Pirate Sun

Book Three of Virga

By: Karl Schroeder

Narrated by: Joyce Irvine, David Thorn

Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Return to Virga, a bubble universe artificially separated from our own future universe, and the setting of Sun of Suns and Queen of Candesce.

Chaison Fanning, the admiral of a fleet of warships, has been captured and imprisoned by his enemies, but is suddenly rescued and set free. He flees through the sky to his home city to confront the ruler who betrayed him. And perhaps even to regain his lovely, powerful, and subversive wife, Venera, who he has not seen since she fled with the key to the artificial sun at the center of Virga, Candesce.

With Pirate Sun, Schroeder sets a whole new standard for hard science fiction space opera.

©2008 Karl Schroeder (P)2008 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Oh, what world-building! Schroeder is a master.” —Cory Doctorow

Swashbuckling Steampunk Science Fiction

I loved it! Virga captivates and the imagined world is so beautifully described that I can close my eyes and see the spinning wheels at the heart of floating cities and great ships and beasts the traverse expanses of air. The people and cultures that have evolved in this bubble galaxy ring true to human nature at its best and worst. Long live Chaison and Vanera and all their cohort!

Imagination like no other author writing today

Update August 2023: I am enjoying re-listening to this amazing book. There just isn't that much great hard sci-fi out there, and certainly no one else like Karl Schroeder. Now, fifteen years after its release, this is still an awe-inspiring universe that is just screaming to be adapted into a TV series. The FX are now at a point where all the amazing tech he has imagined could actually be depicted. And the background of the whole adventure--what would it be like if AI controlled everything?--is more relevant today, now that Chat GPT has exploded onto the scene.

[Original 2009 review]: Schroeder should win an award just for the sheer imagination displayed in this third book of Virga. The author obviously enjoys putting his characters in strange situations just to challenge his writing abilities . . . and he never disappoints. This book has a dragon unlike any dragon you have ever read about before, a chase scene unlike any chase scene, a flood unlike any flood . . . and that's just three examples. The book is chock-full of images and situations that are absolutely fresh and unique. Schroeder follows CS Lewis' advice, making me see in my mind what he is describing, no matter how unusual, rather than taking the easy way out and merely saying something is “terrible” or "infinite." With just a few words or sentences, he can make me inhale sharply at the terror on the page, or shake my head in astonishment at the enormity of the vista he has laid out. Add in great characters and a fast-paced story and you have a book that should not be missed.

[I listened to this as an audio book performed by Joyce Irvine and David Thorn, who do an excellent job giving each character a different voice and accent to help the listener keep track of the large cast of characters]

An action movie set in an astonishing world

This is the third book in the Virga series, each of which has focused on a different character on the same continuing journey begun in the first book. As always, these books continue to amaze as examples of world-building. The novels are set in a scientifically plausible giant artificial gas bag in freefall, containing many small suns. Even if you are bored of sky pirates and rotating towns by this third novel, Mr. Schroeder has new amazements -- precipice moths! underground currency that gives license to commit crimes! battles between giant towns slowly sent crashing into each other, whole populations leaping from one house to another! There is plenty of the old sense-of-wonder going on here.

And yet, the plot of the book is a Hollywood action movie, specifically the kind of good-natured adventure movie of the old school - the hero is constantly in the right place at the right time to witness amazing things. Narrow escapes abound, nobility is a key virtue, and incredibly staged fights are common. The result can be a bit charactured at times, but is almost always thrilling.

The character at the heart of this book, however, is the least fascinating of the lot, but still quite interesting, overall. Start with the first novel - you'll enjoy this by the time you are three books in - it is well worth it.

Better than book two. Space opera at its finest

I wish productions would stick with one narrator. These amazing performers create new voices for each character but it's very hard for two narrators to do the same voices. Get them together and have the man do the men and have the woman do the women!

The male narrators seem to be able to do female characters better than the women can do men. I'm curious if women listeners agree of think the opposite.