
The Oceans and the Stars
A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story; The Seven Battles and Mutiny of Athena, Patrol Coastal Ship 15
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Narrated by:
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Traber Burns
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By:
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Mark Helprin
About this listen
Mark Helprin, New York Times bestselling author of Winter’s Tale and A Soldier of the Great War, returns with a fast-paced, beautifully written novel about the majesty of the sea; a life dedicated to duty, honor, and country; and the gift of falling in love.
A Navy captain near the end of a decorated career, Stephen Rensselaer is disciplined, intelligent, and determined always to do what’s right. In defending the development of a new variant of warship, he makes an enemy of the president of the United States, who assigns him to command the doomed line’s only prototype—Athena, Patrol Coastal 15—with the intent to humiliate a man who should have been an admiral.
Rather than resign, Rensselaer takes the new assignment in stride, and while supervising Athena’s fitting out in New Orleans, encounters a brilliant lawyer, Katy Farrar, with whom he falls in last-chance love. Soon thereafter, he is deployed on a mission that subjects his integrity, morality, and skill to the ultimate test and which ensures that Athena will live forever in the annals of the Navy.
As in the Odyssey, Katy is the force that keeps him alive and the beacon that lights the way home through seven battles, mutiny, and court martial.
In classic literary form, an enthralling new novel that extolls the virtues of living by the laws of conscience, decency, and sacrifice, The Oceans and the Stars is nothing short of a masterpiece.
©2023 Mark Helprin. Published in 2023 by The Overlook Press, an imprint of ABRAMS, New York. All rights reserved. (P)2023 Blackstone PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
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A convoy of 37 merchant ships is ploughing through icy, submarine-infested North Atlantic seas during the most critical days of World War II, when the German submarines had the upper hand and Allied shipping was suffering heavy losses. In charge is Commander George Krause, an untested veteran of the US Navy. Hounded by a wolf pack of German U-boats, he faces 48 hours of desperate peril trapped the bridge of the ship. Exhausted beyond measure, he must make countless and terrible decisions as he leads his small fighting force against the relentless U-boats.
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The Good Shepherd
- By BookReader on 07-16-20
By: C.S. Forester
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Brown on Resolution
- By: C.S. Forester
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on meticulously researched historical fact, "Brown on Resolution" marks C.S. Forester's first novel about the British Navy and his subsequent sea-faring novels. It charts the life and death of Leading Seaman, Albert Brown, beginning with the story of how his mother, Agatha, meets and spends five days with a young Lieutenant Commander (RN) and becomes pregnant with Albert.
By: C.S. Forester
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Codename Nemo
- The Hunt for a Nazi U-Boat and the Elusive Enigma Machine
- By: Charles Lachman
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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On June 4, 1944, the course of World War II was forever changed. That day, a US Navy task force achieved the impossible—capturing a German U-Boat. Called Operation Nemo, it was the first seizure of an enemy ship in battle since the War of 1812, one of the greatest achievements of the US Navy and a victory that shortened the duration of the war. A deeply researched, fast-paced World War II narrative for the ages, Charles Lachman’s white-knuckled war saga and thrilling cat-and-mouse game is told through the eyes of the men on both sides of Operation Nemo.
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LOVED IT. Great storytelling. Engaging.
- By DucatiRacer M.D. on 04-04-25
By: Charles Lachman
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The Restless Wave
- A Novel of the United States Navy (Scott Bradley James, Book 1)
- By: Admiral James Stavridis USN
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Scott Bradley James arrives in Annapolis, Maryland, as a plebe in the class of 1941 without a terribly good idea why he wants to be a naval officer, other than that his father was a sailor, and he wants to see the world, whatever that means. Scott and his roommate become fast friends, and, after surviving scrapes of their own making, the two fetch up at Pearl Harbor. War is brewing, and their class has graduated early. They have been sent to battle stations.
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A fine story, well told by this talented officer!
- By N. Carey on 01-25-25
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Six Frigates
- By: Ian W. Toll
- Narrated by: Stephen Lang
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Abridged
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Before the ink was dry on the U.S. Constitution, the establishment of a permanent military had become the most divisive issue facing the new government. Would a standing army be the thin end of dictatorship? Would a navy protect American commerce against the Mediterranean pirates, or drain the treasury and provoke hostilities with the great powers? The founders, particularly Jefferson, Madison, and Adams, debated these questions fiercely and switched sides more than once.
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BE ADVISED THIS BOOK IS ABRIDGED
- By George Carpenter III on 09-11-08
By: Ian W. Toll
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The Lincoln Highway
- A Read with Jenna Pick (A Novel)
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Marin Ireland, Dion Graham
- Length: 16 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car.
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I'm totally opposite
- By Meaghan Bynum on 10-10-21
By: Amor Towles
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Exhalation
- Stories
- By: Ted Chiang
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Dominic Hoffman, Amy Landon, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Tackling some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine, these stories will change the way you think, feel, and see the world. They are Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic, revelatory. Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine.
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Masterful and singular
- By Brian on 05-15-19
By: Ted Chiang
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The Last of the Seven
- A Novel of World War II
- By: Steven Hartov
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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A lone soldier wearing a German uniform stumbles into a British military camp in the North African desert with an incredible story to tell. He is the only survivor of an undercover operation meant to infiltrate a Nazi base, trading on the soldiers’ perfect fluency in German. However, this man is not British-born but instead a German Jew seeking revenge for the deaths of his family back home in Berlin.
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Outstanding
- By Bob K. on 10-24-24
By: Steven Hartov
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Table for Two
- Fictions
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, J. Smith-Cameron
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood. The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.
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I adore Amor Towles!!
- By Deb Mitchell on 04-20-24
By: Amor Towles
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You Never Know
- A Memoir
- By: Tom Selleck, Ellis Henican - contributor
- Narrated by: Tom Selleck
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Frank, funny and open-hearted, You Never Know is an intimate memoir from one of the most beloved actors of our time, the highly personal story of a remarkable life and thoroughly accidental career. In his own voice and uniquely unpretentious style, the famed actor brings listeners on his uncharted but serendipitous journey to the top in Hollywood, his temptations and distractions, his misfires and mistakes and, over time, his well-earned success.
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TOM SELLECK
- By Danny Harr on 11-20-24
By: Tom Selleck, and others
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The Wide Wide Sea
- Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution. Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment? Hampton Sides’ bravura account of Cook’s last journey both wrestles with Cook’s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration.
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Detailed story of third voyage
- By Sammi on 04-18-24
By: Hampton Sides
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The Premonition
- A Pandemic Story
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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For those who could read between the lines, the censored news out of China was terrifying. But the president insisted there was nothing to worry about. Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios. Michael Lewis’ taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.
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Why not Michael Lewis?
- By Brian on 05-04-21
By: Michael Lewis
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The Oligarch's Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Joseph Finder
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Paul Brightman is a man on the run, living under an assumed name in a small New England town with a million-dollar bounty on his head. When his security is breached, Paul is forced to flee into the New Hampshire wilderness to evade Russian operatives who can seemingly predict his every move. Six years ago, Paul was a rising star on Wall Street who fell in love with a beautiful photographer named Tatyana—unaware that her father was a Russian oligarch and the object of considerable interest from several U.S. intelligence agencies.
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Finder does it again!
- By jonesy on 01-29-25
By: Joseph Finder
What listeners say about The Oceans and the Stars
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- John Crawford
- 04-21-25
Creative writing
Great details of naval battles and a man’s love of the sea and a woman
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- Marsha R. Hammett
- 05-17-24
Great Book / Wonderful Story
What a great book-could not put it down - stop listening. I love the moral compass of Mark Helprin!
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- Fair Lady
- 06-01-24
I have no words…
I have no words to describe the beauty of this at once contemporary yet classic tale of sea, war and love. Just read/listen to it and you will see/hear. Yes, there are some brutal episodes, such as cannot be avoided in a military story. However the valor, decency, and soul of the main character in particular restored my belief that such honorable and truly lovable men do exist!
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- EUGENE R BLOCK
- 07-06-24
Pleasant surprise
Though spending 12 years in the service, I tend to not enjoy military books. This however, was a pleasant surprise and a perfect read for the week of July the 4th. The Narrator was excellent and I will seek other book read by them.
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- Dennis1228
- 05-27-24
Great story. Excellent audiobook.
Was excellent start to finish. Maybe as good as A Soldier of the Great War if not better. Loved it. Loved the audio. Will wait a few months and read it.
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- John Voyer
- 07-11-24
A great yarn
I most liked Rensselaer’s attitude about things: his courage, integrity and ability to innovate and improvise. He was the true embodiment of a leader.
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- Placeholder
- 10-08-23
fearless and beautiful
I devoured Mark Helprin's new novel, which you ABSOLUTELY MUST READ. Anyone who loves America and loves inspired writing and enduring values should not miss it!
If you are not offended by notions like beauty, honor and virtue, you will find this book courageous and fulfilling.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Beach Bum
- 10-27-23
Exciting and satisfying
My first experience with Halpern, I will definitely look into all his work.
The detail was there, but not too much. The writing descriptive and satisfying, the character development exactly as I like it, and the presentation excellent. 5 stars in my world.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Twain
- 12-05-23
Spellbinding
Not since Winds of War have I been so entranced—a lose yourself for a weekend immersion that both The NYT’s and Economists’ book mavens somehow missed.
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-13-24
Very good story
A bit too much ancillary verbiage for me. Loved the story line, less detail on other stuff
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