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Start giftingThe Stars Are Also Fire
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreHumans and their genetically altered descendants struggle to find their place in a universe controlled by a benevolent artificial intelligence in this brilliant classic of future speculation.
On a far-future Earth, a linked system of artificial intelligences called the cybercosm runs the planet and the universe far more efficiently than any flesh and blood ruler ever could, in essence rendering the human race obsolete. On the Earth's moon, genetically engineered Lunarians carrying the DNA of Dagney Beynac—a descendant of the legendary Anton Guthrie, founder of the powerful and visionary Fireball Enterprises—struggle to preserve their lives, their freedom, and their satellite's resources in the face of threats posed by encroaching humans and controlling machines. Over a span of five centuries, tensions have increased in the wake of the political and technological revolutions that reshaped their universe. And suddenly radical change is in the offing once more, as a secret kept hidden since the earliest days of Lunar colonization is about to be revealed—one that could effectively shut down the cybercosm and plunge the universe into chaos.
Poul Anderson (1926-2001) grew up bilingual in a Danish American family. After discovering science fiction fandom and earning a physics degree at the University of Minnesota, he found writing science fiction more satisfactory. Admired for his hard science fiction, mysteries, historical novels, and "fantasy with rivets," he also excelled in humor. He was the guest of honor at the 1959 World Science Fiction Convention and at many similar events, including the 1998 Contact Japan 3 and the 1999 Strannik Conference in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Besides winning the Hugo and Nebula Awards, he received the Gandalf, Seiun, and Strannik, or "Wanderer," Awards. A founder of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, he became a Grand Master, and was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
James Fouhey is an actor and AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator living in New York City. He received classical training at Boston University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He has recorded more than 150 audiobooks across a variety of genres, including science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, YA/teen, and biography and other nonfiction. James has even voiced a rapping kid dinosaur, much to the delight of his mom.