Fantasy Audio-book Review
An audio-book is a book that is read out aloud by a narrator and was originally mainly available in the tape format but can now be purchased on CD and also downloaded in mp3 / mp4 format. Audio-books are extremely useful because they can help children learn to read and are also invaluable to the blind.
Some of the best audio-books available are fantasy, The Lord of the Rings and A Wizard of Earthsea are just two examples of the wonderful audio treats that are now available.
Audio-book of the Month
The Amulet of Samarkand
Set in a modern-day London controlled by magicians, this hilarious, electrifying thriller will enthral listeners of all ages.
Top downloads
- Unseen Academicals
- Under the Dome
- Twilight
Fantasy Book Review has brought together our favourite ten fantasy audio-books:
English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory. But at Hurtfew Abbey in Yorkshire, the rich, reclusive Mr. Norrell has assembled a wonderful library of lost and forgotten books from England’s magical past and regained some of the powers of England’s magicians. He goes to London and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. Soon he is lending his help to the government in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte, creating ghostly fleets of rain-ships to confuse and alarm the French. All goes well until a rival magician appears. Jonathan Strange is handsome, charming, and talkative, the very opposite of Mr. Norrell. Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigours of campaigning with Wellington’s army and doing magic on battlefields. Astonished to find another practicing magician, Mr. Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil. But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought to be are very different… Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke’s magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that 32 hours leave readers longing for more.
(©2004 Susanna Clarke; (P)2004 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC, and Bloomsbury Publishing).
2. The Lord of the Rings (BBC dramatisation)
In 1981, BBC Radio 4 broadcast the first episode of the serialisation of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Brian Sibley recounts The making of the Rings. It all began with a rejection letter. I had an idea for a radio dramatisation but, for reasons I’ve now forgotten, the BBC wasn’t interested. However, the then head of the Drama Script Unit, Richard Imison, obviously didn’t want to seem too discouraging, so he asked if there were any books that I was interested in dramatising for them. Although I had written a number of radio features, I was still quite inexperienced in the craft of dramatising works of literature, having only ever adapted a short fantasy by James Thurber. Notwithstanding which, I immediately sent back a shopping list of suggestions – probably, for I was a hungry young writer, about a baker’s dozen in number. Then, as a postscript, I added that the one book I would really like to adapt for radio was JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
3. The Amulet of Samarkand read by Steven Pacey
When the 5,000-year-old djinni Bartimaeus is summoned by Nathaniel, a young magician’s apprentice, he expects to have to do nothing more taxing than a little levitation or a few simple illusions. But Nathaniel is a precocious talent and has something rather more dangerous in mind: revenge. Against his will, Bartimaeus is packed off to steal the powerful Amulet of Samarkand from Simon Lovelace, a master magician of unrivalled ruthlessness and ambition. And before long, both djinni and apprentice are caught up in a terrifying flood of magical intrigue, murder and rebellion. Set in a modern-day London controlled by magicians, this hilarious, electrifying thriller will enthral listeners of all ages.
A Wizard of Earthsea read by Karen Archer (©1968 The Inter-Vivos Trust for the Le Guin children, Recording (P)2005 Craftsman)
One of the great landmarks of fantasy, Ursula Le Guin’s novel set the benchmark for all future writers.
Watership Down read by Roy Dotrice (Hamlyn Books on Tape)
Hazel, Bigwig, Fiver and a band of selected rabbits leave their threatened warren and set out on an epic and dangerous journey in this classic animal story.
Wolf Brother read by Sir Ian McKellan
The Hobbit dramatised by the BBC
His Dark Materials narrated by Philip Pullman featuring a full cast
The Book of Dead Days read by Derek Jacobi
The Silmarillion read by Martin Shaw
Latest Reviews
Posted: October 26th, 2008
Author: Lee
Comments
The book of Dead Days is awesome!
I really love the voice of Derek Jacobi. He is giving so much life to the characters.
There is a part in the middle that I found a bit long though. But the ending is excellent.
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.
Competition: Win a signed copy of Graham Hancock's Entangled
Graham Hancock is the author of The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis, Heaven's Mirror, Supernatural and other bestselling investigations of historical mysteries. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages and have sold over five million copies worldwide. Written with the same page-turning appeal that has made his non-fiction so popular, Entangled is his first work of fiction. We have five signed copies of Entangled to give away as prizes. Email us the answer to the following question and the lucky winner, chosen at random, will receive a copy of the book, signed by the author.
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.
