Star Splitter, Matthew J. Kirby
Star Splitter, Matthew J. Kirby
List: $25.00 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.50

Star Splitter

Author: Matthew J. Kirby

Narrator: Jennifer Jill Araya, Cory Myler

Unabridged: 10 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/25/2023


Synopsis

A 2024 Edgar Award Nominee!

Survival and self-determination collide in this haunting, pulse-pounding science fiction novel from Edgar Award–winning author Matthew J. Kirby that spans both space and time.

“An intense, read-in-one-sitting kind of ride.″—Kirkus, starred review

2199. Deep-space exploration is a reality and teleportation is routine. But this time something has gone very, very wrong. Seventeen-year-old Jessica Mathers wakes up in a lander that’s crashed onto the surface of Carver 1061c, a desolate, post-extinction planet fourteen light-years from Earth. The planet she was supposed to be viewing from a ship orbiting far above.

The corridors of the empty lander are covered in bloody hand prints; the machines are silent and dark. And outside, in the alien dirt, there are fresh graves carefully marked with names she doesn’t recognize. Now Jessica must unravel the mystery of the destruction all around her—and the questionable intentions of a familiar stranger.

About The Author

Matthew J. Kirby is the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of the middle grade novels The Clockwork Three, Icefall, The Lost Kingdom, Infinity Ring Book 5: Cave of Wonders, and The Quantum League series, the Dark Gravity Sequence, and the Assassin’s Creed series, Last Descendants. He was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start, he has won the Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery, the PEN Center USA award for Children’s Literature, and the Judy Lopez Memorial Award, and has been named to the New York Public Library’s 100 Books for Reading and Sharing, and the ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults lists. He is also a school psychologist, and currently lives in Utah with his wife and three step-kids.


Reviews

Okay, wow. This was really great. It's exciting to see this kind of science fiction getting published in YA because it's kind of a rare occurrence. Star Splitter is sci-fi thriller exploring ideas of personhood and what makes us who we are in really interesting ways. For instance, if you teleport an......more

Goodreads review by Mallory on April 27, 2023

I will admit this isn’t exactly the book I expected after I read the blurb, but I think it was better than I could have imagined and better left experienced than described. I am so excited to see a dark, horror, science fiction story being written for young adults. The world building for both the sp......more

Goodreads review by Chantaal on June 05, 2023

Wow, it's been a while since a YA title had a story and characters that didn't make me feel like I'm just getting too dang old to read about annoying teenagers. 4.5 out of 5! Star Splitter is a great sci-fi novel that reads exactly like it was written for its target audience, unlike a lot of YA nove......more

Goodreads review by Lukasz on December 28, 2023

4.5/5 "I don’t care how many prep classes you take, or how many counseling sessions you go through, or how many waivers you sign, none of it actually prepares you to be burned apart by a laser, atom by atom." Wow. I mean, seriously, wow. I'm not typically a YA reader. But if there are more YA books lik......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on May 20, 2023

There's spoilers ahead, I just can't review this without spoiling. It's quite impressive to read 300 pages of a story that ends up utterly irrelevant with a character that manages to have zero personality even when there's 2 versions of her on the page. I thought this would be a cool space horror thri......more


Quotes

A 2024 Edgar Award Nominee!

A Best Fiction for Young Adults selection • A Kirkus Best Book of the Year • A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year A Core Excellence in Young Adult Science Fiction selection

“A twisty mystery of partial truths and unexpected reveals.″
BCCB

The expertly juggled storyline nurtures a tension that blossoms into a palpable sense of dread as the downright spooky nature of the disaster is explored. Themes of identity hit hard, as they come with high stakes. An intense, read-in-one-sitting kind of ride.” —Kirkus, starred review

Dual timelines imbued with believable hard science, harrowing action, and strong characterizations permeate Kirby’s breakneck adventure. Questions of personhood are skillfully elevated, explored against an inventive future backdrop in which cloning is the norm and the potential consequences of deceptively simple-sounding procedures come at high costs.” —Publishers Weekly


Awards

  • Edgar Award Nominee