Star Song

By: Edward Willett

Narrated by: Amy Cau Nugent

From an Aurora Award-winning author comes a thrilling young-adult outer-space adventure.

When the old woman who raised him in a remote village is murdered, Kriss Lemarc finds himself alone on a planet where he’ll always be an outsider.

His only link to his long-dead, unknown parents is the touchlyre they bequeathed him, a strange instrument that not only plays music but pours his innermost feelings into the minds of his listeners.

When Tevera, a girl of the space-going, nomadic Family, hears Kriss perform, she is drawn to him against her better judgment and the rules of her people. With her help, though mistrusted and even hated by some of her comrades, Kriss seeks to discover the origin of the touchlyre, the fate of his parents, and a place where he truly belongs.

But the touchlyre proves to be more than just a musical oddity. Powerful, ruthless people will stop at nothing to get it—and Kriss and Tevera are all that stand in their way.

©2022 Edward Willett (P)2023 Edward Willett

Wonderful story with a fantastic narration

Star Song is a wonderful science, fiction, coming-of-age novel. The story is lively and dramatic with good and evil themes, pain and tragedy, loss and redemption, throughout. The production narrator, Amy Nugent, does a fabulous job with a different tone and accent for each character. Listening to the book almost feels like watching a movie, the characters are so vibrant and compelling. A definite must listen to audiobook. Fantastic

A really great story, but read the book instead

Ed Willett has written another really great adventure story, but he really puts his 16-year old main character, Kriss Lemarc, through a lot in this one!. The poor guy loses the only parent he's ever known halfway through the first chapter, and is attacked and kidnapped later in the story. He faces one disappointment after the other, but things go in his favor just as often, mostly in very unexpected ways due to his intriguing touchlyre instrument .There's a girl, of course, to make things even more interesting. The story unfolds at a rapid pace, and has twists and turns galore, so make sure you have a good chunk of time to listen, because it's hard to pause to take a break!

I was a little disconcerted at first by the female narrator when I realized the main character was a boy, but the narration was done mostly flat (without different voices or accents, etc), so that wasn't an issue for long. What was an issue was the editing. It was very obvious whenever Ms. Nugent restarted the narration, because no effort was made to normalize the volume level. The changes were drastic enough at times that I had to adjust my volume up or down. There were also unexpected pauses throughout, and very long silences at the end of most chapters (often 10 to 15 seconds or more). Both issues became more frequent as the story went on. It's a good thing that I really, really wanted to know how the story would turn out, because I was certainly annoyed enough a few times that I was tempted to stop listening .

Overall, I enjoyed the story, and I highly recommend it ... just get the book and read that instead of listening to this audiobook version.