Derek Perkins has narrated 242 audiobooks on Listento.it by 196 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 15,454 ratings. The most-rated is Sapiens.
How Rome Fell
Summary
In AD 200, the Roman Empire seemed unassailable, its vast territory accounting for most of the known world. By the end of the fifth century, Roman rule had vanished in Western Europe and much of northern Africa, and only a shrunken Eastern Empire remained. This was a period of remarkable personalities, from the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius to emperors like Diocletian, who portrayed themselves as tough, even brutal, soldiers. It was a time of revolutionary ideas, especially in religion, as Christianity went from persecuted sect to the religion of state and emperors. Ultimately, this is the story of how an empire without a serious rival rotted from within, its rulers and institutions putting short-term ambition and personal survival over the greater good of the state.
©2009 Adrian Goldsworthy (P)2014 Tantor
Herald of Shalia 2
Summary
Sebastian Frost was a man with an interesting reputation. He’d killed 12 giants, eight heroes, a duke, and even a prince. But nobody ever talked about any of that. All they talked about was the deviant, disgusting, detestable Herald of Shalia that shamelessly laid with elves. That was because in the strange world based on game mechanics Frost found himself in, laying with elves was somehow treated like laying with animals. Naturally, they weren’t calling him Herald Frost the giant killer. Despite his less than dignified reputation, Frost was set to marry Princess Brynn Hilde Leaucault of the neighboring country of Zira. If everything went well, the marriage would earn him an amazingly talented wife and hopefully improve his rocky relationship with the powerful country. Although Zira wasn’t the only country he had to worry about. King Darius Asmund of Rilia requested an audience with Frost and since the man commanded one of the largest armies on the continent, he was inclined to take the meeting. Even if the brutal warlord had a reputation for killing heralds. Frost just wished he knew why the herald killing king was so interested in his own lascivious reputation. Herald of Shalia is a fun fantasy Light LitRPG/Gamelit by Tamryn Tamer and contains attention starved elves, demonic princesses, foul language, twosomes, threesomes, and foursomes, and completely over the top love making. You've been warned.
©2019 Tamryn Tamer (P)2020 Tamryn Tamer
Captured by a Laird
Summary
The Douglas sisters, beauties all, are valuable pawns in their family's bitter struggle to control the Scottish Crown. But when powerful enemies threaten, each Douglas lass will find she must face them alone. Captured by a Laird Haunted by his father's violent death, David Hume, the new laird of Wedderburn, sets out to make his name so feared that no one will dare harm his family again. The treacherous ally who played on his father's weakness is dead and beyond David's vengeance, but his castle and young widow are ripe for the taking. The moment David lays eyes on the dark-haired beauty defending her wee daughters, however, he knows this frail-looking lass is the one person who could bring him to his knees. Wed at thirteen to a man who tried daily to break her spirit, Lady Alison Douglas is looking forward to a long widowhood. But when the fearsome warrior known as the Beast of Wedderburn storms her gates, she finds herself, once again, forced to wed a stranger. Alison is only a pawn to serve his vengeance, so why does this dark warrior arouse such fiery passion and an unwelcome longing in her heart? With death and danger looming, these two wounded souls must learn to trust each other; for only love can save them.
©2014 Margaret Mallory (P)2014 Margaret Mallory
Truthmarked
Summary
The Hundred Years War rages on, with tensions between kingdoms growing ever more strained. While Annise Gäric and her forces march on Castle Hill to retake the northern throne, her cousin, Rhea Loren, wages a naval war against Blackstone. Meanwhile, Roan Loren and Gwendolyn Storm struggle to breach the gnarled, vine-choked undergrowth of the Tangle in their quest to reach Knight's End and learn more of the true purpose of the fatemarked. In the south, a Calypsian empress is murdered, and her daughters fight to claim the empire and wage a civil war against their estranged father's armies. In Phanes, slavery runs rampant while a rebel group fights to free the oppressed people. A master named Jai Jiroux looks to help the rebel cause, an act of treason punishable by death. Surrounding the Four Kingdoms is the pall cast by the Kings' Bane, who continues his quest to kill eight rulers and thus fulfill the Western Oracle's ancient prophecy, which he believes will pave to way to peace across the realms.
©2017 David Estes; 2018 Podium Publishing (P)2018 Podium Publishing
Combating Cult Mind Control
Summary
On November 18, 1978, more than 900 people, including a US congressman, Leo Ryan, died because of cult leader Jim Jones at Jonestown, Guyana. More than 300 were children forced to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid by their parents who believed they were doing God’s will. The techniques of undue influence have evolved dramatically and continue to do so. Today, a vast array of methods exist to deceive, manipulate, and indoctrinate people into closed systems of obedience and dependency. If you are listening to this updated audiobook for the first time, please know you have found a safe, respectful, compassionate place. This audiobook can help you protect or regain your sanity, freedom, and health. It can also help you protect others from the use of mind-control techniques. In this 30th anniversary volume, you will find: New stories of people who fell under the sway of cults and other forms of undue influence but who were able to break free. New information on the many sophisticated ways that social media is now used for mind control. Updates on the many types of organizations that use mind control. Information on the neuroscience behind mind control. A look at what legislators, courts, mental-health professionals, and ordinary citizens can do to resist mind control and make our world a safer place. Sadly, the essential information in this audiobook is still not widely known or understood. People around the world remain largely unprepared for the new realities of mind control. But you are far from helpless. There is a great deal you can do to stay safe, sane, and whole - and to help the people you care about to do the same. And if someone you love is already part of a mind-control group, there is much you can do to help them break free and rebuild their life. This audiobook will give you the tools you need. As you listen to this audiobook, you will learn to develop, use, and trust your critical thinking skills; your intuition; your bodily and emotional awareness; your ability to ask the right questions; and your skill at doing quick, useful research. You'll also learn to create a healthy balance of openness and skepticism. As you will see, the entire process begins and ends with discernment.
©1988 Steven Hassan (P)2018 Steven Hassan
The Arabs
Summary
In this definitive history of the modern Arab world, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan draws extensively on Arab sources and texts to place the Arab experience in its crucial historical context for the first time. Tracing five centuries of Arab history, Rogan reveals that there was an age when the Arabs set the rules for the rest of the world. Today, however, the Arab world's sense of subjection to external powers carries vast consequences for both the region and Westerners who attempt to control it. Updated with a new epilogue, The Arabs is an invaluable, groundbreaking work of history.
©2009 Eugene Rogan; revised introduction and postscript copyright 2016 by Eugene Rogan (P)2016 Tantor
The Highwayman
Summary
Audie Award, Romance, 2016 Dorian Blackwell, the Blackheart of Ben More, is a ruthless villain. Scarred and hard-hearted, Dorian is one of Victorian London's wealthiest, most influential men who will stop at nothing to wreak vengeance on those who've wronged him... and will fight to the death to seize what he wants. The lovely, still innocent widow Farah Leigh Mackenzie is no exception-and soon Dorian whisks the beautiful lass away to his sanctuary in the wild Highlands.... But Farah is no one's puppet. She possesses a powerful secret-one that threatens her very life. When being held captive by Dorian proves to be the only way to keep Farah safe from those who would see her dead, Dorian makes Farah a scandalous proposition: marry him for protection in exchange for using her secret to help him exact revenge on his enemies. But what the Blackheart of Ben More never could have imagined is that Farah has terms of her own, igniting a tempestuous desire that consumes them both. Could it be that the woman he captured is the only one who can touch the black heart he'd long thought dead?
©2015 Kerrigan Byrne (P)2015 Tantor
The Sleepwalkers
Summary
The Sleepwalkers is historian Christopher Clark's riveting account of the explosive beginnings of World War I. Drawing on new scholarship, Clark offers a fresh look at World War I, focusing not on the battles and atrocities of the war itself but on the complex events and relationships that led a group of well-meaning leaders into brutal conflict. Clark traces the paths to war in a minute-by-minute, action-packed narrative that cuts between the key decision centers in Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris, London, and Belgrade, and he examines the decades of history that informed the events of 1914 and details the mutual misunderstandings and unintended signals that drove the crisis forward in a few short weeks. Meticulously researched and masterfully written, The Sleepwalkers is a dramatic and authoritative chronicle of Europe's descent into a war that tore the world apart.
©2012 Christopher Clark (P)2014 Tantor
Whirlwind
Summary
The sixth book in James Clavell's epic Asian Saga tells the story of three weeks in Tehran in February 1979 - three weeks of passion, self-sacrifice, and heartbreak. When the shah is thrown out of Iran, the nation's turmoil becomes world headlines. Caught in this shifting world of fanaticism, ambition, duplicity, and violent death are the foreign helicopter pilots who have been servicing the oil fields up and down the country. Their one objective is to make a bold, concerted escape to safety across the Gulf.
©1986 James Clavell (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
That All Shall Be Saved
Summary
A stunning reexamination of one of the essential tenets of Christian belief from one of the most provocative and admired writers on religion today. The great fourth-century church father Basil of Caesarea once observed that, in his time, most Christians believed that hell was not everlasting, and that all would eventually attain salvation. But today, this view is no longer prevalent within Christian communities. In this momentous book, David Bentley Hart makes the case that nearly two millennia of dogmatic tradition have misled readers on the crucial matter of universal salvation. On the basis of the earliest Christian writings, theological tradition, scripture, and logic, Hart argues that if God is the good creator of all, he is the savior of all, without fail. And if he is not the savior of all, the Kingdom is only a dream, and creation something considerably worse than a nightmare. But it is not so. There is no such thing as eternal damnation; all will be saved. With great rhetorical power, wit, and emotional range, Hart offers a new perspective on one of Christianity's most important themes.
©2019 David Bentley Hart (P)2019 Tantor
The Sovereign of the Seven Isles Omnibus
Summary
Thinblade, book one: When second son Alexander Valentine loses his brother to an assassin's arrow, he discovers that his family protects an ancient secret and reluctantly finds himself at the center of the final battle of a war that was supposed to have ended 2,000 years ago. Pursued by the dark minions of an ancient enemy, Alexander flees to the mountain city of Glen Morillian, where he discovers that he is the heir to the throne of Ruatha, one of the Seven Isles, but before he can claim the throne he must recover the ancient Thinblade. Thinblade is the story of Alexander's quest to find the ancient sword, claim the throne of Ruatha, and raise an army to stand against the enemy that has awoken to claim dominion over all of the Seven Isles. Sovereign Stone, book two: After gaining entrance to Blackstone Keep and recovering the legendary Thinblade, Alexander must seek out the Sovereign Stone, and quickly. Contained within the ancient teardrop ruby is the secret of Wizard's Dust, the source of magic and the one thing that will ultimately decide the final battle of the Reishi War. Prince Phane will stop at nothing to lay claim to the Stone and with it the world. Mindbender, book three: War has erupted across the Seven Isles. Alexander has recovered the Sovereign Stone, and much to his surprise it has bonded to him, revealing the truth of his bloodline and his duty. He is the Seventh Sovereign of the Seven Isles and champion of the Old Law. Fleeing the wrath of Prince Phane, Alexander has traveled through the Reishi Gate to Ithilian in search of an alliance, only to discover that Ithilian is facing the threat of invasion as well. Alexander struggles to bring the army of Ithilian to his aid while secretly searching for information about his unique magical calling, information that he desperately needs if he is to have any chance against Phane. What he finds is beyond anything he imagined.
©2011 David A. Wells (P)2015 Podium Publishing
In the Name of Rome
Summary
Adrian Goldsworthy has received wide acclaim for his exceptional writing on the Roman Empire - including high praise from the acclaimed military historian and author John Keegan - and here he offers a new perspective on the empire by focusing on its greatest generals, including Scipio Africanus, Marius, Pompey, Caesar, and Titus. Each chapter paints a fascinating portrait of a single general, offering in-depth insight into his leadership skills and victories as well as each one's pioneering strategies, many of which are still used today. In the process this absorbing, accessible history tells the complete story of Roman warfare, from the bitter struggle with Carthage in the third century BC to the last desperate attempt to win back the Western Empire in the sixth century AD.
©2003 Adrian Goldsworthy; preface copyright 2016 by Adrian Goldsworthy (P)2016 Tantor
Iran
Summary
This history of modern Iran is not a survey in the conventional sense but an ambitious exploration of the story of a nation. It offers a revealing look at how events, people, and institutions are shaped by currents that sometimes reach back hundreds of years. The book covers the complex history of the diverse societies and economies of Iran against the background of dynastic changes, revolutions, civil wars, foreign occupation, and the rise of the Islamic Republic. Abbas Amanat combines chronological and thematic approaches, exploring events with lasting implications for modern Iran and the world. Drawing on diverse historical scholarship and emphasizing the 20th century, he addresses debates about Iran's culture and politics. Political history is the driving narrative force, given impetus by Amanat's decades of research and study. He layers the book with discussions of literature, music, and the arts; ideology and religion; economy and society; and cultural identity and heritage.
©2017 Yale University (P)2018 Tantor
Dragonvein, Book Five
Summary
The end has come. The army of the silent ones is sweeping across the land, annihilating towns and cities, slaughtering all they encounter. In a desperate bid to save the lives of uncounted innocents, the allied forces of elf, dwarf, and human must face these savage and seemingly unstoppable warriors. But the silent ones are unlike any enemy the people of Lumnia have faced before - corrupted and made enormously strong by the vile magic of Shinzan. They do not care who is friend or who is foe. They do not feel fear or pity. And they will never stop. For the silent ones do not fight for victory. They have but one purpose - to bring death to the world. Though Ethan's power could save many lives should he join in this fight, his path lies elsewhere. The rendezvous with destiny is at hand. He will battle Shinzan one final time. But first he must face the choice he has avoided from the moment he arrived. And that decision will determine the fate of all races...and Lumnia herself.
©2017 Brian D. Anderson (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
Dragonvein: Book Four
Summary
The Eternal Emperor Shinzan continues to gather his strength. And the power he will unleash is beyond the imaginings of the spirits themselves. No army can stand against him. There is only one who can give Lumnia the freedom she has craved for so long. Only one who can save the world from being consumed by the Emperor's evil. But will it be Ethan who faces him? Or will it be Martok?
©2016 Brian D. Anderson (P)2016 Audible, Inc.
Deathmarked
Summary
While the war for the Four Kingdoms drags on, a new threat emerges from across the sea. To the North, Annise Gäric seek to rescue Lady Zelda and retake Castle Hill from the sellswords known as the Brotherhood. In the back of her mind is a growing fear, something she can't quite explain. Meanwhile, Lisbeth Lorne tries to regain control of the ancient army of Sleeping Knights before they become the horde of death her soulmark has shown to her in visions. In the West, Rhea Loren find herself at a crossroads: continue down the path of destruction or seek another way, another life. But when the truth she's buried from her own people comes to light, she loses the control she so desperately clings to. In the East, newly crowned King Gareth Ironclad must decide whether to pursue peace or follow in his father's and brother's footsteps. After all, he now has a dragon … In Calyp, Raven Sandes is forced to fight in the pits of Zune. She wants nothing more than to give up, to die, until she discovers her sister, Whisper, is a prisoner too. What she doesn't know is that Gwendolyn Storm is closing in on her, seeking her own vengeance for the latest attack on Ferria. Roan Loren, on the other hand, continues to seek knowledge, clinging to the Western Oracle's prophecy of peace. His journey takes him south to Teragon, where a truth has been hidden for more than a decade. Grey Arris, with his new pirate allies, sails for the southern continent, but he doesn't know what monsters lurk beneath the waters of the Burning Sea. In the Southern empire of Phanes, Jai Jiroux and the Black Tears fight to maintain order as the newly released slaves cry for the blood of their previous masters. At the same time, he must control the slave army to defend against the Phanecians warriors to the North, who have a new leader: Bane. The kingslayer still wants peace, but he's finally realized that he might have to destroy everything to achieve it.
©2017 David Estes (P)2018 Podium Publishing
Claimed by a Highlander
Summary
The Douglas Legacy The Douglas sisters, beauties all, are valuable pawns in their family's bitter struggle to control the Scottish Crown. But when their enemies strike, each Douglas lass will find she's been left to face them alone. Claimed by a Highlander Lady Sybil Douglas's fall from court favorite to royal enemy is swift after her brothers are charged with treason and flee Scotland. When a huge Highland warrior appears claiming they are bound by a marriage contract, she's desperate enough to ride off with him. She'll worry later about how to escape the wedding. The last thing Rory MacKenzie needs is a pampered Lowlander wife. He traveled to Edinburgh in the hope of dissolving the ill-begotten marriage contract. But now that the Douglas men have abandoned his would-be bride, he's honor-bound to protect her. Sybil and Rory fight scorching passion on their perilous journey to the MacKenzie castle, where murder and intrigue await. When everything is at risk, will they rely on each other and claim their unexpected love before it's too late?
©2016 Margaret Mallory (P)2016 Margaret Mallory
One Soldier's War
Summary
One Soldier's War is a visceral and unflinching memoir of a young Russian soldier's experience in the Chechen wars that brilliantly captures the fear, drudgery, chaos, and brutality of modern combat. An excerpt of the book was hailed by Tibor Fisher in the Guardian as right up there with Catch-22 and Michael Herr's Dispatches, and the book won Russia's inaugural Debut Prize, which recognizes authors who write despite, not because of, their life circumstances. In 1995 Arkady Babchenko was an 18-year-old law student in Moscow when he was drafted into the Russian army and sent to Chechnya. It was the beginning of a torturous journey from naïve conscript to hardened soldier that took Babchenko from the front lines of the first Chechen War in 1995 to the second in 1999. He fought in major cities and tiny hamlets, from the bombed-out streets of Grozny to anonymous mountain villages. Babchenko takes the raw and mundane realities of war - the constant cold, hunger, exhaustion, filth, and terror - and twists them into compelling, haunting, and eerily elegant prose. Acclaimed by reviewers around the world, this is a devastating first-person account of war by an extraordinary storyteller.
©2006 Arkady Babchenko. Translation copyright 2007 by Nick Allen. Recorded by arrangement with Grove Atlantic, Inc. (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Babylon
Summary
Civilization was born 8,000 years ago, between the floodplains of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, when migrants from the surrounding mountains and deserts began to create increasingly sophisticated urban societies. In the cities that they built, half of human history took place. In Babylon, Paul Kriwaczek tells the story of Mesopotamia from the earliest settlements seven thousand years ago to the eclipse of Babylon in the sixth century BCE. Bringing the people of this land to life in vibrant detail, the author chronicles the rise and fall of power during this period and explores the political and social systems, as well as the technical and cultural innovations, which made this land extraordinary. At the heart of this book is the story of Babylon, which rose to prominence under the Amorite king Hammurabi from about 1800 BCE. Even as Babylon's fortunes waxed and waned, it never lost its allure as the ancient world's greatest city. Engaging and compelling, Babylon reveals the splendor of the ancient world that laid the foundation for civilization itself.
©2010 Paul Kriwaczek (P)2019 Tantor
The Greatest Knight
Summary
In The Greatest Knight, renowned historian Thomas Asbridge draws upon the thirteenth-century biography and an array of other contemporary evidence to present a compelling account of William Marshal's life and times. Asbridge charts the unparalleled rise to prominence of a man bound to a code of honor yet driven by unquenchable ambition. Marshal was the true Lancelot of his era - a peerless warrior and paragon of chivalry. As a five-year-old boy, William was sentenced to execution and led to the gallows, yet this landless younger son survived his brush with death and went on to train as a medieval knight. Against all odds Marshal rose through the ranks - serving at the right hand of five English monarchs - to become a celebrated tournament champion, a baron and politician, and, ultimately, regent of the realm. This knight's tale lays bare the brutish realities of medieval warfare and the machinations of the royal court and draws us into the heart of a formative period of our history. It is the story of one remarkable man, the birth of the knightly class to which he belonged, and the forging of the English nation.
©2014 Thomas Asbridge (P)2015 Tantor