-
The Troupe
- Narrated by: Luis Moreno
- Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $25.79
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
American Elsewhere
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 22 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some places are too good to be true. Under a pink moon, there is a perfect little town not found on any map. In that town, there are quiet streets lined with pretty houses, houses that conceal the strangest things. After a couple years of hard traveling, ex-cop Mona Bright inherits her long-dead mother's home in Wink, New Mexico. And the closer Mona gets to her mother's past, the more she understands that the people of Wink are very, very different....
-
-
You are entering the twighlight zone
- By Lisa on 07-29-13
-
Library at Mount Char
- By: Scott Hawkins
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carolyn's not so different from the other human beings around her. After all, she was a normal American herself once. That was a long time ago, of course - before the time she calls "adoption day", when she and a dozen other children found themselves being raised by a man they learned to call Father.
-
-
Not Your Local Library
- By Lorfet on 04-05-16
By: Scott Hawkins
-
Mr. Shivers
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robert Jackson Bennett makes a stunning debut with this deliciously dark tale sure to hold readers in its menacing thrall. The grinding poverty brought on by the Great Depression is nowhere more apparent than in the untold thousands looking for work along America’s railroad system. But one man haunting the rail camps has been moved by an entirely different brand of desperation: revenge.
-
-
From the Cormac McCarthy Playbook
- By J. Cons on 08-09-10
-
City of Stairs
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions - until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world's new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself - first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it - stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy. Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani.
-
-
Something Different
- By Scott S. on 10-17-14
-
Foundryside
- A Novel
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Tara Sands
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle. But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been sent to steal an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic - the art of using coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience - have already used it to transform Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine.
-
-
Parts & Sums
- By CaffineFreeJAVA on 05-07-19
-
A Night in the Lonesome October
- By: Roger Zelazny
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Loyally accompanying a mysterious knife-wielding gentleman named Jack on his midnight rounds through the murky streets of London, good dog Snuff is busy helping his master collect the grisly ingredients needed for an unearthly rite that will take place not long after the death of the moon. But Snuff and his master are not alone. All manner of participants, both human and not, are gathering with their ancient tools and their animal familiars in preparation for the dread night.
-
-
So happy this is finally on Audible!
- By Shannon GC on 08-23-22
By: Roger Zelazny
-
American Elsewhere
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 22 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some places are too good to be true. Under a pink moon, there is a perfect little town not found on any map. In that town, there are quiet streets lined with pretty houses, houses that conceal the strangest things. After a couple years of hard traveling, ex-cop Mona Bright inherits her long-dead mother's home in Wink, New Mexico. And the closer Mona gets to her mother's past, the more she understands that the people of Wink are very, very different....
-
-
You are entering the twighlight zone
- By Lisa on 07-29-13
-
Library at Mount Char
- By: Scott Hawkins
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carolyn's not so different from the other human beings around her. After all, she was a normal American herself once. That was a long time ago, of course - before the time she calls "adoption day", when she and a dozen other children found themselves being raised by a man they learned to call Father.
-
-
Not Your Local Library
- By Lorfet on 04-05-16
By: Scott Hawkins
-
Mr. Shivers
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robert Jackson Bennett makes a stunning debut with this deliciously dark tale sure to hold readers in its menacing thrall. The grinding poverty brought on by the Great Depression is nowhere more apparent than in the untold thousands looking for work along America’s railroad system. But one man haunting the rail camps has been moved by an entirely different brand of desperation: revenge.
-
-
From the Cormac McCarthy Playbook
- By J. Cons on 08-09-10
-
City of Stairs
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions - until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world's new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself - first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it - stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy. Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani.
-
-
Something Different
- By Scott S. on 10-17-14
-
Foundryside
- A Novel
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Tara Sands
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle. But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been sent to steal an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic - the art of using coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience - have already used it to transform Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine.
-
-
Parts & Sums
- By CaffineFreeJAVA on 05-07-19
-
A Night in the Lonesome October
- By: Roger Zelazny
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Loyally accompanying a mysterious knife-wielding gentleman named Jack on his midnight rounds through the murky streets of London, good dog Snuff is busy helping his master collect the grisly ingredients needed for an unearthly rite that will take place not long after the death of the moon. But Snuff and his master are not alone. All manner of participants, both human and not, are gathering with their ancient tools and their animal familiars in preparation for the dread night.
-
-
So happy this is finally on Audible!
- By Shannon GC on 08-23-22
By: Roger Zelazny
-
Slewfoot
- A Tale of Bewitchery
- By: Brom
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Connecticut, 1666. An ancient spirit awakens in a dark wood. The wildfolk call him Father, slayer, protector. The colonists call him Slewfoot, demon, devil. To Abitha, a recently widowed outcast, alone and vulnerable in her pious village, he is the only one she can turn to for help. Together, they ignite a battle between pagan and Puritan - one that threatens to destroy the entire village, leaving nothing but ashes and bloodshed in their wake.
-
-
great book, but bottom of brom's selection
- By kyle gray on 10-04-21
By: Brom
-
Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection
- By: Arthur Conan Doyle, Stephen Fry - introductions
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 71 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since he made his first appearance in A Study In Scarlet, Sherlock Holmes has enthralled and delighted millions of fans throughout the world. Now Audible is proud to present Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, read by Stephen Fry. A lifelong fan of Doyle's detective fiction, Fry has narrated the definitive collection of Sherlock Holmes - four novels and four collections of short stories. And, exclusively for Audible, Stephen has written and narrated eight insightful introductions, one for each title.
-
-
Chapter Guide!
- By Katya Rice on 05-25-18
By: Arthur Conan Doyle, and others
-
Elric of Melniboné
- Volume 1: Elric of Melnibone, The Fortress of the Pearl, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and The Weird of the White Wolf
- By: Michael Moorcock, Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 24 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Moorcock began chronicling the adventures of the albino sorcerer Elric, last king of decadent Melniboné, and his sentient vampiric sword, Stormbringer, he set out to create a new kind of fantasy adventure, one that broke with tradition and reflected a more up-to-date sophistication of theme and style. The result was a bold and unique hero: a rock-and-roll antihero who would channel all the violent excesses of the '60s into one enduring archetype.
-
-
Skip the first chapter, it's not Moorcock.
- By Ted C. on 02-17-22
By: Michael Moorcock, and others
-
Gideon the Ninth
- By: Tamsyn Muir
- Narrated by: Moira Quirk
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap out of the audio, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy. Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse.
-
-
Fun. Not art, very gory, but 100% fun.
- By Sarah K. on 10-27-19
By: Tamsyn Muir
-
Gardens of the Moon
- The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 1
- By: Steven Erikson
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 26 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter infighting and bloody confrontations with the formidable Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, ancient and implacable sorcerers. Even the imperial legions, long inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet Empress Laseen's rule remains absolute, enforced by her dread Claw assassins.
-
-
An engrossing yet demanding high epic
- By Adnan on 11-20-12
By: Steven Erikson
-
Mary
- An Awakening of Terror
- By: Nat Cassidy
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mary is a quiet middle-aged woman doing her best to blend into the background. Unremarkable. Invisible. Unknown even to herself. But lately, things have been changing inside Mary. Along with the hot flashes and body aches, she can’t look in a mirror without passing out, and the voices in her head have been urging her to do unspeakable things. Fired from her job in New York, she moves back to her hometown hoping to reconnect with her past and inner self. What she finds instead are visions of terrifying mutilated specters that come with increasing regularity.
-
-
Stunning!
- By Damien TerraFina on 09-12-22
By: Nat Cassidy
-
The Blacktongue Thief
- By: Christopher Buehlman
- Narrated by: Christopher Buehlman
- Length: 12 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his education as a thief, which includes (but is not limited to) lock-picking, knife-fighting, wall-scaling, fall-breaking, lie-weaving, trap-making, plus a few small magics. His debt has driven him to lie in wait by the old forest road, planning to rob the next traveler that crosses his path. But today, Kinch Na Shannack has picked the wrong mark.
-
-
Outstanding
- By Anne Vaughan on 05-28-21
-
The Name of the Wind
- Kingkiller Chronicle, Book 1
- By: Patrick Rothfuss
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 27 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a tale of sorrow, a tale of survival, a tale of one man's search for meaning in his universe, and how that search, and the indomitable will that drove it, gave birth to a legend.
-
-
Not sure why the reviews are so polar opposite.
- By Aaron Altman on 06-28-09
By: Patrick Rothfuss
-
Neverwhere
- By: Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Neil Gaiman
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. His small act of kindness propels him into a world he never dreamed existed. There are people who fall through the cracks, and Richard has become one of them. And he must learn to survive in this city of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels, if he is ever to return to the London that he knew.
-
-
Truly outstamding!
- By RJT on 10-27-07
By: Neil Gaiman
-
American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition (A Full Cast Production)
- By: Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Ron McLarty, Daniel Oreskes, full cast
- Length: 19 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his time, quietly waiting for the day when he could return to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, all he wanted was to be with Laura, the wife he deeply loved, and start a new life. But just days before his release, Laura and Shadow's best friend are killed in an accident. With his life in pieces and nothing to keep him tethered, Shadow accepts a job from a beguiling stranger he meets on the way home, an enigmatic man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday.
-
-
New to Neil
- By Michael on 07-27-11
By: Neil Gaiman
-
The Fisherman
- By: John Langan
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story.
-
-
The Horror of Loss
- By Jim N on 04-20-17
By: John Langan
-
Fevre Dream
- By: George R.R. Martin
- Narrated by: Ron Donachie
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When struggling riverboat captain Abner Marsh receives an offer of partnership from a wealthy aristocrat, he suspects something’s amiss. But when he meets the hauntingly pale, steely-eyed Joshua York, he is certain. For York doesn’t care that the icy winter of 1857 has wiped out all but one of Marsh’s dilapidated fleet. Nor does he care that he won’t earn back his investment in a decade. York has his own reasons for wanting to traverse the powerful Mississippi. And they are to be none of Marsh’s concern - no matter how bizarre, arbitrary, or capricious his actions may prove.
-
-
Vampires, the Mississippi, and George R. R. Martin
- By Carol on 10-21-12
Publisher's summary
Best-selling author Robert Jackson Bennett has won widespread critical acclaim for his unique brand of darkly inventive fiction. In The Troupe, 16-year-old George Carole joins vaudeville in search of Heironomo Silenus, the man he believes to be his father. But what he discovers casts a dark pall over his world: Silenus' troupe hides a dangerous secret - one that invites death to all in its vicinity.
Related to this topic
-
City of Stairs
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions - until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world's new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself - first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it - stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy. Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani.
-
-
Something Different
- By Scott S. on 10-17-14
-
The Hum and the Shiver
- The Tufa Novels, Book 1
- By: Alex Bledsoe
- Narrated by: Emily Janice Card, Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one knows where the Tufa came from or how they ended up in the mountains of east Tennessee. When the first Europeans came to the Smoky Mountains, the Tufa were already there. Dark-haired and enigmatic, they live quietly in the hills and valleys of Cloud County, their origins lost to history. But there are clues in their music, hidden in the songs they have passed down for generations.
-
-
Excellent story that combines music and folklore
- By T. L. Walker on 10-01-15
By: Alex Bledsoe
-
The List
- By: Patricia Forde
- Narrated by: Imogen Wilde
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the post-apocalyptic, neo-medieval city of Ark, speech is constrained to 500 sanctioned words. If somewhere were to speak outside that approved lexicon, they'd face banishment. The only exceptions to this rule are the Wordsmith and his apprentice, Letta. Together, they are the keepers and archivists of all language. But when Letta's master dies, she is suddenly promoted to Wordsmith and finds the situation more complicated than she knew.
-
-
Love is Language
- By Jennie Smith on 02-19-21
By: Patricia Forde
-
Hark! The Herald Angels Scream
- By: Christopher Golden - editor, Joe R. Lansdale, Scott Smith, and others
- Narrated by: Charles Constant, Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
That there is darkness at the heart of the Yuletide season should not surprise. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is filled with scenes that are unsettling. The hideous children - Want and Ignorance - beneath the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. In the finest versions of this story, the best parts are the terrifying parts. Best-selling author and editor Christopher Golden shares his love for Christmas horror stories with this anthology of all-new short fiction from some of the most talented and original writers of horror today.
-
-
Some good, some clunkers. Some fun, none scary.
- By Max Trivial on 12-24-18
By: Christopher Golden - editor, and others
-
Perchance to Dream
- Selected Stories
- By: Charles Beaumont
- Narrated by: J. Paul Boehmer, Gabrielle de Cuir, Harlan Ellison, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The profoundly original and wildly entertaining short stories of a legendary Twilight Zone writer. It is only natural that Charles Beaumont would make a name for himself crafting scripts for The Twilight Zone - for his was an imagination so limitless it must have emerged from some other dimension. Perchance to Dream contains a selection of Beaumont's finest stories, including five that he later adapted for Twilight Zone episodes.
-
-
Contents
- By Ralph Freaster on 06-22-16
By: Charles Beaumont
-
The Jewel
- By: Amy Ewing
- Narrated by: Erin Spencer
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Violet, born and raised in the Marsh, has been trained as a surrogate for the royalty - because in the Jewel the only thing more important than opulence is offspring. Purchased at the surrogacy auction by the Duchess of the Lake and greeted with a slap to the face, Violet (now known only as #197) quickly learns of the brutal truths that lie beneath the Jewel's glittering facade.
-
-
Left Me Feeling Annoyed
- By Carol Dunn on 11-04-15
By: Amy Ewing
-
City of Stairs
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions - until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world's new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself - first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it - stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy. Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani.
-
-
Something Different
- By Scott S. on 10-17-14
-
The Hum and the Shiver
- The Tufa Novels, Book 1
- By: Alex Bledsoe
- Narrated by: Emily Janice Card, Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one knows where the Tufa came from or how they ended up in the mountains of east Tennessee. When the first Europeans came to the Smoky Mountains, the Tufa were already there. Dark-haired and enigmatic, they live quietly in the hills and valleys of Cloud County, their origins lost to history. But there are clues in their music, hidden in the songs they have passed down for generations.
-
-
Excellent story that combines music and folklore
- By T. L. Walker on 10-01-15
By: Alex Bledsoe
-
The List
- By: Patricia Forde
- Narrated by: Imogen Wilde
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the post-apocalyptic, neo-medieval city of Ark, speech is constrained to 500 sanctioned words. If somewhere were to speak outside that approved lexicon, they'd face banishment. The only exceptions to this rule are the Wordsmith and his apprentice, Letta. Together, they are the keepers and archivists of all language. But when Letta's master dies, she is suddenly promoted to Wordsmith and finds the situation more complicated than she knew.
-
-
Love is Language
- By Jennie Smith on 02-19-21
By: Patricia Forde
-
Hark! The Herald Angels Scream
- By: Christopher Golden - editor, Joe R. Lansdale, Scott Smith, and others
- Narrated by: Charles Constant, Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
That there is darkness at the heart of the Yuletide season should not surprise. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is filled with scenes that are unsettling. The hideous children - Want and Ignorance - beneath the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. In the finest versions of this story, the best parts are the terrifying parts. Best-selling author and editor Christopher Golden shares his love for Christmas horror stories with this anthology of all-new short fiction from some of the most talented and original writers of horror today.
-
-
Some good, some clunkers. Some fun, none scary.
- By Max Trivial on 12-24-18
By: Christopher Golden - editor, and others
-
Perchance to Dream
- Selected Stories
- By: Charles Beaumont
- Narrated by: J. Paul Boehmer, Gabrielle de Cuir, Harlan Ellison, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The profoundly original and wildly entertaining short stories of a legendary Twilight Zone writer. It is only natural that Charles Beaumont would make a name for himself crafting scripts for The Twilight Zone - for his was an imagination so limitless it must have emerged from some other dimension. Perchance to Dream contains a selection of Beaumont's finest stories, including five that he later adapted for Twilight Zone episodes.
-
-
Contents
- By Ralph Freaster on 06-22-16
By: Charles Beaumont
-
The Jewel
- By: Amy Ewing
- Narrated by: Erin Spencer
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Violet, born and raised in the Marsh, has been trained as a surrogate for the royalty - because in the Jewel the only thing more important than opulence is offspring. Purchased at the surrogacy auction by the Duchess of the Lake and greeted with a slap to the face, Violet (now known only as #197) quickly learns of the brutal truths that lie beneath the Jewel's glittering facade.
-
-
Left Me Feeling Annoyed
- By Carol Dunn on 11-04-15
By: Amy Ewing
-
The Cerulean
- By: Amy Ewing
- Narrated by: Kim Mai Guest
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sera Lighthaven has always felt as if she didn’t quite belong among her people, the Cerulean, who live in the city above the sky. She is curious about everything - especially the planet her city is magically tethered to - and can’t stop questioning things. Sera has always longed for the day when the tether will finally break and the Cerulean can move to a new planet. But when Sera is chosen as the sacrifice to break the tether, she feels betrayed by everything in which she’d been taught to trust. In order to save her city, Sera must end her own life.
-
-
It was ok
- By Kim on 12-16-20
By: Amy Ewing
-
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4
- By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor, Stephen King, Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Meredith Mitchell, Rebecca Mitchell, Michael Healy, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With tales from Laird Barron, Stephen King, John Langan, Peter Straub, and many others, and featuring Datlow’s comprehensive overview of the year in horror, now, more than ever, The Best Horror of the Year provides the petrifying horror fiction readers have come to expect - and enjoy.
-
-
Only a few decent stories in this bunch.
- By Jerry on 12-06-14
By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor, and others
-
Dreams and Shadows
- A Novel
- By: C. Robert Cargill
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is another world than our own - one no closer than a kiss and one no further than our nightmares - where all the stuff of which dreams are made is real and magic is just a step away. But once you see that world, you will never be the same. Dreams and Shadows takes us beyond this veil. Once bold explorers and youthful denizens of this magical realm, Ewan is now an Austin musician who just met his dream girl, and Colby, meanwhile, cannot escape the consequences of an innocent wish.
-
-
An Amazing Book
- By hermanous on 04-14-13
-
The Clockwork Three
- By: Matthew Kirby
- Narrated by: Marc Thompson
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A team of unlikely friends - an orphaned street musician, a hard-working girl from the tenements, and a talented clockmaker's apprentice - discover that together they can overcome even the darkest of fears.
-
-
HASTY CLIMBERS SUFFER SUDDEN FALLS
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 09-17-17
By: Matthew Kirby
-
The Monstrumologist
- By: Rick Yancey
- Narrated by: Steven Boyer
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Warthrop is a scientist who tracks and studies real-life monsters. Assisted by his 12-year-old apprentice, Will Henry, Dr. Warthrop discovers a pod of Anthropophagi and launches a hunt to destroy the foul beasts.
-
-
Reader Be Warned
- By Eddie on 01-25-15
By: Rick Yancey
-
Mr. Shivers
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robert Jackson Bennett makes a stunning debut with this deliciously dark tale sure to hold readers in its menacing thrall. The grinding poverty brought on by the Great Depression is nowhere more apparent than in the untold thousands looking for work along America’s railroad system. But one man haunting the rail camps has been moved by an entirely different brand of desperation: revenge.
-
-
From the Cormac McCarthy Playbook
- By J. Cons on 08-09-10
-
The Magician's Lie
- A Novel
- By: Greer Macallister
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Nick Podehl
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Amazing Arden is the most famous female illusionist of her day, renowned for her notorious trick of sawing a man in half on stage. One night in Waterloo, Iowa, with young policeman Virgil Holt watching from the audience, she swaps her trademark saw for a fire ax. Is it a new version of the illusion, or an all-too-real murder? When Arden's husband is found lifeless beneath the stage later that night, the answer seems clear.
-
-
Too Fantastic
- By Ms. Lucy on 02-22-15
-
Liesl & Po
- By: Kei Acedera, Lauren Oliver
- Narrated by: Jim Dale
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Liesl lives in a tiny attic bedroom, locked away by her cruel stepmother. Her only friends are the shadows and the mice - until one night a ghost appears from the darkness. It is Po, who comes from the Other Side. Both Liesl and Po are lonely, but together they are less alone. That same night, an alchemist's apprentice, Will, bungles an important delivery. He accidentally switches a box containing the most powerful magic in the world with one containing something decidedly less remarkable. Will's mistake has tremendous consequences for Liesl and Po....
-
-
Great story made better by a great narrator
- By Marie on 09-16-12
By: Kei Acedera, and others
-
Sweep
- The Story of a Girl and Her Monster
- By: Jonathan Auxier
- Narrated by: Sarah Coomes
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For nearly a century, Victorian London relied on “climbing boys” - orphans owned by chimney sweeps - to clean flues and protect homes from fire. The work was hard, thankless, and brutally dangerous. Eleven-year-old Nan Sparrow is quite possibly the best climber who ever lived - and a girl. But when Nan gets stuck in a deadly chimney fire, she fears her time has come. Instead, she wakes to find herself in an abandoned attic. And she is not alone. Huddled in the corner is a mysterious creature - a golem - made from ash and coal. This is the creature that saved her from the fire.
-
-
Thank you.
- By Tim Smith on 01-20-19
By: Jonathan Auxier
-
Grim
- By: Ellen Hopkins, Julie Kagawa, Amanda Hocking, and others
- Narrated by: Christine Johnson
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by classic fairy tales, but with a dark and sinister twist, Grim contains short stories from some of the best voices in young adult literature today: Ellen Hopkins, Amanda Hocking, Julie Kagawa, Claudia Gray, Rachel Hawkins, Kimberly Derting, Myra McEntire, Malinda Lo, Sarah Rees-Brennan, Jackson Pearce, Christine Johnson, Jeri Smith Ready, Shaun David Hutchinson, Saundra Mitchell, Sonia Gensler, Tessa Gratton, Jon Skrovron.
-
-
amazing
- By Anonymous User on 10-04-17
By: Ellen Hopkins, and others
-
The Queen of the Tearling
- A Novel
- By: Erika Johansen
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Magic, adventure, mystery, and romance combine in this epic debut in which a young princess must reclaim her dead mother’s throne, learn to be a ruler - and defeat the Red Queen, a powerful and malevolent sorceress determined to destroy her. On her 19th birthday, Princess Kelsea Raleigh Glynn, raised in exile, sets out on a perilous journey back to the castle of her birth to ascend her rightful throne. Plain and serious, a girl who loves books and learning, Kelsea bears little resemblance to her mother, the vain and frivolous Queen Elyssa.
-
-
Volume changed a lot
- By Nik on 12-20-14
By: Erika Johansen
-
The Book of Magic
- By: Gardner Dozois - editor, Scott Lynch, Elizabeth Bear, and others
- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker, Sile Bermingham, Maxwell Caulfield, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hot on the heels of Gardner Dozois's acclaimed anthology The Book of Swords comes this companion volume devoted to magic. How could it be otherwise? For every Frodo, there is a Gandalf... and a Saruman. For every Dorothy, a Glinda... and a Wicked Witch of the West. What would Harry Potter be without Albus Dumbledore... and Severus Snape? Figures of wisdom and power, possessing arcane, often forbidden knowledge, wizards and sorcerers are shaped - or misshaped - by the potent magic they seek to wield.
-
-
Very Good, With One Objection
- By Kindle Customer on 05-05-20
By: Gardner Dozois - editor, and others
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Company Man
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A trolley car pulls into the station. Four minutes before, the inhabitants were seen boarding at the previous station. All are dead. And all of them are union. The year is 1919. The McNaughton Corporation is the pinnacle of American industry. They built airships that cross the seas. Guns that won the Great War. And above all, the city of Evesden. But something is rotten at the heart of Evesden. Caught between the union and the company, between the police and the victims, Hayes must find the truth behind the city before it kills him.
-
-
Steampunk Noir - Puts the Punk Back in Steampunk
- By Dave on 12-05-12
-
American Elsewhere
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 22 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some places are too good to be true. Under a pink moon, there is a perfect little town not found on any map. In that town, there are quiet streets lined with pretty houses, houses that conceal the strangest things. After a couple years of hard traveling, ex-cop Mona Bright inherits her long-dead mother's home in Wink, New Mexico. And the closer Mona gets to her mother's past, the more she understands that the people of Wink are very, very different....
-
-
You are entering the twighlight zone
- By Lisa on 07-29-13
-
City of Stairs
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions - until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world's new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself - first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it - stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy. Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani.
-
-
Something Different
- By Scott S. on 10-17-14
-
Vigilance
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The United States. 2030. John McDean executive produces "Vigilance", a reality game show designed to make sure American citizens stay alert to foreign and domestic threats. Shooters are introduced into a "game environment", and the survivors get a cash prize. The TV audience is not the only one that's watching though, and McDean soon finds out what it's like to be on the other side of the camera.
-
-
Old white men bring down America
- By Tango on 02-07-24
-
Foundryside
- A Novel
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Tara Sands
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle. But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been sent to steal an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic - the art of using coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience - have already used it to transform Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine.
-
-
Parts & Sums
- By CaffineFreeJAVA on 05-07-19
-
A Drop of Corruption
- An Ana and Din Mystery (Shadow of the Leviathan, Book 2)
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard. To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol. Before long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance, but a murder.
-
The Company Man
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A trolley car pulls into the station. Four minutes before, the inhabitants were seen boarding at the previous station. All are dead. And all of them are union. The year is 1919. The McNaughton Corporation is the pinnacle of American industry. They built airships that cross the seas. Guns that won the Great War. And above all, the city of Evesden. But something is rotten at the heart of Evesden. Caught between the union and the company, between the police and the victims, Hayes must find the truth behind the city before it kills him.
-
-
Steampunk Noir - Puts the Punk Back in Steampunk
- By Dave on 12-05-12
-
American Elsewhere
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 22 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some places are too good to be true. Under a pink moon, there is a perfect little town not found on any map. In that town, there are quiet streets lined with pretty houses, houses that conceal the strangest things. After a couple years of hard traveling, ex-cop Mona Bright inherits her long-dead mother's home in Wink, New Mexico. And the closer Mona gets to her mother's past, the more she understands that the people of Wink are very, very different....
-
-
You are entering the twighlight zone
- By Lisa on 07-29-13
-
City of Stairs
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions - until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world's new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself - first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it - stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy. Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani.
-
-
Something Different
- By Scott S. on 10-17-14
-
Vigilance
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The United States. 2030. John McDean executive produces "Vigilance", a reality game show designed to make sure American citizens stay alert to foreign and domestic threats. Shooters are introduced into a "game environment", and the survivors get a cash prize. The TV audience is not the only one that's watching though, and McDean soon finds out what it's like to be on the other side of the camera.
-
-
Old white men bring down America
- By Tango on 02-07-24
-
Foundryside
- A Novel
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Tara Sands
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle. But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been sent to steal an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic - the art of using coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience - have already used it to transform Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine.
-
-
Parts & Sums
- By CaffineFreeJAVA on 05-07-19
-
A Drop of Corruption
- An Ana and Din Mystery (Shadow of the Leviathan, Book 2)
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard. To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol. Before long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance, but a murder.
-
Big Machine
- A Novel
- By: Victor LaValle
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ricky Rice is a middling hustler with a lingering junk habit, a bum knee, and a haunted mind. A survivor of a suicide cult, he scrapes by as a porter at a bus depot in Utica, New York, until one day a mysterious letter arrives, summoning him to enlist in a band of paranormal investigators comprised of former addicts and petty criminals, all of whom had at some point in their wasted lives heard what may have been the voice of God.
-
-
Victor LaValle is good. Real good.
- By Bill on 02-14-18
By: Victor LaValle
-
The Tainted Cup
- A Novel
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Andrew Fallaize
- Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Daretana’s greatest mansion, a high imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree erupted from his body. Even here at the Empire’s borders, where contagions abound and the blood of the leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death both terrifying and impossible. Assigned to investigate is Ana Dolabra, a detective whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities. Rumor has it that she wears a blindfold at all times, and that she can solve impossible cases without even stepping outside the walls of her home.
-
-
Really fun fantasy whodunnit
- By Jay Turton on 03-11-24
-
The Supernaturals
- By: David L. Golemon
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seven years ago Professor Gabriel Kennedy's investigation into paranormal activity at Summer Place ended in tragedy and destroyed his career. Now Kelly Delaphoy, the ambitious producer of a top-rated ghost-hunting television series, is determined to make Summer Place the centerpiece of an epic live broadcast on Halloween night. To ensure success she needs help from the one man who has come face-to-face with the evil that dwells in Summer Place, a man still haunted by the ghosts of his own failure.
-
-
A Review for Anybody Who Owns the Previous Version
- By Jessica Davis on 11-04-16
By: David L. Golemon
-
Galilee
- By: Clive Barker
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 23 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Barbarossa family’s roots are far more ancient and ethereal, but they are bound to the Gearys by a shared history of murder, insanity, and adultery. When Rachel Geary and Galilee, the seductive prince of the Barbarossa clan, fall in love, they unleash powerful enmities that could destroy both dynasties. Shorter and more conventional than some of Barker’s other work, this novel is especially rich with complex, passionate, three-dimensional characters, lush settings, and elegant language.
-
-
An Audiophile's Dream
- By Joseph on 09-01-11
By: Clive Barker
-
Dark Across the Bay
- By: Ania Ahlborn
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The house sits stoic and slightly askew off the coast of Raven's Head. Its off-kilter windows are both charming and disorienting, its walls of overstuffed bookshelves both comforting and claustrophobic. When Leo and Lark Parrish arrive at their vacation home with their parents, their mother's idea of a quintessential Maine getaway seems like both a blessing and a curse.
-
-
Not terrible, but disappointing
- By DP on 07-14-24
By: Ania Ahlborn
-
The Girl from Rawblood
- A Novel
- By: Catriona Ward
- Narrated by: Liz Pearce, Steven Crossley, John Keating, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1910, 11-year-old Iris Villarca lives with her father at Rawblood, a lonely house on Dartmoor. Iris and her father are the last of their name. The Villarcas always die young, bloodily. Iris knows it's because of a congenital disease that means she must be strictly isolated. Papa told her so. Forbidden to speak to other children or the servants, denied her one friend, Iris grows up in solitude. But she reads books. And one sunlit autumn day, beside her mother's grave, she forces the truth from her father. The disease is biologically impossible. A lie to cover a darker secret.
-
-
I have no idea what this was about
- By Rachel on 11-11-21
By: Catriona Ward
-
Experimental Film
- By: Gemma Files
- Narrated by: Morgan Hallett
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fired at almost the same time as her son, Clark, is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, former film critic turned teacher Lois Cairns is caught in a depressive downward spiral, convinced she's a failure who's spent half her adult life writing about other people's dreams without ever seeing any of her own come true.
-
-
Smartly done and well written.
- By Bill on 06-27-17
By: Gemma Files
-
Suffer the Children
- By: Craig Dilouie
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Suffer the Children presents a terrifying tale of apocalyptic fiction, as listeners are introduced to Herod's Syndrome, a devastating illness that suddenly and swiftly kills all young children across the globe. Soon, they return from the grave, and ask for blood. And with blood, they stop being dead. They continue to remain the children they once were, but only for a short time, as they need more blood to live. The average human body holds 10 pints of blood, so the inevitable question for parents everywhere becomes: How far would you go to bring your child back?
-
-
Brilliant, Well Done!!!!!
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 12-08-16
By: Craig Dilouie
-
My Soul to Keep
- By: Tananarive Due
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost.
-
-
A Book I Can't Keep
- By Mistsofjade on 07-19-20
By: Tananarive Due
-
The Five
- By: Robert R. McCammon
- Narrated by: Nick Landrum
- Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Five features a rock band skirting the margins of success while touring the American Southwest. Life on the road, however, takes a strange turn when they encounter an Iraq War veteran. Soon thereafter, violence descends on the group, and their lives are tuned to a terrifying pitch.
-
-
Stop SINGING!
- By Mo Devlin on 09-30-13
-
Relics
- By: Tim Lebbon
- Narrated by: Esther Wane
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's an underground black market for arcane things. Akin to the trade in rhino horns or tiger bones, this network traffics in remains of gryphons, faeries, goblins, and other fantastic creatures. When her fiance Vince goes missing, Angela Gough, an American criminology student, discovers he was a part of this secretive trade. It's a big-money business-shadowy, brutal, and sometimes fatal. As the trail leads her deeper into London's dark side, she crosses paths with a crime lord whose life is dedicated to collecting such relics.
-
-
Two dimensional characters
- By Katrin on 06-21-19
By: Tim Lebbon
-
The Hexologists
- By: Josiah Bancroft
- Narrated by: Sarah Slimani
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Hexologists, Iz and Warren Wilby, are quite accustomed to helping desperate clients with the bugbears of city life. Aided by hexes and a bag of charmed relics, the Wilbies have recovered children abducted by chimney-wraiths, removed infestations of barb-nosed incubi, and ventured into the Gray Plains of the Unmade to soothe a troubled ghost. Well-acquainted with the weird, they never shy away from a challenging case.
-
-
The mispronounciations
- By S. Nordstrom on 01-08-24
By: Josiah Bancroft
What listeners say about The Troupe
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Scott
- 04-11-17
One of the best stories of the decade.
I've loved Bennett since picking up American Elsewhere on a whim, and this book just solidified him as one of the best horror authors of my generation. Beautifully written with fantastic characters and a sprawling, mysterious adventure with just a touch of the Lovecraftian. Something Wicked This Way Comes for an older generation.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Door
- 09-10-13
The true horror is the dysfunctional characters
This story has a distinctly "Big Fish" feel to it. Shuffling, kindly, eccentrics with a bygone-era vibe. A cynical curmudgeon hurting people, despite his good heart. Love at first sight with an unobtainable woman. A circus/vaudeville troupe to give everything a flair of magic, art, and color. Like Big Fish, I wanted to like it, but it drove. me. crazy. (So, if you love Big Fish, ignore the rest of my review and buy this book! You are not me and that is fine.)
First.
The characters are TOO annoying. George is a teenager who is blind, self-centered, and vain. Normal teenagers have good days and bad days, so we can love them despite their craziness, but George finds a way to be nails-on-chalkboard awkward all the time, whether he's yelling at someone or romancing them. The other characters notice this, but (strangely) love and pamper him anyway. You will not have this impulse.
It's not just George, either. Have you ever had an argument where the other person makes their point, and you say you're sorry, but then they continue to explain why they're mad over and over until they run out of anger? All the characters are like this, their fury-monologues meticulously transcribed. And they have plenty of opportunities for screaming fits because they spend all their time hanging out with other psychologically miscalibrated individuals.
Really, I can't say that Bennett's character development is bad. I've met people just like his characters. They're just the type of people whose drama and psychosis I try to avoid.
Second.
The story is TOO saccarine. Seriously, there is a point at the end, where a character is observed by all his neighbors looking heartbreaking in a manner they can't put their finger on. It's ham-fisted tragedy at its finest. Just when you think the author has painted himself up the most obvious tragic scenario possible, interlaced with 5 other tragic scenarios, he painstakingly explains to you "see, this is what I've done here...." Even when he writes himself a happy ending, he makes sure you know everyone is beautifully screwed. And it's soooo bittersweet you immediately need to go to the dentist.
Third.
This is a fairytale without claws. It is not a horror any more than a Disney movie is a horror. It has a "villain" - a very heartwarming villain who is the most likable character. It might be scary to children whose imaginations can provide the kind of terror the author does not. As an adult, your imagination will be too busy figuring out how to kill off all the characters except the two you like. Just like when you're watching "Walking Dead!"
I don't know why people keep getting confused that fairytales can be written by providing a lot of detailed surreal atmosphere and maybe some fairies. A fairytale is dark and unnerving and teaches you about survival. I don't know what this book teaches you. I guess not to date that girl/guy who's been through some stuff and seems a little broken. And that she might be trying to save the world.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Melissa Stanlake
- 01-02-23
Not RJB’s Best
I am a huge RJB fan and this audiobook was wonderfully voiced by Luis Moreno but the story was lacking. George is a boring Marty Stu character who’s impulsive childlike outbursts grew tiring and reminded me of Kvothe from the King Killer Chronicles. The rest of the story seemed like some derivative mashup of the Never-ending Story and The Dark Tower. Like most RJB books, it explores the backrooms of reality but this felt adolescent compared to his other endeavors.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dave
- 12-21-12
Magic On Vaudeville
Robert Jackson Bennett's the Troupe is my favorite new audiobook of the year. It called to mind Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, along with Ray Bradbury, and a dash of Stephen King.
Bennett recreates Vaudeville, and imbues it with a sense of magic that feels both historical and fantastical. Here’s some more about the plot: George, a teenage pianist, has been on the Vaudeville circuit for six months searching for his father’s troupe. All he wants is his father’s acceptance, but when he tracks down the players and begins to unravel the secrets Silenus and his companions carry, he’s plunged into a world of danger and magic beyond his wildest dreams. Because Silenus’s shows seem to have an effect on the very world itself, and there are other entities who’d like to bring down the curtain on it once and for all.
All the different members of the troupe are fully fleshed out, and all deliciously complicated. We meet Franny, the strongwoman; Collette, the beautiful singer and dancer; Kingsley, a bizarre puppeteer; and Stanley – Silenus’s mute right hand-man. Finally, there’s Silenus himself – a master showman who claims he’s been alive for centuries. They all have secrets of their own, as well as ambitions, and it’s a delight to spend time with them on the road, and to be surprised by their startling revelations. Knowing what I know now, I can’t wait to go back to it and watch their secrets and twists unfold all over again.
Luis Moreno does a magnificent job of bringing Bennett’s characters to life. I hadn’t heard him read before, and he delivers a subtle reading that manages to give Silenus’s voice a sense of charismatic showmanship, while making George’s a naive, sometimes arrogant teenager, and hits the right notes for all the characters in between. There were a few times in the production where odd pauses fell unexpectedly into the story, which was a little jarring – I’d occasionally look at my iPod to see if it had stopped playing. But all in all, Moreno’s reading is a real treat, and only adds more charm to this already fantastic and riveting story.
The Troupe is a must-listen, a book that will charm, thrill, and give you chills and once it wraps up, you’ll want to do the whole thing all over again.
Originally posted at the AudioBookaneers
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- TIMOTHY
- 10-08-14
Wow
Just an incredible story. Im not a huge fan of the narrator, but the story was so good it didn't matter!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- lordofllama
- 12-13-21
Very likely to make you cry.
really good def one of my favorite authors now. Really believable characters and livable world.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- B. R. Jones
- 05-01-13
A great book if you need to break a reading rut...
What did you love best about The Troupe?
The story, the characters, the world were all so interesting and different. I have absolutely zero interest in Vaudeville or theater, but that's really just the framework that this magnificent fabric of story is hung upon - in short, don't let that part turn you off.
I'm a big fan of thicker fantasy & fiction writing, but this book (which is relatively short compared to my usual far) really worked like a charm to break up a "reading rut" that I'd run into where I just wasn't finding anything interesting to dig into.
Any additional comments?
I didn't love the ending... but I also can't really imagine a better way to close up the book. In short, I guess I was just sad to see the story come to a close when I could have read another 400 pages (or hours?) of material based in this world.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Vivian Myers
- 05-16-24
Even in fantasy
I thought the reader did a phenomenal job with what he had to work with. His range was more than adequate and the characters did come to life. The story itself had a lot of promise right up until even in fantasy black are nothing more than a prop and should be kept in there place at the bottom of the pile. I’m not sure why this one surprised me so. After all many writers portrayed their hatred through writing. I guess I just had higher hopes with this author. I did not see it coming. Writers like Stephen King you see it coming a mile away, but this one caught me off guard.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Howard
- 08-12-13
Not worth the effort!
I don' understand the positive reviews. I am an avid fantasy/fiction reader and listener (I know have 300+ audible books in my library). Reading the reviews I thought I would get something different, refreshing and "period" (vaudeville).
I simply could never get engaged in the story. I found Mr Moreno boring and flat) and the characters, flat and crude. THere was no warmth, no human interest- simply characters being pushed around in service of a pretty unique fantasy construct. But the construct was not enough to build a novel around. I must admit I made it 50% of the way through the thing and finally said "why I am torturing myself?" this is just plain boring.
I love Black Company, LOTR, first three books in G RR Martin's series (the last two suxed), Sherlock Holmes, Murder Mysteries ("I Would Know You Anywhere" being a favorite, WOT (excepting books 8-9), anything Brandon Sanderson writes (to date). So this is not a case of being stuck on one type of fantasy or genre.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jennifer
- 01-25-14
Disappointment Lies In Expectations Not Realized
Reading the description of this book I could not help but think of The Night Circus, a book I enjoyed very much. The Troupe promises the inner world of Vaudeville, all the odd and the strange, and peppered with mysteries of the other worldly.
What I found surprising is that with (what sounds like) such a good premise for a novel, it is instead only the thin outer crust surrounding the novel, and instead 90% of the prose is mind-numbing dialogue between the characters, who are all one dimensional, grumpy selfish empty shells themselves. If you took a shot for every time a character said "'Why?" after another character spoke you would be under the table by page 20. My biggest gripe is that not much happens in the novel. There is supposedly some big bad supernatural creatures that the troupe is both running from and opposing, but they only show up a few times in the book, and the rest of the time is just the characters in the troupe talking to each other. Dialogue, dialogue, dialogue..... I'm sorry but the "he said" she said" drove me crazy, and then our very ignorant rather daft protagonist responding to almost literally everything with "why?". Imagine watching the show Lost if instead of watching the action all you got to see were Jack and Kate and Charlie and the rest of the cast sitting around on the beach just talking to each other about everything. Oh, and if they were all kind of selfish, short-tempered and stupid.
Sadly after my gripes about the content of the book I must say that none of the characters is very likable either. They are hot tempered and reactive and seem to have no substance. George our main character who is supposed to be a 16 year old pianist in search of his father is incredibly selfish and truly stupid. Yes teenagers can be selfish which is fine, but the author does not seem to have any insight into a 16 year old at all. Rather instead George's inner monologue and responses to those around him seem to be more at the level of a 6-8 year old. He seems to have no comprehension of anything around him and dumbly responds to everything with "why?". All I could picture is a toddler in a grocery store pointing at everything asking "what's that?".... "but why?
I think my greatest disappointment in this book is that the premise could have been interesting if done differently. If instead of basically ignoring what is touted as the plot of this novel, it could have actually flushed out the supposed impending danger and had well rounded characters, this could have been interesting. Instead I got stuck just listening to one-dimensional people talk to each other, yack yack yack yack......
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful