Winter's Orbit

By: Everina Maxwell

Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill

"Narrator Raphael Corkhill deftly navigates a range of situations and voices in this novel, a blend of romance, mystery, and space opera.... A satisfying love story with plenty of political machinations, this audiobook will please fans of romance and sci-fi alike." (AudioFile)

Ancillary Justice meets Red, White & Royal Blue in Winter’s Orbit, Everina Maxwell’s gut-wrenching and romantic debut.

A famously disappointing minor royal and the emperor's least favorite grandchild, Prince Kiem is summoned before the emperor and commanded to renew the empire's bonds with its newest vassal planet. The prince must marry Count Jainan, the recent widower of another royal prince of the empire.

But Jainan suspects his late husband’s death was no accident. And Prince Kiem discovers Jainan is a suspect himself. But broken bonds between the empire and its vassal planets leaves the entire empire vulnerable, so together they must prove that their union is strong while uncovering a possible conspiracy.

Their successful marriage will align conflicting worlds.

Their failure will be the end of the empire.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

©2021 Everina Maxwell (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

ALA Alex Awards Winner (Adult for Young Adults): Winner

"Everina Maxwell's writing has everything you could ask: impossible choices, divided loyalties, dry wit, and operatic struggle with bureaucracy. I don't know how she's managed to write a book that's simultaneously an elegant comedy of manners, a charming slow-burn romance, and an adventure in space politics, but whatever her secret, I'm wildly envious." (A. K. Larkwood, author of The Unspoken Name)

"Everina Maxwell is brilliant at creating atmosphere and drama. Her light touch and considering eye are applied thoughtfully, warmly, and yet without mercy to the failures of an interstellar bureaucracy and the people who both make those failures happen; to the difficulties of diplomatic ties between planets that rely on personal ties between human beings; to the ways people try to get what they want from each other, and the ways they fail to understand each other. The combination of sweeping space opera backdrop and real human drama is as compelling as it comes." (Emily Tesh, author of Silver in the Wood)

AMAZING

Already a near perfect book, but then it is brought to life so PERFECTLY in narration. Possibly my new favorite audiobook ever.

space opera done right

absolutely loved this book! fantastic from character development to political intrigue. highly recommended! it's not often i find myself rooting for or honestly worried about the characters. read this book

Excellent Science Fiction

If you want a massive LGBTQ+ Science Fiction universes, political intrigue, character driven story-lines, and unpredictable twists, then Winter's Orbit may be the novel for you. I truly hope Everina Maxwell will continue this story into a series and explore the characters further. We only explored Jainan in book 1, but there are so many things about Prince Kiem that we could learn about or his aide to camp. The universe is uniquely set up for epic Sci-Fi, I can easily see a series of adventures for all these characters from internal strife to revolutionaries/terrorist radical groups to clandestine subterfuge from other major interstellar powers as the story hinted, along with more details about the Resolution and its mysterious Auditors.

Winter's Orbit delivered a marvelous science fiction story, a very compelling character story about emotional abuse from a spouse and his recovery, a murder mystery with political intrigue, and introduced a wonderful cast of characters.

Lovely couple

I love the couple in this story! Although there were a few times I wish I could hit them over the head and tell them to just talk to each other!!!!

Fantastic sci fi

Great and intriguing tale. Sometimes a little confusing when it comes to the different planets/locations (?worldbuilding?) but very entertaining. Setting and characters are easy to root for and invest in. Absolutely worth a listen!!