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Stars and Bones

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Stars and Bones

By: Gareth L. Powell
Narrated by: Rebecca Norfolk
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About this listen

From the multi BSFA award-winner comes a stunningly inventive action-packed science-fiction epic adventure. A brand-new series for fans of Becky Chambers and Ann Leckie.

Seventy-five years from today, the human race has been cast from a dying Earth to wander the stars in a vast fleet of arks—each shaped by its inhabitants into a diverse and fascinating new environment, with its own rules and eccentricities.

When her sister disappears while responding to a mysterious alien distress call, Eryn insists on being part of the crew sent to look for her. What she discovers on Candidate-623 is both terrifying and deadly. When the threat follows her back to the fleet and people start dying, she is tasked with seeking out a legendary recluse who may just hold the key to humanity's survival.

Gareth L. Powell's Embers of War won 2018 BSFA Award for Best Novel and was shortlisted for the 2019 Locus Awards and the 2021 Seiun Awards in Japan. Its sequels, Fleet of Knives and Light of Impossible Stars, were both shortlisted for the BSFA Award for Best Novel, and Fleet of Knives was also shortlisted for the 2020 Locus Awards.

©2022 Gareth L. Powell (P)2022 W F Howes Adventure Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction

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Critic reviews

"Gareth Powell drops you into the action from the first page and then Just. Keeps. Going. This is a pro at the top of his game." (John Scalzi)

"A headlong, visceral plunge into a future equal parts fascinating and terrifying." (Adrian Tchaikovsky)
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Some, if not all of the narration is a bit flat and there is a number of peculiarities in the pronunciation of some words eg chasm said with a soft ‘ch’ as in cherry rather than a hard ‘k’. Overall off putting.

Peculiar pronunciations. Possibly AI narration.

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A good start to a space opera series. Humanity is saved by a god like entity that banishes it to be eternal nomads. A scout ship encounters a lifeform that has the potential to destroy humanity for good.

Enjoyed it.

A good start

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This book was a disappointment in comparison to my last audible book Project Hail Mary, but I persisted regardless.

Oddly the speaking cat was actually not jarring and his phrases were unexpectedly enjoyable, probably the highlight of the book actually.

As for the main entity (trying not to give spoilers), it felt linear and predictable and was the biggest disappointment for me.

I really wanted to enjoy this more, but I lost momentum half way through the book when there was a detective-like scene that took up too much time.

A lot of promise, but not the best sci-fi that I have listened to.

I do think this would be better adapted into a CGI heavy film.

Great SciFi is easy to believe

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Narrated by Rebecca Norfolk
The human race has left Earth in a huge fleet of arks, all travelling in a loose convoy. Eryn and her sister, Shay, are navigators. When Shay goes missing on the planet Candidate-623, Eryn insists on being part of the rescue crew on a trailblazer ship, only to discover that Shay and her team are all dead, and the thing that killed them is terrifying, powerful, and implacable. When whatever it is follows her back to the fleet, people start dying and Eryn, having rescued Shay's teenage daughter from her home ark ship, is sent to find the ancient recluse who might be able to communicate with a powerul alien and thus save humanity. This is fast-paced, intriguing and well worth a listen. The narration is easy on the ear, but, of dear, why can't Rebecca Norfolk pronounce some common English words? Bow, when it's the front end of a ship, rhymes with cow, not toe. A trimaran (ship with three hulls) is pronounced TRY-maran not trimmer-an. Someone's middle is their midriff, not mid-rift. Habitable is HAbitable, not haBITable. Ochre - as in the colour - is pronounced o-ker, not okra (which is something different altogether). And those are just five mispronunciations that I jotted down within about ten minutes while I happened to have a pen and paper handy. There were loads more. It didn't exactly spoil the story but it did niggle. Even the preview has cobblt instead of CObalt. Why didn't the producer spot all these mistakes? I did wonder if the narrator was American with a good English accent, but no, I looked her up and RP English is her native accent. I also notice that her voicecall-online page says she has a home studio, so this might have been recorded without a producer, in which case... pity about the ultimate quality control. Mispronunciation aside, the vocal quality is excellent and she voices the characters well.

Good story, strange performance

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A nice simple space adventure with a good reader. I will check out the authors other books now.

A nice simple space adventure.

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I enjoyed this book which clipped along at a fair pace. It didn’t quite go in the direction I was expecting but that’s good. It keeps you guessing. So well done to Gareth L Powell. The narrator, Rebecca did well enough at reading the book but the number of mis pronounced words was excruciating, bordering on embarrassing. Shame the audio book was done on the cheap. I won’t be buying anything narrated by her again.

Decent story. Dreadful narration.

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To begin with I thought this may be a really absorbing story, but it quickly became plodding and predictable with a rather odd ending.
The narrator has a nice voice and I enjoyed listening to her but she had trouble pronouncing a number of words that in the end rather irritated me (damask, chasm & a few others).

Not a patch on Becky Chambers or Anne Leckie

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The latest book from Gareth, is a sharply written science fiction thriller, but it does borrow heavily from other writers especially Jeff Vandermeer and Adrian Tchaikovsky. Sadly what spoils this enjoyable romp, is the awful reading; littered with mispronouncing of common words, for example chasam is pronounced with a soft C rather than the typical hard C. The pronunciation issues grate on me, yet I struggled on with it, to get to the conclusion of the novel. I would think twice about listening to a book, being read by Rebecca Norfolk, very off putting.

Sharp writing, poor reading

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This book is a bit like a b movie. it's a lot of fun and it carries you along well, but only if you don't think too hard about what's going on. If you make the mistake of analysing the actions or words of the characters too much the illusion is quickly shattered. The embers of war novels hung together a lot better. All of this said there's a lot here to enjoy - particularly the world building . I'm glad I listened to it. The narrator, Rebecca Norfolk, generally did well, but mispronounced a few words. it's weird that this wasn't caught and edited out.

Fun but don't think too hard

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A pacey action driven slice of hard SF. It's a little light on character development and the ending is a bit weak but other than that it's enjoyable, engaging and I will read the next in the series.

Action SF

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