-
The Calculating Stars
- A Lady Astronaut Novel
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Children of Time
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
-
-
A very pleasant surprise
- By Simon on 06-17-17
-
The Spare Man
- By: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tesla Crane, one of the richest women in the world, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between Earth and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and her husband is named as the prime suspect. To save him from the frame-up, Tesla will risk exposure and face demons from her past. Even though doing so might make her the next victim.
-
-
Classic mystery, forward worldbuilding
- By Deana on 10-16-22
-
A Memory Called Empire
- Teixcalaan, Book 1
- By: Arkady Martine
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident - or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court. Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion.
-
-
Story is great, weird editing, not great narration
- By Nadia on 06-10-19
By: Arkady Martine
-
Seveneves
- A Novel
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal, Will Damron
- Length: 31 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.
-
-
Odd narrator choice
- By Josh Mitchell on 05-30-15
By: Neal Stephenson
-
The Kaiju Preservation Society
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food-delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization”. Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on. What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at at least. In an alternate dimension, dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world.
-
-
I'm listening with a permanent smile on my face
- By Lucy A. Pithecus on 03-15-22
By: John Scalzi
-
The Fifth Season
- The Broken Earth, Book 1
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the way the world ends...for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the Earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
-
-
The Nay-Sayers are Wrong.
- By Steve Groves on 02-10-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
-
Children of Time
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
-
-
A very pleasant surprise
- By Simon on 06-17-17
-
The Spare Man
- By: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tesla Crane, one of the richest women in the world, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between Earth and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and her husband is named as the prime suspect. To save him from the frame-up, Tesla will risk exposure and face demons from her past. Even though doing so might make her the next victim.
-
-
Classic mystery, forward worldbuilding
- By Deana on 10-16-22
-
A Memory Called Empire
- Teixcalaan, Book 1
- By: Arkady Martine
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident - or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court. Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion.
-
-
Story is great, weird editing, not great narration
- By Nadia on 06-10-19
By: Arkady Martine
-
Seveneves
- A Novel
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal, Will Damron
- Length: 31 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.
-
-
Odd narrator choice
- By Josh Mitchell on 05-30-15
By: Neal Stephenson
-
The Kaiju Preservation Society
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food-delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization”. Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on. What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at at least. In an alternate dimension, dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world.
-
-
I'm listening with a permanent smile on my face
- By Lucy A. Pithecus on 03-15-22
By: John Scalzi
-
The Fifth Season
- The Broken Earth, Book 1
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the way the world ends...for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the Earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
-
-
The Nay-Sayers are Wrong.
- By Steve Groves on 02-10-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
Ghost Talkers
- By: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ginger Stuyvesant, an American heiress living in London during World War I, is engaged to Captain Benjamin Hartshorne, an intelligence officer. Ginger is a medium for the Spirit Corps, a special Spiritualist force. Each soldier heading for the front is conditioned to report to the mediums of the Spirit Corps when they die so the corps can pass instant information about troop movements to military intelligence. Ginger and her fellow mediums contribute a great deal to the war efforts, so long as they pass the information through appropriate channels.
-
-
A very atmospheric, fast read!
- By kara-karina on 09-04-16
-
Shades of Milk and Honey
- By: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fantasy novel you’ve always wished Jane Austen had written. When Jane realizes that one of Melody’s suitors is set on taking advantage of her sister for the sake of her dowry, she pushes her skills to the limit of what her body can withstand in order to set things right—and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own.
-
-
Great if you love speculative fiction and Austen
- By Womble on 05-07-12
-
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
- Bobiverse, Book 1
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's a reason We Are Legion was named Audible's Best Science Fiction Book of 2016: Its irresistibly irreverent wit! Bob Johansson has just sold his software company for a small fortune and is looking forward to a life of leisure. The first item on his to-do list: Spending his newfound windfall. On an urge to splurge, he signs up to have his head cryogenically preserved in case of death. Then he gets himself killed crossing the street. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself.
-
-
Ignore the Publisher's Summary! This is Amazing!
- By PW on 04-12-17
By: Dennis E. Taylor
-
Redshirts
- A Novel with Three Codas
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the facts that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces; (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations; and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.
-
-
Not his Wheal-house
- By P. Stover on 09-16-13
By: John Scalzi
-
Translation State
- By: Ann Leckie
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Enae's grandmaman passes away, Enae inherits something unexpected: a diplomatic assignment to track down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. No one actually expects Enae to succeed; it's an empty assignment meant to keep hir occupied. But Enae has never had a true purpose—no one ever expected hir to do more than care for grandmaman—so sie is determined to accomplish this task to the best of her ability.
-
-
Single themed and not on par with the series
- By Andrew Pollack on 07-01-23
By: Ann Leckie
-
The Martian
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.
-
-
I love Wil Wheaton but why not R. C. Bray?
- By L. Newman on 01-11-20
By: Andy Weir
-
Ender's Game
- Special 20th Anniversary Edition
- By: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison, Gabrielle de Cuir
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: It’s easy to say that when it comes to sci-fi you either love it or you hate it. But with Ender’s Game, it seems to be you either love it or you love it.... The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Enter Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, the result of decades of genetic experimentation.
-
-
6 titles in the series so far
- By Kapila Wimalaratne on 01-29-03
By: Orson Scott Card
-
The Silmarillion
- By: J. R. R. Tolkien
- Narrated by: Martin Shaw
- Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The complete unabridged audiobook of J.R.R Tolkien's The Silmarillion. The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien’s world. It is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in whose events some of them such as Elrond and Galadriel took part.
-
-
Finally!
- By Brian on 11-22-18
By: J. R. R. Tolkien
-
Hidden Figures
- The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
- By: Margot Lee Shetterly
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before John Glenn orbited the Earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as "human computers" used pencils, slide rules, and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets and astronauts into space. Among these problem solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation.
-
-
Great Story of a History Obscured
- By Cynthia on 09-18-16
-
The Right Stuff
- By: Tom Wolfe
- Narrated by: Dennis Quaid
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of words have poured forth about man's trip to the moon, but until now few people have had a sense of the most engrossing side of the adventure: namely, what went on in the minds of the astronauts themselves - in space, on the moon, and even during certain odysseys on earth. It is this, the inner life of the astronauts, that Tom Wolfe describes with his almost uncanny empathetic powers that made The Right Stuff a classic.
-
-
Righteous Book, Righteous Narrator, Righteous MEN!
- By Gillian on 02-08-18
By: Tom Wolfe
-
The Coming Storm
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 2 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tornadoes, cyclones, tsunamis… Weather can be deadly – especially when it strikes without warning. Millions of Americans could soon find themselves at the mercy of violent weather if the public data behind lifesaving storm alerts gets privatized for personal gain. In his first Audible Original feature, New York Times best-selling author and journalist Michael Lewis delivers hard-hitting research on not-so-random weather data – and how Washington plans to release it.
-
-
Badly Mixed Message
- By GE Guest on 08-07-18
By: Michael Lewis
Publisher's summary
Mary Robinette Kowal's science fiction debut, The Calculating Stars, explores the premise behind her award-winning Lady Astronaut of Mars.
Den of Geek - Best Science Fiction Books of June 2018
Omnivoracious - Fifteen Highly Anticipated SFF Reads for Summer 2018
On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the East Coast of the US, including Washington, DC. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the Earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs.
This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space and requires a much-larger share of humanity to take part in the process.
Elma York’s experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon, as a calculator. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too.
Elma’s drive to become the first lady astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.
Featured Article: The Best Sci-Fi Audiobooks to Blast You into Another Galaxy
There’s a certain magic in losing yourself in the imaginative world of science fiction. But when new landscapes and realities are paired with brilliant audio performances, the experience is more immersive than ever. We’ve curated some of the best science fiction audiobooks, ranked not only for their vividly constructed narratives, but also for the compelling, stellar narration that brings them to life. So grab your headphones and settle in as reality fades away.
More from the same
Narrator
Related to this topic
-
The Fourth Awakening
- By: Rod Pennington, Jeffery A. Martin
- Narrated by: C. J. Crit
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Penelope Drayton Spence made a choice years earlier, and picked marriage and family over a promising career as an investigative reporter. Now, divorced and with her children spread around the country, she is having second thoughts. A mysterious call from the Managing Editor of the Washington Post, offers her a second chance at big time journalism. He has a story so sensitive that the President of the United States personally asked the Post to leave it alone.
-
-
Narration will keep you awake..
- By Matthew on 02-11-13
By: Rod Pennington, and others
-
The Archangel: An Azrael Story
- The Soul Summoner Companion Stories, Book 3
- By: Elicia Hyder
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 2 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Archangel of Death is the master of taking human life. But keeping mortals alive? Not exactly Azrael's forte. For thousands of years, Azrael’s greatest enemy has been silent. Leaving him in relative peace for the first time since the great angel war. Now that silence has been broken, and the Morning Star has returned with a dangerous ultimatum: Azrael can join, or watch everything he loves be destroyed. Two lives hang in the balance - Azrael’s beloved human wife, Nadine, and their unborn, part-angel son...Warren.
-
-
Phenomenal!
- By Sam on 04-02-20
By: Elicia Hyder
-
The Curiosity
- A Novel
- By: Stephen Kiernan
- Narrated by: Kate Udall, Erik Bergmann, George Guidall
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Kate Philo makes a breathtaking discovery in the Arctic: the body of a man buried deep in the ice. Heedless of the potential consequences, Kate's boss orders that the frozen man be reanimated. As the man begins to regain his memories, the team learns that he was - is - a judge, Jeremiah Rice. Thrown together by fate, Kate and Jeremiah grow closer. But the clock is ticking and Jeremiah's new life is slipping away. Kate must decide how far she is willing to go to protect the man she has come to love.
-
-
Almost perfect
- By ellegreenland on 04-14-14
By: Stephen Kiernan
-
Escape Velocity
- By: Anah Crow, Dianne Fox
- Narrated by: Charles Carr
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Linguist Elios Campbell is thrilled to be granted flight time in a Colonial Guard fighter jet, until he catches sight of his pilot. Spending time with Sender Kinnison holds even more appeal than the flight itself.
-
-
This could be the first of a great series!
- By Steve Worley on 03-23-12
By: Anah Crow, and others
-
Private Scandals
- By: Nora Roberts
- Narrated by: Julie Finneran
- Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This deliciously scandalous novel tells us the secrets of the reigning queens of television talk shows, Deanna Reynolds and Angela Perkins. Their high-staked rivalry, fought with public smiles and private betrayals, is more than a ratings competition. It becomes an off-screen war when Deanna replaces Angela both on the air and behind the scenes with Angela's former lover after Angela moves to the big time in New York.
-
-
Poor Narration
- By Adrienne J. on 06-10-14
By: Nora Roberts
-
Learning to Swear in America
- By: Katie Kennedy
- Narrated by: Aaron Landon
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An asteroid is hurtling toward Earth. A big, bad one. Maybe not kill-all-the-dinosaurs bad but at least kill-everyone-in-California-and-wipe-out-Japan-with-a-tsunami bad. Yuri, a physicist prodigy from Russia, has been recruited to aid NASA as they calculate a plan to avoid disaster. The good news is Yuri knows how to stop the asteroid - his research in antimatter will probably win him a Nobel Prize if there's ever another Nobel Prize awarded. But the trouble is, even though NASA asked for his help, no one there will listen to him.
-
-
An Absolute gem of an audiobook. Well worth buying
- By Amiesbookreviews on 03-30-17
By: Katie Kennedy
-
The Fourth Awakening
- By: Rod Pennington, Jeffery A. Martin
- Narrated by: C. J. Crit
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Penelope Drayton Spence made a choice years earlier, and picked marriage and family over a promising career as an investigative reporter. Now, divorced and with her children spread around the country, she is having second thoughts. A mysterious call from the Managing Editor of the Washington Post, offers her a second chance at big time journalism. He has a story so sensitive that the President of the United States personally asked the Post to leave it alone.
-
-
Narration will keep you awake..
- By Matthew on 02-11-13
By: Rod Pennington, and others
-
The Archangel: An Azrael Story
- The Soul Summoner Companion Stories, Book 3
- By: Elicia Hyder
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 2 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Archangel of Death is the master of taking human life. But keeping mortals alive? Not exactly Azrael's forte. For thousands of years, Azrael’s greatest enemy has been silent. Leaving him in relative peace for the first time since the great angel war. Now that silence has been broken, and the Morning Star has returned with a dangerous ultimatum: Azrael can join, or watch everything he loves be destroyed. Two lives hang in the balance - Azrael’s beloved human wife, Nadine, and their unborn, part-angel son...Warren.
-
-
Phenomenal!
- By Sam on 04-02-20
By: Elicia Hyder
-
The Curiosity
- A Novel
- By: Stephen Kiernan
- Narrated by: Kate Udall, Erik Bergmann, George Guidall
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Kate Philo makes a breathtaking discovery in the Arctic: the body of a man buried deep in the ice. Heedless of the potential consequences, Kate's boss orders that the frozen man be reanimated. As the man begins to regain his memories, the team learns that he was - is - a judge, Jeremiah Rice. Thrown together by fate, Kate and Jeremiah grow closer. But the clock is ticking and Jeremiah's new life is slipping away. Kate must decide how far she is willing to go to protect the man she has come to love.
-
-
Almost perfect
- By ellegreenland on 04-14-14
By: Stephen Kiernan
-
Escape Velocity
- By: Anah Crow, Dianne Fox
- Narrated by: Charles Carr
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Linguist Elios Campbell is thrilled to be granted flight time in a Colonial Guard fighter jet, until he catches sight of his pilot. Spending time with Sender Kinnison holds even more appeal than the flight itself.
-
-
This could be the first of a great series!
- By Steve Worley on 03-23-12
By: Anah Crow, and others
-
Private Scandals
- By: Nora Roberts
- Narrated by: Julie Finneran
- Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This deliciously scandalous novel tells us the secrets of the reigning queens of television talk shows, Deanna Reynolds and Angela Perkins. Their high-staked rivalry, fought with public smiles and private betrayals, is more than a ratings competition. It becomes an off-screen war when Deanna replaces Angela both on the air and behind the scenes with Angela's former lover after Angela moves to the big time in New York.
-
-
Poor Narration
- By Adrienne J. on 06-10-14
By: Nora Roberts
-
Learning to Swear in America
- By: Katie Kennedy
- Narrated by: Aaron Landon
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An asteroid is hurtling toward Earth. A big, bad one. Maybe not kill-all-the-dinosaurs bad but at least kill-everyone-in-California-and-wipe-out-Japan-with-a-tsunami bad. Yuri, a physicist prodigy from Russia, has been recruited to aid NASA as they calculate a plan to avoid disaster. The good news is Yuri knows how to stop the asteroid - his research in antimatter will probably win him a Nobel Prize if there's ever another Nobel Prize awarded. But the trouble is, even though NASA asked for his help, no one there will listen to him.
-
-
An Absolute gem of an audiobook. Well worth buying
- By Amiesbookreviews on 03-30-17
By: Katie Kennedy
-
The Hummingbird
- A Novel
- By: Stephen P. Kiernan
- Narrated by: Elyse Mirto, John H. Mayer
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deborah Birch is a seasoned hospice nurse whose daily work requires courage and compassion. But her skills and experience are tested in new and dramatic ways when her easygoing husband, Michael, returns from his third deployment to Iraq haunted by nightmares, anxiety, and rage. She is determined to help him heal and to restore the tender, loving marriage they once had.
-
-
A MUST READ or LISTEN
- By Taryn on 01-23-16
-
A Girl Divided
- By: Ellen Lindseth
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rural China, 1942. Twenty-two-year-old Eugenia Baker exists in a bubble as yet untouched by WWII. Content to help her father with his missionary work, Genie sees her future as a straight, if narrow, road - until an American pilot arrives, warning them of the approaching Japanese army. Lieutenant Ted Younan is one of the Flying Tigers, volunteer fighters protecting China from aerial attacks. After rescuing Ted from his downed plane, Genie’s father asks the flyboy to get his daughter across the mountains so she can escape to the United States.
-
-
Sappy to the extreme-That’s what you want in a romance novel right?
- By susan s. on 04-11-22
By: Ellen Lindseth
-
The Note
- By: Angela Elwell Hunt
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an advice columnist is given a note written just before a fatal airliner crash, her search for the intended recipient carries her on a journey of faith, hope, and forgiveness.
-
-
Excellent and touching
- By Sandra on 06-02-07
-
The Philosopher's Flight
- A Novel
- By: Tom Miller
- Narrated by: Gibson Frazier
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eighteen-year-old Robert Weekes is a practitioner of empirical philosophy - an arcane, female-dominated branch of science used to summon the wind, shape clouds of smoke, heal the injured, and even fly. Though he dreams of fighting in the Great War as the first male in the elite US Sigilry Corps Rescue and Evacuation Service - a team of flying medics - Robert is resigned to mixing batches of philosophical chemicals and keeping the books for the family business in rural Montana, where his mother, a former soldier and vigilante, aids the locals.
-
-
Brilliant multi layered story
- By Kent Lanigan on 02-21-18
By: Tom Miller
-
The Gift
- By: Cecelia Ahern
- Narrated by: Kevin Kearns
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Extremely successful executive Lou Suffern is always overstretched, immune to the holiday spirit that delights everyone around him. The classic workaholic who never has a moment to spare, he is always multitasking while shortchanging his devoted wife and their adorable children. And ever since he started competing for a big promotion, he has barely seen his family at all. One frigid morning, in an uncharacteristic burst of generosity, he buys a cup of coffee for Gabe, a homeless man huddled outside his office building.
-
-
Well-Written and a Great Listen!
- By Despurlock on 11-14-17
By: Cecelia Ahern
-
So Close
- By: Emma McLaughlin
- Narrated by: Emily Durante
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amanda Beth Luker has spent her whole life desperately looking for someone who can show her the way out of her trailer park Florida town. And then, finally, help arrives - in the form of Tom Davis, a successful lawyer with political aspirations who grew up just a few towns over from Amanda. But it's his wife, Lindsay, who really captures Amanda's imagination. Strong, smart, and determined, she gives Amanda something she's never had: a role model.
-
-
I've never been so mad at a book before.
- By Stacie on 06-15-16
By: Emma McLaughlin
-
Superheroes
- By: Peter S. Beagle, Daryl Gregory, James Patrick Kelly, and others
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Joe Barrett, Christina Delaine, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Modern gods and goddesses, remote, revered - and like the pantheon of heroes and heroines of ancient myth - possessing great power tempered with flaws. Now, find within this anthology great tales by gifted and award-winning authors who move superheroes from the four-color panels of comic books to the fantastic pages of fiction, stories that will remind anyone who ever wanted to wear a cape or don a cowl of the extraordinary powers of the imagination!
-
-
Pretentious tired old concepts
- By BookofJoy on 12-29-14
By: Peter S. Beagle, and others
-
In the Bleak Midwinter
- By: Julia Spencer-Fleming
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clare Fergusson, St. Alban's new priest, fits like a square peg in the conservative Episcopal parish at Miller's Kill, New York. She is not just a "lady"; she's a tough ex-Army chopper pilot, and nobody's fool. Then a newborn infant left at the church door brings her together with the town's police chief, Russ Van Alstyne, who's also ex-Army and a cynical good shepherd for the stray sheep of his hometown.
-
-
Ice Cold Complex Small Town Police Procedural/Mystery
- By Sara on 12-27-14
-
The Forge of God
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On September 28th, a geologist working in Death Valley finds a mysterious new cinder cone in very well-mapped area. On October 1, the government of Australia announces the discovery of an enormous granite mountain. Like the cinder cone, it wasn't there six months ago.
Something is happening to planet Earth, and the truth is too terrifying to contemplate
-
-
Great Story, Wonderful Listening, But the Editor?
- By George Knight on 07-14-13
By: Greg Bear
-
Fire and Rain
- By: Diane Chamberlain
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Into the drought-weary California town of Valle Rosa comes a stranger who promises he can make it rain. All he asks for is a place to stay and complete privacy. But he is too charismatic to maintain a low profile, and the adobe cottage he's given to live in is owned by an investigative TV reporter struggling to revive her career.
-
-
Siri from my Iphone would be a warmer narrator
- By Gwen on 05-30-16
-
Nappily Ever After
- A Novel
- By: Trisha R. Thomas
- Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Venus Johnston has a great job and a long-term, live-in boyfriend who happens to be a drop-dead gorgeous doctor. She also has a weekly beauty-parlor date to keep her long, nappy hair slick and straight. But the tedious hours and harsh chemicals in the salon have long grated on Venus. One frustrating day, she trades in the long hair for a dramatically short, natural cut and sends her commitment-balking boyfriend packing. It's a bold declaration of independence and one that has effects she never could have imagined.
-
-
Great
- By Laura K. on 08-21-09
By: Trisha R. Thomas
-
Flygirl
- By: Sherri L. Smith
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All Ida Mae Jones wants to do is fly. Her daddy was a pilot, and years after his death she feels closest to him when she's in the air. But as a young black woman in 1940s Louisiana, she knows the sky is off limits to her, until America enters World War II, and the Army forms the Women Airforce Service Pilots. Ida has a chance to fulfill her dream if she's willing to use her light skin to pass as a white girl. She wants to fly more than anything, but Ida soon learns that denying one's self and family is a heavy burden, and it's not what you do but who you are that's most important.
-
-
Wonderful story
- By Kim Padan on 12-20-18
By: Sherri L. Smith
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Among Others
- By: Jo Walton
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Startling, unusual, and yet irresistably readable, Among Others is at once the compelling story of a young woman struggling to escape a troubled childhood, a brilliant diary of first encounters with the great novels of modern fantasy and SF, and a spellbinding tale of escape from ancient enchantment.
-
-
Subtle Character Piece
- By Eoin on 09-15-11
By: Jo Walton
-
The Spare Man
- By: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tesla Crane, one of the richest women in the world, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between Earth and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and her husband is named as the prime suspect. To save him from the frame-up, Tesla will risk exposure and face demons from her past. Even though doing so might make her the next victim.
-
-
Classic mystery, forward worldbuilding
- By Deana on 10-16-22
-
A Memory Called Empire
- Teixcalaan, Book 1
- By: Arkady Martine
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident - or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court. Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion.
-
-
Story is great, weird editing, not great narration
- By Nadia on 06-10-19
By: Arkady Martine
-
Ghost Talkers
- By: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ginger Stuyvesant, an American heiress living in London during World War I, is engaged to Captain Benjamin Hartshorne, an intelligence officer. Ginger is a medium for the Spirit Corps, a special Spiritualist force. Each soldier heading for the front is conditioned to report to the mediums of the Spirit Corps when they die so the corps can pass instant information about troop movements to military intelligence. Ginger and her fellow mediums contribute a great deal to the war efforts, so long as they pass the information through appropriate channels.
-
-
A very atmospheric, fast read!
- By kara-karina on 09-04-16
-
Trail of Lightning
- By: Rebecca Roanhorse
- Narrated by: Tanis Parenteau
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse have destroyed most of the planet…yet out of these waters, Dinétah, a former Navajo reservation, has been miraculously reborn. Listen along as Tanis Parenteau's impeccable narration, capturing the rhythms of Navajo speech, fully envelopes you into the Sixth World. Trail of Lightning follows our heroine as she walks the land alongside gods, heroes of legend, and monsters alike.
-
-
The person you hire when the heroes fail
- By Cynthia on 08-09-18
-
Alex Fletcher Boxset, Complete Series: Books 1-5
- By: Steven Konkoly
- Narrated by: John David Farrell
- Length: 49 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The entire Perseid Collapse series in one box set: post-apocalyptic thriller action and suspense in five books! Contains: The Jakarta Pandemic (Book 1), The Perseid Collapse (Book 2), Event Horizon (Book 3), Point of Crisis (Book 4), and Dispatches (Book 5).
-
-
Worth the money
- By William A. Nichols on 03-07-18
By: Steven Konkoly
-
Among Others
- By: Jo Walton
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Startling, unusual, and yet irresistably readable, Among Others is at once the compelling story of a young woman struggling to escape a troubled childhood, a brilliant diary of first encounters with the great novels of modern fantasy and SF, and a spellbinding tale of escape from ancient enchantment.
-
-
Subtle Character Piece
- By Eoin on 09-15-11
By: Jo Walton
-
The Spare Man
- By: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tesla Crane, one of the richest women in the world, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between Earth and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and her husband is named as the prime suspect. To save him from the frame-up, Tesla will risk exposure and face demons from her past. Even though doing so might make her the next victim.
-
-
Classic mystery, forward worldbuilding
- By Deana on 10-16-22
-
A Memory Called Empire
- Teixcalaan, Book 1
- By: Arkady Martine
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident - or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court. Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion.
-
-
Story is great, weird editing, not great narration
- By Nadia on 06-10-19
By: Arkady Martine
-
Ghost Talkers
- By: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ginger Stuyvesant, an American heiress living in London during World War I, is engaged to Captain Benjamin Hartshorne, an intelligence officer. Ginger is a medium for the Spirit Corps, a special Spiritualist force. Each soldier heading for the front is conditioned to report to the mediums of the Spirit Corps when they die so the corps can pass instant information about troop movements to military intelligence. Ginger and her fellow mediums contribute a great deal to the war efforts, so long as they pass the information through appropriate channels.
-
-
A very atmospheric, fast read!
- By kara-karina on 09-04-16
-
Trail of Lightning
- By: Rebecca Roanhorse
- Narrated by: Tanis Parenteau
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse have destroyed most of the planet…yet out of these waters, Dinétah, a former Navajo reservation, has been miraculously reborn. Listen along as Tanis Parenteau's impeccable narration, capturing the rhythms of Navajo speech, fully envelopes you into the Sixth World. Trail of Lightning follows our heroine as she walks the land alongside gods, heroes of legend, and monsters alike.
-
-
The person you hire when the heroes fail
- By Cynthia on 08-09-18
-
Alex Fletcher Boxset, Complete Series: Books 1-5
- By: Steven Konkoly
- Narrated by: John David Farrell
- Length: 49 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The entire Perseid Collapse series in one box set: post-apocalyptic thriller action and suspense in five books! Contains: The Jakarta Pandemic (Book 1), The Perseid Collapse (Book 2), Event Horizon (Book 3), Point of Crisis (Book 4), and Dispatches (Book 5).
-
-
Worth the money
- By William A. Nichols on 03-07-18
By: Steven Konkoly
-
The Wanderer
- By: Fritz Leiber
- Narrated by: Norman Deitz
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the future, men and women have colonized the moon, and dazzling technological advances have created a better life for those on Earth. But the arrival of "the Wanderer" may change all that. A sphere of immense size, it appears suddenly one night during a lunar eclipse, causing crushing quakes on the Moon and catastrophes on Earth. Now, Lt. Don Merriam must find a way to reach the Wanderer and discover its purpose.
-
-
dated scifi
- By finhead on 09-28-07
By: Fritz Leiber
-
Odd Billy Todd
- By: N. C. Reed
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 25 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Billy Todd has always been different. Most people called him odd, and those were the nice people. Though he was born with a learning disability, Billy's parents never allowed him to consider himself disabled. Raised to be self-sufficient, Billy might not be as smart as some, but he was a lot smarter than people realized.
-
-
Odd Billy Todd is fantastic
- By bebe on 08-16-19
By: N. C. Reed
-
The Salvage Crew
- By: Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
- Narrated by: Nathan Fillion
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An AI overseer and a human crew arrive on a distant planet to salvage an ancient UN starship. The overseer is unhappy. The crew, well, they're certainly no A-team. Not even a C-team on the best of days. And worse? Urmahon Beta, the planet, is at the ass-end of nowhere. Everybody expects this to be a long, ugly, and thankless job. Then it all goes disastrously wrong. What they thought was an uninhabited backwater turns out to be anything but empty.
-
-
Rats, I got sucked in and wasted a credit
- By unknown on 01-31-21
-
Hunt the Stars
- A Novel (Starlight’s Shadow, Book 1)
- By: Jessie Mihalik
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Octavia Zarola would do anything to keep her tiny, close-knit bounty hunting crew together—even if it means accepting a job from Torran Fletcher, a ruthless former general and her sworn enemy. When Torran offers her enough credits to not only keep her crew afloat but also hire someone to fix her ship, Tavi knows that she can’t refuse—no matter how much she’d like to.
-
-
So close to being wonderful
- By Tess R on 02-14-22
By: Jessie Mihalik
-
Doomsday Book
- By: Connie Willis
- Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin
- Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Oxford student Kivrin, traveling back to the 14th century is more than the culmination of her studies - it's the chance for a wonderful adventure. For Dunworthy, her mentor, it is cause for intense worry about the thousands of things that could go wrong.
-
-
Timely, beautiful, terrible and haunting
- By mudcelt on 11-02-09
By: Connie Willis
-
Infinity Gate
- By: M. R. Carey
- Narrated by: Dami Olukoya
- Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Pandominion: a political and trading alliance of a million worlds–except that they’re really just the one world, Earth, in many different realities. And when an AI threat arises that could destroy everything the Pandominion has built, they'll eradicate it by whatever means necessary, no matter the cost to human life.
-
-
Great world building, but....
- By KJH on 05-04-23
By: M. R. Carey
-
The Fifth Season
- The Broken Earth, Book 1
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the way the world ends...for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the Earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
-
-
The Nay-Sayers are Wrong.
- By Steve Groves on 02-10-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
-
Sundiver
- The Uplift Saga, Book 1
- By: David Brin
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For nearly a billion years, every known sentient species in the universe has been the result of genetic and cultural guidance - or "uplifting" - by a previously uplifted patron race. Then humans are discovered. Having already uplifted chimps and dolphins, humanity clearly qualifies as an intelligent species, but did they actually evolve their own intelligence, or did some mysterious patron race begin the process, then suddenly abandon Earth?
-
-
good, but flawed
- By J Michael on 04-16-08
By: David Brin
-
Mortal Engines
- Mortal Engines, Book 1
- By: Philip Reeve
- Narrated by: Barnaby Edwards
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the astounding world of Predator Cities! Emerging from its hiding place in the hills, the great Traction City is chasing a terrified little town across the wastelands. Soon, London will feed. In the attack, Tom Natsworthy is flung from the speeding city with a murderous scar-faced girl. They must run for their lives through the wreckage - and face a terrifying new weapon that threatens the future of the world.
-
-
Creative but hard to stay engaged in
- By Karissa Eckert on 11-26-17
By: Philip Reeve
-
Shades of Milk and Honey
- By: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fantasy novel you’ve always wished Jane Austen had written. When Jane realizes that one of Melody’s suitors is set on taking advantage of her sister for the sake of her dowry, she pushes her skills to the limit of what her body can withstand in order to set things right—and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own.
-
-
Great if you love speculative fiction and Austen
- By Womble on 05-07-12
-
Extinction Shadow
- Extinction Cycle: Dark Age, Book 1
- By: Nicholas Sansbury Smith, Anthony J. Melchiorri
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eight years ago, an engineered virus ravaged the globe, infecting and transforming humans into apex predators called Variants. Now, almost a decade after the end of the war, civilization has slowly clawed toward recovery. But evil and intelligent forces dwell in the shadows with the starving beasts, scheming to restart the extinction cycle and end humanity forever. And once again, Beckham, Fitz, and Kate will rise to fight them, joining forces with new heroes to try and save what’s left of the world.
-
-
Highly, Highly Recommend!!
- By Natalie @ ABookLoversLife on 08-19-19
By: Nicholas Sansbury Smith, and others
-
The Book of M
- A Novel
- By: Peng Shepherd
- Narrated by: James Fouhey, Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 17 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One afternoon at an outdoor market in India, a man’s shadow disappears - an occurrence science cannot explain. He is only the first. The phenomenon spreads like a plague, and while those afflicted gain a strange new power, it comes at a horrible price: the loss of all their memories. Ory and his wife, Max, have escaped the Forgetting so far by hiding in an abandoned hotel deep in the woods. Their new life feels almost normal, until one day, Max’s shadow disappears, too.
-
-
It was ok
- By Fatima on 12-04-19
By: Peng Shepherd
What listeners say about The Calculating Stars
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Richard Bruno
- 10-01-18
Never achieves lift off
So very disappointing. An interesting alternate history premise, but a deeply awkward and clunky execution. Infuriating, repetitive, formulaic. Every now and then there are whiffs of originality and creativity (like when, in listing a group of new astronauts, the familiar names of actual Mercury and Gemini astronauts are included, without calling any attention to the fact), but these moments are rare. And the obsessive and obligatory (but, of course, socially sanctioned) sex scenes between the protagonist and her husband are excruciating as they strive to call up every rocket launch innuendo that they can. Eew.
The author reads her own work, which doesn't help matters. Over the top narration and exaggerated characterizations.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
98 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Shykim
- 08-17-18
Wanted to love it
There is a difference between reading and narrating. The author is OK at reading, but a complete amateur as a narrator. Her attempts at accents are painful - and distracting.
The characters, with the exception of the protagonist, are stereotypical and one dimensional. The protagonist is also a stereotype. She is what medicine used to described as a female hysteric. And yet, she is supposed to be a brilliant mathematician with 2 advanced degrees from Stanford, a child prodigy, and an accomplished pilot. Finally, she comes across as helpless, whiny and immature.
I suspect that the author may be trying to set her main character up for growth and change in the next book in the series, if so she overplayed her hand.
This book might be better if you read it rather than listen. Between the amateurish delivery and the whiny, pathetic marin character, the audio version is just annoying.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
90 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Alex Levine
- 07-27-18
Close to perfect
I am a literary nit-picker. I can't really help it. When I read a historical novel, part of me is always hunting for inaccuracies, and when I read an alternate history novel, that same part is always hunting for premise-breaking implausibilities. For me to really, really enjoy an alternate history, it has to either be entirely free of such defects, or pretty damn amazing, so amazing that my nit-picking module shuts down. This book is pretty damn amazing.
The amazingness has many facets, of which I can only mention a few. The first is its timeliness, appearing as it does just two years after Margot Lee Shetterly's wonderful "Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race," along with the movie it inspired. Shetterly's book helped bring overdue attention to the contributions Black woman mathematicians, employed as computers, made to the American space program, when the electronic digital computing revolution was in its infancy. In our timeline, their efforts were supplemented by electronic computers as the technology improved, and a state-of-the-art electronic computer traveled to the moon with Armstrong and Aldrin. It may not have worked very well, but it was ready in time to make the trip.
In the timeline of this book, the American space program gets its start ten years earlier than in ours, and vast investment spurs most of the necessary technologies to advance more over the course of the 1950s than ours did over the 1960s. The one exception is electronic digital computing, which appears to be no further along in the 1955 of this book than it was in our own 1955. Suppose space program managers realize that astronauts may need to solve unforeseen problems in orbital mechanics on the fly. Suppose, further, that the best way to obtain a quick, accurate solution to such problems is to consult a skilled human with paper, pencil, and slide rule. Finally, suppose that the most skilled such humans are women. We have a recipe for a narrative in which, rather than lagging well behind the rest of 20th Century American Society in its lurching, uneven progress toward gender equality, the space program leads the way.
Our heroine and first-personal protagonist is, as we would expect, an extraordinary individual. But she is NOT a "steely-eyed missile man" in drag. She has payed a serious, even crippling price for having succeeded in a string of male-dominated fields, and her struggle to shoulder that baggage is perhaps the most compelling aspect of her more general struggle. She is also a woman of her time and place, one who has developed her strategies for selectively ignoring numerous small injustices, and for coping with those she cannot ignore. This is NOT an idealized crusader for women and minorities anachronistically written back into a society that no time for such people. She is a completely believable person who has learned how to pick her battles. She is surrounded by an equally believable supporting cast.
I won't sully this review by rehearsing any of the small number of nits I have picked. Read the book, or better yet listen to it in the author's expert narration.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
88 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- sonja holmes
- 07-16-18
it's a nice story
"The calculating stars" is a nice story about an alternate history Space Program. The author does an excellent job of bringing life to the story, which is a good thing, because I think if I were to just read it, it would have been a little flat. This would be a fantastic story for a preteen or even a child, but it lacks drama. Now, not all stories need to be a daring space drama with horrible monsters and and heroic leaps of... heroism, but i kept eaiting for the other shoe to drop, and it never did. I see this story as the way the Space Program would have proceeded if everyone in the world were Canadian. A good read, but don't expect action.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
80 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jim N
- 02-04-19
Fizzles After a Great Start
The Calculating Stars received a lot of praise in 2018 so when I saw it on sale at Audible, I decided to give it a chance, despite being a little put off by the series title, which sounded silly to me. The book justifies that title well enough and after listening to the riveting first few hours of the novel, I told a friend that my misgivings were unfounded. The book's opening sequence, in which a massive meteorite strike in 1952 sets off a sequence of cataclysmic events, is great. Unfortunately, after that, it slows down, following a predictable path and never truly regaining that early momentum. The remainder of the novel reads like a Hallmark Channel riff on Hidden Figures, co-produced by the SyFy Channel. There are few surprises, the drama is minimal and the plot crawls toward a conclusion that's both predictable and inevitable. There are, however, a number of cringe-worthy "romantic" scenes between Elma, the protagonist, and her husband, Nathaniel, complete with increasingly painful rocket and launch references. After such a promising start, I was very disappointed.
The issues above are complicated on audio by the author's reading which was fine except when reading some of the characters, which veered into exaggerated caricature when voiced.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
71 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Karen
- 10-16-18
Promising story, cringeworthy main character ...
This story had promise and if you like romance novels with an intellectual undertone this might be for you. (I'm not a fan of romance novels so I can't say for sure.) I found the main character way too whiny. While her issues were justifiably real and I appreciate that ... it was the method they were delivered that I disliked. I am curious whether I would have the same impression of the main character as whiny if I had read rather than listened to the book. It is possible that this is more a narration rather than a story issue ... so I'll give the book the benefit of the doubt there. The other possibility is that this is simply how women in the 1950s behaved and that this is a more accurate representation than other books. If so, I guess it is a good thing I was not around then. I probably would have gotten into a lot of trouble.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
71 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Moon Oil
- 07-27-18
Super impressed
Wonderful attention to detail, phenomenal voice acting, and wonderful characters. My only quibble is that it does sag in the middle as the story turns from the meteor strike and space race to the main character dealing with her anxiety. It does pick up again and finishes with a bang. Highly recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
71 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- sbsd13
- 09-25-18
awkward sex scenes ruin message
I didn't like this as much as Ghost Talkers. Mostly bc the character isn't as likeable and all she and her husband seem to do is exchange rocket ship sexual euphemisms before they bone. If I hear that "his engines were firing" one more time, I quit. (this was about 75% through).
But no, the “rockets firing” sex analogies didn’t quit. I did keep going though and read till the end. The women’s empowerment, mental illness, and racial equality storylines were cheapened by the foibles of the main character and the attempts to make Elma seem sexy and empowered by showing that she liked sex. How do we know she liked sex? Oh, because she talked about her husband’s genitals in rocket ship terminology. Of course! Completely accurate and representative. Best parts when the “lady astronaut” was actually doing things like flying a plane and solving flight trajectories, and I wish Kowal had made those parts the majority of the book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
56 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michelle Pogodzinski
- 10-12-18
I like the story but....
The narration makes the lead character sound so whiny. With the lead characters panic attacks, it made me not want her chosen for space. She made women look bad. No sense of the toughness many aspiring (female or male) astronauts need to make it up there. So the great story was made just “meh” for me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
24 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Aubrey Reese
- 05-17-19
Had so much potential to be great-BUT
I was so excited to listen to this book. It had so much potential to hit many complicated and interesting topics but was ultimately very bland. It was chock full of simple annoying characters with no depth and loads of unrealistic scenarios. I kept catching myself thinking get it together b!&$#, the world is ending but we (the listeners) are stuck hearing you gripe about your stage fright and how hard growing up was with a powerful father and gifted mathematic abilities, poor thing! Not to mention, all the support needed to earn a PHD as a women during WW2. All in all I'd say life had been very kind to our lady astronaut but she still wines and complains at every opportunity and crumples when ever any person (man or woman) disrespects or disagrees with her-barf.
Lastly, why the heck is her husband so shocked she encounters sexism around every corner? It's 1952- it's everywhere and the norm. Realistically the shock should of been her drive to have more then the domestic life. Could of been so good but left much to be desired and with a urg to poke most of the main characters in the eye.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
19 people found this helpful