Light cover art

Light

Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Light

By: M. John Harrison
Narrated by: Paul Thornley
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Listed by the Guardian as one of the top 100 science fiction books of the 21st century.

On the barren surface of an asteroid, located deep in the galaxy beneath the unbearable light of the Kefahuchi Tract, lie three objects: an abandoned spacecraft, a pair of bone dice covered with strange symbols, and a human skeleton.

What they are and what they mean are the mysteries explored and unwrapped in LIGHT, M. John Harrison's triumphant novel.

©2012 M. John Harrison (P)2023 Orion Publishing Group Limited
Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction Interstellar

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again cover art
Living Next Door to the God of Love cover art
Triggers cover art
Spider Shepherd: SAS cover art
The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Volume 1 cover art
Over Sea, Under Stone cover art
Wild Cards I cover art
Oblivion Awaits cover art
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4 cover art
Do You Dream of Terra-Two? cover art
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever cover art
The Eagle Has Landed cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
I am about 5 hours into this, and it seems pretty good in general, though lately my attention is inconsistent so I may need a re-listen to form a fair opinion. The narration seems fairly seamless with no obvious annoyances. The worst thing I recollect just now is one idiosyncratic pronunciation ("brillian-Tyne"), which counts as mostly harmless.

The reason I might not listen to it twice, or even finish it the first time, is something the Audible blurb doesn't foreshadow, which another site puts as "Michael Kearney is a serial killer on the run from the entity that drives him to kill". There are several jarring descriptions of mostly gendered violence - not lovingly detailed, but quite clear enough - set on Earth in the present day, more or less. There is also some future violence, but that doesn't feel (to me) as immediate or disturbing.

I don't doubt this is entirely justifiable and a necessary part of the narrative, but I'd have appreciated some warning, and so might you.

TW gendered violence

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

A master at work: a ripping space opera and a deeply affecting meditation on everything.

Oblique, beautiful & hugely entertaining

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.