Preview
  • World Without End

  • Spain, Philip II, and the First Global Empire
  • By: Hugh Thomas
  • Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
  • Length: 15 hrs and 4 mins
  • 3.2 out of 5 stars (26 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.

World Without End

By: Hugh Thomas
Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $18.91

Buy for $18.91

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

The legacy of imperial Spain was shaped by many hands. Chief among them was the towering figure of King Philip II, the cultivated Spanish monarch whom a contemporary once called "the arbiter of the world". Cheerful and pious, he inherited vast authority from his father but felt himself unworthy to wield it. His 42-year reign changed the face of the globe forever.

Alongside Philip we find the entitled descendants of New Spain's original explorers - men who, like their king, came into possession of land they never conquered and wielded supremacy they never sought. Here too are the Roman Catholic religious leaders of the Americas, whose internecine struggles created possibilities that the emerging Jesuit order was well positioned to fill. With the sublime stories of arms and armadas, kings and conquistadors come tales of the ridiculous: the opulent parties of New Spain's wealthy hedonists and the unexpected movement to encourage Philip II to conquer China.

Finally, Hugh Thomas unearths the first indictments of imperial Spain's labor rights abuses in the Americas - and the early attempts by its more enlightened rulers and planters to address them. Written in the brisk, flowing narrative style that has come to define Hugh Thomas' work, the final volume of this acclaimed trilogy stands alone as a history of an empire making the transition from conquest to inheritance - a history that Thomas reveals through the fascinating lives of the people who made it.

©2014 Hugh Thomas (P)2015 Tantor
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"A sweeping, encyclopedic history of the arrogance, ambition, and ideology that fueled the quest for empire." ( Kirkus)

What listeners say about World Without End

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    5
Performance
  • 2.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    11
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1

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

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Too Much Namedropping

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Though he is definitely an expert, it seems as if the author is writing out his notes without a lot of synthesis. Lots and lots of separate facts strung together. Better as a reference book, maybe. Better to pick out a smaller number of key characters and tell us enough to get to know them, rather than having an army of names with a few sentences about each. A good book to play over many times while doing chores or routine tasks, in hopes of picking out and retaining bits of interesting info here and there along the way. No danger of missing anything big or exciting while distracted.

What was most disappointing about Hugh Thomas’s story?

There are so many names of minor notables, like in society columns, all given in full and complex forms, with the well-meaning narrator having problems pronouncing so many of them. Someone editorial who knew the proper pronunciations should have gone over the material with him in advance.

How could the performance have been better?

Should have selected a narrator who knew Castilian or Latin American Spanish fairly well, since there are so very many Spanish names to pronounce, or someone should have coached him in advance. Don’t blame the piano player, he did the best he could on his own..

What character would you cut from World Without End?

Just focus on a limited number of key charcters and tell us more about each of them, in a more interesting way.

Any additional comments?

Mostly I don’t like abridged books, but this one might be better in an abridged edition.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

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

Great book from Hugh Thomas but excruciatingly poor narration.

I have read four books from Mr. Thomas. Conquest, Cuba, Rivers of Gold, Charles V , this is my first audiobook.
Any one who has read one of his books knows that there will be wealth of references to people and places and quotes, all in Spanish. Almost half the book is in Spanish as expected.
How is it possible then that Random/ Pinguin and Mr. Thomas would agree to launch an audiobook read by a narrator who doesn't speak a word of Spanish??
has no notion of how spanish letters are pronounced to be able to read them. Not even the right pronunciation of country names like Chile! Then slows down to a attempt to pronounce each word distracting rhe listener from the flow.
Not the narrrators fault if there was no evaluation by the author or publisher. He actually has a nice voice in english. But zero quality control from the author or the publisher! Have they listened to the book? Very disappointing! Not a good experience at all.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Possibly the worst narration in Audible.com

A thorough and fair account of the Spanish conquest, although it never really comes alive. Ruined by a wooden narrative with mispronunciation of just about every word that can be mangled. How could Audible.com release a version this bad? I've never seen anything like it.

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
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Worst narrator

By far the worst narrator on Audible. This narrator ruined an otherwise good story and should be avoided.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

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

Such a disservice to the author!

Would you try another book from Hugh Thomas and/or Shaun Grindell?

Yes

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Absolutely CANNOT pronounce Spanish to save his life.

Any additional comments?

This is an excellent and engaging book, but the narrator was SO inappropriate. Utterly incapable of pronouncing the SIMPLEST of Spanish words without sounding illiterate. How did this even get released?

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

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

Absolutely unlistenable

I’m not certain how you get a person to read a book on Spanish history who clearly has absolutely no knowledge of how to pronounce WORDS IN SPANISH. This is (allegedly) an excellent book, but it is absolutely unlistenable. Pronunciation errors were so pervasive an led distracting/annoying/horrifying that I couldn’t make it through the introduction. I have never posted a negative review of anything, ever, but there’s a first time for everything, I suppose. Very disappointing.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful