-
Soldier of the Mist
- Latro, Book 1
- Narrated by: Gregory Connors
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
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Publisher's summary
The first volume of Gene Wolfe's powerful story of Latro, a Roman mercenary who received a head injury that deprived him of his short-term memory. In return it gave him the ability to converse with supernatural creatures, gods, and goddesses who invisibly inhabit the ancient landscape.
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On Blue's Waters is the start of a new work by Gene Wolfe which takes place in the years after Wolfe's four-volume Book of the Long Sun. Horn, the narrator of the earlier work, now tells his own story. Though life is hard on the newly settled planet of Blue, Horn and his family have made a decent life for themselves. But Horn is the only one who can locate the great leader Silk and convince him to return to Blue and lead them all to prosperity. So Horn sets sail in a small boat, on a long and difficult quest across the planet Blue in search of the now legendary Patera Silk.
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Utterly brilliant in it’s tedium
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Confusing as hell.
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A Decadent and Hopeful Dying Earth
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Elric of Melniboné
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When Michael Moorcock began chronicling the adventures of the albino sorcerer Elric, last king of decadent Melniboné, and his sentient vampiric sword, Stormbringer, he set out to create a new kind of fantasy adventure, one that broke with tradition and reflected a more up-to-date sophistication of theme and style. The result was a bold and unique hero: a rock-and-roll antihero who would channel all the violent excesses of the '60s into one enduring archetype.
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Skip the first chapter, it's not Moorcock.
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The Star King
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Five intergalactic criminal masterminds raid the tranquil world of Mount Pleasant, leaving behind only ruin and slaughter - and the orphaned child Kirth Gersen, who comes to manhood swearing to take bloody revenge. Now Gersen roams the galaxy, bringing vengeance to the Demon Princes one by one, in Jack Vance's classic series of hardboiled space opera.
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A longtime favorite, perfectly narrated
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On Blue’s Waters
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On Blue's Waters is the start of a new work by Gene Wolfe which takes place in the years after Wolfe's four-volume Book of the Long Sun. Horn, the narrator of the earlier work, now tells his own story. Though life is hard on the newly settled planet of Blue, Horn and his family have made a decent life for themselves. But Horn is the only one who can locate the great leader Silk and convince him to return to Blue and lead them all to prosperity. So Horn sets sail in a small boat, on a long and difficult quest across the planet Blue in search of the now legendary Patera Silk.
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Litany of the Long Sun
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The Knight
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Confusing as hell.
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The Dying Earth
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Elric of Melniboné
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Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and widely considered one of the most accomplished, powerful, and enduring classics of modern speculative fiction, Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a true landmark of 20th-century literature—a chilling and still-provocative look at a postapocalyptic future.
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Introibo Ad Altare
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Earth is long since dead. On a colony planet, a band of men has gained control of technology, made themselves immortal, and now rule their world as the gods of the Hindu pantheon. Only one dares oppose them: he who was once Siddhartha and is now Mahasamatman. Binder of Demons, Lord of Light.
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How could a performance be so wrong?
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City of Last Chances
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There has always been a darkness to Ilmar, but never more so than now. The city chafes under the heavy hand of the Palleseen occupation, the choke-hold of its criminal underworld, the boot of its factory owners, the weight of its wretched poor and the burden of its ancient curse. What will be the spark that lights the conflagration? Despite the city's refugees, wanderers, murderers, madmen, fanatics and thieves, the catalyst, as always, will be the Anchorwood–that dark grove of trees, that primeval remnant, that portal, when the moon is full, to strange and distant shores.
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Occupied Paris during WW2 In Fantasy World?
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Sailing to Sarantium
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Crispin is a mosaicist, a layer of bright tiles. Still grieving for the family he lost to the plaque, he lives only for his arcane craft. But an imperial summons from Valerius the Trakesian to Sarantium, the most magnificent place in the world, is difficult to resist. In a world half-wild and tangled with magic, a journey to Sarantium means a walk into destiny. Bearing with him a deadly secret and a Queen's seductive promise, guarded only by his own wits and a talisman from an alchemist's treasury, Crispin sets out for the fabled city. Along the way he will encounter a great beast.
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Can't give a fair rating
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Shadows of the New Sun
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Perhaps no living author of imaginative fiction has earned the awards, accolades, respect, and literary reputation of Gene Wolfe. His prose has been called subtle and brilliant, inspiring not just lovers of fantasy and science fiction, but listeners of every stripe, transcending genre and defying preconceptions.
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Absolute Respect
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Nolyn
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After more than 500 years of exile, the heir to the empyre is wary about his sudden reassignment to active duty on the Goblin War’s front lines. His mission to rescue an outpost leads to a dead-end canyon deep inside enemy territory, and his suspicion turns to dread when he discovers the stronghold doesn't exist.
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What are you doing Michael?
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Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths
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Having sold millions of copies in print, Bernard Evslin’s classic retelling of the Greek myths captures the excitement and enchantment of these stories that have influenced many of today’s popular films and novels. Easy to understand and fun to read for both adults and children, it is no wonder this book has been taught in schools all over the world.
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Mystical Myths
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A Song for Arbonne
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Beautiful, moving, full of suspence and adventure
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The Summer Tree
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My favorite trilogy.
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Roadmarks
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The Road runs from the unimaginable past to the far future, and those who travel it have access to the turnoffs leading to all times and places - even to the alternate time-streams of histories that never happened. Why the Dragons of Bel'kwinith made the Road - or who they are - no one knows. But the Road has always been there and for those who know how to find it, it always will be!
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A Sparkling Gem by a Master of Sci Fi & Fantasy
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Tales of the Al-Azif
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The Necronomicon was not the first book by H.P. Lovecraft to terrify readers with tales of dark and twisted horrors from beyond. No, the Al-Azif, or Book of the Insect, is the first work that told mankind of Cthulhu, Azathoth, and other terrors. Indeed, it was the book that inspired "The Mad Arab" Abdul Al-Hazred to write its more famous successor.
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Amazing!
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By: C. T. Phipps, and others
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10-Minute Stories From Greek Mythology: The Iliad and The Odyssey
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Treat your kids to these quick 10-minute action-packed Greek legends! Studies have shown that developing an “atomic habit” - just doing a few minutes a day of whatever skill or habit you want to take on can be more than enough to engrain it into our lives. Therefore, we have transformed timeless, legendary stories into 10-minute, bite-size chunks long enough to entertain, enthrall, and even educate the youths but short enough to be enjoyed quickly at bedtime or any other point in our busy modern days.
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Absolutely Love this!!!
- By Sharon B. on 06-20-23
By: Joy Chester
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Highly acclaimed author Ursula K. Le Guin lends a resonant voice to a pivotal yet often overlooked character of Vergil's The Aeneid. Born into peace and freedom, Lavinia is stunned to learn that she will be the cause of a great war - or so the prophecies and omens claim. Her fate is sealed, however, when she meets a man from Troy.
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Fascinatingly well written
- By Kennet on 03-11-09
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A Thousand Ships
- A Novel
- By: Natalie Haynes
- Narrated by: Natalie Haynes
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
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In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen. From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves, and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war.
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A new Golden Age
- By Stefan Filipovits on 01-26-21
By: Natalie Haynes
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The Adventures of Ulysses
- By: Bernard Evslin
- Narrated by: Todd Haberkorn
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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For years, the Greeks have lain siege to the walls of Troy, the final act in the greatest war the ancient world has ever seen. Rivers of blood have been shed in the fight, but it takes one man to end the conflict: the brilliant strategist Ulysses, who defeats the Trojans with a simple trick - a wooden horse with an army inside. Victorious, Ulysses and his men prepare to make the long trip home to Ithaca. It will be an odyssey to remember.
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the best story telling I have ever heard
- By Anonymous User on 02-13-18
By: Bernard Evslin
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The Blacktongue Thief
- By: Christopher Buehlman
- Narrated by: Christopher Buehlman
- Length: 12 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Kinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his education as a thief, which includes (but is not limited to) lock-picking, knife-fighting, wall-scaling, fall-breaking, lie-weaving, trap-making, plus a few small magics. His debt has driven him to lie in wait by the old forest road, planning to rob the next traveler that crosses his path. But today, Kinch Na Shannack has picked the wrong mark.
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Outstanding
- By Anne Vaughan on 05-28-21
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Isle of Woman
- By: Piers Anthony
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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At once grand in scope and intimate in human detail, Isle of Woman tells the story of a man and a woman born at the dawn of human history, separated by fate, yet united by an unquenchable passion that even time could not conquer: Blaze, the fire worker who raised his kind of savagery, and Ember, the beautiful green-eyed woman who forever haunted his dreams.
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Narrator killed my interest.
- By Charlene Caalim on 12-28-20
By: Piers Anthony
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Mage's Blood
- The Moontide Quartet, Book 1
- By: David Hair
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 26 hrs and 6 mins
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Most of the time the Moontide Bridge lies deep below the sea, but every 12 years the tides sink and the bridge is revealed, its gates open for trade. The Magi are hell-bent on ruling this new world, and for the last two Moontides they have led armies across the bridge on "crusades of conquest". Now, the third Moontide is almost here, and this time the people of the East are ready for a fight... but it is three seemingly ordinary people that will decide the fate of the world.
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Nick Podehl
- By Logan on 01-05-15
By: David Hair
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Cup of Gold
- A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History
- By: John Steinbeck, Susan F. Beegel - introduction
- Narrated by: Ronan Vibert
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
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From the mid-1650s through the 1660s, Henry Morgan, a pirate and outlaw of legendary viciousness, ruled the Spanish Main. He ravaged the coasts of Cuba and America, striking terror wherever he went. Morgan was obsessive. He had two driving ambitions: to possess the beautiful woman called La Santa Roja and to conquer Panama, the "cup of gold".
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Not your usual Steinbeck novel
- By Andrew on 06-03-15
By: John Steinbeck, and others
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Stronghold
- Dragon Star Series, Book 1
- By: Melanie Rawn
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 24 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In the first novel of Melanie Rawn's Dragon Star trilogy, there is a devastating new challenge to the power of both the High Prince Rohan and Andry, Lord of the Sunrunners at Goddess Keep, as a mysterious and seemingly unstoppable invasion force swarms across their lands. For Andry it signals the start of a nightmare made real, the horrifying fulfillment of his long-ago visions of his homeland in flames, and he will draw upon even the forbidden sorcerer's magic in an attempt to destroy this enemy which is bent on the extermination of all Sunrunners.
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Boring
- By Donald s. on 09-26-24
By: Melanie Rawn
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Goddess of Yesterday
- By: Caroline B. Cooney
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
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Spirited and pretty, Anaxandra is playmate to King Nicandor’s crippled daughter, Callisto, until pirates attack Nicandor’s small Greek island kingdom and slay everyone except Anaxandra. When Sparta’s King Menalaus comes to investigate, Anaxandra assumes the identity of Princess Callisto to avoid becoming a slave. But Menalaus’ beautiful half-goddess wife, Helen, doubts the girl’s story. Worse, Helen is about to join forces with Trojan prince Paris. Now Anaxandra must reinvent herself in a desperate attempt to prevent war.
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An Exploration of Greek Legends
- By Rebekah Marie on 11-03-24
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The Egyptian
- By: Mika Waltari
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 23 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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The world of ancient Egypt springs magnificently to life in this astonishing historical novel of love, war, political intrigue, and religious revolution. Told from the first-person point of view, it is the story of Sinuhe, physician to the royal court of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his successors in the middle of the tumultuous 14th century B.C. From his exalted position, Sinuhe was able to observe and participate in some of the most intimate and important decisions that affected the powerful Egyptian kingdom of the 18th Dynasty during a very troubled period of its history.
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Really old story told in beautiful way
- By honest critic on 04-30-15
By: Mika Waltari
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The Black Rose
- By: Thomas B. Costain
- Narrated by: David Case
- Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins
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Walter of Gurnie, bastard son of an English peer, is forced to flee from Oxford for his part in the university riots of 1273. Inspired by Friar Bacon, he determines to travel to China. With his friend Tristam, he fights his way to the heart of the fabulous Mongol Empire and returns famous, to find that he must choose between the first love he thought lost and the exotic flower that he found in the East.
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Great Book
- By Jean on 03-09-13
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His name is Charles Render, and he is a psychoanalyst, and a mechanic of dreams. A Shaper. In a warm womb of metal, his patients dream their neuroses, while Render, intricately connected to their brains, dreams with them, makes delicate adjustments, and ultimately explains and heals. Her name is Eileen Shallot, a resident in psychiatry. She wants desperately to become a Shaper, though she has been blind from birth. Together, they will explore the depths of the human mind-and the terrors that lurk therein.
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Elric of Melniboné
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When Michael Moorcock began chronicling the adventures of the albino sorcerer Elric, last king of decadent Melniboné, and his sentient vampiric sword, Stormbringer, he set out to create a new kind of fantasy adventure, one that broke with tradition and reflected a more up-to-date sophistication of theme and style. The result was a bold and unique hero: a rock-and-roll antihero who would channel all the violent excesses of the '60s into one enduring archetype.
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Skip the first chapter, it's not Moorcock.
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Gates of Fire
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Gates of Fire puts you at the side of valiant Spartan warriors in 480 BC for the bloody, climactic battle at Thermopylae. There, a few hundred of Sparta’s finest sacrificed their lives to hold back the invading Persian millions. The time they bought enabled the Greeks to rally - saving, according to ancient historian Herodotus, “Western democracy and freedom from perishing in the cradle.” How did the Spartans accomplish this superhuman feat? This is what the King of Persia hopes to learn from the sole Spartan survivor.
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Hard to read
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What listeners say about Soldier of the Mist
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Trisha2020
- 06-09-23
Good read, even better narration
Narrator did a great job with pronunciation and the different voices in the book. My favorite was IO. I was reading the paper version also. My recommendation is to read slowly and, as needed, go back and reread certain sections to remind yourself of names mentioned previously; it helps with context. I found it helpful to refer to the glossary as well to clear up some things. If you aren’t familiar with Greek mythology, the book may not have as much meaning. However, even without that knowledge, it’s a good series. Like I said, it is easier to understand if you take your time and return to previous chapters, to reread information about characters and/or events, as you go. Also, I like that the main character forgets his life every day.
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- Pattington
- 10-31-24
Excellent and historically literate
Compelling structure and narrative that expects a lot from the reader, both in terms of historical and mythological background and with the difficulty of the plotting, with gaps and unknowns that recur in each chapter. The reader is expected to keep the narrative flow where the narrator loses it every day. One would think he would have the idea to have a summary for himself catching the important points instead of expecting to reread his entire story every morning…
The den of the cthonic earth mother is a horrifying place. Recommend you do basic research on the triple godesses, hera, the persian war, and lycurgan sparta if you are not already familiar before starting.
To be honest the structure grows a bit tiring. Every chapter the narrator loses what the audience already knows and has to relearn again and again. I lost steam in the second book, but may take it up again.
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- Paulke
- 05-13-23
Fantastic
A great tale of Ancient Greece. Excellent weaving of history and myth with engaging characters. Enjoyable in full.
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- etta52
- 12-31-23
Soldier of the mist
The book is one of my life long favorites. Thought provoking memorable. So immersive you can feel the story .
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-17-22
Read Gates of Fire first for context
If you know nothing of Greek history, you might need more information to really enjoy this book. I had difficulty with this book when I was younger. Since then I have listened to the audio book "Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield. That book presented enough history to provide context to the world of "Soldier in the Mist."
Now, "Soldier in the Mist" is proving to be an entertaining read.
Readers follow a soldier who has suffered a head injury and who is trying to make sense of the world he's living in. His travels reveal Greek culture in the time of the Persian invasions, predating some of the the Greek philosophers so prominent in our thinking of Greece today. Plato and Socrates were in the future; this was a time of cultural wars, real wars, soldiers, heroes, gods and slaves.
The main character's quest to understand the world around him presents an ongoing puzzle for readers as well. I already know I'm going to listen a couple of times to find things missed on the first reading.
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- Jefferson
- 08-18-24
“How strange are the ways of the gods. How cruel.”
Gene Wolfe dedicates Soldier of the Mist (1986) to Herodotus, the “father of history.” The historical setting of the novel is 479 BC, after the allied Hellene navy has defeated the Persian navy of the Great King (Xerxes) at Salamis and their army has defeated the Persian army at Plataea (here called Clay). In his metafictional Foreword, Wolfe says that he’s translated into English an archaic Latin papyrus manuscript written by a Latin mercenary called Latro (which “may mean brigand, guerrilla, hired man, bodyguard, or pawn”), who fought for the Persians. Wolfe says that his translation retains the mercenary’s habit of literally translating Greek place names according to his imperfect knowledge of Greek. This estranges the ancient world we thought we knew, as Corinth is called Tower Hill, Salamis Peace, Thermopylae Hot Gates, Boeotia Cowland, and so on.
Gene Wolfe likes tricky narrators who make challenging writing (for him) and reading (for us). Severian in The Book of the New Sun (1980-83) has an eidetic memory, whereas here Latro, after receiving a head wound in a battle, suffers from amnesia, such that he’s forgotten many things from his past (like his name and homeland) and forgets everything that happens to him in the present by the time he wakes up each morning as if in a mist or from an immediately forgotten dream. (His body does remember how to do things like fight and ride a horse.) As a result, he must write down on his scroll (in his book) everything he thinks important enough to “remember” from each day before going to sleep at night.
Thus, Latro repeatedly describes people he’s traveling with but forgotten (though we remember them) and often resumes his tale after suspenseful or important things have happened that he has forgotten because he was unable to write them down. And even if he does write important things, upon waking he’ll forget having written them and only “remember” them if he rereads them in his scroll. Because he can’t always reread his book, he ends up having to be reminded of events and people and situations by his companions, who say things like, “Latro, read the part where…” or “We sailed on the Europa with him, Latro,” or “Latro, do you remember who I am?” or “Is it because you can’t remember the past that you are so wise, Latro?” Once one of Latro’s companions writes a passage in his book for him!
Another interesting effect of his head wound, apparently, is that Latro can see and talk with assorted gods (e.g., Hades), demi-gods (e.g., Hercules), ghosts (e.g., Achilles), and monsters (e.g., werewolves) that no one else notices, unless he happens to touch one of the beings, which then enables his companions to see them. Wolfe evokes the sublime and numinous in such moments.
One of the pleasing things about reading the novel is figuring out what god or ghost Latro happens to encounter based on clues he gives, because he almost never calls them by the common names we know them by. (He does call living people by their familiar historical names, like Pausanias the Spartan regent.)
What kind of story is it? Like other Wolfe novels, it’s a picaresque tale in which Latro somewhat passively (one meaning of his name is pawn) travels to or is taken to the Mediterranean points of interest circa 479 BC, like Hill (Thebes), Thought (Athens), and Rope (Sparta), as he’s trying to reach a temple devoted to the Earth Mother (Demeter), because she cursed him with amnesia because he somehow provoked her ire. The Destroyer (Apollo) is trying to help Latro. His real quest is for his identity, his home, his friends.
As he travels, he meets (and forgets) various people, some of whom help or hinder him, enslave or free him, love or hate him, stay with or leave him, including captains, soldiers, slaves, generals, merchants, madames, priests, and so on from a variety of cultures.
The resourceful black man is Latro’s friend, with whom he communicates in gestures, as the black man apparently doesn’t speak Greek, which Latro does. Early on, a refined poet called Pindaros (Pindar) in the service of Apollo becomes Latro’s guide for a time. And a pretty and keen young slave girl (not quite a woman) called Io gets herself given to Latro at a temple of Apollo and generally sticks by him no matter what. (It’s moving when upon waking Latro says things to Io like, “Who are you and why do you call me master?” because she loves him, but he forgets her each morning.) Hypereides is a wise, warm Athenian merchant-captain who’d rather be trading bull hides than fighting wars. Pasicrates is a proud young Spartan whose “face had that relentless regularity of a statue, but his eyes seemed as cruel as a stoat’s,” and who says things like, "Mild lessons are soon forgotten." Eurykles is a con man necromancer who claims he can raise the dead and (maybe) turns into or is possessed by Drakaina, a creepy sexy serpent woman from Colchis who takes a keen interest in Latro (“Her belly scales sounded like daggers drawn from their sheaths”).
There is a fair amount of action: wrestling (like many Wolfian heroes, Latro is good at fighting) and love making (like many Wolfian heroes, he’s attractive to members of the opposite sex, including prostitutes, goddesses, nymphs, and monsters). And there are the above mentioned sublime divine encounters, as well as a climactic siege of Sestos at the end of the novel. Unfortunately, the novel ends abruptly without resolution, as if a single long novel were being divided into a trilogy, this being the first book.
Gregory Connors capably reads the audiobook, giving Latro an American English accent and the other characters from other Mediterranean cultures various UK and other accents, I suppose because Latro is a foreigner.
The rich variety of characters and places and events makes the imagined ancient world feel authentic and vibrant. It reminds me of Robert Graves’ excellent Hercules, My Shipmate. Wolfe writes illuminated historical fiction that feels exotic and real, with compelling characters, so I’m looking forward to seeing where he takes the story and its people (and gods) in the sequel, Soldier of Arete (1989).
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- Ruan Fourie
- 07-03-24
Bit on the boring side
When I read the description I thought I would love it. And I've always wanted to read Gene Wolfe books.
However, the book is a bit dull. It just never really grabbed me and then it just ended abruptly. The audiobook contains about half an hour of the next book in the series at the end of the last chapter. So you think you have 30 minutes left but suddenly the book ends.
The book isn't bad at all but it's just not good enough to continue with the rest of the trilogy.
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- Michael G Kurilla
- 09-08-24
Head injury leading to godly visions
Gene Wolfe’s Soldier of the Mist is the first installment in the Latro trilogy. Latro is a soldier in ancient Greece who as a result of a head injury cannot remember from day to day. In exchange, he can see and hear gods (and by touching them, make them visible to others). A healer recommended writing down his activities so that he can read the next day. What transpires is a series of adventures as he gradually accumulates a coterie. At various times, he is enslaved, but always manages to secure his freedom.
Wolfe structures the tale from the standpoint of a historian transcribing the scrolls that Latro has produced. He relies on traditional Greek mythology, but overall, this is more of a series of interconnected stories, rather than a novel with some degree of closure at the end.
The narration is good with solid character distinction. Pacing is smooth.
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- HowAboutNope
- 07-24-24
Gross
I was skeptical when this author made a child rather ambivalent about being raped. Then he describes someone's lover as half a woman, half a child. Men writing women strikes again. I didn't finish it. I wasn't enjoying it enough to sit through that.
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- Peter Whitaker
- 10-02-22
Not my favorite Gene Wolfe novel
Soldier of the Mist did not reach me on an emotional level the way The Book of the New Sun and The Fifth Head of Cerberus did.
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