
Titus Groan
Volume 1 of the Gormenghast Trilogy
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
3 months free
Buy for $24.04
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Simon Vance
-
By:
-
Mervyn Peake
About this listen
In this first volume, the Gormenghast Castle, and the noble family who inhabits it, are introduced, along with the infant firstborn son of the Lord and Countess. Titus Groan is sent away to be raised by a wet nurse, with only a gold ring from his mother, and ordered to not be brought back until the age of six. By his christening, he learns from his much older sisters that epileptic fits are "common at his age." He also learns that they don't like his mother. And then, he is crowned, and called, "Child-inheritor of the rivers, of the Tower of Flints and the dark recesses beneath cold stairways and the sunny summer lawns. Child-inheritor of the spring breeze that blow in from the jarl forests and of the autumn misery in petal, scale, and wing. Winter's white brilliance on a thousand turrets and summer's torpor among walls that crumble..."
In these extraordinary novels, Peake has created a world where all is like a dream - lush, fantastical, vivid; a symbol of dark struggle.
©1967 Mervyn Peake (P)2000 Blackstone AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Dying Earth
- Tales of the Dying Earth, Book 1
- By: Jack Vance
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The stories in The Dying Earth introduce dozens of seekers of wisom and beauty, lovely lost women, wizards of every shade of eccentricity with their runic amulets and spells. We meet the melancholy deodands, who feed on human flesh and the twk-men, who ride dragonflies and trade information for salt. There are monsters and demons. Each being is morally ambiguous: The evil are charming, the good are dangerous. All are at home.
-
-
A Decadent and Hopeful Dying Earth
- By Jefferson on 06-27-10
By: Jack Vance
-
Solaris
- The Definitive Edition
- By: Stanislaw Lem, Bill Johnston - translator
- Narrated by: Alessandro Juliani
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At last, one of the world’s greatest works of science fiction is available - just as author Stanislaw Lem intended it. To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Solaris, Audible, in cooperation with the Lem Estate, has commissioned a brand-new translation - complete for the first time, and the first ever directly from the original Polish to English. Beautifully narrated by Alessandro Juliani ( Battlestar Galactica), Lem’s provocative novel comes alive for a new generation.
-
-
A comment on negative reviews
- By Burns on 09-20-11
By: Stanislaw Lem, and others
-
The King of Elfland's Daughter
- By: Lord Dunsany
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is said that Lord Dunsany wrote his stories with a handmade quill in a single draft, and The King of Elfland’s Daughter is widely regarded as one of his greatest works. A fantasy classic which has influenced some of the most popular fantasy writers of all time, including J. R. R. Tolkien and Neil Gaiman, and one of the landmark pre-Tolkien fantasy stories written. It is noteworthy not only for its poetic literature and picturesque imagery, but also its exploration of Elfland, a land of fancy, immortality, and forbidden love.
-
-
DNF
- By Knaveheartt on 04-27-23
By: Lord Dunsany
-
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 32 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.
-
-
Hang in there!
- By D. McMillen on 05-31-05
By: Susanna Clarke
-
Elric of Melniboné
- Volume 1: Elric of Melnibone, The Fortress of the Pearl, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and The Weird of the White Wolf
- By: Michael Moorcock, Neil Gaiman - Foreword
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 24 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is one of the most well-known and well-loved fantasy epics of the twentieth century: the story of Elric, emperor of the dying kingdom of Melniboné. For a hundred centuries the Melnibonéans have ruled from the Dragon Isle of Imrryr. Now, after years of corruption and decadence, Elric’s amoral cousin Prince Yyrkoon, the brother of his beloved Cymoril, sets his eyes on the Ruby Throne. Elric must face his treacherous cousin not as a warrior but as a sorcerer king once again in league with the ancient gods of Melniboné, the Chaos Lords, and thus sealing his inexorable fate.
-
-
Skip the first chapter, it's not Moorcock.
- By Ted C. on 02-17-22
By: Michael Moorcock, and others
-
Piranesi
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has. In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.
-
-
Fascinating Social Study
- By Henry V on 02-26-21
By: Susanna Clarke
-
The Dying Earth
- Tales of the Dying Earth, Book 1
- By: Jack Vance
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The stories in The Dying Earth introduce dozens of seekers of wisom and beauty, lovely lost women, wizards of every shade of eccentricity with their runic amulets and spells. We meet the melancholy deodands, who feed on human flesh and the twk-men, who ride dragonflies and trade information for salt. There are monsters and demons. Each being is morally ambiguous: The evil are charming, the good are dangerous. All are at home.
-
-
A Decadent and Hopeful Dying Earth
- By Jefferson on 06-27-10
By: Jack Vance
-
Solaris
- The Definitive Edition
- By: Stanislaw Lem, Bill Johnston - translator
- Narrated by: Alessandro Juliani
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At last, one of the world’s greatest works of science fiction is available - just as author Stanislaw Lem intended it. To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Solaris, Audible, in cooperation with the Lem Estate, has commissioned a brand-new translation - complete for the first time, and the first ever directly from the original Polish to English. Beautifully narrated by Alessandro Juliani ( Battlestar Galactica), Lem’s provocative novel comes alive for a new generation.
-
-
A comment on negative reviews
- By Burns on 09-20-11
By: Stanislaw Lem, and others
-
The King of Elfland's Daughter
- By: Lord Dunsany
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is said that Lord Dunsany wrote his stories with a handmade quill in a single draft, and The King of Elfland’s Daughter is widely regarded as one of his greatest works. A fantasy classic which has influenced some of the most popular fantasy writers of all time, including J. R. R. Tolkien and Neil Gaiman, and one of the landmark pre-Tolkien fantasy stories written. It is noteworthy not only for its poetic literature and picturesque imagery, but also its exploration of Elfland, a land of fancy, immortality, and forbidden love.
-
-
DNF
- By Knaveheartt on 04-27-23
By: Lord Dunsany
-
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 32 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.
-
-
Hang in there!
- By D. McMillen on 05-31-05
By: Susanna Clarke
-
Elric of Melniboné
- Volume 1: Elric of Melnibone, The Fortress of the Pearl, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and The Weird of the White Wolf
- By: Michael Moorcock, Neil Gaiman - Foreword
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 24 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is one of the most well-known and well-loved fantasy epics of the twentieth century: the story of Elric, emperor of the dying kingdom of Melniboné. For a hundred centuries the Melnibonéans have ruled from the Dragon Isle of Imrryr. Now, after years of corruption and decadence, Elric’s amoral cousin Prince Yyrkoon, the brother of his beloved Cymoril, sets his eyes on the Ruby Throne. Elric must face his treacherous cousin not as a warrior but as a sorcerer king once again in league with the ancient gods of Melniboné, the Chaos Lords, and thus sealing his inexorable fate.
-
-
Skip the first chapter, it's not Moorcock.
- By Ted C. on 02-17-22
By: Michael Moorcock, and others
-
Piranesi
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has. In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.
-
-
Fascinating Social Study
- By Henry V on 02-26-21
By: Susanna Clarke
-
Hyperion
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
-
-
The Shrike Awaits. Enter The Time Tombs...
- By Michael on 10-13-12
By: Dan Simmons
-
A Wizard of Earthsea
- The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: Rob Inglis
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Sparrowhawk casts a spell that saves his village from destruction at the hands of the invading Kargs, Ogion, the Mage of Re Albi, encourages the boy to apprentice himself in the art of wizardry. So, at the age of 13, the boy receives his true name - Ged - and gives himself over to the gentle tutelage of the Master Ogion. But impatient with the slowness of his studies and infatuated with glory, Ged embarks for the Island of Roke, where the highest arts of wizardry are taught.
-
-
A little gem, excellently narrated.
- By Marjorie on 05-14-12
-
Perdido Street Station
- By: China Mieville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the center of the world. Humans and mutants and arcane races brood in the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the river is sluggish with unnatural effluent and foundries pound into the night. For a thousand years, the Parliament and its brutal militias have ruled over a vast economy of workers and artists, spies and soldiers, magicians, crooks, and junkies. Now a stranger has arrived, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand. And something unthinkable is released.
-
-
Brilliant, wonderful book -- horrible recording
- By James on 08-19-09
By: China Mieville
-
Ambergris
- City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek, Finch
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot, Cassandra Campbell, Oliver Wyman
- Length: 43 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Area X, there was Ambergris. Jeff VanderMeer conceived what would become his first cult classic series of speculative works: the Ambergris trilogy. Now, for the first time ever, the story of the sprawling metropolis of Ambergris is collected into a single volume, including City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek: An Afterword, and Finch.
-
-
Entrancing “weird” novel
- By Joe on 12-04-20
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Imajica
- By: Clive Barker
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 37 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imajica is an epic beyond compare: vast in conception, obsessively detailed in execution, and apocalyptic in its resolution. At its heart lies the sensualist and master art forger Gentle, whose life unravels when he encounters Judith Odell, whose power to influence the destinies of men is vaster than she knows, and Pie "oh" pah, an alien assassin who comes from a hidden dimension.
-
-
The Full Imajica
- By Mimi-chan on 05-23-15
By: Clive Barker
-
The Silmarillion
- By: J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien
- Narrated by: Andy Serkis
- Length: 19 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor. Included on the recording are several shorter works. The Ainulindalë is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. The Akallabêth recounts the downfall of the great island kingdom of Númenor at the end of the Second Age, and Of the Rings of Power tells of the great events at the end of the Third Age.
-
-
TIPS when reading this book:
- By Anonymous User on 06-29-23
By: J. R. R. Tolkien, and others
-
The Knight
- The Wizard Knight Series, Book One
- By: Gene Wolfe
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 16 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A young man in his teens is transported from our world to a magical realm that contains seven levels of reality. Very quickly transformed by magic into a grown man of heroic proportions, he takes the name Able and sets out on a quest to find the sword that has been promised to him, a sword he will get from a dragon, the one very special blade that will help him fulfill his life ambition to become a knight and a true hero. Inside, however, Able remains a boy, and he must grow in every sense to survive the dangers and delights that lie ahead in encounters with giants, elves, and wizards.
-
-
Confusing as hell.
- By Zachary on 09-26-18
By: Gene Wolfe
-
Theft of Swords [Dramatized Adaptation]
- Riyria Revelations, Book 1
- By: Michael J. Sullivan
- Narrated by: Amanda Forstrom, Andrew Quilpa, Andy Brownstein, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is no ancient evil to defeat, no orphan destined for greatness, just two guys in the wrong place at the wrong time. Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, make a profitable living carrying out dangerous assignments for conspiring nobles until they become the unwitting scapegoats in a plot to murder the king. Sentenced to death, they have only one way out...and so begins this tale of treachery and adventure, sword fighting and magic, myth and legend. Avempartha is the second of a six book series entitled the Riyria Revelations.
-
-
Could do without the commercials throughout it
- By Amazon Customer on 01-26-22
-
Don Quixote
- Translated by Edith Grossman
- By: Edith Grossman - translator, Miguel de Cervantes
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 39 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sixteenth-century Spanish gentleman Don Quixote, fed by his own delusional fantasies, takes to the road in search of chivalrous adventures. But his quest leads to more trouble than triumph. At once humorous, romantic, and sad, Don Quixote is a literary landmark. This fresh edition, by award-winning translator Edith Grossman, brings the tale to life as never before.
-
-
My Fourth Try at an Audible Quixote
- By James on 12-24-12
By: Edith Grossman - translator, and others
-
1Q84
- By: Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin - translator, Philip Gabriel - translator
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto, Marc Vietor, Mark Boyett
- Length: 46 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.
A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver's enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 - "Q" is for "question mark". A world that bears a question....
-
-
WOW, WOW, WOW.
- By Amanda on 11-06-11
By: Haruki Murakami, and others
-
Gardens of the Moon
- The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 1
- By: Steven Erikson
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 26 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter infighting and bloody confrontations with the formidable Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, ancient and implacable sorcerers. Even the imperial legions, long inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet Empress Laseen's rule remains absolute, enforced by her dread Claw assassins.
-
-
An engrossing yet demanding high epic
- By Adnan on 11-20-12
By: Steven Erikson
-
The Three Musketeers (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: Alexandre Dumas, William Robson - translator
- Narrated by: Guy Mott
- Length: 27 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young nobleman d’Artagnan has arrived in Paris intent on joining the guardians of King Louis XIII. He befriends the regiment’s most formidable musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, and together they unite in their commitment to uphold justice. Soon, a royal indiscretion thrusts them into an audacious escapade of courtly intrigue, thwarted romance, and daring rescue. But it’s the Machiavellian schemes of a powerful enemy and the wicked seductions of an ingenious female spy that will be their greatest challenges.
-
-
terrible narrator. every comma is a 3 second pause
- By Anonymous User on 09-21-21
By: Alexandre Dumas, and others
Critic reviews
"[Peake's books] are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception of the range of possible experience." (C.S. Lewis)
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Worm Ouroboros
- By: E. R. Eddison
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 20 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
E.R. Edison’s The Worm Ouroboros inspired the epic-fantasy that followed him. This production is of the first edition (1922). The Lords of Demonland are celebrating Lord Juss’s birthday when an envoy arrives from Witchland. He brings demands from King Gorice XI of Witchland that the Lords of Demonland “kiss his toe, and acknowledge him to be their King and they, his ill-conditioned, disobedient children”. The Lords of Demonland reject this utterly and, to settle the matter, they challenge King Gorice to a wrestling match against their champion, Lord Goldry Bluszco.
-
-
Heavy in language but light in heart
- By LITRPG Audiobook Reviews on 05-05-18
By: E. R. Eddison
-
Suldrun’s Garden
- Lyonesse: Book 1
- By: Jack Vance
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 18 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Elder Isles, located in what is now the Bay of Biscay off the coast of Old Gaul, are made up of 10 contending kingdoms, all vying with each other for control. At the centre of much of the intrigue is Casmir, the ruthless and ambitious king of Lyonnesse. His beautiful but otherworldly daughter, Suldrun, is part of his plans. He intends to cement an alliance or two by marrying her well. But Suldrun is as determined as he and defies him.
-
-
Not my cup of tea
- By Ann on 01-10-11
By: Jack Vance
-
The Boats of the Glen Carrig
- By: William Hope Hodgson
- Narrated by: Mark Turetsky
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The survivors of the shipwrecked 18th century vessel Glen Carrig fight for their lives amidst a vast continent of weeds. Mysterious wrecks, horrific monsters, and swashbuckling adventure!
-
-
Less than the sum of its parts
- By Spencer on 05-17-17
-
The Man Who Was Thursday
- By: G. K. Chesterton
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story begins when two poets meet. Gabriel Syme is a poet of law. Lucian Gregory is a poetic anarchist. As the poets protest their respective philosophies, they strike a challenge. In the ruckus that ensues, the Central European Council of Anarchists elects Syme to the post of Thursday, one of their seven chief council positions. Undercover. On the run, Syme meets with Sunday, the head of the council, a man so outrageously mysterious that his antics confound both the law-abiding and the anarchist.
-
-
Indescribably good
- By Erez on 06-11-10
By: G. K. Chesterton
-
The Spear Cuts Through Water
- A Novel
- By: Simon Jimenez
- Narrated by: Joel de la Fuente
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family—the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors—hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.
-
-
Unlistenable
- By Justin West on 08-01-24
By: Simon Jimenez
-
First King of Shannara
- The Shannara Series, Prequel
- By: Terry Brooks
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 19 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this prequel to The Sword of Shannara, in which many details of the Four Lands' history are revealed, Druids, horrified by the misuse of magic, have eschewed it in favor of science. But Bremen the Druid studies magic, and becomes an outcast on its account. Bremen discovers that an invincible army of trolls are fast conquering all that lay to their south. Before them come the Nazgul-like Skull Bearers, disfigured and transformed Druids who have fallen prey to the dark arts.
-
-
A True Pleasure
- By K & L MITCHELL on 08-23-08
By: Terry Brooks
-
The Worm Ouroboros
- By: E. R. Eddison
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 20 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
E.R. Edison’s The Worm Ouroboros inspired the epic-fantasy that followed him. This production is of the first edition (1922). The Lords of Demonland are celebrating Lord Juss’s birthday when an envoy arrives from Witchland. He brings demands from King Gorice XI of Witchland that the Lords of Demonland “kiss his toe, and acknowledge him to be their King and they, his ill-conditioned, disobedient children”. The Lords of Demonland reject this utterly and, to settle the matter, they challenge King Gorice to a wrestling match against their champion, Lord Goldry Bluszco.
-
-
Heavy in language but light in heart
- By LITRPG Audiobook Reviews on 05-05-18
By: E. R. Eddison
-
Suldrun’s Garden
- Lyonesse: Book 1
- By: Jack Vance
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 18 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Elder Isles, located in what is now the Bay of Biscay off the coast of Old Gaul, are made up of 10 contending kingdoms, all vying with each other for control. At the centre of much of the intrigue is Casmir, the ruthless and ambitious king of Lyonnesse. His beautiful but otherworldly daughter, Suldrun, is part of his plans. He intends to cement an alliance or two by marrying her well. But Suldrun is as determined as he and defies him.
-
-
Not my cup of tea
- By Ann on 01-10-11
By: Jack Vance
-
The Boats of the Glen Carrig
- By: William Hope Hodgson
- Narrated by: Mark Turetsky
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The survivors of the shipwrecked 18th century vessel Glen Carrig fight for their lives amidst a vast continent of weeds. Mysterious wrecks, horrific monsters, and swashbuckling adventure!
-
-
Less than the sum of its parts
- By Spencer on 05-17-17
-
The Man Who Was Thursday
- By: G. K. Chesterton
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story begins when two poets meet. Gabriel Syme is a poet of law. Lucian Gregory is a poetic anarchist. As the poets protest their respective philosophies, they strike a challenge. In the ruckus that ensues, the Central European Council of Anarchists elects Syme to the post of Thursday, one of their seven chief council positions. Undercover. On the run, Syme meets with Sunday, the head of the council, a man so outrageously mysterious that his antics confound both the law-abiding and the anarchist.
-
-
Indescribably good
- By Erez on 06-11-10
By: G. K. Chesterton
-
The Spear Cuts Through Water
- A Novel
- By: Simon Jimenez
- Narrated by: Joel de la Fuente
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family—the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors—hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.
-
-
Unlistenable
- By Justin West on 08-01-24
By: Simon Jimenez
-
First King of Shannara
- The Shannara Series, Prequel
- By: Terry Brooks
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 19 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this prequel to The Sword of Shannara, in which many details of the Four Lands' history are revealed, Druids, horrified by the misuse of magic, have eschewed it in favor of science. But Bremen the Druid studies magic, and becomes an outcast on its account. Bremen discovers that an invincible army of trolls are fast conquering all that lay to their south. Before them come the Nazgul-like Skull Bearers, disfigured and transformed Druids who have fallen prey to the dark arts.
-
-
A True Pleasure
- By K & L MITCHELL on 08-23-08
By: Terry Brooks
-
Perdido Street Station
- By: China Mieville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the center of the world. Humans and mutants and arcane races brood in the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the river is sluggish with unnatural effluent and foundries pound into the night. For a thousand years, the Parliament and its brutal militias have ruled over a vast economy of workers and artists, spies and soldiers, magicians, crooks, and junkies. Now a stranger has arrived, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand. And something unthinkable is released.
-
-
Brilliant, wonderful book -- horrible recording
- By James on 08-19-09
By: China Mieville
-
Middlegame
- By: Seanan McGuire
- Narrated by: Amber Benson
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story. Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math. Roger and Dodger aren’t exactly human, though they don’t realize it. They aren’t exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet. Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitor before him. Reed created Dodger and her brother. He’s not their father. Not quite. But he has a plan.
-
-
Couldn't Finish
- By Amy Ferrantino on 05-22-19
By: Seanan McGuire
-
Light Years
- By: James Salter
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This exquisite, resonant novel by PEN/Faulkner winner James Salter is a brilliant portrait of a marriage by a contemporary American master. It is the story of Nedra and Viri, whose favored life is centered around dinners, ingenious games with their children, enviable friends, and near-perfect days passed skating on a frozen river or sunning on the beach.
-
-
Unfathomable Font of Blue: Life's Serial Goodbyes
- By W Perry Hall on 04-18-19
By: James Salter
-
The City & The City
- By: China Mieville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borl ú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined. Borl must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own.
-
-
Reviews, Dishonesty and The Emperor's New Clothes
- By Robert on 01-27-13
By: China Mieville
-
Lord Foul’s Bane
- The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Book 1
- By: Stephen R. Donaldson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 19 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Covenant is a leper, a bitter and solitary pariah who is mystically transported to another Earth where time moves differently than ours, one in which magic takes many forms. The Land is threatened by many evils, the most immediate of which is a maddened Cavewight whose subterranean excavations have unearthed the ancient and puissant Staff of Law. More dangerous to the free people of the Land is the Gray Slayer, Lord Foul, the Despiser, who intends to destroy the actual foundations of the Earth that he might wage war against the universe’s creator.
-
-
The most underrated saga of our time
- By Matthew D. Bixby on 09-02-20
-
Pale Fire
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A 999 line poem in heroic couplets, divided into 4 cantos, was composed - according to Nabokov's fiction - by John Francis Shade, an obsessively methodical man, during the last 20 days of his life.
-
-
An amazing feat for such a unique novel
- By AmazonCustomer on 03-27-12
By: Vladimir Nabokov
-
The Knight
- The Wizard Knight Series, Book One
- By: Gene Wolfe
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 16 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A young man in his teens is transported from our world to a magical realm that contains seven levels of reality. Very quickly transformed by magic into a grown man of heroic proportions, he takes the name Able and sets out on a quest to find the sword that has been promised to him, a sword he will get from a dragon, the one very special blade that will help him fulfill his life ambition to become a knight and a true hero. Inside, however, Able remains a boy, and he must grow in every sense to survive the dangers and delights that lie ahead in encounters with giants, elves, and wizards.
-
-
Confusing as hell.
- By Zachary on 09-26-18
By: Gene Wolfe
-
Tigana
- By: Guy Gavriel Kay
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 24 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eight of the nine Palm provinces of the Peninsula have been overcome by warrior sorcerers Brandin and Alberico. But the sorcerers don't know that a small band of survivors is plotting their removal. With tensions mounting, the sorcerers become increasingly at odds as each decides where his own path - and that of the land - should truly lie.
-
-
A little self-indulgent
- By Diana M. on 05-31-20
By: Guy Gavriel Kay
-
2666
- By: Roberto Bolaño
- Narrated by: John Lee, Armando Durán, G. Valmont Thomas, and others
- Length: 39 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Composed in the last years of Roberto Bolaño's life, 2666 was greeted across Europe and Latin America as his highest achievement, surpassing even his previous work in its strangeness, beauty, and scope. Its throng of unforgettable characters includes academics and convicts, an American sportswriter, an elusive German novelist, and a teenage student and her widowed, mentally unstable father. Their lives intersect in the urban sprawl of Santa Teresa - a fictional Juárez - on the U.S.-Mexico border.
-
-
The Best Book I Read or Listened to in 2009
- By William on 01-05-10
By: Roberto Bolaño
-
Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian
- The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus
- By: Robert E. Howard, Finn J. D. John
- Narrated by: Finn J. D. John
- Length: 35 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This collection contains all of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian stories published during his lifetime, contextualized with biographical details of their author.
-
-
Great Reading!
- By Jackson on 07-19-17
By: Robert E. Howard, and others
-
Ubik
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Glen Runciter runs a lucrative business - deploying his teams of anti-psychics to corporate clients who want privacy and security from psychic spies. But when he and his top team are ambushed by a rival, he is gravely injured and placed in "half-life," a dreamlike state of suspended animation. Soon, though, the surviving members of the team begin experiencing some strange phenomena, such as Runciter's face appearing on coins and the world seeming to move backward in time.
-
-
Holy sh*t
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-17
By: Philip K. Dick
-
Area X
- The Southern Reach Trilogy - Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Carolyn McCormick, Bronson Pinchot, Xe Sands
- Length: 26 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dive into the mysteries of Area X, a remote and lush terrain that has inexplicably sequestered itself from civilization. Twelve expeditions have gone in, and not a single member of any of them has remained unchanged by the experience - for better or worse.
-
-
Book 1: intriguing! Book 2: Zzzz. Book 3: WTF!
- By KR on 02-03-15
By: Jeff VanderMeer
It's a classic
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
One of the best performances I have heard
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I'm a longtime Tolkein fan who is now also a Peake fan. Plenty of people appreciate the qualities of both authors. But others love one and detest the other. For example, the great British novelist Michael Moorcock is a proponent of Peake and a detractor of Tolkein.
At any rate, this book is a classic that deserves a listen by those prepared for something un-Middle Earth-y. And Robert Whitfield's reading is truly outstanding, as he effectively brings to life the many characters who populate Peake's book.
Count Me Among the Peake Fans
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
One of the Best
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great!!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Remarkable
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In a fit of enthusiasm for that very idea I tried listening to The Three Musketeers
and Ivanhoe. Not so much, the language in those didn't draw me in. It was too stiff and put me off.
The problem here, and it IS a problem for me... super lengthy descriptions of every little thing, every thought, every expression, every everything, goes on and on and on and on. You can listen for two hours and its still the same scene in which nothing of note has happened. The rub is, I keep thinking maybe something did happen and I missed it because I was happily lost in some enchanting phrase. It is DELIGHTFULLY irritating. So I will keep playing it over and over until I am sure I have it. Even if it turns out I hate the story I will have gotten more than my money's worth.
Simon Vance is always perfect. He is the only actor of many books who has never ever let me down.
for those who love turns of phrase and Simon Vance
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Any additional comments?
This book had been on the fringes of my to-read list for almost 35 years. I question some of the other readers who want it to be a Lord of the Rings-type experience. It isn't, and that's mostly because its star is a place -- the castle in its ruin -- more than a character. That said, though, it's hard to dispute that not enough happens here. Just as the castle is in ruin, so is the ambition of the characters collectively. Everything slides toward decay. I could live with that if we continued to discover new elements of the castle, new evidence of spent and abandoned dreams, but the action focuses increasingly on characters who've lost or never quite been able to grasp those dreams.The canvas is broad and beautifully grey, but the narrative is often too much expository, too much a reporting of things that happened before. The result is a sense that we're missing the brightest part of this weirdly magical place.
Didn't Quite Groa(n) on Me
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The narrator spoke clearly and gave each character his/her own voice. However, the speed at which he read the descriptive passages did not do justice to the rich imagery. It was almost as if he thought he needed to gloss over them to get to the dialogue.
Great voice characterisations, a touch too fast
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Fantasy isn't just a genre
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.