Polostan (Bomb Light, Book 1) cover art

Polostan (Bomb Light, Book 1)

 Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Polostan (Bomb Light, Book 1)

By: Neal Stephenson
Narrated by: January LaVoy
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $26.99

Buy Now for $26.99

About this listen

'Inventive' THE TIMES

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Termination Shock and Cryptonomicon, the first installment in a monumental new trilogy—an expansive historical epic of intrigue and international espionage, presaging the dawn of the Atomic Age.

Born in the American West to a clan of cowboy anarchists, Dawn Rae Bjornberg is raised in post-Revolution Leningrad by her father, a party-line Leninist who re-christens her Aurora.

She spends her early years in Russia but then grows up as a teenager in Montana, before being drawn into gun-running and revolution in the streets of Washington, D.C. during the depths of the Great Depression.

When a surprising revelation about her past puts her in the crosshairs of U.S. authorities, Dawn returns to Russia, where she is groomed as a spy by the organization that later becomes the KGB…

Set against the turbulent decades of the early 20th century, Polostan is an inventive, richly detailed, and deeply entertaining historical epic, and the start of a captivating new series from Neal Stephenson.

©2024 Neal Stephenson (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers 20th Century Action & Adventure Espionage Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Political Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Russia

Critic Reviews

'Inventive' THE TIMES

Praise for Neal Stephenson:

'He makes reading so much fun it feels like a deadly sin' New York Times

‘Stephenson’s reputation as a sci-fi titan is deserved’ Sunday Times

‘Ingenious and sometimes prophetic’ Telegraph

'[A] speculative-fiction virtuoso' Booklist

'Stephenson excels in marrying geek-speak with riotous action' Guardian

All stars
Most relevant
This is a fantastic book. I have read a lot of Neal Stephenson. I enjoy his style and the nerdy exposition. I love that he finds interesting corners of culture in his books to explore, whether it's treasure diving, currency, cryptography or in this case Polo and Nuclear Bombs. I also admire that he writes female lead characters and makes them interesting.

This book has a really good balance of exposition and story. The characters are interesting. The historical events are real and written in believably. He does love his WW2 generals to be in the fray.

Really looking forward to the next book.

A great start to an interesting angle on history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Can’t wait for book 2, fascinating time period, peopled with a cast of wonderful colourful characters. Excellent narration.

Great Read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved all the characters and time period and places that this story is set in

Driven by interesting characters and circumstance. I loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.