The Starless Sea: A Novel

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars | 18,808 ratings

Price: 24.75

Last update: 01-31-2025


About this item

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world - a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood.

Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues - a bee, a key, and a sword - that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth.

What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians - it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction.

Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose - in both the mysterious book and in his own life.

Read by Dominic Hoffman, with a full cast:

Dominic Hoffman reading the Zachary Ezra Rawlins storyline
Dion Graham reading the Sweet Sorrows storyline
Bahni Turpin reading excerpts from the Secret Diary of Katrina Hawkins
Fiona Hardingham reading The Ballad of Simon and Eleanor
Allan Corduner reading Fortunes and Fables
Jorjeana Marie reading Another place, another time


Top reviews from the United States

  • Michaela
    5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favs
    Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2024
    I was blown away by this book. Surprised By the twists and turns and couldn’t wait to read more. This book is stories within stories within stories. The past, present, and future. It’s mind blowing to me that the author was able to write such beautiful, meaningful stories that were part of something even bigger.

    I would definitely recommend this book.
  • SassyPants
    4.0 out of 5 stars Worth the wait!
    Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2019
    I am a huge fan of The NIght Circus and I have been eagerly waiting for Ms. Morgenstern to write a second book. Having now read The Starless Sea, I can understand why it took her eight years to craft this amazing and imaginative story. For the first half of this book I was planning to say that The Starless Sea was superior to The Night Circus. But the story bogged down for me and I had trouble fully understanding what was going on. I still don’t understand part of what was going on, but the ending was nice and not as confusing. As noted by other reviewers, this may be a book that you have to read a couple of times to grasp all the plot lines.

    This is such a fantastical story that a brief summary is challenging. Graduate student Zachary Ezra Rawlins, is an avid gamer and reader. And the son of a fortune teller. He finds a mysterious book of fairy tales in the university library. At least he thought he was reading fairy tales until one of the chapters describes an event that happened to him as a young boy when he found a hidden door but did not go through it. Intrigued and disturbed, he tries to figure out more about this book. This leads him to a literary masquerade ball in NYC and a meeting with a mysterious woman named Mirabel. There are also symbolic clues of swords, bees, keys, door knobs, and other things. This leads him to a romance, a secret society that may be up to no good, and finally to an elevator ride below the earth to a hidden library and the people who protect it. But nothing and no one is as it seems. Or maybe it is. And time does not work in the way it does above ground. While Zachary is experiencing this magical world, his almost-friend Kat is searching for him because he has been missing for some time. And that’s not the half of it!

    I continue to be blown away by Ms. Morgenstern’s phenomenal imagination. She creates and beautifully describes whole gorgeous worlds. One thing that I appreciate is that the author is able to balance her writing to give enough of a description of a place or thing while still leaving room for the reader to form their own images. Ms. Morgenstern also pays homage to other books (particularly Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the Narnia series), authors, readers, and players of fantasy world role-play computer games. I gave this four stars because I was getting irritated and impatient with the book about three-quarters of the way through. In some parts it was too confusing to hold my interest. In fairness, I always struggle to understand books that involve alternate experiences of the passage of time. It’s over my head. Also, I think that this is a book that is best read in large chunks. That would give the reader a great immersion experience as well as it may be easier to keep track of what is going on. My schedule refused to cooperate with large chunks of reading time. None of this means that this book is not worth reading. It is still a really good piece of fantasy. I also think that you can see that Ms. Morgenstern has matured as a writer with prose that perfectly fit the story being told. I will certainly read her third book, even if I have to wait another eight years!
  • Charissa Dawn
    5.0 out of 5 stars This book is Beautiful and Brilliant
    Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2021
    The Starless Sea is the second novel by Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus. I confess that The Night Circus is quite possibly my favorite novel of all time, so there’s a chance I may not be entirely unbiased when it comes to Morgenstern, but I did attempt to remain objective when I began reading.

    I fell in love with this story almost immediately. First of all, this is a book about books and stories and a beautiful one at that. It’s clear early on that Morgenstern was likely inspired at least some degree by Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind – she even referenced the novel early on.

    Another reason I almost immediately fell in love with this story was the author’s style. I’ve been trying to determine the best way to describe it all week, but I just cannot put it into words. This novel has a similar voice and style to The Night Circus. It’s magical, and almost ethereal to some degree, and it elicits this emotion inside me that I also cannot describe, but it just captivates me. Even after I put the book down, it was constantly on my mind and my fingers just itched to pick it back up and return to the world Morgenstern had created.

    Within the pages of The Starless Sea Morgenstern creates a world that I desperately wish I could explore. It’s wonderful and magical and I found myself trying to read it slower than usual so that I could savor every word. If you enjoyed The Night Circus, then I highly recommend The Starless Sea. I have heard many differing opinions on this book, but I really don’t believe fans of Morgenstern’s writing will be disappointed.

    • Best Sellers in

     
     

    All-new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (16 GB) – Our fastest Kindle ever, with new 7" glare-free display, and weeks of battery life

    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 5,590
    179.99
     
     

    Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A Novel

    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 115,783
    17.72
     
     

    CoBak Stand Case for 7" Kindle Paperwhite 12th Gen 2024 and Kindle Colorsoft with Hand Strap - Compatible with iPhone MagSafe

    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 3,632
    9.95
     
     

    Amazon Basics Multi-Angle Portable Stand for iPad Tablet, E-reader and Phone - Black

    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 35,936
    8.99
     
     

    DICEKOO Case for 7" Kinlde Paperwhite 12th Gen & Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition 1st Gen 2024 Release, PU Leather Cover wi

    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 136
    9.95
     
     

    Amazon Kindle Scribe (16GB) - Redesigned display with uniform borders. Now write directly on books and documents. With built-

    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 798
    399.99
     
     

    RF Remote Control Page Turner for Kindle Paperwhite Accessories Ipad Reading Kobo Surface Comics/Novels (White)

    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,497
    19.99
     
     

    MoKo Case for All-New 7" Kindle Paperwhite (12th Generation-2024) and Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition 2024 Ultra Thin Clea

    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 234
    12.99