
The Alchemy of Stone
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $21.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Eileen Stevens
-
By:
-
Ekaterina Sedia
About this listen
Mattie, an intelligent automaton skilled in the use of alchemy, finds herself caught in the middle of a conflict between gargoyles, the Mechanics, and the Alchemists. With the old order quickly giving way to the new, Mattie discovers powerful and dangerous secrets - secrets that can completely alter the balance of power in the city of Ayona. This doesn't sit well with Loharri, the Mechanic who created Mattie and still has the key to her heart - literally.
©2008 Ekaterina Sedia (P)2010 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Illuminations
- By: T. Kingfisher
- Narrated by: Raquel Beattie
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rosa Mandolini knows in her heart that her family are the greatest painters of magical illuminations in the city. But the eccentric Studio Mandolini has fallen on hard times and the future is no longer certain. While trying to help her family, Rosa discovers a strange magical box protected by a painted crow. But when she finds a way to open the box, she accidentally releases the Scarling, a vicious monster determined to destroy the Mandolini family at any cost.
-
-
written for children
- By Ijw on 12-12-23
By: T. Kingfisher
-
The Lions of Al-Rassan
- By: Guy Gavriel Kay
- Narrated by: Euan Morton
- Length: 19 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The ruling Asharites of Al-Rassan have come from the desert sands, but over centuries, seduced by the sensuous pleasures of their new land, their stern piety has eroded. The Asharite empire has splintered into decadent city-states led by warring petty kings. King Almalik of Cartada is on the ascendancy, aided always by his friend and advisor, the notorious Ammar ibn Khairan - poet, diplomat, soldier - until a summer afternoon of savage brutality changes their relationship forever.
-
-
Lots of drama
- By KH on 10-12-12
By: Guy Gavriel Kay
-
The Saint of Bright Doors
- By: Vajra Chandrasekera
- Narrated by: Sid Sagar
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy. He walked among invisible powers: devils and anti-gods that mock the mortal form. He learned a lethal catechism, lost his shadow, and gained a habit for secrecy. After a blood-soaked childhood, Fetter escaped his rural hometown for the big city, and fell into a broader world where divine destinies are a dime a dozen.
-
-
Interesting but hard to follow on audio
- By S. Browne on 07-09-24
-
The Golem and the Jinni
- A Novel
- By: Helene Wecker
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Helene Wecker's dazzling debut novel tells the story of two supernatural creatures who appear mysteriously in 1899 New York. Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a strange man who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. When her master dies at sea on the voyage from Poland, she is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York Harbor. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire, born in the ancient Syrian Desert. Trapped in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard centuries ago, he is released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop.
-
-
Enchanting Debut Novel - Delicious!
- By Tango on 04-26-13
By: Helene Wecker
-
The Fifth Season
- The Broken Earth, Book 1
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the way the world ends...for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the Earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
-
-
The Nay-Sayers are Wrong.
- By Steve Groves on 02-10-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
-
I, Robot
- By: Isaac Asimov
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This classic science fiction masterwork by Isaac Asimov weaves stories about robots, humanity, and the deep questions of existence into a novel of shocking intelligence and heart.
-
-
Thank you
- By Fredrik on 06-11-04
By: Isaac Asimov
-
Illuminations
- By: T. Kingfisher
- Narrated by: Raquel Beattie
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rosa Mandolini knows in her heart that her family are the greatest painters of magical illuminations in the city. But the eccentric Studio Mandolini has fallen on hard times and the future is no longer certain. While trying to help her family, Rosa discovers a strange magical box protected by a painted crow. But when she finds a way to open the box, she accidentally releases the Scarling, a vicious monster determined to destroy the Mandolini family at any cost.
-
-
written for children
- By Ijw on 12-12-23
By: T. Kingfisher
-
The Lions of Al-Rassan
- By: Guy Gavriel Kay
- Narrated by: Euan Morton
- Length: 19 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The ruling Asharites of Al-Rassan have come from the desert sands, but over centuries, seduced by the sensuous pleasures of their new land, their stern piety has eroded. The Asharite empire has splintered into decadent city-states led by warring petty kings. King Almalik of Cartada is on the ascendancy, aided always by his friend and advisor, the notorious Ammar ibn Khairan - poet, diplomat, soldier - until a summer afternoon of savage brutality changes their relationship forever.
-
-
Lots of drama
- By KH on 10-12-12
By: Guy Gavriel Kay
-
The Saint of Bright Doors
- By: Vajra Chandrasekera
- Narrated by: Sid Sagar
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy. He walked among invisible powers: devils and anti-gods that mock the mortal form. He learned a lethal catechism, lost his shadow, and gained a habit for secrecy. After a blood-soaked childhood, Fetter escaped his rural hometown for the big city, and fell into a broader world where divine destinies are a dime a dozen.
-
-
Interesting but hard to follow on audio
- By S. Browne on 07-09-24
-
The Golem and the Jinni
- A Novel
- By: Helene Wecker
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Helene Wecker's dazzling debut novel tells the story of two supernatural creatures who appear mysteriously in 1899 New York. Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a strange man who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. When her master dies at sea on the voyage from Poland, she is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York Harbor. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire, born in the ancient Syrian Desert. Trapped in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard centuries ago, he is released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop.
-
-
Enchanting Debut Novel - Delicious!
- By Tango on 04-26-13
By: Helene Wecker
-
The Fifth Season
- The Broken Earth, Book 1
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the way the world ends...for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the Earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
-
-
The Nay-Sayers are Wrong.
- By Steve Groves on 02-10-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
-
I, Robot
- By: Isaac Asimov
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This classic science fiction masterwork by Isaac Asimov weaves stories about robots, humanity, and the deep questions of existence into a novel of shocking intelligence and heart.
-
-
Thank you
- By Fredrik on 06-11-04
By: Isaac Asimov
-
Stories of Your Life and Others
- By: Ted Chiang
- Narrated by: Abby Craden, Todd McLaren
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stories of Your Life and Others presents characters who must confront sudden change-the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens-while striving to maintain some sense of normalcy. In the amazing and much-lauded title story (the basis for the 2016 movie Arrival), a grieving mother copes with divorce and the death of her daughter by drawing on her knowledge of alien languages and non-linear memory recollection.
-
-
Amazing collection of short stories
- By Carolina on 09-15-14
By: Ted Chiang
-
Kushiel's Dart
- By: Jacqueline Carey
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 31 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The land of Terre d'Ange is a place of unsurpassing beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good...and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt.
-
-
The Kushiel series in order
- By Glen Gaines on 10-27-09
By: Jacqueline Carey
-
The Japanese Lover
- By: Isabel Allende
- Narrated by: Joanna Gleason
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco's parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco. There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family's Japanese gardener. Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart.
-
-
My first negative review
- By Karen O'Byrne on 11-11-15
By: Isabel Allende
-
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Consider Phlebas: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience! The first audiobook in Iain M. Banks's seminal science fiction series, The Culture. Consider Phlebas introduces listeners to a utopian conglomeration of human and alien races that explores the nature of war, morality, and the limitless bounds of mankind's imagination.
-
-
Music is super distracting and constant
- By Anonymous1234 on 06-17-20
By: Iain M. Banks
-
The Island of Dr. Moreau
- By: H. G. Wells
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written by H.G. Wells, the great visionary author, this legendary novel is both timeless and thought provoking. Listeners will thrill to this chilling masterpiece as man boldly takes evolution into his own hands for the first time. Dr. Moreau, a scientist expelled from his homeland for his cruel experiments, continues his transplantations on a small South Pacific island, creating hideous creatures with manlike intelligence.
-
-
An Oldie but a Goodie
- By David Thomas on 01-19-15
By: H. G. Wells
-
Underground Airlines
- By: Ben Winters
- Narrated by: William DeMeritt
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the present day, and the world is as we know it: smartphones, social networking, and Happy Meals. Save for one thing: The Civil War never occurred. A gifted young black man calling himself Victor has struck a bargain with federal law enforcement, working as a bounty hunter for the US Marshal Service. He's got plenty of work. In this version of America, slavery continues in four states called "the Hard Four". On the trail of a runaway known as Jackdaw, Victor arrives in Indianapolis knowing that something isn't right—with the case file, with his work, and with the country itself.
-
-
Original and disturbing novel
- By Mark on 10-29-17
By: Ben Winters
-
The Raven Tower
- By: Ann Leckie
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For centuries, the kingdom of Iraden has been protected by the god known as the Raven. He watches over his territory from atop a tower in the powerful port of Vastai. His will is enacted through the Raven's Lease, a human ruler chosen by the god himself. His magic is sustained via the blood sacrifice that every Lease must offer. And under the Raven's watch, the city flourishes. But the power of the Raven is weakening. A usurper has claimed the throne. The kingdom borders are tested by invaders who long for the prosperity that Vastai boasts.
-
-
A Unique Perspective and an Intriguing Mystery
- By Amazon Customer on 05-15-19
By: Ann Leckie
-
The Lowland
- By: Jhumpa Lahiri
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born just fifteen months apart, Subhash and Udayan Mitra are inseparable brothers, one often mistaken for the other in the Calcutta neighborhood where they grow up. But they are also opposites, with gravely different futures ahead. It is the 1960s, and Udayan—charismatic and impulsive—finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty; he will give everything, risk all, for what he believes.
-
-
My least favorite of all her work.
- By SAK on 10-09-13
By: Jhumpa Lahiri
-
The City and the Stars
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Geoffrey T. Williams
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Diaspar is Earth's last city - surrounded by deserts, on a world where the oceans have long since dried up. It is a domed, isolated, technological marvel, run by the Central Computer. Diaspar has conquered death. People are called forth; they live for a thousand years and then are recalled, to be born thousands of years later, over and over again. No child has been born for at least 10 million years. Until Alvin....
-
-
A Classic
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 12-10-11
By: Arthur C. Clarke
-
Embassytown
- By: China Mieville
- Narrated by: Susan Duerden
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
China Miéville doesn’t follow trends, he sets them. Relentlessly pushing his own boundaries as a writer - and in the process expanding the boundaries of the entire field - with Embassytown, Miéville has crafted an extraordinary novel that is not only a moving personal drama but a gripping adventure of alien contact and war. In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak....
-
-
must hear to fully appreciate.
- By Don Gilbert on 01-05-12
By: China Mieville
-
Glasshouse
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With Glasshouse, Stross pens a Kafkaesque tale set in a 27th-century of teleport gates and mind-attacking network worms. After Robin awakes in a clinic, he struggles to summon details of his life, but too many of his memories have been wiped clean. More troubling is the stark awareness of immediate danger: someone is trying to kill him. On the run, Robin makes a desperate gamble and volunteers for what he hopes is the sanctuary of an unusual study at the Glasshouse. Once there, however, he realizes the true terror has only begun.
-
-
Vintage Stross
- By Ken on 06-21-11
By: Charles Stross
-
Borne
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Borne, a young woman named Rachel survives as a scavenger in a ruined city half destroyed by drought and conflict. The city is dangerous, littered with discarded experiments from the Company - a biotech firm now derelict - and punished by the unpredictable predations of a giant bear. Rachel ekes out an existence in the shelter of a run-down sanctuary she shares with her partner, Wick, who deals his own homegrown psychoactive biotech.
-
-
Bizarre and Bracing!
- By The Casual Nerd on 02-08-18
By: Jeff VanderMeer
Critic reviews
Picked it up from the plus catalogue, and it's worth it.
A very compeling story about possessiveness, relationships, humanity at it's best and at it's worst, racism, the cost of progress and conflict.
I really liked the story and how the world keeps going into darker and darker places. I liked the characters and specially Maddie, the clockwork protagonist.
Not super fan of the voices for the gargoyles, it's rough to listen to even if they seem appropiate.
A listen worth trying in my opinion.
Dark gothic steampunk fantasy? Yes please
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Where does The Alchemy of Stone rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Definitely in my top 3 favorite Audible books so far. Very glad to have discovered Ekaterina Sedia and look forward to the many other works she has created.What did you like best about this story?
Fantasy fiction when done well causes the reader to pause in consideration of matters that are important in reality. Ms. Sedia invites the listener/reader to adjust ones vision regarding freedom, slavery, dependence, rationality, emotion, and choices. This is not fluffy writing, but an example of the Steampunk Genre that I recommend to any lover of good fiction. This is a story that requires the dark gothic elements of science and nature in imbalance in a world of clockwork and steam power, but there is meat in the message. I love this style of writing.Have you listened to any of Eileen Stevens’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
While I have not had the privilege of hearing Eileen Stevens before now, I will look forward to her readings in the future. A great reader is a master of subtle voice characterization and making it seem effortless; Ms. Stevens holds one's attention with graceful delivery.If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
"In a world where a single heart depends on a priceless key for survival..." (apologies folks)Any additional comments?
Ekaterina Sedia is my new binge Author!Excellent on so many levels.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Maybe it was that the political background wasn't really explained that fully, and so it's hard to get emotionally invested in the conflict which drives the main plot. Lots of books I find get too wrapped up in explaining the intricate political and social system that they've created, so much so that it swamps the plot. But this one could definitely have had more context.
Or, maybe it's that while almost all the characters have interesting back-stories they just don't seem to interact naturally. The conversations and interactions seem forced and stilted. Characters do things for reasons I don't understand. So, between not caring about the civil war and not understanding why the characters do what they do, it's sort of hard to care about what happens at all.
just not quite there
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Story was OK
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
what an ending!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
💖
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Eileen Stevens. I enjoyed the voices she gave to Mattie (the automaton), Nairobi (spelling could be off here), and the stone gargoyles, but her male voices left something to be desired. When she was narrating, her voice was a bit flat and monotonous. I almost gave up part way through, but managed to perservere to the end.
I liked the concept of the protagonist - a machine that can reason, feel physical pain and pleasure, as well as identify to a specific gender and emote enough to fall in love. The only thing lacking is a soul. The themes throughout the book were that of political power, subservience, and oppression of caste.
I was intrigued by the characters Mattie, Nairobi, and the Soul Smoker.
A few things were confusing to me. It seemed incongruous to have a sophisticated automaton in a technically backwards society. At the end of the civil unrest, I was still uncertain as to what it was all about. Character development seemed to be lacking in some of the characters that would have helped in making the story cohesive. Perhaps these things were lost in interpretation by the narrator.
Steam Punk with a fizzle
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Supernatural Prose Creates Haunting World
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Alot of the mechanics of the world aren't fully justified and even when there were thin attempts to explain the way things are lot of the time i felt like the author was just saying 'because i said so, thats why'. it only bothered me because key points such as the political structure seemed totally arbitrary. and one of the characters even points out that this particular city is unusual, so it seems like it doesn't even conform to the rules of it's own world.
the story, too, didn't really seem to gel for me. it felt like disparate elements. and the ending felt very rushed and unsatisfying. the climax felt messy and arbitrary because i couldn't feel like the politics had any foundation in reason, so everyone's political motives seemed one dimensional and I just don't know why I should care about any if it, there wasn't enough investment.
the real reason I'm being so critical is because there were some really interesting concepts. I'm glad to have experienced this book, but more for the fact that now I have a colourful steampunkish magic world i can explore in my own imagination, rather than for the story itself.
rich world barely skimmed
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It was detailed and heart hurting
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.