Ultima cover art

Ultima

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
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.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Ultima

By: Stephen Baxter
Narrated by: Kyle McCarley
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

 Fresh from his latest collaboration with Terry Pratchett on the Long Earth sequence Stephen Baxter now returns to the mysteries and challanges first hinted at in his acclaimed novel PROXIMA.

In PROXIMA we discovered ancient alien artifacts on the planet of Per Ardua - hatches that allowed us to step across light years of space as if we were stepping into another room. The universe opened up to us. Now in ULTIMA the consequences of this new freedom make themselves felt. And we discover that there are minds in the universe that are billions of years old and they have a plan for us. For some of us. But as we learn the true nature of the universe we also discover that we have countless pasts all meeting in this present and that our future is terrifyingly finite. It's time for us to fight to take back control.

This is grand scale, big idea SF of the best possible sort. It is set to build on the massive success of PROXIMA and define Stephen Baxter's work going forward.

Read by Kyle McCarley

(p) 2014 Tantor, Inc©2014 Stephen Baxter Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Space Exploration Space Opera Fiction Mind-bending

Listeners also enjoyed...

 World Engines: Destroyer cover art
Eon cover art
The Thousand Earths cover art
The Event cover art
Time's Eye cover art
A.I. Destroyer cover art
Footfall cover art
Veiled Alliances cover art
The Forge of God cover art
Titanborn cover art
Bridging Infinity cover art
Hyperion cover art
The Land: Founding: A LitRPG Saga cover art
Pandemic cover art
Elminster: The Making of a Mage cover art
Off to Be the Wizard cover art

Critic reviews

[Stephen Baxter] is one of the few still producing massive, fastidiously textured SF epics that engage the intelligence of the reader. Ideas come thick and fast, and an exhilarating sense of wonder is guaranteed.
Stephen Baxter is an incredibly skilled author - a successor to Arthur C Clarke and Philip K Dick who has kept me entertained for years with his clever books written around huge ideas and concepts.
Ultima is a tour-de-force of grand Space Opera, where an unbridled enthusiasm and super-long timelines create a tale full of wonder and cool imaginings. Whilst enjoying the travelogue, it is clear that, in the finest Clarkean tradition, the joy of discovery leads to even greater mysteries to be understood. Ultima is great fun. I loved this book, even more than the first, and I really want to read the next book as soon as possible. Definitely one of my favourites of 2014.
this is a hard SF novel that battles bravely with big ideas. With every passing year, the oft-made remark that Baxter is Arthur C. Clarke's heir seems more and more apt
All stars
Most relevant
Now the voices are a bit suspect and the story a bit odd, I nearly returned this book and have returned scores but hey once you get into this book it's a keeper.

Now this book is good enough for me to want to leave a review despite the stupid system saying I have not typed enough

Starts a bit rubbishand crappy voices buy BUY THIS

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

Would you consider the audio edition of Ultima to be better than the print version?

The Continuing story takes you to other worlds, with great ideas about science and tech. These two books are a real treat.
Could I have expected more from the Narrator, not at all, Kyle McCarley managed to keep me going through start of the first book Proxima, and complimented the second book with an impressive performance.

Great Followup Story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really enjoyed this and the broad variety of languages and accents made it very rich. "Why, I remember once on campaign" still makes me laugh. Slightly rushed and complicated towards the end which was a slight let down

Good book I was engrossed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great story great imagination great over all enjoyed the journey

Grand in scale and disruptive problem solving for the universe and a maybe if out there possibility

Big

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This audio-book taught me the importance of previewing the narrator, Will Wheaton's reading of Ready Player One was fantastic, but this is very poor with many annoyances. Check before you buy

Narration lets it down

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews