Majestrum
A Tale of Henghis Hapthorn
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Narrated by:
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David Marantz
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By:
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Matthew Hughes
About this listen
The Tales Of Henghis Hapthorn
Henghis Hapthorn is the foremost penetrator of mysteries and uncoverer of secrets in a decadent, far-future Old Earth, one age before Jack Vance's Dying Earth. A superb rationalist, he has long disdained the notion that the universe has an alternative organizing principle: Magic. But now a new age is dawning, overturning the very foundations of Hapthorn's existence, and he must struggle to survive in a world where all the rules are changing.
In Majestrum, Hapthorn is on the trail of an unknown killer who collects body parts from his victims. The search leads him off-planet, into the Ten Thousand Worlds of The Spray, then turns in an unexpected direction as the freelance discriminator learns that an ancient and evil power is plotting to reassert its dominion over Old Earth.
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Barely a teenager, Kaylin Neya is a thief, a fugitive, and an attempted assassin. She also has a smart mouth, sharp wits, and mysterious markings on her skin. All of which make her perfect bait for a child prostitution sting in the city of Elantra - if she survives her first meeting with the Hawks!
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Very good, gives important series background info
- By James on 05-04-12
By: Michelle Sagara
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Dune
- By: Frank Herbert
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Orlagh Cassidy, Euan Morton, and others
- Length: 21 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Maud'dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.
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This classic deserves better
- By Matthew Salvo on 07-01-21
By: Frank Herbert
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Solaris
- The Definitive Edition
- By: Stanislaw Lem, Bill Johnston - translator
- Narrated by: Alessandro Juliani
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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At last, one of the world’s greatest works of science fiction is available - just as author Stanislaw Lem intended it. To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Solaris, Audible, in cooperation with the Lem Estate, has commissioned a brand-new translation - complete for the first time, and the first ever directly from the original Polish to English. Beautifully narrated by Alessandro Juliani ( Battlestar Galactica), Lem’s provocative novel comes alive for a new generation.
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A comment on negative reviews
- By Burns on 09-20-11
By: Stanislaw Lem, and others
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Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra
- By: Anne Rice, Christopher Rice
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Ramses the Great, former pharaoh of Egypt, is reawakened by the elixir of life in Edwardian England. Now immortal with his bride-to-be, he is swept up in a fierce and deadly battle of wills and psyches against the once-great Queen Cleopatra. Ramses has reawakened Cleopatra with the same perilous elixir whose unworldly force brings the dead back to life.
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I am hungry for more......
- By Michelle M. Durante on 11-23-17
By: Anne Rice, and others
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The Journey
- By: Isobelle Carmody
- Narrated by: Isobelle Carmody
- Length: 48 mins
- Unabridged
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A bonus never-before-released short story by best-selling author Isobelle Carmody. Before the apocolyptic Great White - and the regressive theology that ruled the decimated population in its wake - the city of Uropa is a gleaming metropolis devoted wholly to materialistic consumption.
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The Journey
- By Kiba Snowpaw on 09-27-23
By: Isobelle Carmody
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Nine Princes in Amber
- The Chronicles of Amber, Book 1
- By: Roger Zelazny
- Narrated by: Alessandro Juliani
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Amber is the one real world, of which all others including our own Earth are but Shadows. Amber burns in Corwin's blood. Exiled on Shadow Earth for centuries, the prince is about to return to Amber to make a mad and desperate rush upon the throne.
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Great book, lame deal!
- By Robert on 08-13-12
By: Roger Zelazny
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The Course of Empire
- By: Eric Flint, K. D. Wentworth
- Narrated by: Chris Patton
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Conquered by the Jao twenty years ago, the Earth is shackled under alien tyranny - and threatened by the even more dangerous Ekhat, one of whose genocidal extermination fleets is coming to the solar system. The only chance for human survival is in the hands of an unusual pair of allies: a young Jao prince, newly arrived to Terra to assume his duties, and a young human woman brought up amongst the Jao occupiers. But, as their tentative alliance takes shape, they are under pressure from all sides.
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ERIC FLINT'S VENTURE INTO FULL SCI-FI MODE
- By Professor on 11-01-12
By: Eric Flint, and others
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The Star Diaries
- Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Ijon Tichy, Lem's Candide of the Cosmos, encounters bizarre civilizations and creatures in space that serve to satirize science, the rational mind, theology, and other icons of human pride.
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Gulliver in Space
- By Joe Kraus on 12-29-18
By: Stanislaw Lem
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The Black River Chronicles, Level One
- By: David Tallerman, Michael Wills, Digital Fiction
- Narrated by: Alan Ross
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Three months into his studies at the Black River Academy of Swordcraft and Spellcraft, Durren Flintrand is shocked by the news that from now on he'll be assigned to a party and that his only hope of progressing beyond the lowly rank of level one is to succeed with his new companions. However, Durren has a secret that may make that impossible, and his three partners have problems of their own.
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what the heck?
- By Stew on 07-11-19
By: David Tallerman, and others
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Mortal Mischief
- By: Frank Tallis
- Narrated by: Richard Burnip
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Vienna, 1902: A beautiful medium has been found shot dead, and Dr Max Liebermann, a young disciple of Sigmund Freud, is called upon to help his friend Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt investigate her death. The room containing the body has been locked from the inside, and a cryptic note suggests a malevolent supernatural power is at work. Using the new science of psychoanalysis, Liebermann probes the minds of the suspects in an attempt to unravel this bewildering crime.
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Ho-hum Victorian mystery
- By Nancy E Day on 09-17-12
By: Frank Tallis
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Rides a Dread Legion
- Book One of the Demonwar Saga
- By: Raymond E. Feist
- Narrated by: John Meagher
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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The last remnants of an ancient advanced race, the Clan of the Seven Stars, are returning at long last to their lost homeworld, Midkemia—not as friends, but as would-be conquerors. Led by the conjurer Laromendis, they are fleeing the relentless demon hordes that are sweeping through their galaxy and destroying the elves' vast empire planet by planet. Only by escaping to Midkemia and brutally overtaking the war-weary world can the last remnants of a mighty civilization hope to survive.
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Under A Rock, On A Deserted Island, In A Delorean?
- By Michael on 05-03-13
By: Raymond E. Feist
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A Most Extraordinary Pursuit
- By: Juliana Gray
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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February, 1906. As the personal secretary of the recently departed duke of Olympia - and a woman of scrupulous character - Miss Emmeline Rose Truelove never expected her duties to involve steaming through the Mediterranean on a private yacht, under the prodigal eye of one Lord Silverton, the most charmingly corrupt bachelor in London. But here they are, improperly bound on a quest to find the duke's enigmatic heir, current whereabouts unknown. Maximilian Haywood was last seen at an archaeological dig on the island of Crete.
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This Book Would Have Been A Hot Mess...
- By Alexis on 10-06-16
By: Juliana Gray
What listeners say about Majestrum
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- ThomasBray
- 12-17-18
Good story. Poor narrative performance.
Good story. Poor narrative performance. Could have been brought to life by a stronger reader. Wish I had experienced it in print.
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- Morgan Childs
- 02-05-23
Treat for fans of Jack Vance, PG Wodehouse
Incredible treat for fans of Jack Vance, Matthew Hughes is inspired by but does not imitate the enthralling writings of the Dying Earth stories.
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- Gary D
- 09-21-18
Funny? Sometimes. Interesting? A little.
The story is just ok. But for the last three hours, I was mostly looking forward to being finished. Only because it was mediocre.
The writing has a lot of "he said", "he replied", "he spoke", "he wondered aloud", "he thought to himself" etc. but in and of itself, not a particular issue, but when it's noticeable, there may be a problem. (despite the many, many, many ways to say "he said".)
More of a problem for me - and some of this is probably nit-picky - was the narrator. Some things bother me a lot and one of them is reading a book with unintentional grammatical errors, another is a narrator that mispronounces reasonably common English words, presumably because he (or she) simply did not bother to make sure he knew how to pronounce the words in the book. Maybe he thought someone would fix it in post-production? They did not.
"Sir, I need examples", say you. Very well. What do you call a raised platform on which a speaker or leader addresses a group or accepts fealty from others? Why that is a "Dais" you say. It sure is. "DAY-ISS". This narrator repeatedly calls it a "DIE-ESS". Ugh. Like 8 times in the same chapter, I think. Never once did he actually look at the word and say, "hmmm. I wonder why the "A" is before the "I". Perhaps I should consult a dictionary."
The next one is third grade level reading from a professional (paid) narrator... Ready? Picture this: Up on the dais << notice the continuity of theme >> there is a Big-chief-ruler-of-everyone. Girl approaches and does a small bent knee bow, while holding out her skirt and lowering her eyes in respect. What do you call that? Ah, yes. A Curtsy. Curtsy. Anyone that reads knows that, yes? Unfortunately, our narrator says something like "so-and-so approached the Chief-Ruler and..." (do you want to guess?... Come on! What do you think she does? Say it. Out loud. ... WRONG!) In this version she gave him a "small courtesy". I had to go back a couple times (thanks for the "back 30 seconds" button, Audible.) to make sure he really gave the word three syllables. He did.
Any of you that think this is petty is welcome to your opinion, and in general I know it is. But again: There were other examples in the reading. And honestly, someone who gets paid to read into a microphone, ought to know how to read at least common words. Selling yourself as a narrator demands it.
I'm done.
Did I mention there were other mispronunciations besides DAIS and CURTSY? I did. Good. Because there were.
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- Katherine
- 02-27-14
An homage to Jack Vance
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.
Majestrum is a relatively short science fantasy set in our own far-future universe which has been colonized far and wide by humans from Old Earth. The protagonist, Henghis Hapthorn, is a “discriminator” (“he unravels conundrums, picks apart puzzles, uncovers enigmas”) who uses his keen logical skills to solve mysteries.
But some strange stuff is going on: Mr Hapthorn’s integrator (a sentient computer which assists him in his work) has recently donned flesh and blood and become more like a familiar than a computer. Also, the small intuitive part of Henghis’s psyche has suddenly asserted itself as a separate personality which shares Henghis’s brain and body. These occurrences seem to indicate that sympathetic association (magic), which waxes and wanes across the eons, is now rising again. And soon Henghis Hapthorn’s double personality and his familiar find themselves hunting an ancient evil force which is trying to resurface.
Majestrum is a fast-paced novel which reads much like a crime thriller (Matthew Hughes writes those under the name Matt Hughes) with a heavy dose of sarcasm, irony, and dry humor. Hughes is known to be a Jack Vance fan (read his appreciation of Jack Vance which he wrote for us upon that author’s death), and this influence is obvious. The novel reads much like an homage to Vance. Even the cover art was created by Tom Kidd who does much of Vance’s cover art. Majestrum and Hughes’ other ARCHONATE novels are set in a Dying Earth universe that’s very similar to Vance’s famous setting. The writing style is purposely magniloquent with numerous ten-dollar words (e.g., peregrinations, transmogrification, pansophical, ratiocination) and the characters “ascend” rather than go up, “peruse” instead of read, and “ascertain” instead of figure out. As in a Vance novel, all of the characters speak this way, not just the upper crust.
Hughes imitates Vance’s droll humor and absurd plotting perfectly, and there are many laugh-out-loud moments such as when Henghis has to put on upper-class ornamentation so that the nobles can perceive him, when his integrator/familiar falls asleep at crucial moments, and when hardened criminals are given to the Corps of Buffoons, fitted with coercion suits, and compelled to publicly act in bawdy plays. Even the character names are funny and noticeably Vancian: Glam Botch, Bristal Baxandall, Vhobald Hammis.
Despite the obvious mimicry, Hughes’ characters, ideas, and plot are original, making Majestrum an inventive and entertaining novel in its own right, and a perfect read for a Vance fan who has tragically run out of Vance to read. Fortunately, there are several more books in Hughes’ ARCHONATE universe.
I listened to Audible Frontiers’ recent version which was read by David Marantz. It took me a little while to warm up to Marantz, but I soon decided that his voice, which lacked much inflection or enthusiasm, fit Hughes’ droll style and Henghis Hapthorn’s personality nicely. I recommend Majestrum on audio, but if you don’t like it immediately, give it a few chapters and I think you’ll change your mind.
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4 people found this helpful