Preview
  • The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1

  • The Pox Party
  • By: M. T. Anderson
  • Narrated by: Peter Francis James
  • Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars (151 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1

By: M. T. Anderson
Narrated by: Peter Francis James
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.25

Buy for $20.25

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

National Book Award, Young People's Literature, 2006

He is a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations. Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, the boy and his mother, a princess in exile from a faraway land, are the only people in their household assigned names. As the boy's regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians' fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments - and his own chilling role in them.

The first of two volumes, this deeply provocative audiobook reimagines the past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for listeners today.

©2006 M.T. Anderson (P)2007 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"Highly accomplished." (Booklist)

"Fascinating and eye-opening...this powerful novel will resonate with contemporary readers." (School Library Journal)

What listeners say about The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    52
  • 4 Stars
    27
  • 3 Stars
    39
  • 2 Stars
    14
  • 1 Stars
    19
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    38
  • 4 Stars
    31
  • 3 Stars
    13
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    7
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    32
  • 4 Stars
    25
  • 3 Stars
    19
  • 2 Stars
    13
  • 1 Stars
    11

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Compelling

This book is extraordinary: graceful, imaginative writing; excellent narration; fascinating story. But for those wishing for a lightheartedly merry romp through imaginaryland, you should consider another book. The novel explores grim aspects of our nation's early history - it is gripping, but also heartbreaking. Read it! But not when you're down in the dumps.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Slow

It’s a good book but it’s way too slow. The climax is late and it is slow

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

YA fiction at its very best

A fantastic book. Set in Boston before and during the opening of Revolutionary War, Octavian Nothing tells the odd story of a young boy of African origin, who is raised with the finest classical education by a college of philosophers as part of a noble experiment. Yet, there is much about the world he has been kept ignorant of, including the fact that the men who would establish a new democracy prosper from the labor of slaves who look like him and have no intention of freeing them. Though this might have been a pedestrian premise in the hands of another author, Anderson's colorful characters, keen wit, and delightful use of 18th century language make for a rich, unique narrative, its fanciful-sounding tone artfully masking a moving, serious work.


Like the very best YA authors, Anderson never sells short the reader's intelligence, putting Octavian in situations where the truth isn't always pretty and questions without answers lead Octavian to even more challenging questions and ideas. Some of these are probably a little over the head of the average 13 year old (or likely to annoy the kind of overprotective parents who can't accept that their kids might be able to reason for themselves), but Anderson handles the weightier concepts with subtlety, allowing them to exert their gravitational pull on the reader's mind without interfering with the story. Which is entertaining, full of twists, poignant, and wonderfully written. The kind of book someone can read in adolescence, then enjoy again in a few years as an adult, with a different take.

If you enjoy American history from a different angle, language, and storytelling at its finest, don't overlook this one. M.T. Anderson rocks.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Octavian Something

Although I have been a member of Audible for three years, this is the first review I've felt compelled to give. Octavian Nothing is a powerful--and powerfully humane--story about the triumph of the individual spirit in the face of soul-withering oppression. Although fiction (and YA at that!), it is grounded in and illuminates a little-known chapter in the now near-mythological period of the colonies, as our nation-to-be tests the boundaries between loyalty and independence and finds itself on the eve of revolution. Give the book time--no small request, of course, in the digital age. Octavian Nothing unfolds slowly but surely, aided in no small part by Peter Francis James's wonderfully sure narration. By the end you will be fully in the grips of a master writer and storyteller. No spoilers here, but there are parts that are purely heartbreaking; I was late to work on more than one occasion just to hear how things concluded.

And while you're at it, go ahead and download the second volume, which fulfills the promises of this one.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book

This book is very good I would highly recommend . Is a fasst and good read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Octavian Something

This is a wonderful, heartbreaking tale of a young Prince in pre-revolutionary America who comes to find out he is also a slave and the subject of an intense scientific study. Smart and insightful, it examines the best and worst of the American character and humanity as a whole. Plus,it's great as an audio book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Excellent reading and even more excellently written. The author nocks it out of the park again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful Piece of Literature

This was my first experience using Audible. The experience was very well. I enjoyed the book and the narrator was phenomenal. I love period pièces and I recommend this book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Octavian nothing

was a struggle to finish boring, very dry and slow moving had to read school

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book..

I just couldn't. I just felt nothing for the characters, and in the end, was unable to finish it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful