The Starless Sea

A Novel

By: Erin Morgenstern

Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman, Various

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world—a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life.

Read by Dominic Hoffman, with a full cast:
Dominic Hoffman reading the Zachary Ezra Rawlins storyline
Dion Graham reading the Sweet Sorrows storyline
Bahni Turpin reading excerpts from the Secret Diary of Katrina Hawkins
Fiona Hardingham reading The Ballad of Simon and Eleanor
Allan Corduner reading Fortunes and Fables
Jorjeana Marie reading Another place, another time

A Story in a Story About Stories

Before reading this, it is important to know that it is a very stylized piece of art. Not everyone who looks at it will understand it, and not everyone who understands it will like it. This being said, I found the experience to be mystifying and amazing. The author definitely captures a magical feeling of being "lost" within a story, wrapping several parts of the story in layered metaphors, and often times making the reader feel as lost as the characters themselves.

The Starless Sea is an experience of a story, and like many stories about literature, it plays with the idea of storytelling. This creative storytelling creates a polarizing experience. Near the end of the book is a very confusing sequence of events- told in a very unusual manner, and it is at this point where several readers became lost, and put down this adventure altogether.

I would recommend this book to readers who want a challenge, who want to experience a dark magical world, and to those who appreciate a more avant-garde literary experience.

This door isn't for everyone, but opening it will lead to one of your favorite, or maybe least favorite books.

Loved Night Circus, but...

I'll start off with, I adore The Night Circus and was thrilled to see a new book by Morgenstern. The narration for Starless Sea is lovely, and we were off to a good start. However, by about halfway in, I was too disengaged in the story to want to finish. This is a pity, because I wanted this story so badly. The dialogue is stilted, and the stories within stories within stories, rather than nesting like dolls, bounced me around too much to really become invested. I so wish I enjoyed this, but I simply couldn't finish.

Mysterious

The performance was exceptional. I didn't think I'd like the different voices, but they were extremely well matched to the content. The story is a mystery from beginning to end, not in a traditional sense, more like magical realism, where you are never sure if what is happening is really happening or not. Morgenstern's use of language is engaging and seductive. This was an unusual book for me and the performance is what kept my attention engaged. The author is gifted with a magical quality to her work.

Fantastic!

I loved The Night Circus so much, that I was afraid this wouldn't live up to it. I was wrong. What an original, beautiful story!

amazing kick-ass book

It was beyond wonderful. I will re-visit it in a couple of months, it was such a complicated story. My favorite type of book. Full of twists and turns and each twist has a bunch of turns and the turns have a bunch of twists. As perfect as The Night Circus. Bravo Erin Morgenstern. Another classic fantasy!