Chill Audiobook By Elizabeth Bear cover art

Chill

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Chill

By: Elizabeth Bear
Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
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Hugo Award winner Elizabeth Bear has won high praise for her thought-provoking science fiction. The second in Bear’s powerful Jacob’s Ladder series, Chill finds the generation starship Jacob’s Ladder with a new captain—Perceval. As Perceval struggles with the ship’s recent damage, remnants of the rebellion still linger and a threat to the crew grows.

©2010 Elizabeth Bear (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC Adventure Fiction Genre Fiction Hard Science Fiction Metaphysical & Visionary Science Fiction Technothrillers Thriller Thriller & Suspense Technology

Critic reviews

“The world of Jacob’s Ladder is magnificently populated, well worth visiting.” ( Booklist)
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Elizabeth Bear’s Chill is the sequel to Dust and the second book in her Jacob’s Ladder trilogy. Chill picks up in the immediate aftermath of the Dust disaster. The ‘universe’ here is a generation ship, partly crippled, but repairing itself. Most of the plot involves two separate groups competing for overall control.

Bear mixes a setting where all the advanced technology is recognized and appreciated along with a spiritual / divine perspective. As such, there is much rumination that occurs, while at the same time a new captain has some reservations about command. What is most difficult to follow is anyone’s rationale for their actions to take control of the ship.

The narration is adequate with some character distinction. Pacing is on the slow side.

Generation ship sequel

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I resisted the previous book in the series, 'Dust' for sometime. I love the generation ship trope, but not so much the fairy-tale motifs which are sprinkled throughout the narrative. Despite it's grounding in the structure of high fantasy, I was so taken with the book, that I downloaded this, as I consumed the final hour of 'Dust' so as to dive, immediately, back into Elizabeth Bear's beautiful prose and sense of wonder as conveyed though Alma Cuervo's cooly intense narration. 'Chill' takes the characters on a very different quest and we see more of Jacob's Ladder than before. I am very anxious for audible to offer the final installment of this trilogy.

Beautiful Story Telling

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Book two is even better than book one... it's a quirky story because it's a mixture of medieval words and thought processes and biblical stuff but it's not actually religious in the slightest... takes place in the distant future... at least 500 or 600 years in the future maybe? And it really does one of two things that either blows past societal boundaries or it pushes up against them in a way to help you see them and decide whether you want to keep them or not.

The further the book goes the more it feels like a future sci-fi novel and the less it feels like an archaic biblical story.

it's worth wading through the quirkiness of it for the story and the psychological tropes that Elizabeth Bear pokes holes in.

My favorite character is Mallory. Not for their part in the story per se but because of who they are.

The storyline is a little confusing because of course no matter what's going on you're not really sure who the good guys are the bad guys are and that's okay... because ultimately in reality everyone has the potential for being good and bad and making excellent and or poor choices.

Try not to get caught up on that part... I honestly think that's one of the lessons the book is trying to teach but in a very roundabout way 🥰

it's unusual but it's worth it!

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