Polostan Book 1

By: Neal Stephenson

Narrated by: January LaVoy

'Inventive' THE TIMES

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Termination Shock and Cryptonomicon, the first installment in a monumental new trilogy—an expansive historical epic of intrigue and international espionage, presaging the dawn of the Atomic Age.

Born in the American West to a clan of cowboy anarchists, Dawn Rae Bjornberg is raised in post-Revolution Leningrad by her father, a party-line Leninist who re-christens her Aurora.

She spends her early years in Russia but then grows up as a teenager in Montana, before being drawn into gun-running and revolution in the streets of Washington, D.C. during the depths of the Great Depression.

When a surprising revelation about her past puts her in the crosshairs of U.S. authorities, Dawn returns to Russia, where she is groomed as a spy by the organization that later becomes the KGB…

Set against the turbulent decades of the early 20th century, Polostan is an inventive, richly detailed, and deeply entertaining historical epic, and the start of a captivating new series from Neal Stephenson.

©2024 Neal Stephenson (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

'Inventive' THE TIMES

Praise for Neal Stephenson:

'He makes reading so much fun it feels like a deadly sin' New York Times

‘Stephenson’s reputation as a sci-fi titan is deserved’ Sunday Times

‘Ingenious and sometimes prophetic’ Telegraph

'[A] speculative-fiction virtuoso' Booklist

'Stephenson excels in marrying geek-speak with riotous action' Guardian

Moar! Gimme Moar!

Yet another literary masterpiece in the making! When is the next book, Mr. Stephenson?!

Great historical fiction of such an interesting era, such a fascinating east-west boundary exploration as a setting for such a striking narrative told by deep characters … oh boy!

The half told story.

The story stopped when it was about to take off.

A story with little or no connections to present days, which is pretensiously make you believe at the outset.