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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The actual book The Art of War, not a commentary
- By Nemo71 on 12-31-19
By: Sun Tzu
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Fahrenheit 451
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Tim Robbins
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family."
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Wish I Hadn't Cliff Noted This in High School
- By Joel on 03-27-17
By: Ray Bradbury
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Greatest living "novelist". Top 10 narrator.
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Great book and narrator - bad technical glitch
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Can't rate it high enough (and I'm a tough grader)
- By Annette on 09-06-05
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Truly Masterful Performance
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Greatest living "novelist". Top 10 narrator.
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Great book and narrator - bad technical glitch
- By David on 04-11-11
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Freddy and Fredericka
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Can't rate it high enough (and I'm a tough grader)
- By Annette on 09-06-05
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Truly Masterful Performance
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Fed up with an outlaw existence, Calico Jack Rackam swears off the pirate life, but he hasn’t reckoned with Anne Bonny, a woman who would as soon stab a man as give him a good tumble—that is, unless he’s a pirate. Soon Jack finds himself out on the high seas again, with Anne by his side and his men spoiling for action. And when they capture a Dutch merchant ship, they pick up an unlikely crewmate as well, an expert sword fighter and topmast seaman who has a secret: he just happens to be a woman named Mary. Together they cut a bold swath through the West Indies.
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Love James Nelson’s work, always excellent!
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Perfect for first timer
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Digital Barbarism
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World-renowned novelist Mark Helprin offers a ringing Jeffersonian defense of private property in the age of digital culture, with its degradation of thought and language, and collectivist bias against the rights of individual creators.
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An writer makes his own case
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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
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Next War
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The nature of war is constant change. We live in an era of exponential technological acceleration which is transforming how wars are waged. Today, the battlespace is transparent; multi-domain sensors can see anything, and long-range precision fire can target everything that is observed. Autonomous weapons can be unleashed into the battlespace and attack any target from above, hitting the weakest point of tanks and armored vehicles. The velocity of war is hyper-fast.
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Eye opening perspective that every American should read and act
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Whiteout
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A missing canister of a deadly virus. A lab technician bleeding from the eyes. Toni Gallo, the security director of a Scottish medical research firm, knows she has problems, but she has no idea of the nightmare to come. As a Christmas Eve blizzard whips out of the north, several people, Toni among them, converge on a remote family house. All have something to gain or lose from the drug developed to fight the virus. As the storm worsens, the emotional sparks—jealousies, distrust, sexual attraction, rivalries—crackle; desperate secrets are revealed; hidden traitors and unexpected heroes emerge.
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Ken Follett goes Danielle Steeel
- By B. W. Larsen on 01-27-05
By: Ken Follett
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Searching for Franklin
- New Answers to the Great Arctic Mystery
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This book interweaves two narratives. The first treats the Royal Navy's Arctic Overland Expedition of 1819, a harbinger-misadventure during which Franklin rejected the advice of Dene and Metis leaders and lost eleven of his twenty-one men. The second discovers a startling new answer to that greatest of Arctic mysteries: what was the root cause of the catastrophe that engulfed Franklin's last expedition?
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Great story with poor narrator
- By A. M. Rado on 07-06-24
By: Ken McGoogan
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Mr Midshipman Hornblower
- By: C. S. Forester
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Shaking off this label, a shy and lonely 17-year-old, Horatio Hornblower, embarks on a memorable career in Nelson's navy on HMS Justinian. In action, adventure, and battle he is forged into one of the most formidable junior officers in the service.
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First rate historical fiction
- By Jason on 04-30-17
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When the CEO of the world’s leading artificial intelligence company is found murdered in his home, former Army CID officer Valerie Marks is thrust into her first case as a homicide detective. Valerie has a gift for reading people, a gift that has never failed her before. But that gift is put to the test when her instincts point her to an impossible suspect—an AI born from a secret venture with the Pentagon known as Project Nomad. To learn the truth, Valerie must team up with two men she doesn’t trust.
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Timely and Ominous
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By: Jeffrey Wilson, and others
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Crash Dive: The Complete Series (Books 1-6)
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Crash Dive: The Complete Series chronicles the adventures of Charlie Harrison as he fights the Imperial Japanese Navy during WW2. Gripping, action-packed, authentic, and filled with larger-than-life men and women of the Greatest Generation, Crash Dive puts you aboard a submarine during the war. You'll stand alongside Charlie as he proves himself time and again by keeping his wits and being decisive in crisis, though each encounter leaves him more heavily scarred for it.
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great series
- By Old Diamond Jim on 12-30-19
By: Craig DiLouie
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Tier One
- Tier One Thrillers, Book 1
- By: Brian Andrews, Jeffrey Wilson
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
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- Unabridged
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Story
John Dempsey's life - as an elite Tier One Navy SEAL named Jack Kemper - is over. A devastating terrorist action catapults him from a world of moral certainty and decisive orders into the shadowy realm of espionage, where ambiguity is the only rule. His new mission: hunt down those responsible for the greatest tragedy in the history of the US Special Ops and bring them to justice.
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This One's a Keeper!!!
- By shelley on 09-11-16
By: Brian Andrews, and others
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Our Man in Havana
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
MI6's man in Havana is Wormold, a former vacuum-cleaner salesman turned reluctant secret agent out of economic necessity. To keep his job, he files bogus reports based on Charles Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare and dreams up military installations from vacuum-cleaner designs. Then his stories start coming disturbingly true....
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Narration
- By Jenn on 09-09-24
By: Graham Greene
What listeners say about The Oceans and the Stars
Highly rated for:
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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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- Robert
- 08-22-24
Excellent story
Fabulous story based upon vast knowledge of history and Naval warfare.
Beautifully read!
An excellent book for both men and women.
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