Dark Eden, Chris Beckett
Dark Eden, Chris Beckett
2 Rating(s)
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Dark Eden

Author: Chris Beckett

Narrator: Various

Unabridged: 15 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/01/2014


Synopsis

On the alien, sunless planet they call Eden, the 532 members of the Family shelter beneath the light and warmth of the Forest’s lantern trees. Beyond the Forest lie the mountains of the Snowy Dark and a cold so bitter and a night so profound that no man has ever crossed it.

The Oldest among the Family recount legends of a world where light came from the sky, where men and women made boats that could cross the stars. These ships brought us here, the Oldest say—and the Family must only wait for the travelers to return.

But young John Redlantern will break the laws of Eden, shatter the Family and change history. He will abandon the old ways, venture into the Dark…and discover the truth about their world.

Already remarkably acclaimed in the UK, Dark Eden is science fiction as literature; part parable, part powerful coming-of-age story, set in a truly original alien world of dark, sinister beauty--rendered in prose that is at once strikingly simple and stunningly inventive.

Reader List:
"John Redlantern" Read by Matthew Frow
“Tina Spiketree” Read by Jayne Entwistle
“Sue Redlantern” Read by Ione Butler
“Gerry Redlantern” Read by Robert Hook
“Gela Brooklyn” Read by Heather Wilds
“Mitch London” Read by Nicholas Guy Smith
“Carolyn Brooklyn” Read by Hannah Curtis
“Jeff Redlantern” Read by Bruce Mann

About The Author

Chris Beckett is a university lecturer living in Cambridge. His short stories have appeared in such publications as Interzone and Asimov’s and in numerous “year’s best” anthologies.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Greg on October 14, 2013

Once again I'm a confused about what constitutes an award winning Science Fiction novel. This book? Really? The jacket copy and a couple of reviews that I noticed mention the interesting linguistic aspect of the novel. The copy gives a lighthearted assurance that it's not as difficult as, say, Clockwo......more

Goodreads review by F.R. on May 06, 2016

Who the hell decides where the line is drawn between literary and genre fiction? If one takes Chris Beckett’s ‘Dark Eden’ for instance, this is a beautifully written, magnificently constructed work of art, and yet because of its subject matter it will casually be shunted off to the ‘science fiction’......more


Quotes

Winner of the 2013 Arthur C Clarke Award for the Best Science Fiction Novel of the Year

“Poetic . . . Beckett renders the terror of the darkness beyond the forests with a riveting deftness that evokes all primordial fears of the unknown. . . . There’s plenty here to intrigue and entrance.”The New York Times Book Review

“Dazzlingly inventive . . . superbly well paced and well written . . . packed with ideas.”Reader’s Digest

“Brilliantly imaginative . . . a superb entertainment, a happy combination of speculative and literary fiction. Not to be missed.”Booklist (starred)
 
“A fantastic novel . . . Beckett has created a bizarre world of astounding imaginative vision, grounded by fundamental human conflicts.”Shelf Awareness
 
“Riveting . . . a keenly imagined vision of the interaction between human nature and a truly alien world.”BookPage