Preview
  • Ancestral Night

  • A White Space Novel
  • By: Elizabeth Bear
  • Narrated by: Nneka Okoye
  • Length: 16 hrs and 48 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (38 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Ancestral Night

By: Elizabeth Bear
Narrated by: Nneka Okoye
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.81

Buy for $21.81

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

A space salvager and her partner make the discovery of a lifetime that just might change the universe in this wild, big-ideas space opera from multi award-winning author Elizabeth Bear.

Haimey Dz thinks she knows what she wants.
She thinks she knows who she is.
She is wrong.

A routine salvage mission uncovers evidence of a terrible crime and relics of a powerful ancient technology, just as Haimey and her small crew run afoul of pirates at the outer limits of the Milky Way and find themselves both on the run, and in possession of ancient, universe-changing technology.
When the authorities prove corrupt, it becomes clear that Haimey is the only one who can protect her galaxy-spanning civilisation from its potential power - and from the revolutionaries who want to use it to seed terror and war. But doing so will take her from the event horizon of the super-massive black hole at the galaxy's core to the infinite, empty spaces at its edge. Along the way, she'll have to uncover the secrets of ancient intelligences lost to time as well as her own lost secrets, which she will wish had remained hidden from her forever . . .

Energetic and electrifying, Ancestral Night is a dazzling new space opera, sure to delight fans of Alastair Reynolds, Iain M. Banks, and Peter F. Hamilton.

Praise for Elizabeth Bear

'Gripping, perfectly balanced, and highly recommended' Kirkus

'Like the best of speculative fiction, Bear has created a fascinating and complete universe
that blends high-tech gadgetry with Old World adventure and political collusion' Publishers Weekly
©2019 Elizabeth Bear (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Ancestral Night

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    13
  • 4 Stars
    16
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    18
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Strong character driven story

I love Elizabeth Bears science fiction and fantasy stories but this White Space series is one of my favourites. On a par with Ursula LeGuin’s story telling genius. Ancestral Night’s success comes from Bear’s successful weaving together of alternative sociopolitical and relational systems that serve as a critique and reflection on current models with an excellent narrative tale. Exactly what the best science and speculative fiction does.
This series remains one of my favourites after several rereadings. I just wish more of her stories were available on Audible in Australia.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

The banter and endless internal dialog

This book could have been half the size. I think i understand what the author is doing, but the story doest match. There are better ways to explore the topics in the book. But as thougthts and explainations of the main character it just doesn’t work for me. When I catch myself fast forwarding in a book it has failed. Its a page turner in a bad way.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!