Twilight rules audio-book downloads at Christmas
A glance at the best-selling science fiction and fantasy downloads on Audible.co.uk shows that Stephenie Meyer’s enormous popularity is also evident amongst those who like to listen to a good story. Twilight and New Moon list #1 and #2 respectively, with Eclipse and Breaking Dawn coming in at #4 and #5. If not for Terry Pratchett and the audio version of Unseen Academicals Meyer would have claimed a Beatles-esque dominance over the top 10.
- Twilight: The Twilight Saga, Book 1 (Unabridged)
- New Moon: The Twilight Saga, Book 2 (Unabridged)
- Unseen Academicals: Discworld #32 (Unabridged)
- Eclipse: The Twilight Saga, Book 3 (Unabridged)
- Breaking Dawn: The Twilight Saga, Book 4 (Unabridged)
- The Time Traveler’s Wife (Unabridged)
- And Another Thing…: Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Part Six of Three (Unabridged)
- Under the Dome (Unabridged)
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Unabridged)
- The Gathering Storm: Wheel of Time, Book 12 (Unabridged)
An exciting new audiobook has also appeared on the site with Robin Hobb’s Dragon Keeper, read by Saskia Butler, now available for download. Here’s the synopsis:
Guided by the great blue dragon Tintaglia, they came from the sea: a Tangle of serpents fighting their way up the Rain Wilds River, the first to make the perilous journey to the cocooning grounds in generations. Many have died along the way. With its acid waters and impenetrable forest, it is a hard place for any to survive.
People are changed by the Rain Wilds, subtly or otherwise. One such is Thymara. Born with black claws and other aberrations, she should have been exposed at birth. But her father saved her and her mother has never forgiven him. Like everyone else, Thymara is fascinated by the return of dragons: it is as if they symbolise the return of hope to their war-torn world. Leftrin, captain of the liveship Tarman, also has an interest in the hatching; as does Bingtown newlywed, Alise Finbok, who has made it her life’s work to study all there is to know of dragons.
But the creatures which emerge from the cocoons are a travesty of the powerful, shining dragons of old. Stunted and deformed, they cannot fly; some seem witless and bestial. Soon, they become a danger and a burden to the Rain Wilders: something must be done. The dragons claim an ancestral memory of a fabled Elderling city far upriver: perhaps there the dragons will find their true home. But Kelsingra appears on no maps and they cannot get there on their own: a band of dragon keepers, hunters and chroniclers must attend them.
To be a dragon keeper is a dangerous job: their charges are vicious and unpredictable, and there are many unknown perils on the journey to a city which may not even exist…
Posted: December 23rd, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Audio-books, Brandon Sanderson, Stephenie Meyer, Terry Pratchett
Do you have something to add to this post? Please leave a comment
Book of the Month
Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill
Some doors are better left closed . . . In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And it’s been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever.
Latest interviews
Interviews plus question and answer sessions with authors, narrators and publishers.
Must-reads
The following reviews are of books that begin the very best fantasy series available.
Special Feature: Fantasy Book Review talks to the Book View Cafe
Book View Cafe is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet's possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Cafe is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors' best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.
Special Feature: Understanding the author of Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll, the elusive author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has been the subject of enduring fascination for the past hundred years. The destruction of many major documents about his personal life by his descendants has only magnified the mystery. Jenny Woolf's biography, published to coincide with the release of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film, lays waste to the myths and suspicions that have obscured Carroll's reputation by placing him firmly in the context of his own time.
