July 2078 - Hannah Monksman is undertaking the groundbreaking task of caring for an ark of whales travelling to a New Eden. Although this wouldn’t be the first off-earth colony, Seiiki - the spacecraft she is on is pioneering in it’s design, allowing the transportation of numerous whales. She also has an implant in her head which creates a neural link, allowing her to monitor and interact with the whales; even enabling her to have conversations with them.



Partway through the journey, one of the Sperm Whales, Adonai begins acting oddly and asking unusual questions, implying that he is picking up more information from her than she is intentionally conveying. Soon Hannah begins feeling she is being watched and thinks she sees a human figure on board, things begin moving about when she is asleep, is this in her mind due to the solitude on board?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, an exciting sci-fi/ psychological thriller. Under The Heavens kept my interest the whole time and the numerous twists and turns kept me guessing what could happen next.

The narrator portrayed the characters wonderfully, both human an whale alike. The pacing and emphasis were great.

I absolutely loved everything about this. I was not expecting the whales to do the things they did at all! I was loving our protagonist even when I felt she was making the worst choices. The setting was perfection too!
And the narration was spot on.

Whales in space.
And it's not a farfetched, out-of-this-world (pun totally intended) spoof of a book!?!?
I was pleasantly surprised!
This book has action, depth and a crazy plotline that I could see actually happening.
Ecoterrorism and saving the whales & humanity all in the name of God, totally plausible.
Internet star to the rescue!
Yeah.
The romance...forced. no basis. It bugged me.
Otherwise I loved this.

First of all, thanks to CamCat publishing for this. This book is really unique for me. I love the narrator of this book and it’s such a fun adventure in space transporting whales to protect them. The characters are lovable and the story is so engaging! Lots of sabotage and conspiracy. The character Kim seems to have secrets. I love the voice the narrator does for Adonai. Long listen and I did enjoy it not as much as I wish though. I just found it cute and interesting because of the whales and the androids and the space aspect of it all.

I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. I don’t always read blurbs but the cover intrigued me and the quick hit blurb sounded interesting.

The narration was done well, the characters were lovable—mostly, and the story is engaging. This book is set in 2078 (slight existential crisis when I realized that is only 55 years in the future and I most likely won’t see that year 🫣). The humans of earth have already colonized mars and are colonizing New Eden as well—something that not everyone feels is the right thing to do since we already destroyed one planet.

I am so glad I decided to check it out! This was a unique plot to anything that I have read before and seeing that it is book 1 in a trilogy (book 2 comes in August 2023) I get the pleasure of returning to this world 2 more times!

This is an entertaining YA audio version Sci-fi thriller. A space ship transporting whales to release on a new planet should be an enjoyable experience. But Kim, at 17 is the only human on board, there to protect the whales but she has secrets. And she finds herself in a battle to survive as she finds she is not alone and has her beliefs majorly challenged. Twists and turns ensue, enough to satisfy this listener. Thank you to CamCat Publishing and NetGalley for the audio ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

4⭐️

I had the audiobook read by Emily Woo Zeller. It’s a long listen 11hrs 40 mins. She does a great job, love the voices, she does a perfect voice for Adonai. The narrator added to the experience for me.

I’m not a sci fi fan, but having loved The Hail Mary Project, I was hoping to find another unique storyline to grab my attention. Sci fi meets Noah’s ark, a very futuristic theme feeling very ‘out there’ with a young main character it feels very YA oriented.

Hannah Monksman ( real name Kim Teng, she is captaining Seiiki to transport the last of Earths Whales to a new paradise planet. She is the only person on board, with maintenance bots.

Kim is able to communicate telepathically with the Whales. She forms a friendship with Adonai a sperm whale he is my favourite character by far. I didn’t find Kim likeable for much of the book, in someways she’s very savvy, in others totally naive, at times a total b*tch.

During her journey she does podcasts where the reader learns about the different Whales species, it’s an effective device for information sharing without it feeling like an information dump. Her past and current mission is revealed during the story.

It’s not tech heavy, so I’m not sure it’s one for die hard sci fi fans, more toe dippers like myself. It’s not heavy on world building but as it’s a series that’s likely to develop over the books.

I loved its uniqueness, and the emotional connection. This one isn’t on the more believable end of the scale, and I think would benefit from a trim. Having said that I still enjoyed it.

This book is so much fun! Whales on a spaceship, robots, a conspiracy, sabotage, intrigue and did I mention talking whales? This is my absolute wish fulfillment, being able to communicate with another species, and Hannah has a neural link so that she can talk to the whales in her care. From the beginning you learn that she’s not who she says she is, that’s why the ship’s computer and the whales call her Kim. She is hiding a criminal past, but she really cares about her charges so it’s hard not to sympathize. She also has a hidden agenda and she is seeing shadows that look suspiciously like people. The ship is in space and Kim should be the only human on board so is she losing her mind? Soon, the twists start coming, one after the other. Emily Woo Zeller does, as usual, a great job narrating the audiobook, hitting the right chords for all the voices and takes the plot from interesting to pulse raising, edge-of-your-seat, I can’t stop listening now heights. The one thing I didn’t like is that Kim is supposed to be 17, which explains why she’s sometimes self-centered and rude to the whales, but not how she’s so resourceful and good at everything. It definitely doesn’t explain how she has creepy relationships with not one, but two, older men that take this into statutory rape territory. An older Kim would have worked better, in my opinion. That said, I really didn’t know what was going to happen and, even if there were some plot holes, I really enjoyed this read.
I chose to listen to this audiobook and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#CamCat Books!