The Silent Stars

By: John Stilwell

Narrated by: Mark Daniel Delgado

Ancient artificial intelligences called Angels are the shadowy guardians of civilization. Over the long ages, humanity has become extinct and reseeded many times. This is the sixth epoch. Little is known about the history of the first five.

Responding to a 20,000-year-old radio beacon, an expedition is sent an impossible distance across the galaxy in the hope of recovering knowledge of the origins of the human race. An artifact is discovered in orbit around a dying star. What the crew of the Erebus discovers could mean the end of everything.

©2018 John Stilwell (P)2018 John Stilwell

How does humanity survive galactic extinction?

First, I have to admit, I have recently become a fan of Stilwell's work. I was given his An Ocean of Stars omnibus as a gift, then followed it by reading The Galactic Time Trap, both of which I highly recommend. On to the audiobook in question.

The concepts introduced in this book take a fresh look at galaxy-spanning human civilization. Where we have often seen many stories cover the need to colonize other worlds to avoid extinction on Earth, Stilwell takes this concept to a much larger scope. Humanity has epochs lasting perhaps hundreds of thousands of years before events outside of their control threaten to wipe them out entirely. So what is an advanced, space-faring species to do in the face of certain death? How do you place contingency plans to ensure the survival of the human race? What knowledge is lost between these epochs? The Silent Stars answers many of these questions, raises some new ones, and leaves you begging for more stories in the captivating universe Stilwell created.