
The Sunless Countries
Book Four of Virga
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $20.24
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Joyce Irvine
-
David Thorn
-
By:
-
Karl Schroeder
About this listen
The Sunless Countries is the fourth novel in the Virga series of hard science fiction space opera adventures
In an ocean of weightless air where sunlight has never been seen, only the running lights of the city of Pacquaea glitter in the dark. One woman, Leal Hieronyma Maspeth, lives and dreams of love among the gaslit streets and cafés. And somewhere in the abyss of wind and twisted cloud through which Pacquaea eternally falls, a great voice has begun speaking.
As its cold words reach from space to the city walls—and as outlying towns and travelers' ships start to mysteriously disappear—only Leal has the courage to try to understand the message thundering from the distance. Even the city's most famous and exotic visitor, the sun lighter and hero named Hayden Griffin, refuses to turn aside from his commission to build a new sun for a foreign nation. He will not become the hero that Leal knows the city needs; so it is up to her to listen, and ultimately reply, to the voice of the worldwasp—because an astonishing disaster threatens Virga.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Drive
- An Expanse Short Story
- By: James S. A. Corey
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A short story set in the universe of James S. A. Corey's NYT best-selling Expanse series. Now a Prime Original series. This story will be available in the complete Expanse story collection, Memory’s Legion.
-
-
Fun little short story
- By Carson on 12-28-21
-
Dune: House Atreides: House Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 26 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Capturing all the complexity and grand themes of the original, this prequel to the Dune series weaves a new tapestry of betrayal, passion, and destiny into a saga that expands the tale written by Frank Herbert more than 30 years ago.
-
-
Maybe better than original Audible production.
- By Robert on 04-25-13
By: Brian Herbert, and others
-
Lockstep
- By: Karl Schroeder
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When 17-year-old Toby McGonigal finds himself lost in space, separated from his family, he expects his next drift into cold sleep to be his last. After all, the planet he' s orbiting is frozen and sunless, and the cities are dead. But when Toby wakes again, he' s surprised to discover a thriving planet, a strange and prosperous galaxy, and something stranger still - that he' s been asleep for 14,000 years. Welcome to the Lockstep Empire, where civilization is kept alive by careful hibernation. Here cold sleeps can last decades and waking moments mere weeks.
-
-
A Great Idea, Poorly Served
- By D. M. ROBISON on 04-01-14
By: Karl Schroeder
-
Stealing Worlds
- By: Karl Schroeder
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sura Neelin is on the run from her creditors, from her past, and her father's murderers. She can't get a job, she can't get a place to live, she can't even walk down the street: the total surveillance society that is mid-21st-century America means that every camera and every pair of smart glasses is her enemy. But Sura might have a chance in the alternate reality of the games. People can disappear in the LARP game worlds, into the alternate economy of Notchcoin and blockchains.
-
-
The future you want to live in
- By Tim Morgan on 07-15-19
By: Karl Schroeder
-
The Colour of Magic
- Discworld, Book 1
- By: Terry Pratchett
- Narrated by: Colin Morgan, Peter Serafinowicz, Bill Nighy
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place that might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different. Particularly as it’s carried though space on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown). It plays by different rules. But then, some things are the same everywhere. The Disc’s very existence is about to be threatened by a strange new blight: the world’s first tourist, upon whose survival rests the peace and prosperity of the land.
-
-
TERRIBLE Narration!
- By Kayla I on 07-08-22
By: Terry Pratchett
-
Cage of Souls
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 23 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The sun is bloated, diseased, dying perhaps. Beneath its baneful light, Shadrapar, last of all cities, harbours fewer than 100,000 human souls. Built on the ruins of countless civilisations, Shadrapar is a museum, a midden, an asylum, a prison on a world that is ever more alien to humanity. Bearing witness to the desperate struggle for existence between life old and new is Stefan Advani: rebel, outlaw, prisoner, survivor.
-
-
Slow Start, Strong Finish
- By Jacob McCollum on 05-01-23
-
Drive
- An Expanse Short Story
- By: James S. A. Corey
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A short story set in the universe of James S. A. Corey's NYT best-selling Expanse series. Now a Prime Original series. This story will be available in the complete Expanse story collection, Memory’s Legion.
-
-
Fun little short story
- By Carson on 12-28-21
-
Dune: House Atreides: House Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 26 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Capturing all the complexity and grand themes of the original, this prequel to the Dune series weaves a new tapestry of betrayal, passion, and destiny into a saga that expands the tale written by Frank Herbert more than 30 years ago.
-
-
Maybe better than original Audible production.
- By Robert on 04-25-13
By: Brian Herbert, and others
-
Lockstep
- By: Karl Schroeder
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When 17-year-old Toby McGonigal finds himself lost in space, separated from his family, he expects his next drift into cold sleep to be his last. After all, the planet he' s orbiting is frozen and sunless, and the cities are dead. But when Toby wakes again, he' s surprised to discover a thriving planet, a strange and prosperous galaxy, and something stranger still - that he' s been asleep for 14,000 years. Welcome to the Lockstep Empire, where civilization is kept alive by careful hibernation. Here cold sleeps can last decades and waking moments mere weeks.
-
-
A Great Idea, Poorly Served
- By D. M. ROBISON on 04-01-14
By: Karl Schroeder
-
Stealing Worlds
- By: Karl Schroeder
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sura Neelin is on the run from her creditors, from her past, and her father's murderers. She can't get a job, she can't get a place to live, she can't even walk down the street: the total surveillance society that is mid-21st-century America means that every camera and every pair of smart glasses is her enemy. But Sura might have a chance in the alternate reality of the games. People can disappear in the LARP game worlds, into the alternate economy of Notchcoin and blockchains.
-
-
The future you want to live in
- By Tim Morgan on 07-15-19
By: Karl Schroeder
-
The Colour of Magic
- Discworld, Book 1
- By: Terry Pratchett
- Narrated by: Colin Morgan, Peter Serafinowicz, Bill Nighy
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place that might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different. Particularly as it’s carried though space on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown). It plays by different rules. But then, some things are the same everywhere. The Disc’s very existence is about to be threatened by a strange new blight: the world’s first tourist, upon whose survival rests the peace and prosperity of the land.
-
-
TERRIBLE Narration!
- By Kayla I on 07-08-22
By: Terry Pratchett
-
Cage of Souls
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 23 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The sun is bloated, diseased, dying perhaps. Beneath its baneful light, Shadrapar, last of all cities, harbours fewer than 100,000 human souls. Built on the ruins of countless civilisations, Shadrapar is a museum, a midden, an asylum, a prison on a world that is ever more alien to humanity. Bearing witness to the desperate struggle for existence between life old and new is Stefan Advani: rebel, outlaw, prisoner, survivor.
-
-
Slow Start, Strong Finish
- By Jacob McCollum on 05-01-23
-
The Mote in God's Eye
- By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
- Narrated by: L J Ganser
- Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mote In God's Eye is their acknowledged masterpiece, an epic novel of mankind's first encounter with alien life that transcends the genre. No lesser an authority than Robert A. Heinlein called it "possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read".
-
-
A great read!
- By J. Rhoderick on 02-12-10
By: Larry Niven, and others
-
Shards of Earth
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
- Length: 18 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade him in the war. And one of humanity's heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers. After Earth was destroyed, mankind created a fighting elite to save their species, enhanced humans such as Idris. In the silence of space they could communicate, mind-to-mind, with the enemy. Then their alien aggressors, the Architects, simply disappeared - and Idris and his kind became obsolete. Now, 50 years later, Idris and his crew have discovered something strange abandoned in space.
-
-
Not sure what the point was [Spoilers]
- By C. Andrew Hessler on 08-27-21
-
Steamborn: The Complete Trilogy Box Set
- By: Eric Asher
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 27 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A supernatural swarm. A treacherous scheme. A tinker's apprentice may be the village's only hope. This collection includes Steamborn, Steamforged, and Steamsworn. Grab it and crank up a whimsical thrill-ride today!
-
-
An Incredible Ride!!
- By Lady Meserole on 11-09-17
By: Eric Asher
-
Uglies
- Uglies, Book 1
- By: Scott Westerfeld
- Narrated by: Emily Tremaine
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tally lives in a world where your 16th birthday brings aesthetic perfection: an operation that erases all your flaws, transforming you from an "Ugly" into a "Pretty". She is on the eve of this important event and cannot wait for her life to change. As well as guaranteeing supermodel looks, life as a Pretty seems to revolve around having a good time. But then she meets Shay, who is also 15 - but with a very different outlook on life.
-
-
Deadpan narrator murders bubbly story.
- By Mrs. T on 11-09-16
By: Scott Westerfeld
-
Doctor Who: 12 Doctors 12 Stories
- By: Various
- Narrated by: Charlie Higson, Frazer Hines, Ian Hanmore, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Doctor Who: 12 Doctors 12 Stories. A brand-new 12th Doctor story for a brand-new 12th Doctor! Following on from the success of the 50th anniversary paperback anthology, 11 Doctors 11 Stories, this highly-acclaimed collection of short Doctor Who stories contains all of the original 11 adventures plus an exciting new 12th Doctor story written by best-selling US author Holly Black.
-
-
SPACE IS BIG, TIME IS BIGGER
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 10-06-17
By: Various
-
Perdido Street Station
- By: China Mieville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the center of the world. Humans and mutants and arcane races brood in the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the river is sluggish with unnatural effluent and foundries pound into the night. For a thousand years, the Parliament and its brutal militias have ruled over a vast economy of workers and artists, spies and soldiers, magicians, crooks, and junkies. Now a stranger has arrived, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand. And something unthinkable is released.
-
-
Brilliant, wonderful book -- horrible recording
- By James on 08-19-09
By: China Mieville
-
Wild Cards I
- Wild Cards, Book 1
- By: George R. R. Martin - editor
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 18 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the aftermath of WWII, an alien virus struck the Earth, endowing a handful of survivors with extraordinary powers. Originally published in 1987, the newly expanded saga contains additional original stories by eminent writers.
-
-
Dry Politics
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 02-24-13
-
Leviathan
- By: Scott Westerfeld
- Narrated by: Alan Cumming
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the cusp of World War I, and all the European powers are arming up. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ fabricated animals as their weaponry. The Leviathan is a living airship, the most formidable airbeast in the skies of Europe.
-
-
Wonderful, but don't forget to buy the book
- By Tahlia Merrill Kirk on 01-21-11
By: Scott Westerfeld
-
Foundryside
- A Novel
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Tara Sands
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle. But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been sent to steal an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic - the art of using coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience - have already used it to transform Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine.
-
-
Parts & Sums
- By CaffineFreeJAVA on 05-07-19
-
City of Golden Shadow
- Otherland, Book 1
- By: Tad Williams
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 28 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Surrounded by secrecy, it is home to the wildest dreams and darkest nightmares. Incredible amounts of money have been lavished on it. The best minds of two generations have labored to build it. And somehow, bit by bit, it is claiming the Earth's most valuable resource - its children.
-
-
Weird. Seriously weird.
- By Townsend on 05-15-15
By: Tad Williams
-
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1, 1929-1964
- The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time Chosen by the Members of the Science Fiction Writers of America
- By: Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and others
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, L. J. Ganser, Richard Ferrone
- Length: 28 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This book contains 26 of the greatest science fiction stories ever written. They represent the considered verdict of the Science Fiction Writers of America, those who have shaped the genre and who know, more intimately than anyone else, what the criteria for excellence in the field should be. The authors chosen for the Science Fiction Hall Fame are the men and women who have shaped the body and heart of modern science fiction; their brilliantly imaginative creations continue to inspire and astound new generations of writers and fans.
-
-
CHAPTER LIST to Help Find Stories
- By Lance on 06-07-18
By: Robert A. Heinlein, and others
-
Zero World
- By: Jason M. Hough
- Narrated by: Gideon Emery
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Technologically enhanced superspy Peter Caswell has been dispatched on a top-secret assignment unlike any he's ever faced. A spaceship that vanished years ago has been found, along with the bodies of its murdered crew - save one. Peter's mission is to find the missing crew member, who fled through what appears to be a tear in the fabric of space. Beyond this mysterious doorway lies an even more confounding reality: a world that seems to be Earth's twin.
-
-
Zero characters, zero plot, zero action, zero
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 02-09-17
By: Jason M. Hough
Critic reviews
“Inventive and solidly enjoyable… Schroeder paints his unique world with deft touches while keeping the story moving briskly.” —Publishers Weekly, on The Sunless Countries
What listeners say about The Sunless Countries
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Stef
- 05-05-16
Schroeder, Irvine & Thorn deliver, with 1 glitch
Schroeder is a hard science fiction writer who builts fascinating worlds AND populates them with interesting characters. Joyce Irvine, who also narrates the other books in this series, has a unique voice that I absolutely love. David Thorn is also a very competent narrator.
I did find it annoying that Irvine and Thorn often switch off narration in the middle of a scene. Whenever they switched at a point that wasn't a chapter break, it distracted me for a couple of minutes.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Just a guy that answers questions
- 04-01-17
Great Series Edge if Seat Stories
loved this series it make you want more. also read Ventus by the same author for more artificial nature and it's downfalls
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Julie W. Capell
- 09-17-23
More cerebral than other books in the series
I first read (correction: listened to) Karl Schroeder's Virga series as it was being released. Somehow, I missed this fourth book in the series, and so am returning after more than a decade. I liked how this book focused on a different set of characters and a part of the world that was barely touched on in previous books in the series. Here, the main action is set in a town named Sere that is located far from the large artificial sun that lights most of Virga. The people of Seer have adapted to the perpetual twilight and some of my favorite passages in the book describe what their lives are like. AND . . . tiny spoiler alert . . . there are some really great passages depicting how the protagonist, Leal, reacts when she sees sunlight for the first time.
A good part of the plot is driven by the politics of the city of Seer, which have become dominated by a group of refuseniks who deny that there is a greater universe outside of Virga. History teachers must only teach the curricula that is approved by the government, and books that do not conform are burned. This book came out in 2009 and while Schroeder is in fact a professional futurist, I'm sure he was just following in the venerable footsteps of Orwell and Bradbury, rather than actually foretelling the ascension of similar science denial we see now in 2023. Still, the echoes in current affairs were chilling for this reader, and it's thought experiments like this that keep me reading scifi.
In sum, I liked this book more than the third one, because this one focused on more cerebral questions and less on action sequences.
[I listened to this with narrators Joyce Irvine and David Thorn, both excellent. They co-narrated the previous audio book in this series, and there it made sense to have two narrators, as the action was moving between two different characters, one female and one male. That wasn't the case with this story, and I struggled to understand why the narrators were switching back and forth. It wasn't terrible, but it was a bit distracting.]
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- MikeFarr
- 11-17-15
Ideas you may never have run into
Possibly the best of the series And some ideas about The evolution of intelligence that you may never have heard of before. Legitimately new ideas, in addition to fine operatic story, this is truly a joy.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!