Grail by Elizabeth Bear

Science Fiction/ Audio Book

Grail is the third book in the Jacob’s Ladder trilogy.  I checked out  Dust and Chill from my local library.  When I went to check out Grail it had been ordered but I had to wait for it to arrive and be processed before I could finish listening to the series.  I said before but let me say again.  I do not think I would have read the series but I enjoyed listening.  Elizabeth Bear has a way with words and descriptions.  There is a wonderful flow to her prose that made listening a pleasure.

I loved how Grail started.  Between the close of Chill and the start of Grail 50 years have passed.  Grail does not start on the Jacob’s Ladder.  It starts on Fortune or Grail with Premier Danilaw learning that a star ship is approaching.  He knows that it is the Jacob’s Ladder, missing for over 1000 years. Things are about to get very complicated not only on Fortune but also on the Jacob’s Ladder.

I wondered how Elizabeth Bear would handle arriving at a planet.  I found that I was very invested in the characters.  I cared what happened to them.  I wanted a solution that let them remain true to who they were. I didn’t expect the solution she found for the crew and passengers of the Jacob’s Ladder.   In some ways I was disappointed and in other ways the solution fit.  It was with some sadness that I said goodbye to Tristan, Mallory, and Perceval.  They live on in my memory.

Recorded Books produced Grail by Elizabeth Bear in 2012. 

Grail was narrated by Alma Cuervo.  

Chill by Elizabeth Bear

Science Fiction/Audio Book

Chill is the second book in the Jacob’s Ladder trilogy.  Here is what Goodreads has to say about the book:

Sometimes the greatest sin is survival.

 
The generation ship Jacob’s Ladder has barely survived cataclysms from without and within. Now, riding the shock wave of a nova blast toward an uncertain destiny, the damaged ship—the only world its inhabitants have ever known—remains a war zone. Even as Perceval, the new captain, struggles to come to terms with the traumas of her recent past, the remnants of rebellion aboard the ship still threaten the crew’s survival.

Yet as Perceval’s relatives Tristen and Benedick play a deadly game of cat and mouse in pursuit of a traitor through a vast ship that is renewing itself in strange and dangerous ways, an even more insidious threat is building in a place no one ever thought to look. And this implacable enemy could change the face of the ship forever if a ragtag band of heroes cannot stop it.

There are lots of surprises in Chill but few new characters.  There is less of Perceval and much more of Tristen and Benedick as they journey through the ship is search a traitor.  This middle book is a mix of the past and the present as the ship looks toward the future.  Like Dust this is a beautifully written book full of description and character development.   As a result the story is slow moving and finding the traitor takes the entire book. 

I said I would not have ever finished reading Dust but enjoyed the audio book.  I feel the same about Chill. What moves too slow for me in print is just fine in an audio book.  I checked both out at my public library and was afraid that I would have to read the third book, Grail, if I wanted to finish the series but when I checked the catalog I found that the audio version of Grail had been ordered at the end of February.  As soon as it arrives I will reserve and check out.

Recorded Book produced Chill by Elizabeth Bear in 2011.

Alma Cuervo read Chill.

Dust by Elizabeth Bear

Science Fiction

Dust has been in my electronic TBR pile since I purchased my first eReader 5 years ago.  I loved the premise:  A broken generation ship, a star about to go nova, and two women who unite to save the day.  Sounded like something I would love to read but when I started the book I did not get past the first few pages and never picked it up again.  Then several weeks ago I was at the library looking for a new audio book and saw Dust.  I will often listen to a book I would not read so I checked it out.  I am glad I listened but I would never have finished the book in print form.

Dust is not like any other book about a generation ship.  Nothing on the ship is as I expected.  The story is more about love and hate, reaction to change, and the personalities of the people and the AI’s on the ship than it is about getting the ship to move.  The prose is beautiful but often introspective.  The characters are often confused and as a result the action is confusing.  There are frequent changes in point of view adding to the confusion.  Having said all of that Dust is book one of a three part trilogy and if I could find Chill and Grail in audio book form I would finish the trilogy.

Here is what Goodreads has to say about Dust:

On a broken ship orbiting a doomed sun, dwellers have grown complacent with their aging metal world. But when a serving girl frees a captive noblewoman, the old order is about to change....

Ariane, Princess of the House of Rule, was known to be fiercely cold-blooded. But severing an angel’s wings on the battlefield—even after she had surrendered—proved her completely without honor. Captive, the angel Perceval waits for Ariane not only to finish her off—but to devour her very memories and mind. Surely her gruesome death will cause war between the houses—exactly as Ariane desires. But Ariane’s plan may yet be opposed, for Perceval at once recognizes the young servant charged with her care.

Rien is the lost child: her sister. Soon they will escape, hoping to stop the impending war and save both their houses. But it is a perilous journey through the crumbling hulk of a dying ship, and they do not pass unnoticed. Because at the hub of their turning world waits Jacob Dust, all that remains of God, following the vapor wisp of the angel. And he knows they will meet very soon.

Recorded Book published Dust by Elizabeth Bear in 2007.

Dust was narrated by Alma Cuervo.