Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • The Girl and the Stars

  • Book of the Ice, Book 1
  • By: Mark Lawrence
  • Narrated by: Helen Duff
  • Length: 18 hrs and 31 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (316 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
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.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
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.
The Girl and the Stars cover art

The Girl and the Stars

By: Mark Lawrence
Narrated by: Helen Duff
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

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.

Listeners also enjoyed...

One Word Kill cover art
In the Shadow of the Gods cover art
The Threadlight Trilogy cover art
Wolfeater cover art
The Shadow of What Was Lost cover art
The Malevolent Seven cover art
Montego cover art
Many Are the Dead cover art
Vampire Spirit: A Jerusa Phoenix Supernatural Thriller cover art
Found cover art
Infernal cover art
Fatemarked cover art
Chainworld cover art
The Forgemaster Cycle Trilogy cover art
New Spring cover art
The Fantastically Underwhelming Epic cover art

Summary

From the critically acclaimed author of Prince of Thorns and Red Sister comes a chilling new epic fantasy series.

Only when it's darkest can you see the stars.

East of the Black Rock, out on the ice, lies a hole down which broken children are thrown.

On the vastness of the ice there is no room for individuals. No one survives alone.

To resist the cold, to endure the months of night when even the air itself begins to freeze, requires a special breed. Variation is dangerous, difference is fatal. And Yaz is different.

Torn from her family, from the boy she thought she would spend her life with, Yaz has to carve a new path for herself in a world whose existence she never suspected. A world full of danger.

Beneath the ice, Yaz will learn that Abeth is older and stranger than she had ever imagined. 

She will learn that her weaknesses are another kind of strength. And she will learn to challenge the cruel arithmetic of survival that has always governed her people.

©2020 Mark Lawrence (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"An excellent writer." (Number one New York Times best-selling author George R.R. Martin)

"Dark, passionate, tense, with a female hero anyone could relate to - I was utterly fascinated! This is no pretty, flowery tale, but one of vastly different people struggling to survive when a hostile government comes to power." (Number one New York Times best-selling author Tamora Pierce)

"If you like dark you will love Mark Lawrence. And when the light breaks through and it all makes sense, the contrast is gorgeous." (Number one New York Times best-selling author Robin Hobb)

What listeners say about The Girl and the Stars

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    167
  • 4 Stars
    88
  • 3 Stars
    49
  • 2 Stars
    9
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    203
  • 4 Stars
    59
  • 3 Stars
    18
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    144
  • 4 Stars
    78
  • 3 Stars
    41
  • 2 Stars
    17
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Not as good as Red Sister

I will preface this review by saying that I LOVE LOVE LOVED Red Sister and the sequels. I adored them. I loved Nona Grey and her world and I was thrilled to step back into it. I wanted to once again live in Abeth and it's ever encroaching ice. And The Girl and the Stars started off strong but slowly devolved into something that I had to slog through.

Yaz is of the Ichta tribe who roam the coldest ice. Any child who cannot survive on the ice - including those who have one of the four bloods inside of them - are tossed into the Pit. Yaz knows she will not survive the regulator's inspection. She has seen that she is not as strong, not as fast, not as resolute against the ever invading chill of the ice as the rest of her tribe. And she is right. Down beneath the ice, Yaz discovers another world and questions everything she has ever believed.

So far, so good. I was enraptured, taken in by the story and the desire to know what happens next. But as the book went on, my interest waned. Predominantly because this book is way too long. I listened to the audiobook and it was 18 hours. Too long. This book could have lost at least a hundred pages. It is far too long for the fact that it essentially only has one setting and that there is never any down time: Yaz is constantly either in a fight or running from a fight. This book is 480 pages of:

Thinking about her brother
Trying to choose between two (three?) guys
Fighting
Thinking about how she's going to be in a fight

That gets old pretty fast. I'm not all that interested in picking up the next book. I'm still a big Mark Lawrence fan, but The Girl and the Stars just didn't impress me all that much.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Slow and repetitive

The story stars well with an interesting culture based on the Ice. The world is from another series and so is the magic system, considering this it was disappointing to hear the same story line within the book over and over again. Searching for someone - find them - fight - repeat. The story doesn’t move on at all and most felt like filler. Very disappointed.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not Mark Lawrence's best work

I finished this out of a sense of obligation and a hope it might live up to the Red Queen trilogy, unfortunately i don't think it did and i wont be finishing this trilogy. The ending felt episodic and the protagonist wasn't as complicated or likeable as I was expecting from this author.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

next

no time for a review, I need to download book 2, NOW.
MARK LAWRENCE DOES IT AGAIN

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

I’ve enjoyed other books by this author but found this a real struggle to get into. Not for me

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not compelling

I was disappointed in this book as I like Mark Lawrence but this dragged on, was repetitive and confusing. I won’t finish this series, it’s not compelling enough.
First time I’ve listened to an audio book narrated by Helen Duff and in thought she did as good job of the different voices as they were recognisable as different individuals.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Long winded

Great ideas annoying agonising of main character.
Concepts great and interesting but long winded and hard to follow at times.
Probs not going to read next book.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I got suck into the story and lived there with them until the end:)

Was bored and wanted to listen to smtg-not expecting to experience living underground and feeling all that adventure:) Thank you

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

lacking character building and embellishment

I like the concept of the story, but unfortunately it feels lacking to me. It jumps from one crisis to the next and even though the storyteller says 3 weeks has past, you feel like it happened mere moments ago. There is a tiny bit of character development but only for the main character, and extreme exhaustion is suddenly turned into feats of strength and endurance that would be close to impossible even for the most well trained athletes, let alone an untrained girl unable to access her powers.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

An interesting story let down.

The ideas and story concept of this are great. Very different, almost unique. But the use of language, POV, and characterisation are very average and let down what could have been a gripping yarn.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!