Mother of Eden, Chris Beckett
Mother of Eden, Chris Beckett
1 Rating(s)
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Mother of Eden

Author: Chris Beckett

Narrator: Various

Unabridged: 15 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/12/2015


Synopsis

“We speak of a mother’s love, but we forget her power.”
Civilization has come to the alien, sunless planet its inhabitants call Eden.
 
Just a few generations ago, the planet’s five hundred inhabitants huddled together in the light and warmth of the Forest’s lantern trees, afraid to venture out into the cold darkness around them.
 
Now, humanity has spread across Eden, and two kingdoms have emerged. Both are sustained by violence and dominated by men – and both claim to be the favored children of Gela, the woman who came to Eden long ago on a boat that could cross the stars, and became the mother of them all.
When young Starlight Brooking meets a handsome and powerful man from across Worldpool, she believes he will offer an outlet for her ambition and energy. But she has no inkling that she will become a stand-in for Gela herself, and wear Gela’s fabled ring on her own finger—or that in this role, powerful and powerless all at once, she will try to change the course of Eden’s history.

Read by:
Jayne Entwistle
Bruce Mann
Heather Wilds
Suzan Crowley
Nicholas Guy Smith
Lucy Rayner
Hannah Curtis
Katharine McEwan
Emma Bering

About The Author

Chris Beckett is a university lecturer living in Cambridge, England. His short stories have appeared in such publications as Interzone and Asimov’s Science Fiction and in numerous “year’s best” anthologies.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Andrei(Drusca) on April 07, 2025

3,5/5 stars......more

Goodreads review by Althea on May 20, 2015

This is apparently a sequel to 'Dark Eden,' which I have not read. However, I felt that this book worked perfectly as a stand-alone - I didn't feel I was 'missing' critical information at any point. 'Eden' is a colony world - one founded by a small group who apparently stole their ship - the details......more

Goodreads review by F.R. on May 06, 2016

I’d hesitate to call the ending of Chris Beckett’s ‘Dark Eden’ a cliff-hanger, but certainly it’s an ending that leaves you wanting to know what happens next. It was therefore somewhat disconcerting to pick up the follow up ‘Mother Eden’ to find Beckett intent on wrong-footing the reader. Yes, we do......more

Goodreads review by Steven on January 29, 2015

Chris Beckett's forthcoming novel MOTHER OF EDEN is the sequel to DARK EDEN, which won the Arthur C. Clarke prize several years ago, and which I discussed on my blog. In that blog entry, I give a larger discussion and background of Beckett's work than I will provide here. MOTHER OF EDEN is set in th......more

Goodreads review by Blodeuedd on August 09, 2016

What to do when you crash on an alien planet and there is two of you left? You have a few babies, but hey what next? Yes, euww. And then 400? years later there are a lot of people on this planet, and they are all related. There are some major birth defects too, and those without them are treated bet......more


Quotes

Praise for Chris Beckett's Dark Eden: 

“Poetic…Beckett renders the terror of the darkness beyond the forests with a riveting deftness that evokes all primordial fears of the unknown…There’s plenty here to intrigue and entrance.” New York Times Book Review
 
“A linguistic and imaginative tour de force.” —The Guardian (UK)

“Captivating and haunting…human plight and alien planet are both superbly evoked.” —Daily Mail(UK)

“A stunning novel and a beautiful evocation of a truly alien world.”  —Sunday Times

“Pure astonishment and pleasure, a storytelling ride full of brio and wonder.” —Locus 

“Dazzlingly inventive… superbly well paced and well written… packed with ideas.”  —Reader’s Digest

“Brilliantly imaginative…a superb entertainment, a happy combination of speculative and literary fiction. Not to be missed.” Booklist (starred)
 
“A fantastic novel…Beckett has created a bizarre world of astounding imaginative vision, grounded by fundamental human conflicts.” Shelf Awareness
 

“Riveting…a keenly imagined vision of the interaction between human nature and a truly alien world.”BookPage