Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Aurora cover art

Aurora

By: Kim Stanley Robinson
Narrated by: Ali Ahn
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Red Mars cover art
Bridging Infinity cover art
Dancing with Eternity cover art
The Years of Rice and Salt cover art
All Systems Red (Dramatized Adaptation) cover art
Children of Time cover art
Ringworld cover art
Pushing Ice cover art
The Martian cover art
Existence cover art
Fear the Sky cover art
Infinite cover art
Memento cover art
Aurora: CV-01 cover art
The Mote in God's Eye cover art
House of Suns cover art

Summary

Our voyage from Earth began generations ago. Now we approach our destination. A new home. Aurora.

Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, Aurora is the work of a writer at the height of his powers.

©2015 Kim Stanley Robinson (P)2015 Hachette Audio

What listeners say about Aurora

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    84
  • 4 Stars
    79
  • 3 Stars
    43
  • 2 Stars
    17
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    106
  • 4 Stars
    57
  • 3 Stars
    31
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    4
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    71
  • 4 Stars
    70
  • 3 Stars
    38
  • 2 Stars
    17
  • 1 Stars
    4

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Troubled science fiction

The story here is set a few hundred years into the future, as mankind has begun an expedition to colonise distant worlds. Technology is still limited and therefore generation ships consisting of a few thousand people are dispatched, their journeys expected to take upwards of a hundred years.

I struggled with the story, not that it is difficult to follow and indeed it was well written and well narrated, however I just could not establish what point it was really trying to make. This book falls into the category of the sort of space exploration science fiction that sends the message that Earth is the best we'll find and we shouldn't waste time looking elsewhere.

A lot of the science and ideas involved are very interesting, though in the end I found the story to be quite dull and ultimately a message that we should be glad of what we have got and to take care of the Earth. Not quite what one expects from space exploration sci-fi.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Despite great ideas, terribly, terribly boring

This is not an engaging or compelling book. Despite a richness of ideas and observations, the writing style is genuinely dull and boring and the very simple plot is sounds on and on and on, with little or nothing actually happening. I doubt I'd have finished this if it hadn't been an audio book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Really enjoyable

If you liked Seveneves and other interstellar space stories, if you can forget the last 2 hours, and if you can get used to the narrators accents (particularly when doing male characters) then you'll love this book! Slow start and painfully slow ending but on the whole a fantastic book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A very long journey

Would you listen to Aurora again? Why?

It's not necessarily the sort of thing you listen to more than once but I still enjoyed it.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Aurora?

No spoilers!

Would you listen to another book narrated by Ali Ahn?

Wasn't the best narrator but could have been worse.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

It's quite a slow one but it gets quite dramatic in the middle so I suppose that bit? And I guess the question of 'where is home?' is generally an emotive one.

Any additional comments?

It's quite slow-moving and I wasn't necessarily convinced by the speeches the ship makes about narratives etc. - felt a bit like the author was trying to force the work to be more meta/more 'literary' than it needed to be. I appreciated the attempts to create a coherent universe and to describe all the systems in it. I didn't totally love any of the characters, but there was a loving attention to detail in the descriptions of the many problems faced in settling a new planet that made me feel like I was experiencing the journey along with them. Wouldn't place amongst one of my favourite books but it's definitely worth a read if you're interested in the more mundane aspects of long-distance space travel.

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
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Icarus Falls, but survives...death of a dream.

A thought provoking story that suggests that perhaps the allure of interstellar colonisation may be doomed to fail.
A Hundred Thousand years of Homo Sapien evolution bind humanity to the solar system and earth.
Lifeless worlds with hostile atmospheres that will take thousands of years to terraform- longer than a container based society can survive.
Or hostile worlds with microscopic proto viruses, extreme climates and shot blasted landscapes.
The inevitable decline in the colonists own artificial environment spells doom .
Radiation, lack of biodiversity and a rapidly evolving bacterial onslaught.

The real message (and there is a clear one by the end of the book) is that humanity needs to look after its own homeworld first and foremost. It also suggests that a radical shift in our lifestyle and cultures is required to accomplish this balance.

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
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great

made me look at the world anew and question what bravery is and the folly of human endeavor

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
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant thoughtful novel

Not a perfect novel. But very engaging and grapples with really interesting subject matter in an imaginative and engaging way. I loved the way the characters developed (especially the main character) and I loved the way he dealt with the moral complexities of the predicament the main characters find themselves in. Also a great take on the interplay between humans and technology and humans and their place in the universe

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Quite the marathon. Proud to have finished it.

I'm not sure how I feel about this book now I've FINALLY finished it. I'm glad I have, it's quite the story. But I could have easily given up several times. It's a slow burner, with some huge science and thought behind it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Thought provoking story, if in need of editing

The themes of this book are very original if somewhat pessimistic - or, as one character puts it, darkly realistic - and are a refreshing change from the assumptions of many interstellar science-fiction. As much a sociological investigation of the question of interstellar travel as scientific and biological, perhaps more so. The themes in the book have changed the way I think about space travel, putting the arguably selfishly optimistic dreams of billionaires like Bezos, Branson and Musk into perspective. The first book I've ever encountered that seriously made me question if we should attempt interstellar travel or the colonisation of other planets, given the often ignored yet inevitable human cost.

The characters were interesting and relatable, and there is certainly a great deal of humanity to the story, both the good and the bad, which is often central to the themes of the book. The treatment of the ship's AI is also an interesting and unusual take for a somewhat dystopian sci-fi story, especially as it is the AI which (who?) performs much of the overt philosophising and exposition.

Unfortunately the book does drag on a bit and might have benefited from better editing; some dialogue and even whole sections could have been shorter or removed entirely (though I get the impression the way the narrative seems to drag on is somewhat deliberate to convey the constancy of issues and moral quandaries the protagonists face).

The narration was competent but average, with most male voices sounding identical and the voice of the ship's AI, which constitutes much of the narration, becoming somewhat monotonous after a point. The soundscape was interesting and added to the narration and atmosphere, and more of this would have been welcome.

I haven't read the author's other books so can't compare but overall this was a very interesting and thought provoking story that I would definitely recommend for that alone. A better audiobook performance and potentially a skillfully abridged version of this audiobook would make it 5 star gold.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Could be better

Interesting setting, but the story gets less interesting as the book continues. Annoying and whiny protagonist. The last chapter pointless.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!