
The Blue Sword
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Narrated by:
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Diane Warren
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By:
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Robin McKinley
About this listen
From the New York Times bestselling author of Sunshine is the Newberry Award-winning classic novel that has enthralled listeners for decades.
This is the story of Corlath, golden-eyed king of the Free Hillfolk, son of the sons of the Lady Aerin.
And this is the story of Harry Crewe, the Homelander orphan girl who became Harimand-sol, King’s Raider, and heir to the Blue Sword, Gonturan, that no woman had wielded since Lady Aerin herself bore it into battle.
And this is the song of the kelar of the Hillfolk, the magic of the blood, the weaver of destinies …
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Read it after reading others in the series
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Critic reviews
“This is a zesty, romantic heroic fantasy with an appealing stalwart heroine, a finely realized mythical kingdom, and a grounding in reality that enhances the tale’s verve as a fantasy.”—Booklist
Featured Article: The top 100 fantasy listens of all time
When compiling our list of the best fantasy listening out there, we immediately came up against the age-old question: Is this fantasy or science fiction? The distinction is not as clear as you may think. Dragons, elves, and wizards are definitely fantasy, but what about wizards that also fly space ships? (Looking at you, Star Wars.) For the sake of fantasy purity, the top 100 fantasy listens include the best audio works in all manner of fantasy subgenres.
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Overall
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Performance
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-
Overall
-
Performance
-
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-
-
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-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"It is the heart of this place, and it is dying," says the Beast. And it is true; the center of the Beast's palace, the glittering glasshouse that brings Beauty both comfort and delight in her strange new environment, is filled with leafless brown rosebushes. But deep within this enchanted world, new life, at once subtle and strong, is about to awaken. Twenty years ago Robin McKinley enthralled listeners with the power of Beauty. Now this extraordinarily gifted novelist retells the story of Beauty and the Beast again - but in a totally new way, with fresh perspective, ingenuity, and mature insight.
-
-
Good, but not as good as Beauty
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By: Robin McKinley
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Overall
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Performance
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-
New title: Detailed lies.
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By: Robin McKinley
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Young Robin Longbow, subapprentice forester in the King's Forest of Nottingham, must contend with the dislike of the Chief Forester, who bullies Robin in memory of his popular father. But Robin does not want to leave Nottingham or lose the title to his father's small tenancy, because he is in love with a young lady named Marian - and keeps remembering that his mother too was gentry and married a common forester. Robin has been granted a rare holiday to go to the Nottingham Fair, where he will spend the day with his friends Much and Marian.
-
-
A great story paired with the wrong narrator
- By Gail N. on 11-01-19
By: Robin McKinley
-
Dragonhaven
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Noah Galvin
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dragons are extinct in the wild, but the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies in Smokehill National Park is home to about two hundred of the world's remaining creatures. Until Jake discovers a dying dragon that has given birth - and one of the babies is still alive.
-
-
A master author at the top of her powers.
- By ShySusan on 08-11-13
By: Robin McKinley
-
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- A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Charlotte Parry
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Overall
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Performance
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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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-
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Overall
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Performance
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- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Rachael Beresford
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The earthlines speak to Mirasol, but her family has lived in the demesne for centuries, and many of the old families can hear the land. She knows that the violent deaths of the last Master and Chalice have thrown Willowlands into turmoil; but she is only a beekeeper, and the problems of the Circle that govern Willowlands have nothing to do with her - although she wonders what will become of her demesne, because the Master and Chalice left no heirs to carry on their crucial duties.
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A favorite McKinley
- By Shannon GC on 03-29-20
By: Robin McKinley
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Sunshine
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it's unwise to walk. Sunshine knew that. But there hadn't been any trouble out at the lake for years, and she needed a place to be alone for a while. Unfortunately, she wasn't alone. She never heard them coming. Of course you don't, when they're vampires.
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An absolutely riveting, addictive tale
- By Amazon Customer on 12-30-08
By: Robin McKinley
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Water
- Tales of Elemental Spirits
- By: Robin McKinley, Peter Dickinson
- Narrated by: Bianca Amato
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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What magical beings inhabit Earth’s waters? Some are as almost-familiar as the mer-people; some as strange as the thing glimpsed only as a golden eye in a pool at the edge of the Great Desert Kalarsham, where the mad god Geljdreth rules; or the unknowable, immense Kraken, dark beyond the darkness of the deepest ocean, who will one day rise and rule the world. Here are seven tales from the remarkable storytellers Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson. Vividly imagined and written, they transform the simple element of water into something very powerful indeed.
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so many good stories
- By CMNH on 02-01-25
By: Robin McKinley, and others
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The Door in the Hedge
- And Other Stories
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Bianca Amato
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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From ensorcelled princesses to a frog that speaks, an enchanting collection of fairy tales from the Newbery Medal-winning author.
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Upbeat and rosy
- By Bruce on 07-17-21
By: Robin McKinley
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Shadows
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Maggie knows something's off about Val, her mom's new husband. Val is from Oldworld, where they still use magic, and he won't have any tech in his office-shed behind the house. But—more importantly—what are the huge, horrible, jagged, jumpy shadows following him around? Magic is illegal in Newworld, which is all about science. The magic-carrying gene was disabled two generations ago, back when Maggie's great-grandmother was a notable magician. But that was a long time ago.
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Amazing!
- By Amy on 04-25-23
By: Robin McKinley
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The Perilous Gard
- By: Elizabeth Marie Pope
- Narrated by: Jill Tanner
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Kate Sutton is all arms and legs. She possesses none of her sister Alicia’s honey-eyed beauty, but is intelligent and willful like her grandfather. It is an injustice, then, when Kate is falsely accused of Alicia’s wrongdoing and is banished to remote Elvenwood Hall. But the world Kate encounters in Derbyshire, England, is so strange and otherworldly that she has little time for regret. Elvenwood Hall has another, secret name - the Perilous Gard - and a mysterious history to go with it. It isn’t long before Kate has a hundred questions about her new home.
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Note:I'm biased - I knew I loved the book going in
- By Hurricane on 06-21-13
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Thirteenth Child
- By: Patricia C. Wrede
- Narrated by: Amanda Ronconi
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Eff was born a thirteenth child. Her twin brother, Lan, is the seventh son of a seventh son. This means he's supposed to possess amazing talent - and she's supposed to bring only bad things to her family and her town. Undeterred, her family moves to the frontier, where her father will be a professor of magic at a school perilously close to the magical divide that separates settlers from the beasts of the wild. With wit and wonder, Patricia Wrede creates an alternate history of westward expansion that will delight fans of both J. K. Rowling and Laura Ingalls Wilder.
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History, Magic, Teens, & Not An Inkling of Romance
- By Erin - Audible on 07-12-13
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Homecoming
- By: Cynthia Voigt
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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On Saturday morning, 13-year-old Dicey Tillerman sits in the car at the shopping mall with her younger sister and two brothers. Momma had said, "You be good." Then she walked away. They wait for a day and a night, but Momma never comes back. Finally, Dicey decides the children should go to Bridgeport, Connecticut where Aunt Cilla lives. Maybe Momma is waiting for them there. But they don't have enough money to take the bus. Determined to keep the family together, Dicey sets off on foot with her siblings.
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The BEST audible book!
- By KP on 04-20-17
By: Cynthia Voigt
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Sacred Ground
- A Novel
- By: Mercedes Lackey
- Narrated by: Katie Anvil Rich
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Jennifer Talldeer is Osage and Cherokee, granddaughter of a powerful Medicine Man. She walks a difficult path: contrary to tribal custom, she is learning a warrior's magics. A freelance private investigator, Jennifer tracks down stolen Native American artifacts. The construction of a new shopping mall uncovers fragments of human bone, revealing possible desecration of an ancient burial ground. Meanwhile, the sabotage of construction equipment at the site implicates many activists—particularly Jennifer's old flame, who is more attractive and dangerous than ever.
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Disappointed in the naration.
- By Mr. E. Potanabe on 08-27-23
By: Mercedes Lackey
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The Cecelia and Kate Novels
- Sorcery & Cecelia, The Grand Tour, and The Mislaid Magician
- By: Patricia C. Wrede, Caroline Stevermer
- Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
- Length: 30 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Enter Regency-era England—and a world in which magical mayhem and high society go hand in hand—with three novels featuring cousins Cecelia and Kate. In Sorcery & Cecelia, the two cousins have been inseparable since girlhood. But in 1817, Kate goes to London to make her debut into English society, leaving Cecelia behind. While visiting the Royal College of Wizards, Kate stumbles on a plot to destroy a beloved sorcerer—and only Cecelia can help her save him.
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Cute structure, plot gets increasingly diffuse and silly
- By M M on 07-01-22
By: Patricia C. Wrede, and others
Good book, not so amazing narrator
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Great book
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Narrator a bit stuffy, formal
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I could barely stop listening!
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Girl Power + Love Story
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Robin McKinley so skillfully creates a world filled with customs that the reader soon forgets it is fantasy.
Epic fantasy
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Horses and swords, and a little magic
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Wonderful story!
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Fun journey for strong female protagonist with likable supporting characters
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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, but I'd have to tell them to be prepared for it to be slow. This is a sequel to The Hero and the Crown, and I was expecting it to be as interesting. It's a good sequel, just not as good as the first.What other book might you compare The Blue Sword to and why?
The Hero and the Crown. Robin McKinley writes excellent books and she has a very unique, very distinctive style. There is no one else like her.Which scene was your favorite?
The descriptiveness of the desert lands.Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The whole book is supposed to be moving. It's a young woman's strength against the rigid social norms of two different worlds.Any additional comments?
Robin McKinley is one of the great authors of our time. Right up there with Terry Brooks and JRR Tolkien.Enjoyable.
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