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.
Skyfaring cover art

Skyfaring

By: Mark Vanhoenacker
Narrated by: John Moraitis
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...

The Starship Diaries cover art
Concorde cover art
The Flight cover art
Stick and Rudder cover art
Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge: FAA-H-8083-25B cover art
Harrier cover art
By Order of the President cover art
Gods of Tin cover art
Blue Gemini cover art
Floating in Darkness cover art
Bird cover art
The Wrong Stuff cover art
New Spring cover art
The Power of One cover art
Dangerous Lessons and Guardian Angels cover art
The Redemption of Althalus cover art

Summary

In Skyfaring, airline pilot and flight romantic Mark Vanhoenacker shares his irrepressible love of flying on a journey from day to night, from new ways of mapmaking and the poetry of physics to the names of winds and the nature of clouds. Here, anew, is the simple wonder and transcendent joy of motion and the remarkable new perspectives that height and distance bestow on everything we love.

©2015 Mark Vanhoenacker (P)2015 W F Howes Ltd

Critic reviews

"Read it, and you’ll find yourself requesting a window seat every time you fly." ( Bookseller)

More from the same

What listeners say about Skyfaring

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    79
  • 4 Stars
    20
  • 3 Stars
    13
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    5
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    57
  • 4 Stars
    27
  • 3 Stars
    11
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    7
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    65
  • 4 Stars
    20
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    5

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

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

How can such a fascinating subject be so dull....

This book was absolutely not what I was expecting, I thought it would be stories and talk about actually flying as I'm interested in just what happens on a journey from A to B but no. In my opinion it’s more a personal rambling that goes on and on relentlessly. This is the first audio book I’ve had where I’ve actually used the fast forward button…

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

Awful

This is Bad, it is badly read, it is meandering rubbish by someone who sounds as though English is not their first language

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
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • M
  • 26-05-15

Excellent read

very emotive and enlightening , has definitely rekindled my love of flight and planes .

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

Terrible narrator

Dreadful narrator - ruined a wonderful book. A real shame. Painful to listen to. Sounded like AI.

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

elegant

elegant is how best i can discribe this book, how it flows, how it is writtin, and how it was read...

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

Good in parts

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Not really. There are some really good parts and if it was abridged by a good editor then I think it could be a much better book for the casual listener. As it stands though, it is very wordy in parts and in the end just goes on a bit too long. After 12 hours I was ready for it to finish (and soon!).

Would you be willing to try another book from Mark Vanhoenacker? Why or why not?

Possibly, but I only have so many credits which means probably not. Why not? Well, much like some other reviewers I think Mark just tries a bit too hard in places. I've nothing against the guy (and I liked some of it very much), but I didn't need the literary references to appreciate that he is a very educated guy. Read one of Feynman's memoires if you want an example of an overpowering intellect who never strays from plain English.

Have you listened to any of John Moraitis’s other performances? How does this one compare?

I haven't, but I have no complaints about the narration.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

No - and to be fair I think this would be a difficult subject to do justice to in a film.

Any additional comments?

Mark is obviously a smart guy - He mentions his education, followed by the career in management consulting and I think that's maybe the underlying issue here. I can imagine what he would have been like giving a presentation - at the end of it you would have been made fully aware of just how smart he was. Perhaps that seems a little unfair, after all I did like a lot of the book. I do think that as a 5 hour book minus the flowery bits it could be a really good book.

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

For pilots

I read this book but hearing mark resd the words to me made the miles as I was driving just fade away.

such a brilliant book

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

Bryson of the Air?

Listening, I was strongly reminded of one of Bill Bryson'sc books. The same mixture of the personal and the informative, gently delivered in a way that keeps your attention and paints a vivid picture. The voice of the (excellent) narrator contributed to this. If Bryson had been an airline pilot and wanted to share his life, his love for the air, the details of his craft, and what I can only call his philosophy of world travel, this would be the book. And all this, I hasten to say, is a compliment.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

An amazing & interesting book

A very enjoyable book, even for pilots! The technical details are perfectly representing the reality. All I can say is Thank You! Loved it

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
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

I wanted to like this but unfortunately it’s overlong and quite patchy. There are some nicely poetic passages and some interesting facts but, as someone else has said, it would have benefited from some tighter editing.

The narration is pretty terrible. The narrator simply doesn’t know how to pronounce some words, especially non-US place names, and his attempts at French and Italian are tragically comical.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!