Steven Barnes has 5 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.9★ across 18 ratings. The most-rated is The Legacy of Heorot.
The Legacy of Heorot
Summary
Best-selling science fiction superstars Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle combine their talents with those of Steven Barnes in an extraordinary adventure of humankind’s first outpost in the farthest reaches of space. Light years from Earth, colonists land on a planet they name Avalon. It seems like a paradise - until native creatures savagely attack. It will take every bit of intelligence, courage, and military-style discipline to survive.
©1987 Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Starborn and Godsons
Summary
The long-awaited conclusion of the Heorot series from genre legends Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes Avalon was thriving. The cold sleep colonists from Earth had settled on a verdant, livable world. The fast and cunning predators humans named “grendels” were under control, and the mainland outposts well established. Avalon’s new mainland hydroelectric power station was nearly complete, and when on-line would compensate for the nuclear power systems lost in the Grendel Wars. Humans would have power, and with power came the ability to make all the necessities for life. They would survive. They would not survive as a spacefaring people. What they were losing faster than they knew was the ability to get to space. But unbeknownst to the planet-bound humans, something was moving out there in the stars, decelerating at a rate impossible for a natural object. And its destination was Avalon. The most probable origin was Earth’s solar system. This is a novel of first contact - between the human Starborn and the self-named Godsons who followed on, between the first generation of Avalon-born humans and their descendants, and between humans and the almost ineffably alien species native to their new world....
©2020 Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes. Introduction © 2020 by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing
Star Wars: The Cestus Deception
Summary
Ord Cestus, a planet mostly barren and inhospitable to life, was first colonized as a prison world, until a handful of hardy pioneers discovered its rich ore deposits and managed to build up a successful droid-manufacturing industry. But when the Clone Wars erupted, bringing severe rationing of imported resources and a Republic ban on the production of battle droids, Ord Cestus was threatened with imminent economic collapse. Enter the Confederacy of Independent Systems - the Separatists - with a life-saving offer to purchase a generous quantity of the planet's most lucrative export: bio-droids. Possessed of tactical capabilities that rival the fighting abilities of even the most advanced Jedi, these sophisticated, techno-organic hybrid units would prove a most formidable weapon if ever deployed for military use. Determined to halt the bio-droid sale, but fearing a show of force will result in a political backlash, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine dispatches a team of envoys, led by Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. But if all else fails, the Republic will not hesitate to launch a full-scale attack and wipe out not only the means of bio-droid production, but countless lives as well, to demonstrate the consequences of disloyalty. For Obi-Wan, the prospect of such wholesale slaughter only serves to fuel his growing suspicions about the sinister path the Republic seems to be taking. As the leaders of Ord Cestus refuse to capitulate and Palpatine rapidly loses patience, Obi-Wan's hopes of a peaceful resolution are dwindling. Now, facing a crisis of conscience, Obi-Wan must find the wisdom and strength to prevent a bloodbath and safeguard the Republic while abiding by the ancient code to which he has pledged his life.
©2004 Lucasfilm Ltd. and TM (P)2004 Lucasfilm Ltd. and TM. Random House Audio, a division of Random House Inc.
The Secret of Black Ship Island
Summary
This novella by three celebrated authors in the science-fiction genre is set between the events of The Legacy of Heorot - which Tom Clancy called "outstanding" - and Beowulf’s Children. The oldest children of the settlers on Avalon are now in their late teens and want independence from their parents and guardians. And they especially don’t want them around for the initiation ceremony held on Black Ship Island for the younger children just reaching their teens. But when previously unknown creatures make their deadly appearance, things go horribly wrong.
©2012 Jerry Pournelle, Jerry Pournelle, and Larry Niven (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc
Beowulf's Children
Summary
A powerhouse trio of science fiction greats has united to further explore the planet Avalon, first introduced in their classic novel The Legacy of Heorot. "Once upon a long, long time ago, our parents and grandparents left a place called Earth. They traveled across the stars in a ship called Geographic to find paradise." A new generation is growing up on the island paradise of Camelot, ignorant of the Great Grendel Wars fought when their parents and grandparents first arrived on Earth. Setting out to explore the mainland, this group of young rebels feels ready to fight any grendels that get in their way. On Avalon, however, there are monsters that dwarf the ones their parents fought, and as the group will soon learn, monsters also dwell in the human heart. Avalon does not give up her secrets easily, and some of those mysteries are wicked as sin and blacker than the grave.
©1995 Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.