Book Review: A Million Suns by Beth Revis

A Million Suns

  • Audio Edition Free with trial
  • Hardcover $17.99
  • Kindle $7.42
  • Audible Audio Edition
  • Listening Length: 10 hours and 18 minutes
  • Program Type: Audiobook
  • Version: Unabridged
  • Publisher: Penguin Audio

I know I’ve missed posting articles these past few weeks, and some of you might have assumed I died or something. Don’t worry, as you can see, any account of my death have been greatly exaggerated. I promise I’ll make up for it with another edition of The Audio File, but for now we have to continue our journey through Beth Revis’ Across the Universe series. Specifically, A Million Suns, the second book in the series.

This book picks up the action a few months after the events of the first book. Amy Martin is settling into her life aboard the Godspeed, and Elder is settling into his position as leader of the ship’s crew. The crew themselves have been taken off the mental suppressant drug Phydus, and many are having to deal with their emotions for the first time in a while. Many of the crew are growing frustrated with Elder and there is talk of revolution. Meanwhile, Amy and Elder are on the hunt for clues about the true nature of Godspeed’s mission. They’re receiving help from a most unlikely source: Orion, the clone of Eldest who went rogue.

Okay, at this point I will assume those of you reading this have read, or at least are familiar with, the first book. So beware of spoilers from this point on. So, first thing we need to talk about is the narration of the audiobook. You may recall that the first book was narrated by Lauren Ambrose and Carlos Santos, but this time around the narrators have changed to Tara Carrozza and Lucas Salvano. I don’t know why the publishers felt the need to do this, but maybe they had their reasons. Nevertheless, it is always a big risk switching narrators midstream, or in this case, narrators mid-series. Tara does sound reasonably similar to Lauren, so that’s not much of an issue, but Lucas sounds noticeably different from Carlos. This was a little distracting at first, but after a few chapters I got used to it and it was a non-issue from then on out. Really, on the whole, they do just as well as their predecessors.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about the plot. Like I mentioned in my previous review, I really wasn’t sure that the story could stay fresh if the only place it could go is aboard the Godspeed. However, I’m happy to say that I was not disappointed and the ship proved to be quite an engaging setting. I enjoyed how we got to see that there’s more to Orion’s character than previously revealed. Same goes for Doc; I can’t give away much but you’re gonna want to keep an eye on him. As for Amy and Elder, I enjoyed seeing them develop as characters, and that their relationship progressed at a realistic pace. They both had their moments of sadness and self-doubt, but never wallowed in it and continued on toward their goals.

You might remember the “adrift if the engine stops” problem I mentioned, and that does get a satisfactory answer, but I can’t give that way without spoiling a big surprise. Still haven’t gotten an answer as to what the real purpose of the FRX was, but maybe we’ll get an answer in the third novel…maybe. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting twist to portray a revolution/uprising from the point of view of someone currently in power and trying to keep things under control. I can’t really say much else, but obviously I enjoyed this novel quite a bit.

All in all an excellent second book to an excellent young adult space based science fiction series. Pick up your copy today, but make sure you read Across the Universe first.

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