
The Last Gifts of the Universe
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Robyn Holdaway
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Ayesha Antoine
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Chris Thompson
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By:
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Riley August
About this listen
A dying universe. A search for answers. An adventure at the end of a trillion lifetimes.
When the Home worlds finally achieved the technology to venture out into the stars, they found a graveyard of dead civilisations. What befell them is unknown. All Home knows is that they are the last ones left–and whatever came for the others will one day come for them.
Scout is an Archivist who scours the dead worlds of the cosmos for their last gifts: interesting technology, cultural rituals–anything left behind that might be useful to Home and their survival. During an excavation on a lifeless planet, Scout unearths something unbelievable: a surviving message from an alien who witnessed the world-ending entity thousands of years ago.
Now Scout, their brother and their sometimes-fearless, space-faring cat, Pumpkin, must race to save what matters most.
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Dalton Greaves is a hero. He’s one of humankind’s first representatives to Unity, a pan-species confederation working to bring all sentient life into a single benevolent brotherhood. That’s what they told him, anyway. The only actual members of Unity that he’s ever met are Boreau, a giant snail who seems more interested in plunder than spreading love and harmony, and Boreau’s human sidekick, Neera, who Dalton strongly suspects roped him into this gig so that she wouldn’t become the next one of Boreau’s crew to get eaten by locals while prospecting.
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Loved the Mickey 7 books. But this was bad.
- By s bell on 03-11-25
By: Edward Ashton
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Sky Full of Elephants
- By: Cebo Campbell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon, Erin Ruth Walker, Janina Edwards
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water. A year later, Charlie Brunton is a Black man living in an entirely new world. Having served time in prison for a wrongful conviction, he’s now a professor of electric and solar power systems at Howard University when he receives a call from someone he wasn’t even sure existed: his daughter Sidney, a nineteen-year-old left behind by her white mother and step-family.
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Ever wish that some folks would just disappear?
- By Alioop on 12-11-24
By: Cebo Campbell
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The Mercy of Gods
- Captive's War, Book 1
- By: James S.A. Corey
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The Carryx—part empire, part hive—has waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy in its conflict with an ancient and deathless enemy. When they descend on the isolated world of Anjiin, the human population is abased, slaughtered, and put in chains. The best and brightest are abducted, taken to the Carryx world-palace to join prisoners from a thousand other species. Dafyd Alkhor, assistant to a prestigious scientist, is captured along with his team.
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Incredible
- By Davey Francis on 08-15-24
By: James S.A. Corey
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Model Home
- A Novel
- By: Rivers Solomon
- Narrated by: Gabby Beans
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. When their family moved there, they were the only Black family in the neighborhood. The neighbors acted nice enough, but right away bad things, scary things—the strange and the unexplainable—began to happen in their house. Maybe it was some cosmic trial, a demonic rite of passage into the upper-middle class. Whatever it was, the Maxwells, steered by their formidable mother, stayed put, unwilling to abandon their home, terrors and trauma be damned.
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Best of domestic horror
- By LoneStar on 04-20-25
By: Rivers Solomon
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Heir
- By: Sabaa Tahir
- Narrated by: Vidish Athavale, Esme Lonsdale, Joe Pitts, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Growing up in the Kegari slums, AIZ has seen her share of suffering. An old tragedy fuels her need for vengeance, but it is love of her people that propels her. Until one hotheaded mistake lands her in an inescapable prison, where the embers of her wrath ignite. Banished from her people for an unforgivable crime, SIRSHA is a down-on-her-luck tracker who uses magic to trace her marks. Destitute, she agrees to hunt down a killer who has murdered children across the Martial Empire
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Good, but confusing
- By C Ricketts on 10-07-24
By: Sabaa Tahir
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Where Sleeping Girls Lie
- By: Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
- Narrated by: Natalie Simpson
- Length: 16 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In Where Sleeping Girls Lie—a YA contemporary mystery by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, the New York Times-bestselling author of Ace of Spades—a girl new to boarding school discovers dark secrets and coverups after her roommate disappears.
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Compelling and inspiring
- By Sandra G on 04-22-25
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Full Speed to a Crash Landing
- Chaotic Orbits, Book 1
- By: Beth Revis
- Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg, David Bendena
- Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Ada Lamarr may have gotten to the spaceship wreck first, but looter’s rights won’t get her far when she’s got a hole in the side of her ship and her spacesuit is almost out of air. Fortunately for her, help arrives in the form of a government salvage crew—and while they rescue her from certain death, they are not pleased to have an unexpected passenger along on their classified mission. But Ada doesn’t care—all that matters to her is enjoying their fine food and sweet, sweet oxygen—until Rian White, the government agent in charge, starts to suspect that there’s more to Ada than meets the eye.
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The art of the con
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 04-10-25
By: Beth Revis
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Gay the Pray Away
- By: Natalie Naudus
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Riley is so confident and kind, and she and Valerie bond quickly over existing as multiracial teens in a very white Christian community. As Valerie explores her feelings for Riley, she begins to see that the world she knows is a carefully crafted narrative. Publicly, the girls are close friends—holding hands in prayer, rooming together at a conference. Privately, they grasp at any chance to continue their forbidden romance—until they are found out. Now, Valerie must choose between staying with a family she fears will never accept her, or running away with the girl she loves.
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Stunning debut
- By Heidi H on 06-12-24
By: Natalie Naudus
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Floating Hotel
- By: Grace Curtis
- Narrated by: Braden Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Welcome to the Grand Abeona Hotel: home of the finest food, the sweetest service, and the very best views the galaxy has to offer. All year round it moves from planet to planet, system to system, pampering guests across the furthest reaches of the milky way. The last word in sub-orbital luxury—and an absolute magnet for intrigue. Intrigues such as: Why are there love poems in the lobby inbox? How many Imperial spies are currently on board? What is the true purpose of the Problem Solver’s conference? And perhaps most pertinently—who is driving the ship?
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A great little sci-fi mystery
- By Jon McIntosh on 03-25-24
By: Grace Curtis
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We Play Games
- By: Sarah A. Denzil
- Narrated by: Billie Piper, Dan Stevens, Shane Zaza, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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When the rules turn deadly, winning is everything. Only available from Audible, a gripping psychological thriller from the author of Silent Child, Saving April, and The Broken Ones. Perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, Lisa Jewell and Paula Hawkins. The perfect couple. The perfect marriage. The perfect game. Effie and Ben May have everything. Success. Beauty. Glamour. But beneath the charming smiles and expensive clothes, a twisted game is in progress. A game for which only they know the rules.
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Blah
- By Heather on 01-18-24
By: Sarah A. Denzil
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Bluebeard
- By: Jim Clemente, Peter McDonnell
- Narrated by: Joseph Fiennes, Karen David, Holt McCallany, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Original Recording
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In 1919, Kathryn Wombacher finds a lonely-hearts ad placed by one Walter Andrew: "Would be pleased to correspond with a refined young lady or widow. Object, matrimony.” Kathryn and Walter fall in love and marry within weeks. What Kathryn doesn’t know...is that her new husband is really James “Bluebeard” Watson, a notorious West Coast serial killer who catfished and married 22 women, murdering 10.
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Performances
- By HappyMom on 05-24-24
By: Jim Clemente, and others
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Light from Uncommon Stars
- By: Ryka Aoki
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: To escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six. When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate. But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four.
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Awesome with a few hitches.
- By Levi Fay on 10-01-21
By: Ryka Aoki
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The City in Glass
- By: Nghi Vo
- Narrated by: Susan Dalian
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The demon Vitrine—immortal, powerful, and capricious—loves the dazzling city of Azril. She has mothered, married, and maddened the city and its people for generations, and built it into a place of joy and desire, revelry and riot. And then the angels come, and the city falls. Vitrine is left with nothing but memories and a book containing the names of those she has lost—and an angel, now bound by her mad, grief-stricken curse to haunt the city he burned.
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No investment
- By Kevin Alan Wenner on 11-07-24
By: Nghi Vo
What listeners say about The Last Gifts of the Universe
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Joseph
- 12-12-24
The meaning behind this book is so hidden but once discovered makes you think about your own life in a different way
I read thrue this book with audible with the intent to find a sifi about what happened to the species before this , and i came to find that even in the darkest of moments we can find prove within ourselves in the laughter and joy of others . If your looking for a book about thrillers this is definitely it , but it’s also a semi sweet book that has death and kindness and new found friends that we may never find again. I wish you all the best read
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- Kemery
- 11-22-24
this author has an orange cat and it shows
best representation of orange cats in media ever
also the story is cool and well written and the characters are great and the voice is strong.
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- John Mendoza
- 01-08-25
A Strong Start That Struggles to Maintain Momentum
Riley August’s The Last Gifts of the Universe begins with a captivating premise and a strong sense of intrigue. The exploration of lifeless planets and the archival messages from extinct civilizations, particularly the Endry, immediately drew me in. The pacing in the first half of the book is steady and engaging, with the sibling dynamic between Scout and Kieran providing warmth and relatability. The addition of Pumpkin, the cat, adds a touch of levity to an otherwise somber and reflective narrative.
However, as the story progressed and began to focus more heavily on the subplot involving the dead alien scientist and their partner, Avran, the momentum faltered. What started as a poignant mystery began to feel repetitive and tedious in the middle sections. While these details were meant to deepen the emotional weight of the story, I found myself losing interest in this subplot, as it detracted from the main storyline’s urgency and the Archivists’ mission.
By the time I reached the ending, I was left wanting more—a more compelling and impactful resolution that tied the earlier intrigue and subplots together in a satisfying way. The story felt as though it had so much potential to deliver an emotional and meaningful conclusion, but it fell short of fully realizing it.
Despite these pacing and resolution issues, the book does contain moments of emotional resonance and introspection that fans of character-driven science fiction may appreciate. For me, though, the middle section lacked the focus and energy of the book’s promising start, and the ending didn’t quite deliver the payoff I had hoped for.
The Last Gifts of the Universe offers a unique and contemplative take on grief, legacy, and memory. While it didn’t fully meet my expectations, it may still resonate with readers who enjoy introspective and melancholic science fiction.
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- V. Nelson
- 10-04-24
Terrific audiobook!
I enjoyed the mystery, the storyline, and the relationships between the characters. The voice actors brought the book to life! I am looking forward to more books by the talented Riley August.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Geoff Calhoun
- 10-18-24
Underwhelming
Aliens: one race who were outrageously humanoid, one who felt like uninspired villains. An ending that felt rushed. An unlikeable cat who the protagonist couldn’t be arsed to leave on her spaceship during intensely dangerous adventures? Prose that was what I might expect if AI read a bunch of YA science fiction and borked up a novel averaging them all together. The presentation had some nice touches to distinguish the alien artifact recordings, but the quality of the production was not enough to overcome a story that fell flat. Skip it.
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2 people found this helpful