Simon Vance has narrated 434 audiobooks on Listento.it by 286 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 15,736 ratings. The most-rated is Dune.
Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher
Summary
It is well known that Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were close allies and kindred political spirits. During their eight overlapping years in office, the U.S. president and the U.K. prime minister worked together to promote lower taxes, deregulation, free trade, and an aggressive stance against the Soviet Union. But according to Nicholas Wapshott, the Reagan/Thatcher relationship was much deeper than an alliance of mutual interests. Drawing on interviews with those closest to them, as well as on hundreds of recently declassified private letters and telephone calls, Wapshott depicts a more complex, personal, and sometimes argumentative relationship than has previously been revealed.
©2007 Nicholas Wapshott (P)2007 Tantor
In His Steps
Summary
One hundred years ago, Christians read Charles Sheldon's In His Steps with runaway enthusiasm. Sheldon's story traces the account of the fictional Reverend Maxwell who challenges himself and his congregation to constantly ask, "What would Jesus do?" This question puts all of life's circumstances in a new light. Those characters in Sheldon's book who take the challenge of this question seriously live dramatically changed lives.But a changed life responding to Jesus' example of compassion and grace does not always make things easier. People in Sheldon's story learn that acting like Jesus can alienate others who prefer status quo comfort and social respectability. The real challenge of the question, "What would Jesus do?" is not the initial fervor it evokes but the sustained devotion it can produce.
©2004 christianaudio.com (P)2004 Charles M. Sheldon
The Wonderling
Summary
In this extraordinary debut novel with its deft nod to Dickensian heroes and rogues, Mira Bartók tells the story of Arthur, a shy, fox-like foundling with only one ear and a desperate desire to belong, as he seeks his destiny. Have you been unexpectedly burdened by a recently orphaned or unclaimed creature? Worry not! We have just the solution for you! Welcome to the Home for Wayward and Misbegotten Creatures, an institution run by evil Miss Carbunkle, a cunning villainess who believes her terrified young charges exist only to serve and suffer. Part animal and part human, the groundlings toil in classroom and factory, forbidden to enjoy anything regular children have, most particularly singing and music. For the Wonderling, an innocent-hearted, one-eared, fox-like eleven-year-old with only a number rather than a proper name - a 13 etched on a medallion around his neck - it is the only home he has ever known. But unexpected courage leads him to acquire the loyalty of a young bird groundling named Trinket, who gives the Home's loneliest inhabitant two incredible gifts: a real name - Arthur, like the good king in the old stories - and a best friend. Using Trinket's ingenious invention, the pair escape over the wall and embark on an adventure that will take them out into the wider world and ultimately down the path of sweet Arthur's true destiny. Richly imagined, with shimmering language, steampunk motifs, and gripping, magical plot twists, this high adventure fantasy is the debut novel of award-winning memoirist Mira Bartók and has already been put into development for a major motion picture.
©2017 Mira Bartók, original book published by Candlewick Press (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved
Flametouched
Summary
The Eternal Flame branded its mark upon Davon Carver's palms, and now the sabercat he carved has come to life. Creating living carvings is an odd and troublesome gift for a humble clerk trying to uncover a plot against his beloved nation, Bittermarch. But like the hidden conspirators he's trying to expose, Davon guards a secret - he wasn't always a clerk. Once a nobleman and a Baron, Davon faked his own death to escape his cruel marriage. Davon wants a quiet life, but the Queen orders her new clerk to delve into the affairs of the lovely Lady Hightower to uncover the truth about the mysterious plot. He discovers that powerful and prestigious conspirators don't like meddlesome clerks, and Davon must dodge bullets and increasing scrutiny, fearing the exposure of his past life. As the clues fall into place, Davon finds that the fate of Bittermarch and the Eternal Flame itself are in his flame-branded hands.
©2016 Brian K. Fuller (P)2017 Podium Publishing
Clock of Dreams
Summary
The story features the adventures of two intrepid crusaders against the forces of dread Cthulhu, Titus Crow and Henri de Marigny, as they continue their epic battle against the powers of an evil so ancient that its sinister roots stretch back to a time long before human history began.
©1978 Brian Lumley (P)2017 David N. Wilson
The Ghost Writer
Summary
In this tantalizing tale of Victorian ghost stories and family secrets, timid, solitary librarian Gerard Freeman lives for just two things: his elusive pen pal Alice and a story he found hidden in his mother's drawer years ago. Written by his great-grandmother Viola, it hints at his mother's role in a sinister crime. As he discovers more of Viola's chilling tales, he realizes that they might hold the key to finding Alice and unveiling his family's mystery - or will they bring about his untimely death, as they seem to foretell? Harwood's astonishing, assured debut shows us just how dangerous family skeletons - and stories - can be.
©2013 John Harwood; 2013 Blackstone Audiobooks
Bowie's Bookshelf
Summary
Three years before David Bowie died, he shared a list of 100 books that changed his life. His choices span fiction and nonfiction, literary and irreverent, and include timeless classics alongside eyebrow-raising obscurities. In 100 short essays, music journalist John O'Connell studies each book on Bowie's list and contextualizes it in the artist's life and work. How did the power imbued in a single suit of armor in The Iliad impact a man who loved costumes, shifting identity, and the siren song of the alter-ego? How did The Gnostic Gospels inform Bowie's own hazy personal cosmology? How did the poems of T. S. Eliot and Frank O'Hara, the fiction of Vladimir Nabokov and Anthony Burgess, the comics of The Beano and The Viz, and the groundbreaking politics of James Baldwin influence Bowie's lyrics, his sound, his artistic outlook? How did the 100 books on this list influence one of the most influential artists of a generation? Heartfelt, analytical, and totally original, Bowie's Bookshelf is one part epic reading guide and one part biography of a music legend.
©2019 John O'Connell (P)2020 Tantor
The Water-Babies
Summary
A classic since its first publication in 1863, The Water-Babies is the story of a little chimney sweep named Tom and his magical adventures beneath the waves. The ill-treated Tom flees his dangerous toil and his cruel master, Grimes. When he jumps into a cool stream to clean the soot off himself, he becomes a water-baby, cleaner and happier than he has ever been, in a hidden fairy world. There, Tom meets haughty dragonflies, makes friends with a slow-witted lobster, and dodges hungry otters. Eventually, he meets the other water-babies and their clever rulers, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid and Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby. After a long and arduous quest to the Other-end-of-Nowhere, young Tom achieves his heart’s desire.
Public Domain (P)1998 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (AmazonClassics Edition)
Summary
What made Sherlock Holmes a household name and cultural icon? This very first collection of stories featuring the astute sleuth and his loyal assistant, Dr. Watson. In these twelve ingenious mysteries, Holmes is embroiled in betrayal, abduction, thievery, deception, and murder. Relying on logic, driven by instinct, and employing his uncanny powers of observation, Holmes cracks the cases that elude Scotland Yard. For him, it’s rather elementary. This Baker Street dozen by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is all the evidence listeners will need to understand why Sherlock Holmes is an enduring legend in detective fiction. Revised edition: Previously published as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, this edition of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.
Public Domain (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
A Brightness Long Ago: International Edition
Summary
In a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a maritime city, a man looks back on his youth and the people who shaped his life. Danio Cerra's intelligence won him entry to a renowned school even though he was only the son of a tailor. He took service at the court of a ruling count - and soon learned why that man was known as the Beast.
©2019 Guy Gavriel Kay (P)2020 Recorded Books, Inc.
Prima Facie
Summary
A novella from the author of the best seller Medicus, featuring reluctant investigator Ruso and his partner Tilla. A tale of murder, intrigue, and betrayal in Roman Gaul. It's AD 123, and the sun is shining on southern Gaul. Ex-military medic Ruso and his British wife, Tilla, are back after a long absence - but it's not the reunion anyone had hoped for. Ruso's brother has left him in charge of a farm he has no idea how to manage, a chronic debt problem, and a gaggle of accident-prone small children. Meanwhile his sister Flora has run away to rescue her boyfriend, who's accused of murdering a wealthy guest at a party. Can Ruso and Tilla save the boyfriend from the murder charge - or should they be saving Flora from the boyfriend? Will any of the guests tell the truth about the fatal party before it's too late? And meanwhile, how long can Ruso continue to lie about what's inside the bath house?
©2019 Ruth Downie (P)2019 Tantor
Paul
Summary
For me," says N.T.Wright, "there has been no more stimulating exercise, for the mind, the heart, the imagination and the spirit, than trying to think Paul's thoughts after him and constantly to be stirred up to fresh glimpses of God's ways and purposes with the world and with us strange human creatures." Wright's accessible new volume, built on his Cambridge University Hulsean Lectures of 2004, takes a fresh look at Paul in light of recent understandings of his Jewish roots, his attitude toward the Roman Empire, and his unique reframing of Jewish symbols in relation to his experience of the risen Christ. Then Wright attempts a short systematic account of the main theological contours of Paul's thought and its pertinence for the church today.
©2009 N.T. Wright (P)2009 christianaudio.com
Never Dream of Dying
Summary
It begins at a movie studio in Nice where a police raid goes horribly wrong, killing innocent men, women, and even children. It continues in an English prison, where a dead man discloses an intriguing secret about the brutal criminal organization called the Union. The trail leads James Bond to Paris, where he meets the tantalizing movie star Tylyn Mignonne and embarks on a voyage of sensual discovery. But Tylyn is in mortal danger. Her husband, a volatile French film producer, has not forgiven his glamorous wife for ending their troubled marriage - and he is connected to the Union's thugs. Meanwhile Bond's friend, French agent Mathis, has disappeared while tracking down the Union's mysterious leader, Le Gerant. Bond's journey takes him to a thrilling underwater brush with death, a chase through the Corsican wilderness, a surprise encounter with an old friend - and a final confrontation with a twisted criminal genius.
©2001 Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. JAMES BOND and 007 are the registered trade marks of Danjaq LLC, used under license by Ian Fleming Publications Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus
Summary
SPECIAL OFFER: Get the full text of this classic novel as an eBook when you purchase the audio. You'll receive an e-mail with a link to download the eBook after your purchase is confirmed. Having the novel in convenient Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format will allow you to read along with the audio, perform a "cover to cover" search for your favorite passages, and more. Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only 18. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering "the cause of generation and life" and "bestowing animation upon lifeless matter", Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts. However, upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature's hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein. Frankenstein, an instant best seller and an important ancestor of both the horror and science-fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story but also raises profound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? And how far can we go in tampering with Nature? PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
Public Domain (P)2008 Tantor
Moscow Sting
Summary
When Finn, a former British spy, is poisoned by a Russian assassin, his ex-boss Adrian, chief of MI6, wants vengeance. He also wants answers - information that only Finn's widow, Anna, knows. But the former KGB colonel who betrayed her country for love vanished with their child shortly after Finn's death. Adrian isn't the only one eager to find Anna. Finn accessed intelligence so sensitive that the KGB are willing to kill again to protect it - a chase that has piqued the interest of the major intelligence agencies, be they government-sponsored or private, around the world. Though Medvedev has assumed the presidency, everyone knows that Putin continues to pull all the strings. Just what is Russia concealing beneath its immense new oil wealth and veil of political cordiality? Anna holds the key to unlocking the secrets of her motherland. Taken to America for protection and information, the former Russian agent faces her greatest test: to ensure her freedom and protect her child, she must uncover the full truth before anyone else - even as friend and foe both set her in their sights. Moving from Paris to New York, the Kremlin to the American Southwest, Moscow Sting is an absorbing and timely tale of intrigue, betrayal, fatal lies, and complex truths, told with the authentic detail and chilling insight of an experienced insider.
©2010 Alex Dryden (P)2010 Tantor
The Compleat Crow
Summary
"He was tall and broad-shouldered, and it was plain to see that in his younger days, he had been a handsome man. Now...his hair had greyed a little, and his eyes, though still very bright and observant, bore the imprint of many a year spent exploring - and often, I guessed, discovering - along rarely trodden paths of mysterious, obscure learning." Mysterious, obscure learning.... To many thousands of listeners world-wide, Titus Crow is the psychic sleuth - the cosmic voyager and investigator - of Brian Lumley's Cthulhu Mythos novels, from The Burrowers Beneath to Elysia. But before The Burrowers and Crow's transition, his exploits were chronicled in a series of short stories and novellas uncollected in the USA, except in limited editions. Now these stories can be told again. From Inception, which tells of Crow's origins, to The Black Recalled, a tale of vengeance from beyond the grave, here in one volume, from the best-selling author of the epic Necroscope series, is The Compleat Crow.
©1987 Brian Lumley (P)2015 David N. Wilson
SeaFire
Summary
James Bond is back in action, with the stunning Flicka von Grusse at his side and his license to kill renewed once more. His target is Sir Maxwell Tarn: a businessman whose legitimate empire spans the globe, whose wealth is uncountable, who also deals in illegal weapons on a breathtaking scale. But even Bond is unprepared for the speed of events, as a sting operation in a Cambridge hotel leads rapidly to an assassination in Spain, a fugitive in Israel, and neo-Nazi plotters in Germany. Bond finally catches up with Tarn in Puerto Rico, where his prey becomes his captor. Can he escape in time to stop Tarn?
©1994 Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. James Bond and 007 are registered trademarks of Danjaq, LLC, used under licence by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd.
Knock Knock
Summary
The number one international best-selling thriller that tells the electrifying story of a police inspector and a former criminal informant in a race against time as they attempt to unravel past and present secrets. He thought she was safe. Then the past came knocking. Seventeen years ago, Criminal Inspector Ewert Grens was called to the scene of a brutal crime. A family had been murdered, and the only survivor - and witness - was the five-year-old daughter. The girl was placed in the witness protection program, and the case went cold, but years later, Grens is still haunted by the seemingly random slaying and the little girl who was spared. So when he learns that the apartment where the crime occurred is now the scene of a mysterious break-in, Grens immediately fears that someone is intent on silencing the only witness. He races to find her...before they do. Meanwhile, someone in the city's criminal underworld is executing weapons smugglers and has placed former police informant Piet Hoffman's family in grave danger. He must unravel the secret threat to his family, all while keeping secrets of his own. Soon his hunt for answers intertwines with Ewert's, and the two men find themselves in the middle of a criminal conspiracy that is more complicated - and dangerous - than they could have imagined.
©2021 Anders Roslund (P)2021 Penguin Audio
Bloodsuckers
Summary
The Vampire Archives is the scariest, hungriest, undeadliest collection of vampire stories ever assembled. Dark, stormy, and delicious, once you’re in its clutches there's no escape. From the first to last bite, it's a bloody good entertainment. Including Stephen King, Tanith Lee, Dan Simmons, Bram Stoker, and many, many more Featuring: The macabre dens of the immortal Unexpected guests Shadowy figures Ancient mysteries
©2010 Otto Penzler (P)2010 Random House
Wolf on a String
Summary
Bestselling author Benjamin Black turns his eye to sixteenth century Prague and a story of murder, magic and the dark art of wielding extraordinary power. "...outstandingly read by Simon Vance, whose versatility with voices and intonations brings the cast to life." — Fran Wood, NJ.com Christian Stern, an ambitious young scholar and alchemist, arrives in Prague in the bitter winter of 1599, intent on making his fortune at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, the eccentric Rudolf II. The night of his arrival, drunk and lost, Christian stumbles upon the body of a young woman in Golden Lane, an alley hard by Rudolf's great castle. Dressed in a velvet gown, wearing a large gold medallion around her neck, the woman is clearly well-born—or was, for her throat has been slashed. A lesser man would smell danger, but Christian is determined to follow his fortunes wherever they may lead. He quickly finds himself entangled in the machinations of several ruthless courtiers, and before long he comes to the attention of the Emperor himself. Rudolf, deciding that Christian is that rare thing—a person he can trust—sets him the task of solving the mystery of the woman's murder. But Christian soon realizes that he has blundered into the midst of a power struggle that threatens to subvert the throne itself. And as he gets ever nearer to the truth of what happened that night in Golden Lane, he finally sees that his own life is in grave danger. From the spectacularly inventive Benjamin Black, Wolf on a String is a historical crime audiobook that delivers both a mesmerizing portrait of a lost world and a riveting tale of intrigue and suspense.
©2017 Benjamin Black (P)2017 Macmillan Audio