These are troubled times. MARA, the mighty blue supergiant of the Torvus Iubar System is dying, as are the other thirteen ambistars that make up the Ambistar Collective. Billions of lives are in peril. What conceivable force could cause the simultaneous death of fourteen ambistars thousands of light-years apart?

Since the peace accord between Giri Null and GAIA three years ago, Torvus has prospered and been relatively stable, save for the remaining rogue Grefim who still plague commercial shipping lanes. Recent weeks in particular have seen a number of GAIA freighters simply disappearing in Torvus. More warships have been dispatched to the area, but the rogue Grefim remain elusive and their prey vanished without a trace.

A warship notifies Brad and Alex of a call for help from an imprisoned teslalite on a planet near MARA. Drawn in by their debt of gratitude to these most mysterious life forms, they decide to assist. From that moment on they’re hurtled into a hectic series of events and discoveries that even challenge the imagination of their new passenger - GAIA’s most expensive AI.

They discover a dangerous new world - one thought to be impossible. Stranger still, they find it to be inextricably connected to the Ambistar Collective. Is there a way to avert the impending crisis? An abandoned alien artefact may hold some desperately-needed answers.

Like the prior Lansky audiobooks the Anti-STARC is kind of hard SF based around a series of discoveries with plenty of aliens, spaceships AIs etc. tempered by hard science. Reminds me of a typical Asimov or Star Trek mystery as opposed to a standard laser straight yarn. The story has much higher production values than earlier releases and is supported by an excellent ambient soundtrack which I think should be released as an album in its own right, or perhaps included in the donwload. The story has a large cast / backstory so listening to the earlier releases is pretty much mandatory to get the bigger picture. Excellent value for five and a bit clams...