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.
Tell Me Where It Hurts
Summary
From the frontlines of modern medicine, Tell Me Where It Hurts is a fascinating insider portrait of a veterinarian, his furry patients, and the blend of old-fashioned instincts and cutting-edge technology that defines pet care in the 21st century. Dr. Trout takes the listener on a vicarious journey through 24 intimate, heartrending hours in his life. His wry, companionable voice offers enlightening and engaging anecdotes about cuddly (or not-so-cuddly) pets and their variously zany, desperate, and demanding owners. If you've ever had a pet or special place in your heart for furry friends, Dr. Trout's inspiring account of loving and healing animals is for you.
©2008 Nick Trout (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks America
Titus Awakes
Summary
Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy is widely acknowledged to be, as Robertson Davies pronounced, "a classic of our age." In these extraordinary novels, Peake created a world where all is like a dream - lush, fantastical, and vivid. Yet it was incomplete. Parkinson's disease took Peake's life in 1968, depriving his fans of the fourth and final volume of the series, Titus Awakes except for a few tantalizing pages, after which his writing became indecipherable. Or so it seemed. In January of 2010, Peake's granddaughter found four composition books in her attic. They contained the fabled Titus Awakes in its entirety. Peake had outlined the novel for his wife, Maeve Gilmore, who had at last finished Peake's masterpiece. It starts with Titus leaving Castle Gormenghast. Peake wrote: "With every pace he drew away from Gormenghast mountain, and from everything that belonged to his home. That night, as Titus lay asleep in the tall barn, a nightmare held him." Fans of Peake will delight in this new, wonderful novel, published 100 years after his birth, every bit as thrilling and masterfully written as his famed trilogy.
©2011 Maeve Gilmore (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
The Churchill Complex
Summary
From one of its keenest observers, a brilliant, witty journey through the "Special Relationship" between Britain and America that has done so much to shape the world, from World War II to Brexit. It is impossible to understand the last 75 years of American history, through to Trump and Brexit, without understanding the Anglo-American relationship, particularly the bonds between presidents and prime ministers. FDR of course had Winston Churchill; JFK had Harold Macmillan, his consigliere during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ronald Reagan found his ideological soul mate in Margaret Thatcher; and George W. Bush found his fellow believer, in religion and in war, in Tony Blair. Today, the bond between Donald Trump and Boris Johnson illuminates the populist uprisings in both countries, as well as a new kind of Special Relationship that goes against everything it once stood for. Remembering the past, even its most glorious moments, can be as misleading as forgetting it. Over and over, in the name of freedom and democracy, British and especially American leaders have evoked Winston Churchill as a model for brave leadership (and Nevillle Chamberlain to represent craven weakness). As Ian Buruma shows, in his dazzling, short tour de force of storytelling and analysis, the myths of World War II too often resulted in bad policies and foolish wars. But The Churchill Complex is much more than a reflection on the weight of Churchill's legacy and its misuses. At its heart are shrewd and absorbing character studies of the president-prime minster dyads, which in Ian Buruma's gifted hands serve as a master class in politics, diplomacy, and the personal quirks of our leaders. It has never been a relationship of equals: from Churchill's desperate cajoling and conniving to keep FDR on his side in World War II, British prime ministers have put much more stock in the relationship than their US counterparts. After the loss of its once-great empire, Britain clung to the world's greatest superpower as a path to continued relevance and leverage. As Buruma shows, this was almost always fool's gold, and now, the alliance has floundered on the rocks of isolationism. The Churchill Complex may not have a happy ending, but as with Ian Buruma's other works, piercing lucidity is its own lasting comfort.
©2020 Ian Buruma (P)2020 Penguin Audio
The Chains of War
Summary
The final hour. The final fight. The final war. The first of Agon’s chains has broken. It is only a matter of time before he is free and the world is engulfed in chaos and death. There are few left to stop him. Most of the gods can only sit and watch in horror from their prison in the heavens, but the resurrection of the father-god, Corrias, gives the people of Iraldas a sliver of hope. A fighting chance. Yet, Corrias' failure to defeat Agon in ages past is not forgotten. Many believe that it is only the might of the Warrior-god Telm that can defeat the Beast, and Telm is dead. But his power lives on in his bloodline - in Ifferon and others like him. The time has come for them to wage a final war against the Beast. The final battle is here in the epic conclusion to the Children of Telm Series. You won't want to miss this! Includes a special bonus note from the author.
©2019 Dean F. Wilson (P)2019 Podium Publishing
Life: An Exploded Diagram
Summary
Clem, a working-class boy living in government-assisted housing, and Frankie, the daughter of a wealthy landowner, must keep their relationship secret. If it’s discovered, their world will be blown apart. But unknown to them, President John F. Kennedy and the Russian leader, Nikita Khruschev, are shaping up to do just that - blow the world apart - as the two leaders fight over a small island in the Caribbean Sea, leading up to the events that will later be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. For Frankie and Clem, “time, like everything else, is against them.” In his most brilliant and ambitious novel yet, Mal Peet portrays the shattering power of love and the ricocheting effect of war through generations.
©2011 Mal Peet (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
The Boleyn King
Summary
Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory, Alison Weir, and Showtime’s The Tudors, The Boleyn King is the first book in an enthralling trilogy that dares to imagine: What if Anne Boleyn had actually given Henry VIII a son who grew up to be king? Just seventeen years old, Henry IX, known as William, is a king bound by the restraints of the regency yet anxious to prove himself. With the French threatening battle and the Catholics sowing the seeds of rebellion at home, William trusts only three people: his older sister Elizabeth; his best friend and loyal counselor, Dominic; and Minuette, a young orphan raised as a royal ward by William’s mother, Anne Boleyn. Against a tide of secrets, betrayal, and murder, William finds himself fighting for the very soul of his kingdom. Then, when he and Dominic both fall in love with Minuette, romantic obsession looms over a new generation of Tudors. One among them will pay the price for a king’s desire, as a shocking twist of fate changes England’s fortunes forever.
©2013 Laura Andersen (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
The Call of Agon
Summary
The last line. The last words. The last chance. Ifferon is one of the last in the bloodline of the dead god, Telm, who imprisoned the Beast, Agon, in the Underworld. Armed with a connection to the estranged gods in the Overworld, and a scroll bearing Telm's powerful dying words, he is tasked with ensuring the god's vital legacy: that Agon remain vanquished. Yet there is something just as powerful: Fear. Ifferon abandons his duty and tries to hide away from the world. But when Agon's armies find his monastery refuge, he is forced to find his courage and embark on a life-changing quest. Join Ifferon on a journey across the world of Iraldas that will lead him to brave new companions, through the struggles of many peoples, the siege of many lands, and to discoveries that could bring hope to some - or doom to all. Experience the unforgettable start of an epic fantasy adventure perfect for fans of Will Wight, AC Cobble, and Michael J Sullivan.
©2013 Dioscuri Press (P)2019 Podium Publishing
A Search for Starlight
Summary
Beyond the firewall lies a greater threat than Taimin and Selena could have foreseen. Taimin and Selena have destroyed the firewall that once trapped them in their dangerous wasteland. But with their hard-fought freedom now comes a greater threat. Outside the wasteland, under the same two scorching suns, live the bonded. This powerful ancient enemy will unleash a destructive war on the wasteland’s inhabitants, and Taimin knows it’s a fight they cannot win. When Zorn comes under attack, Selena uses all her power as a mystic to protect the white city. Meanwhile Taimin’s path takes him to Agravida, the capital of the advanced bonded civilization - where he must work fast to find a weakness in a seemingly unbeatable enemy. To save everyone in the wasteland from certain death, Taimin and Selena seek to contact their ancestors in the stars. But will they reach them in time, and will their help be enough to turn the tide? The existence of the world is in their hands…
©2021 James Maxwell (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
A World of Secrets
Summary
Taimin and Selena must discover the truth about their world - before it’s too late. In a world of secrets, Taimin and Selena are desperate for answers. They need to discover the truth about their origins and the firewall that borders the wasteland. If they don’t find the hidden path they seek, the citizens of Zorn will die. As they make the perilous journey to the distant firewall, Taimin and Selena are joined by three companions: a young healer, a weapons trader, and an old rover. Together the five are in constant danger, unable to rely on Selena’s powers as she has lost the ability to farcast - and she doesn’t know how to get it back. Now Taimin finds himself hunted by a new enemy - a strange creature on a bloodthirsty quest of his own. Taimin and Selena get ever closer to the answers that are essential to their survival. But will they learn the truth in time to save themselves?
©2020 James Maxwell (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
The Riddle of the Sands
Summary
While on a sailing trip in the Baltic Sea, two young adventurers-turned-spies uncover a secret German plot to invade England. Widely recognized as the first modern spy thriller, this 1902 lone masterpiece by World War I Royal Navy officer Erskine Childers was written as a wake-up call to the British government to attend to its North Sea defenses. It accomplished that task and has been considered a classic of espionage literature ever since. Praised for its nautical action and richly authentic background as much as for its suspenseful spycraft, The Riddle of the Sands is the brilliant forerunner to the realism of Graham Greene and John le Carré.
©2001 Mary Daheim (P)2002 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Macbeth: A Dagger of the Mind
Summary
From the ambitious and mad titular character to his devilish wife Lady Macbeth to the moral and noble Banquo to the mysterious Three Witches, Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare's more brilliantly populated plays and remains among the most widely read, performed in innovative productions set in a vast array of times and locations, from Nazi Germany to Revolutionary Cuba. Macbeth is a distinguished warrior hero, who over the course of the play, transforms into a brutal, murderous villain and pays an extraordinary price for committing an evil act. A man consumed with ambition and self-doubt, Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most vital meditations on the dangerous corners of the human imagination. Award-winning writer and beloved professor Harold Bloom investigates Macbeth's interiority and unthinkable actions with razor-sharp insight, agility, and compassion. He also explores his own personal relationship to the character: Just as we encounter one Anna Karenina or Jay Gatsby when we are 17 and another when we are 40, Bloom writes about his shifting understanding - over the course of his own lifetime - of this endlessly compelling figure, so that the book also becomes an extraordinarily moving argument for literature as a path to and a measure of our humanity.
©2019 Harold Bloom (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Dangerous Women
Summary
Prepare to meet the most seductively female and the most shockingly fatal of femmes fatales, brought to you by 17 of today's finest authors of mystery and suspense fiction. Award-winning editor Otto Penzler presents a collection of short and sizzling masterpieces of kisses and kiss-offs, gams and gats, published for the first time anywhere. In "Third Party", Jay McInerney takes you on a wild ride through the Paris night with a party girl built for speed and sin; "Rendezvous", Nelson DeMille's first short story in 25 years, plunges you into a Vietnam jungle where the bloodiest scourge of this man's army is no man at all; back in the U.S.A. of "Louly and Pretty Boy", Elmore Leonard introduces a Depression-era teenage gun moll who loves Pretty Boy Floyd more than she likes knocking off filling stations; and Michael Connelly's colorful and ironic "Cielo Azul" shows how a nameless woman left dead on a Los Angeles hillside can be the most lethal prey of all. These and a bevy of other very bad girls cast their criminal spells through the powerful voices of Lorenzo Carcaterra, Joyce Carol Oates, John Connolly, Thomas H. Cook, Jeffery Deaver, J. A. Jance, Andrew Klavan, Laura Lippman, Ed McBain, Walter Mosley, Anne Perry, Ian Rankin, and S. J. Rozan in stories as irresistible as the antiheroines that blaze through their pages.
©2005 Otto Penzler (P)2005 Tantor Media, Inc.
St. Augustine in 90 Minutes
Summary
Augustine's struggles with sex and a domineering mother, followed by his spiritual crisis and conversion to Christianity, detailed in his Confessions, ultimately led him to his major contribution to philosophy: the fusion of the two doctrines of Christianity and Neoplatonism. This not only provided Christianity with a strong intellectual backing but tied it to the Greek tradition of philosophy. In this way Christianity managed to keep the flame of philosophy burning, however dimly, through the Dark Ages. Augustine also produced important philosophic ideas of his own, including theories of time and subjective knowledge that anticipated by many centuries the work of Kant and Descartes. In St. Augustine in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of St. Augustine's life and ideas and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand his existence in the world. The book also includes selections from St. Augustine's work, a brief list of suggested readings for those who wish to delve deeper, and chronologies that place St. Augustine within his own age and in the broader scheme of philosophy.
©1997 Paul Strathern (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks
The World Is Not Enough
Summary
Greed, revenge and world domination are just some of the ingredients in this James Bond adventure. After oil tycoon Sir Robert King is killed in a bombing at MI6 headquarters, his daughter, Elektra, inherits his fortune and the attentions of her father's killer. His name is Renard. A bullet lodged in his brain has rendered him unable to feel physical pain, and he has but one reason left to live - revenge. There's only one man who can take the heat between a beautiful heiress, a malicious sociopath and his final diabolical plan, agent 007.
©1999 Ian Fleming Publications Ltd as Trustee. (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
Children of Telm: The Complete Trilogy
Summary
The complete epic fantasy trilogy set in the world of Iraldas, where gods and mortals mingle, collected together for a huge, immersive fantasy adventure. With the Beast, Agon, threatening to break free from his chains in the Underworld, the surviving bloodline of the dead god Telm are tasked with stopping his reign of destruction. From small skirmishes to epic battles, this series shows the struggles of war between good and evil. From fell spirits to forces of nature, and the moral quandaries facing people of different beliefs, The Children of Telm explores the trials of life and death, the mysteries of magic, the power of words, and the fight for hope in the face of darkness. Join Ifferon on a journey across the world of Iraldas that will lead him to brave new companions, through the ordeals of many peoples, the siege of many lands, and to an epic conclusion where a torn world is forced to unite or perish. This enchanting series invokes the glory days of epic fantasy, with whole new worlds, maps, races, languages, and an entire mythology where the line between gods and man blurs. Enter the world of Iraldas. Join the Children of Telm. Grab this special edition omnibus to experience an unforgettable fantasy adventure, perfect for fans of Will Wight, AC Cobble, and Michael J. Sullivan. Contains The Call of Agon, The Road to Rebirth, and The Chains of War, books 1-3 of the Children of Telm series.
©2020 Dean F. Wilson (P)2020 Podium Audio
Die Another Day
Summary
From North Korea to Iceland, Bond circles the world in his quest to unmask a traitor and prevent a war of catastrophic proportions. Crossing paths with beautiful allies and deadly assassins in a high-octane, action adventure of intrigue, revenge and betrayal. Never has Bond been so vulnerable, nor so dangerous....
©2002 Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. as Trustee. (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
School's Out!
Summary
"The Dragon Detective Agency. Dirk Dilly speaking." Holly is desperate to be sleuthing with her partner-in-solving-crime, dragon Dirk Dilly, but instead she's stuck at her exclusive boarding school for children of the rich and famous. She's determined to escape, until she meets Callum, the son of the Prime Minister, who claims he was kidnapped by dragons a year ago and hasn't been the same since. And when Dirk's own investigation into dragon activity brings him to the school, the two cases collide. What if Callum isn't as crazy as he seems? The second installment in a fun and action-packed detective series for fans of Toto the Ninja Cat, How to Train Your Dragon, and Tom Fletcher's children's books!
©2020 Gareth P. Jones (P)2021 Listening Library
Clive Barker's First Tales
Summary
The book begins with "The Wood on the Hill", a short story about a bourgeois woman who is soon to learn a terrifying lesson concerning her complete disregard for anyone other than herself. The second tale, "The Candle in the Cloud", is a novella of dark fantasy that follows three children who discover a magical candle that transports them to a world where a plague-cloud is destroying everything in its wake. These two tales, the first ever written by Clive, are offered here for the very first time. Their production has been lovingly supervised by Clive himself to ensure that these are not mere books, but works of art to be cherished. First Tales is sure to delight everyone from longtime fans to new listeners. In his own words: "These two stories represent the two essential structures of fantastique literature. "The Wood on the Hill" is about an incursion of unearthly elements into an approximation of our world. "The Candle in the Cloud" is about a journey taken by people from our world into another reality. Yin and Yang, if you like. Forces pulling in opposing directions but to achieve the same end: Revelation."
©2013 Clive Barker, Ink & Seraphim Publishing (P)2013 David N. Wilson
On Christian Doctrine
Summary
The four books of Saint Augustine are a compilation of exegetical theology to guide the reader and listener in the understanding and interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures, according to the analogy of the faith. The first three books were written A.D. 397 and the fourth was added A.D. 426.
Public Domain (P)2009 christianaudio.com
The Whiskey Rebellion
Summary
A gripping and provocative tale of violence, alcohol, and taxes, The Whiskey Rebellion pits President George Washington and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton against angry, armed settlers across the Appalachians. Unearthing a pungent segment of early American history long ignored by historians, William Hogeland brings to startling life the rebellion that decisively contributed to the establishment of federal authority. In 1791, at the frontier headwaters of the Ohio River, gangs with blackened faces began to attack federal officials, beating and torturing the collectors who plagued them with the first federal tax ever laid on an American product, whiskey. In only a few years, those attacks snowballed into an organized regional movement dedicated to resisting the fledgling government's power and threatening secession, even civil war. With an unsparing look at both Hamilton and Washington, and at lesser-known, equally determined frontier leaders such as Herman Husband and Hugh Henry Brackenridge, journalist and popular historian William Hogeland offers an insightful, fast-paced account of the remarkable characters who perpetrated this forgotten revolution, and those who suppressed it. To Hamilton, the whiskey tax was key to industrial growth and could not be permitted to fail. To hard-bitten people in what was then the wild West, the tax paralyzed their economies while swelling the coffers of greedy creditors and industrialists. To President Washington, the settlers' resistance catalyzed the first-ever deployment of a huge federal army, led by the president himself, a military strike to suppress citizens who threatened American sovereignty. Daring, finely crafted, by turns funny and darkly poignant, The Whiskey Rebellion promises a surprising trip for readers unfamiliar with this primal national drama, whose climax is not the issue of mere taxation but the very meaning and purpose of the American Revolution.
©2006 William Hogeland (P)2006 Tantor Media, Inc.