Start gifting
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Shop the sale
In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, shop our limited-time sale on bestselling audiobooks from April 22nd-28th. Don’t miss out—purchases support your local bookstore!
Shop nowAftermath
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn more
It's 2026, and catastrophe has struck from an unexpected source. The Alpha Centauri supernova has risen like a second sun, rushing Earth toward its last summer. Floods, fires, starvation, and disease paralyze the planet. In a blue aurora flash of gamma rays, all microchips worldwide are destroyed, leaving an already devastated Earth without communications, transportation, weaponry, or medicine.
The disaster sets three groups of survivors on separate quests. A militant cult seizes the opportunity to free their leader, known as the Eye of God, from the long-term coma to which a court sentenced her. Three cancer patients also search for a man in judicial sleep: the brilliant scientist—and monstrous criminal—who alone can continue the experimental treatment that keeps them alive. From a far greater distance come the survivors of the first manned Mars expedition, struggling homeward to a world that has changed far beyond their darkest fears. And standing at the crossroads is one man, US President Saul Steinmetz, who faces a crucial decision that will affect the fate of his own people—and the world.
Charles Sheffield (1935–2002) was a mathematician, physicist, and author of both nonfiction and science fiction. For his novel Brother to Dragons, he won the 1992 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. He won the Nebula Award in 1993 and the Hugo Award in 1994 for his novelette Georgia on My Mind. He was a president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and of the American Astronautical Society. He served as chief scientist of Earth Satellite Corporation, a company that processed remote sensing satellite data. He was a distinguished lecturer of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a board member of the National Space Society. Born and educated in England, he held bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics and a doctorate in theoretical physics.
Gary Dikeos is a voice actor and audiobook narrator living in Los Angeles. In addition to narrating audiobooks, he voices television commercials, documentaries, and animation projects.
Reviews
“Sheffield…has taken an often-used scenario and given it enough of a twist to keep the pages turning.”
“Sheffield clothes the most advanced speculations of modern science in alluring forms of beauty and danger.”
“Charles Sheffield has taken a classic hard–SF concept, applied it to the real world, and created a gripping story of survival.”
“Charles Sheffield is one of the very best hard science fiction writers in the world.”
“A fascinating and complex tale of human determination and survival…Sheffield provides a variety of unique voices that add a distinctive perspective to his story. Most libraries should add this well-written SF thriller to their collections.”
“Hard-science SF meets the disaster novel, and since the matchmaker is the accomplished Sheffield, the science is not hard going, and the novel is anything but disastrous…The characterization and writing are superior.”
“Professionally handled and ingeniously extrapolated and with engrossing plot elements, this entry is complete in itself but clearly anticipates sequels.”
Expand reviews