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The Bards of Bone Plain
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Charlotte Parry
- Length: 10 hrs
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Publisher's summary
The newest novel from the World Fantasy Award-winning author of The Bell at Sealey Head. With "her exquisite grasp of the fantasist's craft" (Publishers Weekly), Patricia A. McKillip now invites readers to discover a place that may only exist in the mystical wisdom of poetry and music.
Scholar Phelan Cle is researching Bone Plain - which has been studied for the last 500 years, though no one has been able to locate it as a real place. Archaeologist Jonah Cle, Phelan's father, is also hunting through time, piecing history together from forgotten trinkets. His most eager disciple is Princess Beatrice, the king's youngest daughter. When they unearth a disk marked with ancient runes, Beatrice pursues the secrets of a lost language that she suddenly notices all around her, hidden in plain sight.
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Editorial reviews
Veteran fantasy novelist Patricia A. McKillip crafts another rich, complex world in The Bards of Bone Plain, and narrators Marc Vietor and Charlotte Parry do a wonderful job of bringing it to life. Vietor and Parry make everything in Bone Plain, including the arcane and/or completely made-up words and character names, sound natural and inviting, like a tune you can easily pick up just by listening to a few bars. It helps that McKillip is focused on character over elaborate mythology, painting vivid pictures of the people of Caerau, an ancient city that’s home to the pre-eminent school for bards. There Phelan Cle is completing his studies by putting together the bardic version of a dissertation, and McKillip has a little fun with the notion of graduate school drudgery in a fantasy world.
Phelan’s subject is the ancient bard Nairn, and the novel switches between the present and the past, chronicling Nairn’s long-ago adventures mostly as Phelan discovers more about them. McKillip crafts a range of memorable characters, including Phelan’s cranky but mysterious father Jonah; the kingdom’s tomboy-ish princess, Beatrice; and Declan, Nairn’s mentor and keeper of mystical bardic secrets that hold far more power than merely producing sweet music. Unlike many fantasy novels, Bone Plain doesn’t have the manufactured urgency of a quest or a war to propel it along; instead it plays out more like a fable, with the characters coming to significant but low-key revelations as the story progresses.
Vietor reads the bulk of the book with a friendly but authoritative tone, easily differentiating between characters without resorting to silly fantasy-world voices. Whenever McKillip switches to a short excerpt from Phelan’s research (mostly to open chapters about Nairn), Parry takes over in her mellifluous British accent, offering a nice change of pace and a simple way to delineate one style from another. The simple, elegant approach to narration matches McKillip’s writing style, making for a story that’s as lovely to listen to as it is to experience. —Josh Bell
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The charm of spending the Christmas holidays in South Wales, with its crumbling castles and ancient myths, seems the perfect distraction from the nightmares that have plagued literary agent Lyn Ravenshaw since the loss of her baby five years ago. Instead she meets an emotionally fragile young widow who's convinced that Lyn's recurring dreams have drawn her to Castle Farm for an important purpose - and she's running out of time.
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Not Kearsley's best
- By Sindy on 06-27-16
By: Susanna Kearsley
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Heart’s Blood
- By: Juliet Marillier
- Narrated by: Ruth Urquhart
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Whistling Tor is a place of secrets: a mysterious, wooded hill housing the crumbling fortress belonging to Anluan - a chieftain whose name is spoken throughout the region in tones of revulsion and bitterness. A curse lies over Anluan's family and his people, and the woods themselves hold a perilous force whose every whisper threatens doom. Then the young scribe Caitrin appears in Anluan's garden, admiring the rare plant known as heart's blood. Retained to sort through entangled family documents, Caitrin brings about unexpected changes.
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Very engrossing
- By Amazon Customer on 01-22-19
By: Juliet Marillier
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A Shadow in Summer
- Long Price Quartet, Book 1
- By: Daniel Abraham
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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The powerful city-state of Saraykeht is a bastion of peace and culture, a major center of commerce and trade. Its economy depends on the power of the captive spirit Seedless, an and at bound to the poet-sorcerer Heshai for life. Enter the Galts, an empire committed to laying waste to all lands with their ferocious army. Saraykeht has always been too strong for the Galts to attack, but now they see an opportunity.
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REALLY Hard to Rate!
- By Trip Williams on 04-27-15
By: Daniel Abraham
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Rhapsody
- Child of Blood
- By: Elizabeth Haydon
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 30 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Rhapsody is a woman, a singer of some talent who is swept up into events of world-shattering import. On the run from an old romantic interest who won't take no for an answer, Rhapsody literally bumps into a couple of shady characters: half breeds who come to her rescue in the nick of time. Only the rescue turns into an abduction, and Rhapsody soon finds herself dragged along on an epic voyage--one that spans centuries and ranges across a wonder-filled fantasy world.
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Good story! Terrible narration.
- By CharmY2K on 04-30-15
By: Elizabeth Haydon
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Bloodleaf
- By: Crystal Smith
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Princess Aurelia is a prisoner to her crown and the heir that nobody wants. Surrounded by spirits and banned from using her blood-magic, Aurelia flees her country after a devastating assassination attempt. To escape her fate, Aurelia disguises herself as a commoner in a new land and discovers a happiness her crown has never allowed. As she forges new bonds and perfects her magic, she begins to fall for a man who is forbidden to rule beside her.
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Not Understanding All the Praise
- By GPChlorine on 08-23-19
By: Crystal Smith
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West
- By: Edith Pattou
- Narrated by: Renée Raudman, Kirby Heyborne, Taylor Meskimen, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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When Rose first met Charles, he was trapped in the form of a white bear. To rescue him, Rose traveled to the land that lay east of the sun and west of the moon to defeat the evil Troll Queen. Now, Rose has found her happily ever after with Charles - until a sudden storm destroys his ship and he is presumed dead. But Rose doesn’t believe the shipwreck was an act of nature, nor does she believe Charles is truly dead. Something much more sinister is at work.
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Wonderful!
- By Diane on 05-01-19
By: Edith Pattou
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Everless
- By: Sara Holland
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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In the kingdom of Sempera, time is currency - extracted from blood, bound to iron, and consumed to add time to one's own lifespan. The rich aristocracy, like the Gerlings, tax the poor to the hilt, extending their own lives by centuries. No one resents the Gerlings more than Jules Ember. A decade ago, she and her father were servants at Everless, the Gerlings' palatial estate, until a fateful accident forced them to flee in the dead of night.
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Really solid YA
- By E. Zinnia on 01-14-18
By: Sara Holland
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Fool's Errand
- The Tawny Man Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Robin Hobb
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 25 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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For fifteen years FitzChivalry Farseer has lived in self-imposed exile, assumed to be dead by almost all who once cared about him. But now, into his isolated life, visitors begin to arrive: Fitz's mentor from his assassin days; a hedge-witch who foresees the return of a long-lost love; and the Fool, the former White Prophet, who beckons Fitz to fulfill his destiny. Then comes the summons he cannot ignore. Prince Dutiful, the young heir to the Farseer throne, has vanished.
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A solid fantasy story in first person
- By Kevin Stokes on 08-31-14
By: Robin Hobb
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Spindle Fire
- By: Lexa Hillyer
- Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Half sisters Isabelle and Aurora are polar opposites: Isabelle is the king's headstrong illegitimate daughter whose sight was tithed by faeries; Aurora, beautiful and sheltered, was tithed her sense of touch and voice on the same day. Despite their differences, the sisters have always been extremely close. And then everything changes with a single drop of Aurora's blood, a Faerie Queen who is preparing for war, a strange and enchanting dream realm - and a sleep so deep it cannot be broken.
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Lovers of fairy tale romance rejoice!
- By Elley Murray on 11-23-17
By: Lexa Hillyer
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A Thousand Beginnings and Endings
- By: Ellen Oh, Elsie Chapman
- Narrated by: Kim Mai Guest, Vikas Adam
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Star-crossed lovers, meddling immortals, feigned identities, battles of wits, and dire warnings: these are the stuff of fairy tale, myth, and folklore that have drawn us in for centuries. Fifteen best-selling and acclaimed authors reimagine the folklore and mythology of East and South Asia in short stories that are by turns enchanting, heartbreaking, romantic, and passionate. From fantasy to science fiction to contemporary, from romance to tales of revenge, these stories will beguile listeners from start to finish.
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great stories, terrible narrators
- By Amazon Customer on 05-11-19
By: Ellen Oh, and others
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Beauty
- A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Charlotte Parry
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times best-selling author Robin McKinley has won numerous awards for her writing, including the prestigious Newbery Medal. Though her two sisters are beautiful, Beauty, despite her name, is thin and awkward - but she's also courageous. So when her father makes a terrible promise to a Beast living in an enchanted castle, Beauty knows she must volunteer to be the Beast's prisoner.
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Best version of B&tB I've ever read, seen, heard.
- By ShySusan on 08-11-13
By: Robin McKinley
What listeners say about The Bards of Bone Plain
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Bruce
- 07-21-21
Takes multiple listening
Takes multiple listening to figure out minimally what is going on. Time jumps, steam cars and magic runes, wrapped in mystical powers of words and tunes - like someone's nightmare before their first recital. I still don't know where Bone Plain is; nor how one can be cursed with unending life by playing badly.
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Overall
- Beth
- 05-23-11
Wonderful, evocative fantasy
I loved the story. McKillip's remarkable characterizations and her elegant use of language work very well to evoke a world. Her deft handling of archetypal characters and fantasy literature tropes neatly avoided predictability, while managing to resonate on many different levels (as the best fantasy should).
I liked the idea of two narrators, but I wanted to hear more from Charlotte Parry -- and maybe less from Marc Vietor. They both turned in satisfactory performances, but for a gem of a book, like this one, I was hoping for something well beyond adequate.
All in all, The Bards of Bone Plain is a good read/listen which I recommend to any fantasy lover.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Sara
- 01-13-11
Plodding
As the Talking Heads sing, "Say someting once, why say it again?" (or something like that). Although this book is about music and poetry, the writing beats both right out of you. Maybe that's because the ancient story and the new story are exactly the same and because each chapter dealing with the ancient story is prefaced (using a different narrator) by a synopsis of exactly what you're about to hear. I couldn't wait for it to end and when it did, it was so predictable I was annoyed I had devoted so much time to it.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Sherryl
- 02-10-11
Excellent narrators... good story
This is the third audio book I've listened to and I'm amazed at how good the people narrating the novel was. The story meanwhile is as good as any as Mckillip had written. I've always have an affinity to bards and their ilk, so I was quite eager to get my hand on this title. Although, I'm not used to the pace the audio book sets, I can read a paper book in half the time in took for the audio to finish, with a few more titles on my belt, I'm sure that any hesitation I might have on audio books will vanish entirely, especially if the quality of narrators remains excellent.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Katherine
- 01-29-11
The power of music, language, and love
Patricia McKillip is a must-read author for any true lover of fantasy literature. With a voice all her own, she imbues her work ??? both the story and the style ??? with beauty, magic, and wonder. Her latest novel, The Bards of Bone Plain, is just as enchanting as I was expecting it to be.
The Bards of Bone Plain combines the arts and sciences (and mysteries) of archeology, music, language, and history, to create a multi-layered story that???s sure to satisfy both sides of your brain. I enjoyed the academic atmosphere and the way that Phelan???s research paper was used as alternating chapters to present Nairn???s story. In the audiobook edition, only these chapters are read by Charlotte Parry so that they are clearly set apart.
The characters are well-done, though there are so many important ones that we don???t get to know them all as well as we???d like to. I especially liked Princess Beatrice, who drives a steam-powered car and is always trying to balance her courtly duties with her dirty hobbies. She hates the social events she???s required to attend, but she knows that if she pushes her mother too far, she???ll be shipped off to the country to live with her sister???s family. Beatrice???s social blunders and her interactions with her family are delightfully humorous.
If you???re familiar with Patricia McKillip, then you know she writes in a somewhat dreamy and fanciful style that, though lyrical and lovely, is occasionally misty and vague. While the plot of The Bards of Bone Plain is fairly straight-forward, McKillip???s romantic style shrouds some aspects of the plot and characters in mysteries that are never completely cleared up. This sense of wonder is part of what makes her stories work so well as fantasy. The Bards of Bone Plain is another McKillip novel that leaves the reader in awe. It???s a gorgeous story that celebrates the power of music, language, and love.
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11 people found this helpful
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- John
- 11-24-12
Classic McKillip
Enjoyable. However, it can retread previous novels of hers. I would suggest that a friend reads this.
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- John
- 12-30-10
The Bards of Bone Plain
Very good. I've read multiple of the authors books, and I would rate this as slightly worse than the Riddle-Master Trilogy and slightly better than Ombria in Shadow, which I had previously considered to be her two best stories. Excellent narrator. Is set in a Victorian setting, has themes of archaeology, music, magic letters, and harping. Also has steam powered cars. I'd recommend this to a friend.
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13 people found this helpful
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- cindy m
- 04-20-20
loved it
I really loved this book. This is one of my favorite authors. I wish all of her books were available as audiobooks.
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Overall
- J. Burgess
- 03-15-11
Boring
This is a difficult audio book to get into. I am forcing my way through it, but I am about to give up. I wonder if I can get my credit restored. I usually love her work - the Riddle Master of Hed is one of my all time favorite books.
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4 people found this helpful