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Middlegame  By  cover art

Middlegame

By: Seanan McGuire
Narrated by: Amber Benson
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Publisher's summary

A Locus Award Finalist!

This program is read by Amber Benson.

New York Times best-selling and Alex, Nebula, and Hugo-Award-winning author Seanan McGuire introduces listeners to a world of amoral alchemy, shadowy organizations, and impossible cities in the stand-alone fantasy, Middlegame.

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: To raise the twins to the highest power, to ascend with them and claim their authority as his own.

Godhood is attainable. Pray it isn’t attained.

©2019 Seanan McGuire (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

2019 NPR Best Book of the Year
2019 Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year
2020 Hugo Award Nominee
2020 Locus Awards Nominee

Featured Article: 16 of the Best Fantasy Authors Ever


There is no feeling quite like falling in love with a great fantasy listen, doing a little digging, and joyfully discovering that the author has an extensive catalog of audiobooks for you to dive right into. Fantasy as a genre is particularly blessed with a wealth of diverse authors writing all different kinds of stories. From classic epics to standalone novels that were published in the last few years, it's the perfect genre for losing yourself in a full day’s worth of listening. These brilliant fantasy authors will transport you to another world—whether a parallel universe or a post-apocalyptic version of Earth.

What listeners say about Middlegame

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fantastic story

Seriously, the worst Boston accent I've ever heard from a narrator. Once you get past that, the book is hard to put down.

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3 people found this helpful

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Simply fantastic

I can’t put in to words how good this was and how it makes you think

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    5 out of 5 stars
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LOVE

I can't get enough of it. I keep thinking about this book and being sad that it ended, but happy it has a great ending!

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  • Overall
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amazing

magical and scientifical, a cross between fantasy fiction and sci fi. veery well constructed. would like it to have a sequel.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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Review in progress

I decided to start a short review, even though I am only about 2 hours into the book.
The writing is sharp, the narrative flow is good, and the story seems promising. However, I have to agree with other reviews about the poor voice narration. The voicing of the villains is so overdone and cartoonish that it distracts and frustrates. Makes you wonder who greenlights these productions. I will make an effort to finish the book, but I'm not 100% certain I'll be able to. I may end up buying the print version.

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Middlegame is magic

This is an astonishing book, told with consummate skill through twists and turns that left me gasping. The language is lyrical and dagger sharp by turns, and the narration is unsettlingly spot on in creating voices for the characters.

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Incredible book!

Writing this on a tablet, so I'll be brief: Seanan McGuire is a dazzling, mighty engine of stories, and this one is dizzying, stimulating, heart-wrenching, funny, intricate, and glorious. There's a ton here for lovers of fantasy and literature both. Wonderful characters used well, compelling plots and puzzles, and just...gorgeous words. And Amber Benson's reading brings it marvelously to life with the magic of a truly good reader-aloud, one who gives each character a voice that resonates.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Needs another narrator.

Great story and much of the narration was okay or good but some of it was so awful it took me right out of the story. She was trying too hard when voicing the antagonists. Considering the number of great narrators out there somebody didn't do their homework.

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17 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Mixed

There was some fun in this novel. The narrator did some things very well. However, to my taste she went too over the top with the speech of the main villains. As for the story, I felt that the two main characters could have been a lot more plausible as math and linguistic geniuses—even a little bit of math (or chess) knowledge is going to have you wincing here and there. Despite this, I found these characters appealing enough to persist.

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12 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Waxed poetic

I usually enjoy this author and I can legitimately see why this was an award winning book ....however it took way too many poetic privileges for me.

Repetitive phrases, unclear plot & slow character arcs made it difficult to finish. The reader is forced to interpret the language of the author 75% of the book, which is again poetic and repetitive. If you’re into that, then go ahead - but otherwise I would not suggest.

Also, the narration is freaking weird.

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3 people found this helpful