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House of Suns

By: Alastair Reynolds
Narrated by: John Lee
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Publisher's Summary

Six million years ago, at the very dawn of the starfaring era, Abigail Gentian fractured herself into a thousand male and female clones: the shatterlings. Sent out into the galaxy, these shatterlings have stood aloof as they document the rise and fall of countless human empires. They meet every 200,000 years to exchange news and memories of their travels with their siblings.

Not only are Campion and Purslane late for their 30-second reunion but they have also brought along an amnesiac golden robot for a guest. But the wayward shatterlings get more than the scolding they expect: they face the discovery that someone has a very serious grudge against the Gentian line, and there is a very real possibility of traitors in their midst. The surviving shatterlings have to dodge exotic weapons while they regroup to try to solve the mystery of who is persecuting them and why---before their ancient line is wiped out of existence forever.

©2008 Alastair Reynolds (P)2009 Tantor

What listeners say about House of Suns

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    4 out of 5 stars

Awesome book left me wanting for more

I took a while to actually read this with it sitting in my wish list for some time. Here is the description that would have helped me.

If you like your sci fi kinda fact based this is one of the best. The concepts in relation to time dilation and travelling for millions of years are awesome. There is stuff in there about robots and them being sentient. There are cool alien species. There is tech based problem solving (for all you fans of stuff like expeditionary force). There is a mystery to be solved that twists and turns. There aren't too many characters to get to know really. I liked Children of Time, Bobiverse, Red Rising, Expeditionary Force and I loved this one. Hope this helps you.

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7 people found this helpful

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Hard work at first, but so worth it

The concept for this book is so huge, so ambitious, that I'm amazed at the author's capacity for imagination. It takes a little work to grasp, and the book can be slow in parts, but the payoff at the end is absolutely worth it.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Galactic civilizations, robots and mistery

The begging and the end of the book where great, some parts in the middle could've been omitted.

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2 people found this helpful

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  • Tom
  • 25-03-2020

Interesting themes

I like this type of sci-fi - complex and intellectually challenging. Seemingly well-researched in the theoretical technology it presents. Epic in the time scale it tackles - perhaps more so than any book I've read. Wonderfully narrated. My only criticism is that it began to lose me a bit in the end... I think due to a lack of personal development by the main characters over the course of quite a long book and the sheer sprawl of the tale. Some new characters were introduced towards the latter half that I just didn't care that much about. Overall very good though, I'd recommend to other sci-fi enthusiasts.

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2 people found this helpful

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Loved it

It was a great storyline and I hope Alistair makes more in this series Thanks

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Mind opening

Very captivating, makes you think about traveling through space and time. and time in cosmic scale.

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1 person found this helpful

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Pan Galactic

Expansive swashbuckling ride spanning 100 millennia - had me finished in a week of listening!!
- Now, back to the real world 😊, let my brain cool down a bit...
WoW

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Great story but

One of the better Alistair Reynolds books but it contained a few too many foibles to make it a great book for

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Classic & very entertaining

excellent great character development. Damming space and time hard to distinguish gender but that’s fine

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    5 out of 5 stars

A wild ride

I am a huge fan of Reynolds (except the books in the 'steampunk' genre) and while this is not the Revelation Space universe it fits within this style. It is one of my favourites by him. A stand-alone book, you do not need any prior knowledge of anything. Just sit back and enjoy a vast canvas of story in which you can become immersed, and challenges your intellect. I often think about some of the characters from this book, and what they can represent in terms of humanity's future. On top of that it is a murder mystery which is never handed to you on a plate but is interwoven into the story. I get immense satisfaction from a book which challenges me but by the end I have the answers I hoped for. This is one of those books.

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