{"id":10062,"date":"2025-12-08T00:06:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T06:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=10062"},"modified":"2025-12-08T14:02:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T20:02:21","slug":"prometheus-finalist-author-devon-eriksen-releases-audiobook-of-theft-of-fire-but-what-about-the-sequel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/prometheus-finalist-author-devon-eriksen-releases-audiobook-of-theft-of-fire-but-what-about-the-sequel\/","title":{"rendered":"Prometheus finalist author Devon Eriksen releases audiobook of Theft of Fire (but what about the sequel?)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Theft of Fire,<\/i> a 2024 Prometheus Best Novel finalist, is now available as an audiobook.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Author Devon Eriksen has announced the belated recording and availability of the audiobook, which is available on Apple Books, Google Play and Kobo.<\/p>\n

Billed as the first novel in Eriksen\u2019s Orbital Space series and blending hard SF, romance, mystery, suspense and even comedy, Theft of Fire <\/i>offers a Heinleinesque space opera portraying a free-frontier space culture where big risks can lead to big rewards.<\/p>\n

“Was it easy? No. Was it cheap? Also no. But thanks to the support of Kickstarter backers, the Theft of Fire:<\/i> Orbital Space #1 audiobook exists, and I am so delighted to announce it now,\u201d publicist Christine Eriksen wrote in a blog update on Eriksen’s website, devoneriksen.com<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Devon directed three actors – Dain, Emma and Ashley – in the audiobook to bring to life the three central characters in Theft of Fire.
\n<\/i>
\n\u201cPeople with hundreds of hours of audiobook listening under their belts are saying this is the best audiobook they’ve ever heard, and I couldn’t be prouder of what Devon and his voice actors created,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Eriksen\u2019s novel – impressively, also his debut novel – also became a Dragon Award finalist and received rave reviews and a broad readership, unusual for a first novel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink Leviathan Wakes – if written by Heinlein.\u201d – Analog magazine<\/p>\n

\u201cA great read – hard SF by a retired engineer.\u201d – John Carmack, creator of Doom.<\/i><\/p>\n

The first three chapters of the audiobook, which runs 16.5 hours, can be sampled here<\/a> on BookFunnel.<\/p>\n

As the Prometheus Blog review<\/a> by Eric S. Raymond and Michael Grossberg notes, one ingredient in the novel\u2019s success was the way Eriksen mastered the classic Heinleinesque mode of SF exposition by indirection, allowing his propulsive and inventive novel to focus more on its three well-developed central characters and their complex, evolving relationships.<\/p>\n

Set mostly on an asteroid-mining ship headed toward the outer solar system in search of what may be hidden alien treasure, the story revolves around Marcus Warnoc, the ship\u2019s stubborn captain, and Miranda Foxgrove, a smart and savvy heiress who\u2019s hijacked his ship and locked him out of its computer controls.<\/p>\n

Miranda hijacked Marcus\u2019s ship after her discovery of a faint signal from the edge of colonized space that could lead her to vast further wealth and shift the balance of power in the alien-artifact wars that have previously transformed civilization \u2013 most notably, through the creation of fast fusion-drive spaceships that have propelled the solar system\u2019s industrialization and colonization.<\/p>\n

Coping with the limits of her gene-twisted, pint-sized and highly sexualized body and fiercely desiring success independent from her super-wealthy and privileged family, Miranda struggles to forge her own destiny while remaining in control of Marcus\u2019s ship.<\/p>\n

Marcus, a resourceful loner operating as a pirate beyond the law and haunted by regrets about lost friends and family, finds himself simultaneously attracted to and irritated by Miranda amid his ongoing obsession with regaining control over his ship.<\/p>\n

As the Prometheus Blog review observes, \u201cMarcus and Miranda\u2019s love-hate relationship of mutual manipulation, betrayal, misunderstanding and denied attraction adds delicious subtext, charm and flavor to an already engrossing story.\u201d<\/p>\n

WHEN WILL THE SEQUEL BE PUBLISHED?
\n<\/strong>
\nSo what about the long-awaited sequel?<\/p>\n

Ever since Theft of Fire<\/em> was published to acclaim, fans have been eagerly awaiting the publication of Box of Trouble<\/em>, Eriksen\u2019s direct sequel and Book Two in the projected four-novel Orbital Space series.<\/p>\n

Although Eriksen had largely finished a first draft of his more-than-130,000-word manuscript by the summer of 2025, his efforts were delayed by a family crisis (his wife Sara’s cancer, happily now beaten).<\/p>\n

Based on Eriksen\u2019s latest blog update, it now looks like Box of Trouble<\/em> is likely to be published in 2026. Here’s hoping.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS AND THE LFS<\/b><\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us!<\/b> To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, \u00a0join<\/a> the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer international association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future. In some ways, culture can be even more influential and powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other\u2019s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.<\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/b>For a full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 including in the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced \u00a0Prometheus Awards page<\/a>\u00a0on the LFS website. This page includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards\u2019 distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/a><\/p>\n

* Read \u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/a> an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/i>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n