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The Far Arena
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 18 hrs and 44 mins
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Publisher's summary
While conducting exploration in the frozen Arctic, Texan Lew McCardle, a geologist working for the Houghton Oil company, discovers something remarkable: a body encased in the ice. More remarkable still, the skills of Russian researcher Semyon Petrovitch bring the man miraculously back to life.
This strange visitor from the distant past has an amazing story to tell. Translated from his native Latin by Nordic nun Olava, Lucius Aurelius Eugenianus reveals that in the era of Domitian he was a champion in the Roman Colosseum, a gladiator known far and wide as the greatest of all time.
An ingenious amalgam of science fiction, fantasy, and history, Richard Ben Sapir's The Far Arena is a breathtaking work of literary invention, at once thrilling, poignant, and thought provoking.
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- By P. Johnson on 09-21-17
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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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First Lessons
- Medieval Tale 1
- By: Lina J. Potter
- Narrated by: Tiffany Morgan
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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Being a genius Medical school graduate and a sporty and active girl, Aliya dies suddenly in a car accident... only to find herself reborn in a completely different body in the middle of a half-ruined castle during Medieval times. While confused and dismayed, Aliya realizes she has been given a second chance in life - so she rolls up her sleeves and gets to work on restoring the castle and her new life.
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Reads like a high school project
- By P on 07-04-20
By: Lina J. Potter
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The Just City
- Thessaly, Book 1
- By: Jo Walton
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Created as an experiment by the time-traveling goddess Pallas Athene, the Just City is a planned community populated by over 10,000 children and a few hundred adult teachers from all eras of history, along with some handy robots from the far human future - all set down together on a Mediterranean island in the distant past.
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Could Not Get Past Mispronunciations
- By Martha K. on 04-22-17
By: Jo Walton
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The Passion
- By: Jeanette Winterson
- Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues, Daniel Pirrie
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Set during the tumultuous years of the Napoleonic Wars, The Passion intertwines the destinies of two remarkable people: Henri, a simple French soldier, who follows Napoleon from glory to Russian ruin; and Villanelle, the red-haired, web-footed daughter of a Venetian boatman, whose husband has gambled away her heart. In Venice’s compound of carnival, chance, and darkness, the pair meets their singular destiny.
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Excellence.
- By Scottie V. on 10-07-19
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Safely Home
- By: Randy Alcorn
- Narrated by: Steve Sever
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Abridged
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Here is a soul-stirring story of two college friends who reconnect after 20 years. One is living life apart from God, in comfortable corporate America; the other is living for Christ under intense persecution in China. This challenging book will convince readers to live in the light of eternity.
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Will this be the day that I die?
- By Johnny Excitement on 01-17-08
By: Randy Alcorn
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Daughter of the Sword
- A Novel of the Fated Blades
- By: Steve Bein
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto
- Length: 17 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Mariko Oshiro is not your average Tokyo cop. As the only female detective in the city’s most elite police unit, she has to fight for every ounce of respect, especially from her new boss. While she wants to track down a rumored cocaine shipment, he gives her the least promising case possible. But the case - the attempted theft of an old samurai sword - proves more dangerous than anyone on the force could have imagined.
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Beyond my expectations!
- By Professor on 10-06-12
By: Steve Bein
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The Wrath of the Orphans
- Book One of Elmoryn's The Kinless Trilogy
- By: Chris Philbrook
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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What do you do when everything you've ever known is ripped away from you, leaving nothing but ashes and charred memories behind? You get angry. So very angry. Malwynn and his twin sister, Umaryn, live in a small town in Northern Varrland. In idyllic New Picknell nearly nothing happens, and when their day-to-day routine is interrupted by a skirmish between an invading patrol of the dead from The Amaranth Empire and a defending force from Varrland, their world begins to come undone.
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FURIOUS TICKLING ENSUED
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 09-27-17
By: Chris Philbrook
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The Tiger's Daughter
- By: K Arsenault Rivera
- Narrated by: Caroline McLaughlin
- Length: 14 hrs and 57 mins
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The Hokkaran Empire has conquered every land within their bold reach - but failed to notice a lurking darkness festering within the people. Now their border walls begin to crumble, and villages fall to demons swarming out of the forests. Away on the silver steppes, the remaining tribes of nomadic Qorin retreat and protect their own, having bartered a treaty with the empire, exchanging inheritance through the dynasties. It is up to two young warriors, raised together across borders since their prophesied birth, to save the world from the encroaching demons.
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Writing format that didn't work for this book
- By kara-karina on 02-24-18
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This author needs a larger Audible audience!
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Nice story line!
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This author needs a larger Audible audience!
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What listeners say about The Far Arena
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- P Gaenir
- 02-08-17
Fabulous story. My first audiobook! Liked it a lot.
This author probably knows more about ancient Rome than a Roman. Great depth to the human relations. Worth hearing!
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3 people found this helpful
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- SCoury
- 10-27-21
wonderful characters,story, and performance.
Hard to put down.Harder to end. Excellent narration of a compelling story with an unforgettable main character.
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Overall
- Scotty
- 02-18-20
WOW!
First of all, this narrator, Peter Noble, is absolutely fantastic. He and author Richard Ben Sapir are the perfect match (or one of them). I took a chance on this book, and am sooo glad that I did. So very interesting what someone from a gladiators time was brought up to think, act, feel, compared to today's ways. Then incorporating the young nun and how her presence influenced herself and the situation. In so many ways I could relate to the gladiators' way of thinking more than to how rediculous we humans currently are, in so many ways. I smiled at the thought that today's so-called tough guys, or those who think themselves tough (or just strong), are really wimps (sp.?) compared to the fighting skills of the only 5 foot tall gladiator. I didn't realize that people then could be quite a bit shorter than many today, etc., etc. I learned a lot, smiled a lot, contemplated, and wondered. Very thought provoking and entertaining. Loved it!
Scotty
Audible addict
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2 people found this helpful
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- Wayne Brookes
- 03-10-22
Imaginative and fairly well researched
I first read this novel in 1979 when I was at basic training and I truly enjoyed it. While the political climate has changed somewhat it still holds up.
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- Amazon Customer Yumasavellz
- 10-04-16
classic Favorite doesn't disappoint
worried book would feel "dated" but it didn't. once in the story could not put it down. the narrator at first I wondered about but he is a skillful reader and I didn't need to worry. loved the book when it came out and loved the audible now. highly recommend.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Willow Bend Press
- 04-06-17
Awesome Narrator
The story was riveting and the narrator was near perfect. I couldn't put it down. At first I didn't realize the book was almost 40 years old, but that doesn't affect the quality. I will definitely seek out more works by the author as well as the narrator.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Linda Likes to Learn
- 10-17-16
Wonder of a concept!
Every emotion is writ all through this very unusual story of technology, science, death, life, greed, despair, love, friendship & finally understanding, acceptance, and- at last - peace. Scenes & perception of the ancient Roman world flashed thru my mind in full color - in both happiness & horror. A remarkable book that I will remember forever.
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5 people found this helpful
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- MarilynArms
- 06-01-17
Even better than the book!
This great book is finally available again in print as well as on Kindle and as an Audiobook from Audible.com. Thirty-six years after I first read it, you can buy it again. Now that I’ve listened to it for the first time (as opposed to reading it), it is not only as good as I remember. It is better.
The Far Arena is classified as science fiction, but not in the traditional sense. It doesn’t fall into any genre except perhaps speculative fiction, which is a catch-all term for all the books that can’t be otherwise categorized. Time travel? Sort of, although the only “mechanism” is time itself.
The story in brief: A Roman gladiator is flash frozen in the arctic ice. He is accidentally discovered by a team drilling for oil not far from the arctic. He is subsequently defrosted and brought back to life. What follows is his story as a Roman married to a Hebrew slave, and his perceptions of our modern world from the point of view of a man whose world disappeared 2000 years earlier.
For example, while in the hospital, he asks about the slaves who serve him. He is referring to the to nurses and other workers who attend to his needs. His new friends explain that they aren’t slaves, that they work for wages and are free to leave, or be dismissed by their employers. He thinks this is a fantastic idea.
“You mean they do everything you tell them to do, but when they get old and can no longer work, you don’t have to take care of them? What a great idea! Slaves without responsibility.”
“They aren’t slaves,” insist his modern friends.
“They are treated like slaves, they act like slaves. They are slaves,” he responds.
That is paraphrasing, of course, but it’s the spirit of the dialogue. This isn’t a quick piece of dialogue in a long book about “other things.” The discussion of “what is slavery” is an underlying theme throughout the book along with “the corruption of giant corporations” which apparently has not noticeably changed between the days of the Roman Empire and today.
Although I had read the book several times, I had never listened to it. I wasn’t intending to listen to the whole thing. I just wanted a little taste. I have a giant heap of books I have promised to read and I thought “I’ll give a little listen” and come back to finish it when I have more time.
I had forgotten how good the book really is. It has been a long time since I picked up a book and was sucked in from the first paragraph until the very end … and was still wishing there would be more. It gave me a sharp pang, realizing how few really great books I read these days. How many are touted as great, but reading them, they are no better than ordinary and often far less.
Not only was Richard Ben Sapir a brilliant writer, but Peter Noble is a terrific narrator. He handles dialects with ease and give the book the intensity it deserves. Never over the top, never too dramatic, he is as perfect as a narrator could be. And considering how much I love the book, I’m surprised to find myself saying it.
I had a lot of trouble not restarting the book from the beginning and giving it a round 2, just in case I missed a paragraph somewhere. What is really eerie is how the main character, drawn into modern times following 2000 years of cryogenic sleep, understands this world better than the people he meets in 20th century Europe.
The man from Rome understands corruption. He understands slavery, whatever we choose to call it. He knows that the rich and powerful will never support the poor and will always do what is to their benefit.
It is a level of cynicism which sharply focuses the lens of 2017.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Barberelli
- 12-22-22
I love it
in the beginning, I thought this narrator would be a struggle to listen to. I sincerely believed I'd return the title. Get through those potential initial thoughts, and keep going. before you know it, you'll be enthralled.
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- Jessica Kodzik
- 04-09-21
So impressed, great read!
I would’ve given this book all 5 stars across the board except for the fact that I was disappointed at the end. It took a few chapters to get into as well. But don’t get me wrong, don’t let that stop you! I thought the storyline was a bit outrageous at first, but this book was written SO WELL it sucked me in more than anything else I’ve read in a very long time!!! I l learned more details and facts about ancient Roman practices, especially in regards to gladiators, as well as the subject of speaking Latin from this one book than I’ve ever known in my life. The research was outstanding and his imagination just breathed life into a long dead language and culture. The characters were each so unique and vivid, I can’t even describe how well they were drawn, and each one was the main character in their own way. I could go on but I think I’ve made my point. If you have any interest in historical fiction, Read it!!
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