The Circle of Ceridwen

The Circle of Ceridwen Saga, Book 1

By: Octavia Randolph

Narrated by: Nano Nagle

Length: 21 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

With Nano Nagle, 2018 Audie Award Nominee, Best Female Narrator - Silver Hammer, Golden Cross (Book 6)!

It is the year 871, when England was Angle-Land. Of seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, five have fallen to the invading Vikings. No trait is more valued than loyalty, and no possession more precious than one's steel. Across this war-torn landscape travels 15-year-old Ceridwen, now thrust into the lives of the conquerors.

Lost in the frozen woods, Ceridwen is discovered by the warriors accompanying young Aelfwyn, daughter of a Saxon lord, sold against her will in marriage as part of a peace treaty with a marauding Viking war chief. Their destination is the captured fortress of Four Stones, a ruin holding glittering treasure. There Aelfwyn must keep her vow and wed Yrling - and Ceridwen must do all she can to support her new friend in the rebuilding of the ravaged village and great hall.

But living with the enemy affords Ceridwen unusual freedoms - and unlooked - for conflicts. Amongst them she explores again her own heathen past, and learns to judge each man on his own merits. Yrling's nephews Sidroc and Toki, both formidable warriors yet as different as night and day, compete to win Ceridwen for their own.

Through both guile and goodness Ceridwen and Aelfwyn begin transforming the world of Four Stones. But the threat of full-scale war escalates, and a midnight party of furtive Danes delivers someone to Four Stones who destroys the girls' hopes of peace and contentment. Now Ceridwen must summon all her courage - a courage which will be sorely tested as she defies both Saxon and Dane and undertakes an extraordinary adventure to save a man she has never met.

Download the free accompanying PDF with maps, list of characters, glossary, and more: https://octavia.net/audiobook-accompanying-materials/

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©1995 Octavia Randolph (P)2016 Octavia Randolph

BETTER THAN OUTLANDER? MAYBE... : )

What did you love best about The Circle of Ceridwen?

For those of you who have been trying to find a story as well written as OUTLANDER, here it is!!! This series is set in the 800s and is fully described so as to put you there. Each of the characters are well-described and their personalities made known. While the books are not as long as Diana Gabaldon's OUTLANDER, they are just as historically accurate and Octavia Randolph seems to write one a year, which keeps you waiting not as long...a real plus in my opinion. There is no time travel, but gives the reader an accurate sense of how peoples of the varying nations moved from land-to-land, settling, intermingling, inter-marrying to educate the reader on where we came from... This is a high-quality, well-narrated series that, if you enjoy reading about the Danes, will keep you "in the story". It will only be a matter of time before Hollywood gets its hands on it! : )

Do authors sample their narrators?

Difficult to get past narrator. Female leads are under 20. Narrator sounds 40+. Poor fit. Odd expressions in tone used in places that didn't fit with what was being said. Terrible voices for characters. Her Danes sounded like Carribean pirates. Takes breaths or pauses in weird parts of sentence. And she was just boring too often. It doesn't matter how good a book is if the narrator is terrible.

wow

the story told from the Anglos point of view about the Danes invasion. wonderful story!

A pleasant surprise!

When I first started listening and reading this bbok I didn't think that it was good. After getting 1/3 through it I was loving it! I/m a big fan of the Outlander series, and this is nearly as good as that.

Such a story!!!!!!

Made me cry, made me squirm, made me search History. As a spinner, weaver, and embroiderer, I loved the references to these arts. The herb lore too....caught my interest. This is one story I will not forget....and it spurs me to delve further into my ancestry. History comes alive with authors like this.

Great idea mediocre execution

The narrator is bad. Story arc is good but the writing strives for old ness and comes across as pretentious and wooden. Easy to follow on audio as you are doing mindless chores. Again the narrator is yucky.

Wonderful story

Very entertains from beginning to end! I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.

predictable

I just wasn't impressed. I hoped to be; I was looking for a series to suck me in. This wasn't it. The story isn't written in a way that keeps you on your toes; instead I always felt like I knew what was going to happen, which made the whole thing a bit of a slog. The realistic details of early anglo-saxon life were sadly missing for the most part, taking a backseat to the relationships between the characters, which were predictable and, well, boring. The narrator seemed to have a lot of difficulty with male voices, all rather terrible and unconvincing.

Eh

I really wanted to like it. But the plot dragged forever and the characters seemed so hopeless for so long. I couldn’t finish it.

A hopeful beginning for a promising epic.

I've enjoyed this story but I am left with that frustration that comes from a novel being on the edge of good and great. I am interested in how the saga continues. I found the historical details woven in well with the storyline. The narrator has a cadence that is difficult for me to get use to. I was never able to forget that I was being read a story, as it sounded at times during her narration that she had never seen the story before. Occasionally the narration was slightly annoying.