Ancestral Night

A White Space Novel

By: Elizabeth Bear

Narrated by: Nneka Okoye

A space salvager and her partner make the discovery of a lifetime that just might change the universe in this wild, big-ideas space opera from multi award-winning author Elizabeth Bear.

Haimey Dz thinks she knows what she wants.
She thinks she knows who she is.
She is wrong.

A routine salvage mission uncovers evidence of a terrible crime and relics of a powerful ancient technology, just as Haimey and her small crew run afoul of pirates at the outer limits of the Milky Way and find themselves both on the run, and in possession of ancient, universe-changing technology.
When the authorities prove corrupt, it becomes clear that Haimey is the only one who can protect her galaxy-spanning civilisation from its potential power - and from the revolutionaries who want to use it to seed terror and war. But doing so will take her from the event horizon of the super-massive black hole at the galaxy's core to the infinite, empty spaces at its edge. Along the way, she'll have to uncover the secrets of ancient intelligences lost to time as well as her own lost secrets, which she will wish had remained hidden from her forever . . .

Energetic and electrifying, Ancestral Night is a dazzling new space opera, sure to delight fans of Alastair Reynolds, Iain M. Banks, and Peter F. Hamilton.

Praise for Elizabeth Bear

'Gripping, perfectly balanced, and highly recommended' Kirkus

'Like the best of speculative fiction, Bear has created a fascinating and complete universe
that blends high-tech gadgetry with Old World adventure and political collusion' Publishers Weekly©2019 Elizabeth Bear (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group

Strong character driven story

I love Elizabeth Bears science fiction and fantasy stories but this White Space series is one of my favourites. On a par with Ursula LeGuin’s story telling genius. Ancestral Night’s success comes from Bear’s successful weaving together of alternative sociopolitical and relational systems that serve as a critique and reflection on current models with an excellent narrative tale. Exactly what the best science and speculative fiction does.
This series remains one of my favourites after several rereadings. I just wish more of her stories were available on Audible in Australia.

The banter and endless internal dialog

This book could have been half the size. I think i understand what the author is doing, but the story doest match. There are better ways to explore the topics in the book. But as thougthts and explainations of the main character it just doesn’t work for me. When I catch myself fast forwarding in a book it has failed. Its a page turner in a bad way.