Review copy was received from Purchased. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Massif by Garth Nix Narrator: Ray Porter
Published by Harper Voyager on September 8, 2026
Genres: Science Fiction Fantasy
Length: 10 hours, 57 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
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Caught me a mountain Rode it to the stars
It’s business as usual for Ship Leader Parnell Shi-Sawahla and the crew of the corvette Sassafras. Ride a Massif to a new system, fight the enemy, repeat. For more than two hundred years humans have been hitching rides on these sentient, starfaring mountain ranges, colonizing planets and exporting an on and off again war between Earth and Mars.
But the big questions are always there, behind every battle, every new colony, every new star system discovery.
Why do the Massifs carry humans to the stars?
Why do they help us export our wars?
What’s in it for the Massifs?
Ship crews aren’t supposed to ask these questions, they aren’t supposed to think about these questions, and they definitely aren’t supposed to go deep and talk to Massif avatars. But now Parnell and his tight-knit crew must try to find the answers, to save not only themselves but the future of humanity.
Humanity has taken to the stars but probably not in a way you’ve imagined. They didn’t exactly build the starships they crew, but the material needed for the ship was given to them by a sentient mountain, a Massif and certain humans with sensitivity to the mountain can then manipulate the material to design the ship or connect to pilot it. Humanity has done this for hundreds of years and expanded and colonized planets that wars are now fought over.
Massif follows the crew in one of these ships, the Sassafras. Thrown into a battle we see how these ships from different Massif’s battle one another and how one found family fights to retrieve a lost member when her ship goes down. Captain Parnell and crew will pull out all the stops to be able to get there crewmate back. Back on the Massif known as the Drummer boy, due to the Avatar the mountain presents, he will need to take some big risks to get a new ship to be able to launch this rescue mission.
This had such an interesting concept in the Massifs. Huge Sentient mountain ranges the break away from the terrestrial plan to travel through space with people on them. Each has an avatar that interacts with the population and while they may look like a person, they are very alien. As we read through the story we, with the crew, wonder why Massifs travel through space like this. Why all the wars between the different Massif populations and what are the goals of a sentient mountain anyway. The mystery is strange, the technology of the Massif’s even stranger and the story interesting.
This is going to work well for people who enjoy found families, weird sci-fi mysteries and space journeys into the unknown. The concept of the Massif’s is so strange and foreign that I struggled just a little bit to put my head around it. The relationship of the crew is what made this book for me and their dedication to save their friend as I think I had a stronger connection to that. The plot was engaging, the mystery and greater scope of what Massif’s could do wonderous and the conclusion while slightly open was satisfying.
Narration:
Performance: ★★★★★
Character Separation: ★★★★★
Diction: ★★★★★
Pacing/Flow: ★★★★★
Sound Effects: none
RAY PORTER!!! He is one of my absolute all time favorite narrator voices. He was perfect for this as his voice conveyed the Captain’s authority and leadership well while also carrying the wonder of the story and crew. He is great at pacing, character switching and narrative voice. I absolutely love his performance style and have in the past bought books just because he was the narrator for it. With over 450 titles to his credit this book was in good hands to bring it to life.
Listen to a clip: HERE
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I would struggle with this I think.
So Garth Nix is an author that I’ve thought…this would be great/better as a movie or on a streaming service.
This sounds like an interesting idea. I like your comment above about how some authors you think of as good movies as opposed to books, and I often think that about this kind of story too. It sounds good, but I have a feeling reading it I would end up DNFing, while if it was a movie/tv show I’d really like it. Thanks for sharing this one!
i read a lot of fantasy and scifi but sometimes in space fight scenes I get a bit lost. However on screen they can be epic. Still liked how dedicated the crew was to one another.