The Starless Crown

Moon Fall, Book 1

By: James Rollins

Narrated by: James Rollins, Nicola Barber

"The story touches on many familiar fantasy plot points—magic, an ancient language, an ability to commune with wild creatures, a climactic battle between the forces of good and evil—yet manages to be satisfying. It’s aided by a capable reading from Barber, who invests Rollins’ characters with a variety of British accents that help make each a distinguishable, real person."- The Providence Journal

This audiobook includes a special introduction written and read by James Rollins.

An alliance embarks on a dangerous journey to uncover the secrets of the distant past and save their world in this captivating, deeply visionary adventure from #1 New York Times bestselling thriller-master James Rollins.

A gifted student foretells an apocalypse. Her reward is a sentence of death.

Fleeing into the unknown, she is drawn into a team of outcasts:

A broken soldier, who once again takes up the weapons he’s forbidden to wield and carves a trail back home.

A drunken prince, who steps out from his beloved brother's shadow and claims a purpose of his own.

An imprisoned thief, who escapes the crushing dark and discovers a gleaming artifact—one that will ignite a power struggle across the globe.

On the run, hunted by enemies old and new, they must learn to trust each other in order to survive in a world evolved in strange, beautiful, and deadly ways, and uncover ancient secrets that hold the key to their salvation.

But with each passing moment, doom draws closer.

WHO WILL CLAIM THE STARLESS CROWN?

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

©2022 James Rollins (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

Amazon.com Best Books of the Year, Long-listed

"Rollins is what you might wind up with if you tossed Michael Crichton and Dan Brown into a particle accelerator together.”—The New York Times

"Adventurous and enormously engrossing."—NPR

"The story touches on many familiar fantasy plot points—magic, an ancient language, an ability to commune with wild creatures, a climactic battle between the forces of good and evil—yet manages to be satisfying. It’s aided by a capable reading from Barber, who invests Rollins’ characters with a variety of British accents that help make each a distinguishable, real person."—The Providence Journal

great except for the singing

the story is interesting and ill probably see it through to the end of the series, but the singing is just weird. also a lot of repetitive story text, such as the nipple and warm milk. i just keep coming back to how odd of a "power" to have in this Bridlesong. you have bad guys swinging swords and axes and some chick just standing there singing...weird.

Different but good

This is totally different from any other book by Rollins. He is very good at world building and characters. I will read the next book in the series when it's available.

Not for me

I didn't like the way the plot developed. I was actually waiting for the story to be finished.

Absolutely torn on this one

Normally, I don’t write reviews, but felt I had to this time. Be advised, this is a long book, so you really have to commit to it. It takes quite a while to set up the characters and plot lines, so be patient. Once I was fully involved I made it through, although the “big reveals” were a bit obvious. The narrator did an excellent job, especially due to fact there were all kinds of “new” words from the characters language. And if I never hear the word “keening” again, that would be fine also! All in all, quite an adventure. The big question, of course, is will I read book 2? Yes, but not right away, I need some recovery time!

Unexpected Find

I know who James Rollins is, but unlike most of the reviewers here, I have never listened to any of his books. I'm not usually in to adventure thriller. So when The Starless Crown popped up as a recommendation for me, I was a little confused as to why. I did notice that the book was narrated by Nicola Barber, and this grabbed my curiosity. Reading the description I realized this was book one of a fantasy series. I figured what the hell, and gave it a try.

I can see why Rollins is popular with fans of thriller and adventure books. He seems to be a very skilled writer. I found myself being pulled in by the story right away. If you're a fan of fantasy as I am, you know it can often be difficult to find good books due to the overwhelming output of poorly written Tolkien and Jordan clones and the well worn tropes that go with them. Throw in roomantacies, borderline YA fantasies, and video game fantasy, drudging up a good series becomes almost impossible at times. While the The Starless Crown touches on some well used themes of fantasy such as "coming of age" and the "school of magic", it doesn't dwell on them or turn the story into a teenage angst story wrapped in fantasy clothes. I found The Starless Crown to be an intelligently written and unique fantasy story for adults.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I am moving on to book two of the series. I see some complaints about the narration in some of the other reviews, but I honestly think Nicola Barber does an excellent job here, and she is the reason I took a chance on this book in the first place. So, if you are like me and wondering why James Rollins has popped up in your recommendations, but you are looking for a good well written fantasy book, give this a try.