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The Aeronaut's Windlass
- The Cinder Spires, Book 1
- Narrated by: Euan Morton
- Length: 21 hrs and 39 mins
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Publisher's summary
Jim Butcher, the number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Dresden Files and the Codex Alera novels, conjures up a new series set in a fantastic world of noble families, steam-powered technology, and magic-wielding warriors....
Since time immemorial the Spires have sheltered humanity, towering for miles over the mist-shrouded surface of the world. Within their halls aristocratic houses have ruled for generations, developing scientific marvels, fostering trade alliances, and building fleets of airships to keep the peace.
Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship Predator. Fiercely loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy's shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels. But when the Predator is severely damaged in combat, leaving captain and crew grounded, Grimm is offered a proposition from the Spirearch of Albion - to join a team of agents on a vital mission in exchange for fully restoring Predator to its fighting glory.
And even as Grimm undertakes this dangerous task, he will learn that the conflict between the Spires is merely a premonition of things to come. Humanity’s ancient enemy, silent for more than ten thousand years, has begun to stir once more. And death will follow in its wake....
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"Obie Award winner and Scottish-born Euan Morton narrates this sprawling opening volume of The Cinder Spires with the spirit of a buccaneer and an ear for a couple of dozen different vocal rhythms and dialects from the British Isles. Morton is especially adept at naturally carrying on the conversations between the growling shipmates and the highborn Gwen. Morton keeps the action moving and speaks 'cat' perfectly." (AudioFile)
“This is Jim Butcher at his best, drawing a fully realized, richly detailed, and downright fun literary world where fearless aeronauts ride the aether, brilliant wizards struggle with doorknobs, and a thirty-pound feline warrior keeps a pet human named Little Mouse. It’s steampunk meets magic with a dose of sci-fi for seasoning. Buy it and read it. You’ll be glad you did.” (New York Times best-selling author David Weber)
"Butcher, the best-selling author of the Dresden Files, now launches the Cinder Spires, a new epic fantasy, steampunk hybrid series that has shades of both Naomi Novik and Cherie Priest.... With shifting points of view, short chapters, fast-paced action, and awesome battle scenes, the large cast of characters, elaborate world building, and intricate plot are revealed quickly and realized fully. It all reminds readers of when they first fell for Harry Dresden.” (Booklist, starred review)
“Butcher opens the imaginative Cinder Spires series with this sweeping fantastical epic.... [It's] a fascinating, adventurous, and intricate story. Butcher brings a fresh and exciting perspective to secondary-world steampunk, giving the reader a thrilling ride.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
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A call from a distraught wife, and another from Lt. Murphy of the Chicago PD Special Investigation Unit makes Harry believe things are looking up, but they are about to get worse, much worse. Someone is harnessing immense supernatural forces to commit a series of grisly murders. Someone has violated the first law of magic: Thou Shalt Not Kill. Tracking that someone takes Harry into the dangerous underbelly of Chicago, from mobsters to vampires....
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Excellent Story, Distracting Sound Engineering
- By Tom on 05-20-10
By: Jim Butcher
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At the Sign of the Crow and Moon
- A Sorcery Ascendant Prequel Novella
- By: Mitchell Hogan
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 3 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In the bustling capital city of the Mahruse Empire, Felicienne Shyrise spends her days as a talented investigator, taking on stolen goods and missing person cases and the occasional murder the city guard are too incompetent - or too lazy - to resolve. During the nights she hones her skills playing Dominion, a board game almost as complicated as life itself. She dreams of making a name for herself and becoming the richest woman in the Empire.
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Worth It
- By Gaia on 09-23-19
By: Mitchell Hogan
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The Grim Company
- By: Luke Scull
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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The Gods are dead. The Magelord Salazar and his magically enhanced troops, the Augmentors, crush any dissent they find in the minds of the populace. On the other side of the Broken Sea, the White Lady plots the liberation of Dorminia, with her spymistresses, the Pale Women. Demons and abominations plague the Highlands. The world is desperately in need of heroes. But what they get instead are a ragtag band of old warriors, a crippled Halfmage, two orphans and an oddly capable manservant: the Grim Company.
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Pretty bad, but not actively terrible
- By Travis Lamkin on 09-13-15
By: Luke Scull
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Ink and Bone
- The Great Library
- By: Rachel Caine
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Ruthless and supremely powerful, the Great Library is now a presence in every major city, governing the flow of knowledge to the masses. Alchemy allows the library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly - but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden. Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family, who are involved in the thriving black market.
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don't give up too soon.
- By Janel on 09-11-15
By: Rachel Caine
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The Palace Job
- Rogues of the Republic, Book 1
- By: Patrick Weekes
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Loch is seeking revenge. It would help if she wasn’t in jail. The plan: To steal a priceless elven manuscript that once belonged to her family, but is now in the hands of the most powerful man in the Republic. To do so, Loch - former soldier, former prisoner, and current fugitive - must assemble a crack team of magical misfits that includes a cynical illusionist, a shape shifting unicorn, a repentant death priestess, a talking magical war hammer, and a lad with seemingly no skills.
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Awful narration
- By 9littlebees on 12-18-15
By: Patrick Weekes
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Madrenga
- By: Alan Dean Foster
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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He is plainly too young and too inexperienced for the mission, but on the advice of her aged adviser Natoum, and with her husband off at war, the queen reluctantly assigns the task of delivery to...Madrenga. Accompanied only by a runt of a pony and a scrap of a pup, he sets off to transport the royal message to its destination. No matter what it might take. But things are not always what they seem. Heroes are sometimes made of the strangest stuff, and love is to be found in the most unexpected places...if one doesn’t die while treading the lethal path.
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Unique and captivating!
- By Julie Moran on 02-05-21
By: Alan Dean Foster
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The Inventor's Secret
- By: Andrea Cremer
- Narrated by: Leslie Bellair
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In this world, sixteen-year-old Charlotte and her fellow refugees have scraped out an existence on the edge of Britain’s industrial empire. Though they live by the skin of their teeth, they have their health (at least when they can find enough food and avoid the Imperial Labor Gatherers) and each other. When a new exile with no memory of his escape or even his own name seeks shelter in their camp he brings new dangers with him and secrets about the terrible future that awaits all those who have struggled has to live free of the bonds of the empire’s Machineworks.
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Devolved into a 16 year old girls' love triangle
- By Amazon Customer on 06-17-21
By: Andrea Cremer
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Into the Storm
- Destroyermen, Book 1
- By: Taylor Anderson
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Pressed into service when World War II breaks out in the Pacific, the USS Walker---a Great-War vintage "four-stacker" destroyer---finds itself in full retreat from pursuit by Japanese battleships. Its captain, Lieutenant Commander Matthew Patrick Reddy, knows that he and his crew are in dire straits. In desperation, he heads Walker into a squall, hoping it will give them cover---and emerges somewhere else.
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It just never grabbed me.
- By Lore on 05-01-12
By: Taylor Anderson
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The Way of Caine
- The Warcaster Chronicles, Vol. One
- By: Miles Holmes
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Allister Caine has always been an enigma and an outsider among the warcasters of Cygnar, but few are privy to his true motivations or his complicated past.… Born into poverty, Allister Caine did what he must to survive, and the choices he made have followed him like a vengeful specter throughout his life. Now, just months after the Lion’s Coup and his full commission as a warcaster, he has been secretly assigned by Scout General Rebald to investigate plots against King Leto in lands just north of the Bloodsmeath Marsh.
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Deeper than I thought it might be
- By Teacher on 08-30-14
By: Miles Holmes
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Night of Knives
- Novels of the Malazan Empire, Book 1
- By: Ian C. Esslemont
- Narrated by: John Banks
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The small island of Malaz and its city gave the great empire its name, but now it is little more than a sleepy, backwater port. Tonight, however, things are different. Tonight the city is on edge, a hive of hurried, sometimes violent activity; its citizens bustle about, barring doors, shuttering windows, avoiding any stranger's stare. Because tonight there is to be a convergence, the once-in-a-generation appearance of a Shadow Moon - an occasion that threatens the good people of Malaz with demon hounds and other, darker things....
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Worth the wait
- By Aran on 06-20-16
By: Ian C. Esslemont
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Dragonvein, Book One
- By: Brian D. Anderson
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Carentan, France, 1944 - Ethan Martin, a soldier in the 101st Airborne, is fighting for his life. But soon he will learn what peril truly is when he is ripped from his world and transported to a land of magic, swords, and dragons. And though the Nazis are now far, far away, danger is closer than ever.
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Interesting Story but very light on in details.
- By Kindle Customer on 07-16-15
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The Iron Duke
- By: Meljean Brook
- Narrated by: Faye Adele
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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After the Iron Duke freed England from Horde control, he instantly became a national hero. Now Rhys Trahaearn has built a merchant empire on the power-and fear-of his name. And when a dead body is dropped from an airship onto his doorstep, bringing Detective Inspector Mina Wentworth into his dangerous world, he intends to make her his next possession. But when Mina uncovers the victim's identity, she stumbles upon a conspiracy that threatens the lives of everyone in England.
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Great for Some but Not for Everyone
- By Kjda on 06-27-17
By: Meljean Brook
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The Sellsword
- Dragonlance: Tracy Hickman Presents: The Anvil of Time, Book 1
- By: Cam Banks
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Strike the Anvil of Time! Vanderjack is a mercenary with a troubled past and a sword haunted by ghosts. Hired to rescue a nobleman's daughter from behind enemy lines, the sellsword finds himself a pivotal player in the liberation of Nordmaar from the Red Dragon army. The Chronicler is charged to use the ancient Anvil of Time to travel back along the river of time and find the lost stories that fell between the pages of the history books of Krynn in this new series created and guided by the creative mind of Tracy Hickman.
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Interesting story, alittle different at the end
- By Dennis on 04-16-13
By: Cam Banks
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The Red Wolf Conspiracy
- By: Robert V. S. Redick
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 19 hrs and 13 mins
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The Imperial Merchant Ship Chathrand is the last of her kind. Six hundred years old, the secrets of her construction long forgotten, the massive vessel dwarfs every other sailing craft in the world. It is a palace with sails, a floating outpost of the Empire of Arqual. And it is on its most vital mission yet: to deliver a young woman whose marriage will seal the peace between Arqual and its mortal enemy, the secretive Mzithrin Empire.
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Not Bad, not great.
- By Aerindel on 10-15-09
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Suprizingly entertaining
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Better than expected
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If you like Harry Dresden, try this one.
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What listeners say about The Aeronaut's Windlass
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- AnnMarie
- 10-22-15
The Cats
While there was slow spots as a whole the stroy was very well written. Butcher captures the personality of the cats so well and each character is unique to themselves.
im excited for the next book in the series.
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14 people found this helpful
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- Audiobook Addict
- 10-07-15
**Reviews courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy**
If I could give this book a six bat rating I would. THE AERONAUT'S WINDLASS more than deserves it. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files are what first got me interested in Urban Fantasy, but I haven't yet tried Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, so THE AERONAUT'S WINDLASS is the first book of Butcher's besides the Dresden Files that I've read. And at every page I was reminded why Jim Butcher is a grand master in his field.
The first thing about THE AERONAUT'S WINDLASS that stood out to me was how well Butcher handled multiple POV characters. In the past year especially, I've gotten really really tired of authors who ought to know better switching POVs just to create forced suspense (i.e. having one character get jumped in an ally and then switching to the other POV character, leaving you wondering if the first one will get out of the horrible situation.) Jim Butcher never uses that cheap trick in the whole 640 page book, because he builds suspense with his impressive storytelling.
The next thing is that The Cinder Spires series has a rich beautiful world, but Jim Butcher never felt the need to do any info dumping. He feeds us just the right amount of information to allow us to understand the world, while still wondering about the history of the world. And I'm already anxious for the next book so I can learn more about the world.
I could continue to go on about Jim Butcher's writing craft, but I should probably get to the actual review of the story. Not only has Jim Butcher created an amazing world, but he's filled it with great characters, and with 640 pages he's given us plenty of time to get to know them and love them. However, a great world and lifelike characters don't make novel, so Jim Butcher polishes it all off with great storytelling. The Cinder Spires series takes place in a world where everyone lives on spires because the ground is covered in dangerous, deadly animals. This means the only way of safely getting from one spire to another is through the air. And this is where the series truly shines. They travel through the air on airships, but they aren't your typical steampunk blimps, but wooden or copper-clad steel boats. The reason that works are the magical crystals that power them. Huge crystals are used to power the ships and keep them afloat, while an ethersilk web is cast around the ship to move the ship along the etheric currents. In addition to the huge crystals, smaller ones are used to power cannons and hand weapons. From there Jim Butcher has created a whole society that is based around the production and use of these crystals and even people, etherealists, who have a rather unique relationship with the crystals themselves.
Everything I've said so far is great, but what really made me love this book was Rowl. He's one of the POV characters, and he's a cat. I'm guessing a lot of people we'll be split on whether they love the talking cats or hate them. But I love any well written book with talking animals, so that was just the icing on the cake for me.
THE AERONAUT'S WINDLASS is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it, and now I don't know what I want to see more the next Dresden book or the next Cinder Spires book.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-02-15
A 'rockin' world of intrigue and action
The reader jumps right into soaring skies and floating worlds. I felt like I couldn't read fast enough so I read AND listened when I couldn't read. Jim Butcher is a wonderful storyteller. As a Dresden fanatic, I now have two series to look forward to. Gotta run....want to read and savor it the second time though.
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6 people found this helpful
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- janet
- 10-06-15
Outstanding!
In the spirit of full disclosure, I was convinced that I would not enjoy this book as much as I do the Dresden Files. I was just flat out WRONG and thrilled to be incorrect. I throughly enjoyed the world building, fell in love with the characters and somehow a 20 hour long book, ended way too quickly. If you are hesitating because you are also a Dresden fan (or freak like myself), buy this book. I assure you, you will be happy you did.
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- 🔥 Phx17 🔥
- 12-24-21
Sweet swashbuckling steampunk!
As someone who finds Dresden fair to middling, this was a refreshing listen.
It’s a fantastic tale of talking cats. Oh, and also swashbuckling humans, creepy spiders and wizards, and Master and Commander-style airship battles. But, really, the cats almost steal the show.
Also, the narrator’s ability to differentiate voices was so phenomenal, I almost felt like I should take a star from the story in deference to his greatness. It takes the first third to set the stage and introduce the rather large and uniquely wonderful cast, but I loved every second.
Unfortunately, there’s still no book 2 on Audible. So, for your next steampunk fix, I recommend:
⚙️Want more spiders and dystopian horror vibe. Try Steamborn (it’s more YA, but on the plus side has several books ready to go in Audible).
⚙️Want to double down on the YA, and lean way into the anime vibe? Go with Romulus Buckle (a bit too exaggerated and comic for me, but okay as a sale purchase).
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3 people found this helpful
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- Sarah
- 10-04-15
Best story I've read in ages.
Absolutely brilliant narration. Excellent story. Positively gripping plot, and a fully developed world brimming with inspired characters. There is a bit of foul language, but it's tolerable and relatively infrequent. Also several horrifically dark implicated scenes. Overall, a book I couldn't put down, as it were, with depictions of war and sinister plots, elements of the fantastical and steam punk interwoven with deep relatable characters. Give her a read, mate.
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- Blair
- 10-07-15
Wonderful
So unique......so exciting. It is Jim Butcher at his best. At least as good as Dresdin
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- TL
- 10-05-15
Another great Butcher world!!
Great characters, wonderfully steampunk, can’t wait for the next book!! Almost as good as the Dresden Files!!
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- Erik Merickel
- 10-10-15
Wonderful
Not exactly streampunk but a fantastic story none the less. airships, adventure, and cats. very excited for the next book.
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- Leanna
- 11-07-15
Outstanding
Any additional comments?
This is a fantastic new series from Jim Butcher. If you like his work, you will like this book. If you are new to Jim Butcher, I am so excited for you. Listen to this rich new world of honorable air pirates and enjoy it. I am pretty sure Jim Butcher cannot write a bad book. Also, I am pretty sure no one in history has ever understood a cat as thoroughly as Jim Butcher.
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