of the inter-War years, when exploring the mysterious Polar regions had the allure that space travel has for us today, Ms Paver?s book is nonetheless crisp, modern and accessible in style. Many have favourably likened the novel to the classic ghost stories of M.R. James. James, I find, chills me most when read aloud, and I recommend the audio version of ?Dark Matter?, read by Jeremy Northam, for the same reason. Jeremy?s intelligent and subtle yet incredibly powerful performances make him the ideal reader of ?Dark Matter?. This may well be his best audio performance to date.
Jack Miller, whose journal forms the narrative, is a loner, a misfit, a middle-class boy with a chip on his shoulder, too well-educated to have anything in common with his peers, and doomed by circumstances to a dead-end job. He is poor, desperate, and longs for another life, where he can use his intelligence. An Arctic expedition offers Jack a chance to change his life. After seeing a drowned man pulled from the Thames, and fearing a similar fate awaits him if he stays in London, he decides to take his chance, though once again he is the outsider amongst his Oxbridge companions.
Jack is a vividly drawn character, and a gift for an actor, as is the journal format. Think of it as one long soliloquy! Jeremy doesn?t merely read the book, he becomes Jack Miller. Jack is a character you will care about. He is prickly at times, a mass of insecurities, at first an unlikely hero, but he is also an ordinary man who is capable of great courage, as we find out.
It is when the expedition reaches Gruhuken that the novel and Jeremy?s performance really take hold. I recommend setting aside a goodly chunk of time to listen because you won't want to switch off!

66 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Annie Honjo
  • 05-29-11

Dark. And very cold. Brilliant.

Oh boy, I listened to this while London was experiencing the Big Chill and it totally spooked me. There were times when I found it so menacing I had to switch off . The atmosphere is very convincing thanks to Jeremy Northam's superb narration. Each scene was very clear to me visually and this made the 'menace' of the story even more threatening. But there's compassion here too, the main character is genuinely likeable and you feel - and fear - for him in his solitude. I absolutely loved it.

42 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Ms. S. Smith
  • 05-27-11

The scariest audio book I have ever listened to

I usually listen to my books late at night, but this was one that almost had me running around turning all the lights on. This must be THE most scary book that I have downloaded from Audible to date. I'm no great fan of violence or gore, and with this book it's the suggestion of the horror awaiting the protagonist that really gets to you - the uncertainty of whether it is all in his (or your) mind. But no spoilers here! I also really enjoyed the atmospheric descriptions of the barren artic wastes and found the narration really good. All in all a highly recommendable read!

42 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Joseph
  • 04-04-11

Top 5 Horror

I listened to this book a while a go now and really enjoyed it from start to finish. It really grips you with the atmosphere and the character(s) are very believable. This makes it easy to feel like you are in the book and believe me when I say that sometimes it is a relief to remind yourself you are not.

I would definitely recommend this to a friend and will be listening again! I am a massive fan of all things horror so for me this is quite a statement.

40 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Diane
  • 11-07-10

Storytelling at its best...

This really is an excellent book, and far surpasses the basic storyline of a small group of people going to the islands of Svalbard to study weather patterns. All starts well, but it isn't too long before the first sense of foreboding is triggered by the question 'Did you speak to him?'
After this the sense of menace slowly mounts, until two wrong choices Jack makes from misguided altruism lead to the inevitable tragedy, albeit not the one expected.
This is a strongly written story, and so goosepimply atmospheric that at times I felt myself actually there by Jack's side, experiencing the horror of his two fatal and irrevocable mistakes. It was impossible to escape the feeling that this wasn't going to end well; in fact, it was one of the most poignant endings I've come across in a long time.

Excellently written, superb narration and highly recommended.
If you like having your spine tingled, buy this audio-book! You will not be disappointed.

33 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • MaryB
  • 11-04-10

Buy this book

This was one of the best audiobooks I have listened to. The characters were believable, and the story was well developed. The sense of menace was built slowly, with a clever interlude when it seemed all might be ok. Any more information would spoil a great listen - I recommend this book to anyone who has ever finished reading and wished that the story continued.

33 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • PL
  • 11-16-10

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver

An excellent story, brilliantly told. Atmospheric and chilling, poignant and heartbreaking. Narration - spot on. One of the best audiobooks that I have listened to so far.

27 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • John
  • 11-02-10

Terrific audiobook

This is a very fine novel, beautifully and evocatively written. Jeremy Northam's superbly atmospheric narration makes it a terrific audiobook, in both senses of the word. Far more than a ghost story set in the Arctic, it is a profound meditation on loneliness, darkness, fear, love, loss, memory and death. Without being in the least sentimental, it is a deeply moving story, movingly read by a great actor.

27 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Helen
  • 03-09-15

So haunting and atmosphere - a gem of a story

It's hard for a book to really capture a spine-tingling ghost story, but this book does it fantastically. The harsh landscape is really captured in this writing, and the characters are excellent. My heart was really racing at times, and the mix of landscape and cultural mythology and factual history was utterly compelling. An excellent story and fabulous narration all combined to make this a real treasure.

21 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • AJ, Preston
  • 04-23-11

Good chiller

Creepy story, very atmospheric and the reader's voice suited the story.

17 people found this helpful

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 08-03-19

Creepy, creatively brilliant and believably scary.

The narration is superb. The story is witty, full of subtle references to other great pieces of literature, though without interrupting the flow of the narrative. Michelle Paver’s great joy for writing glosses every line to light up the very dark, and almost gothic storyline. I am so glad I bought this book. You will be too.

2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Patris
  • 06-26-18

Chilling and Captivating

I enjoyed every moment of this book It's a study on loniless, isolation, sanity and despair. But it's also an account of courage and resilience against a formidable force made more so by the environment in which it resides. The arctic becomes it's own character. And it's terrifingly beautiful. The suspense is executed brilliantly. And the dread is all too real.

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Michael
  • 05-01-16

Grim and frost bitten

A beautiful atmospheric story. It had me captivated by its darkness and tension
The beauty of this novel is not what is described but that which is implied. Don't listen to it expecting a hair raiser, just allow yourself to be immersed in the cold.

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • RICHARD MOORE
  • 10-16-20

booooring.

The story itself, though generic, is quite interesting. its just that this could have been compressed into half the time. Hours pass before anything actually happens. then more hours. . . .the story is painfully drip-fed to the reader.

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Anonymous User
  • 01-07-19

Perfect!

This is a phenomenal ghost story; fantastically written by Paver and perfectly narrated by Northam.

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • thomas
  • 11-22-18

Gave me nightmares

Listen to it by yourself alone in the night during a freezing storm, it will give you nightmares.

1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Heidi (but books are better)
  • 03-23-18

Good ghost story with a rich, atmospheric setting

“How odd, that light should prevent one from seeing.”

I’ve been in the mood for a good ghost story for a while, and when another book blogger told me that Michelle Paver’s novel Dark Matter was not only suspenseful and spooky, but also set in a wild remote place, I didn’t need any more persuasion! And I must say that it lived up to all my expectations.

Dark Matter features an Arctic expedition in 1937, when four young men set off in a Norwegian vessel to spend a year on the remote land spit of Gruhuken on the Barents Sea. For twenty-eight year old Jack, who narrates the story through journey entries, his role as wireless operator on the expedition is a way to prove himself and escape his drab job as clerk that has kept him afloat after his family was bankrupted, ending his hopes of finishing his university degree. After his family’s fall from grace, Jack has turned into a loner who has no friends and rarely associates with other people, keeping himself to himself. Gruhuken, in its remoteness, has a strange appeal to him, a way to make a new start, clean his slate. Both his background as well as his personality make Jack an interesting, rounded character whose voice is perfect for the era and drive much of story’s momentum as his initial reserve and preconceived ideas begin to crumble in the remoteness of the Arctic Circle.

Paver does an excellent job in evoking the spirit of the wild setting she describes so vividly. The initial beauty of the Arctic summer with its constant daylight, which makes the men optimistic and confident about their mission, feeling invincible even in the wild, remote region they feel themselves stranded in. As the seasons change, and the days become shorter, there is an obvious change in the men, their confidence eroded by the ever increasing darkness and the eerie silence of the surrounding land when all the birds have fled before winter. As daylight gives way to constant darkness, Paver creates an atmosphere so tense and claustrophobic that I could literally feel the cold creeping in through the cracks in the wall, grateful of my own bedside lamp that kept the night at bay whilst reading.

Tension soon mounts as the isolation plays tricks on the human psyche – or is the threat real? Jack is a man of science, and he is all too eager to explain away the feelings of dread and menace he sometimes feels when venturing outside. But as his last companions are forced to leave, and he is left on his own in this unforgiving place, he soon finds that his rational explanations are woefully inadequate to explain away the fear. Something evil is afoot at Gruhuken, and it is slowly closing in.

Paver has achieved the art of balancing her narrative on the fine line between reality and the occult, in a way that we are never quite sure if Jack’s accounts are the unravelling of his own mind due to the constant dark, the isolation and the absence of other human contact, or whether there really is something evil haunting Gruhuken. All I know is that it was so authentic and believable that I buried deep under my doona and wild horses could not have made me go outside alone in the dark! Personally, I find that it is very difficult to find a book where the supernatural element is just right – enough to make you very, very afraid, but not over the top to make you having to suspend disbelief. It is a balance achieved by very few, and Paver has absolutely nailed it! One passage about the bear post in particular had my hair stand on end as I pictured it so vividly in my mind.

For anyone looking for a good ghost story with a rich, atmospheric setting and a historical element (yes, this book has it all!), I cannot recommend this book highly enough!


1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Linda
  • 10-25-15

Captivating, subtle

I really enjoyed this book. It was very well written with believable characters, and the descriptive verses of the Arctic were fascinating. I found the ghost story part quite tame and slow, and once I realised my spine was not going to tingle and my sleep was not going to be disturbed over this book, I appreciated the story a bit more. I would not describe it as dark, disturbing nor horrific but it is interesting and I definitely wanted to listen to it all the way to to the end.

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • C.J.R Flanagan
  • 02-03-14

Believable and Atmospheric

This story kicks off with a very effective opening monologue. The first person point of view provides the story with a fantastic atmosphere. The writing style combined with a brilliant narration performance by Jeremy Northam allow the reader to become fully immersed in the story, which itself is quite creepy and realistic. The setting is realistically portrayed and allows the reader to really get a sense for the intense cold and isolation experienced by the protagonist as he progresses through the story.

I honestly cannot give enough credit to Jeremy Northam for this performance. I believe he presented the story flawlessly. Even his portrayal of the various Scandinavian accents are extremely realistic. Often narrator's attempts at various accents can detract from the story and drag the reader out of the experience, but this is most definitely not an issue in this case.

A well deserved four stars!

1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Kindle Customer
  • 05-06-23

Great narration

Listened all in one sitting, the narrator conveyed strong but subtle emotions/ which suits the main characters disposition