Massif

By: Garth Nix

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Caught me a mountain. Rode it to the stars.

It's business as usual for Ship Leader Parnell Shi-Sawahla and the crew of the corvette Sassafras. Ride a Massif to a new system, fight the enemy, repeat. For more than 200 years humans have been hitching rides on these sentient, star-faring mountain ranges, colonising planets and exporting an on-again, off-again war between Earth and Mars.

But the big questions are always there, behind every battle, every new colony, every new star system discovery.

Why do the Massifs carry humans to the stars?

Why do they help us export our wars?

What's in it for the Massifs?

Ship crews aren't supposed to ask these questions, they aren't supposed to think about these questions, and they definitely aren't supposed to go deep and talk to Massif avatars. But now Parnell and his tight-knit crew must try to find the answers, to save not only themselves but the future of humanity.

©2025 Copyright Garth Nix (P)2026 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

'Garth Nix is one of the best worldbuilders in fantasy.' (on Sabriel) (Brandon Sanderson, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive and Reckoners series)

'Garth Nix is not only one of the greatest living fantasy writers out there, but he is also part of the reason why I began writing fantasy as a teenager.' (on Sabriel) (Sarah J. Maas, bestselling author of the Crescent City series)