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Audiobooks Narrated by John Banks
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The return of the mercenary company, the Crimson Guard, could not have come at a worse time for a Malazan Empire exhausted by warfare and weakened by betrayals and rivalries. Indeed, there are those who wonder whether the Empress Laseen might not be losing her grip on power as she faces increasing unrest as conquered kingdoms and principalities sense freedom once more.
Into the seething cauldron of Quon Tali-the Empire's heartland-marches the Guard. With their return comes the memory of their hundred-year-old vow: undying opposition to the existence of the Empire-and yet all is not well with the Guard itself. Elements within its élite, the Avowed, have set their sights on far greater power. There are ancient entities who also seek to further their own arcane ends. And what of the swordsman called Traveller who, with his companion Ereko, has gone in search of a confrontation from which none have ever returned.
As the Guard prepares to wage war, so Laseen's own generals and mages, the 'Old Hands', grow impatient at what they see as her mismanagement of the Empire. But could Laseen have outwitted them all? Could she be using the uprisings to draw out and finally eliminate these last irksome survivors from the days of her illustrious predecessor, Kellanved?
Epic and involving, Return of the Crimson Guard is an enthralling new chapter in the tumultuous history of the Malazan Empire.
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Desert Oath by Oliver Bowden, read by John Banks.
Before Assassin's Creed Origins, there was an Oath.
Egypt, 70BC, a merciless killer stalks the land. His mission: to find and destroy the last members of an ancient order, the Medjay - to eradicate the bloodline.
In peaceful Siwa, the town's protector abruptly departs, leaving his teenage son, Bayek, with questions about his own future and a sense of purpose he knows he must fulfill. Bayek sets off in search of answers, his journey taking him along the Nile and through an Egypt in turmoil, facing the dangers and the mysteries of the Medjay's path.
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Niccolo Rising by Dorothy Dunnett, read by John Banks.
The time is the 15th century, when intrepid merchants became the new knighthood of Europe. Among them, none is bolder or more cunning than Nicholas vander Poele of Bruges, the good-natured dyers apprentice who schemes and swashbucukes his way to the helm of a merchantile empire. NICCOLO RISING, Book One of the series, finds us in Bruges, 1460. Street smart, brilliant at figures, adept at the subtleties of diplomacy and the well-timed untruth, Dunnett's hero rises from wastrel to prodigy in a breathless adventure that wins him the love of the strongest woman in Bruges and the hatred of two powerful enemies. NICCOLO RISING combines history, adventure and high romance in the tradition stretching from Alexandre Dumas to Mary Renault.
The tumult of great powers colliding has passed and the city of Darujhistan and its citizens can at last get on with what matters: trading, bickering, politicking and enjoying all the good things in life. However, not all are ready to leave the past behind. A treasure hunter, digging amongst the burial grounds that surround the city, is about to uncover a hidden crypt. He will open the last of a series of sealed vaults - the one that no other dared touch - and, in so doing, set free something so terrifying that the knowledge of its internment may have been systematically wiped from history.
Fortune hunters are also at work far to the south. When a fragment of Moon's Spawn, once the home of Anomander Rake, Son of Darkness, crashed into the Rivan Sea it created a chain of small islands. Legends and rumours already surround them. The most potent of these is that here is hidden the Throne of Night, claimed by some to be the seat of Mother Dark herself. Either way, all who seek this ancient artefact - renegade mages, hardened mercenaries, even a Malazan army deserter - believe it will bestow unlimited power upon the eventual possessor. The stakes are high, greed is rife, betrayal inevitable, and murder and chaos lie in wait . . .
Epic and exciting, Ian Esslemont's new novel is an enthralling new chapter in the thrillingly imagined world of Malaz.
The ice is melting. And the northern land called Assail - for centuries a byword for inaccessibility and menace - is beginning to yield its secrets. Rumours of gold ripple through taverns and marketplaces, and all manner of adventurers have set sail in search of these riches, accompanied by tall-tales of hostile coastlines, fields of ice, impassable mountains and terrifying beings perhaps born of history's beginnings. The only certainty is that the people of the north are fighters, and meet all trespassers with the sword.
Into this arena ventures the mercenary company called the Crimson Guard, drawn there not because of a contract but by the promise of answers - answers that some believe should not be sought. Also heading north is an uneasy alliance of Malazan fortune-hunters and Letherii soldiers. Among them are the bard Fisher kel Tath and a Tiste Andii who cannot remember his past yet commands far more power than he really should. It is also rumoured that a warrior who wields a sword that slays gods is journeying to this land of ice.
But far to the south, a woman waits patiently. She is Silverfox, newly incarnate Summoner of the undying army of the T'lan Imass, and she will do anything to halt the renewal of an ages-old crusade that could lay waste to the entire continent . . . and beyond.
Casting light on the mysteries that span the Malazan Empire, and offering glimpses into the epic history that shaped it, Assail brings this empire's epic story to a thrilling close.
Return to the turbulent history of what would become the Malazan Empire... After the disappointments in Li Heng, Dancer and Kellanved wash up on a small insignificant island named Malaz. Immediately, of course, Kellanved plans to take it over.
To do so they join forces with a small band of Napans who have fled their home. However, Kellanved is soon distracted by a strange and dangerous ancient structure. Back in Li Heng, Dassem, now the proclaimed Sword of Hood, finds himself being blamed for a plague which leads him to a crisis of faith-and searching for answers.
During all this, the neighboring island of Nap threatens war and allies are beginning to wonder about Kellanved's sanity. Dancer now faces a hard choice: should he give up on his partnership? Especially when his friend's obsession with shadows and ancient artifacts brings the both of them alarmingly close to death and destruction.
After all, who in his right mind would actually wish to enter the Deadhouse?
How to be both is the dazzling new novel by Ali Smith. It is longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014. Passionate, compassionate, vitally inventive and scrupulously playful, Ali Smith's novels are like nothing else. How to be both is a novel all about art’s versatility. Borrowing from painting’s fresco technique to make an original literary double-take, it’s a fast-moving genre-bending conversation between forms, times, truths and fictions. There’s a Renaissance artist of the 1460s. There’s the child of a child of the 1960s. Two tales of love and injustice twist into a singular yarn where time gets timeless, structural gets playful, knowing gets mysterious, fictional gets real—and all life’s givens get given a second chance.
A NOTE TO THE READER:
Who says stories reach everybody in the same order?
This novel can be read in two ways, and the audiobook provides you with both. This audiobook begins with CAMERA, but you can choose to start the book at EYES by simply moving your progress bar to 04:07:19.
The audiobook is produced this way so that readers can randomly have different experiences reading the same text. So, depending on which part you select, the book will read: EYES, CAMERA, or CAMERA, EYES. (Your friend may be reading it the other way around.) Enjoy the adventure.
Vixens from the Void is back! Well, sort of. Actually, some devoted fans have got the licence to do some audios on CD featuring the original cast, and they've invited Mervyn Stone to write an episode. He's also been invited to solve a murder.
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Spring of the Ram by Dorothy Dunnett, read by John Banks.
In 1461, the mysterious enigmatic Nicholas is in Florence. Backed by none other than Cosimo de' Medici, he will sail the Black Sea to Trebizond, last outpost of Byzantium, and the last jewel missing from the crown of the Ottoman Empire. But trouble lies ahead. Nicholas's step-daughter - at the tender age of thirteen - has eloped with his rival in trade: a Machiavellian Genoese who races ahead of Nicholas, sowing disaster at every port. And time is of the essence: Trebizond may fall tot he Turks at any moment. Crackling with wit, breathtakingly paced, THE SPRING OF THE RAM is a pyro technic blend of scholarship and narrative shimmering with the scents, sounds, colors and combustible emotions of the 15th century.
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Gemini by Dorothy Dunnett, read by John Banks.
GEMINI represents the final appearance of Nicholas de Fleury, who opened this series as a carefree, clumsy 18 year old apprentice in Flanders. Now he is in his thirties. The culmination of this amazing series sees Niccolo face his toughest battle yet, against an enemy who will tax every skill he has acquired over the course of the last few years...
Random House presents the audiobook edition of Kellanved's Reach by Ian C. Esslemont, read by John Banks.
The incessant war between the bickering city states of Quon Tali rages. So engrossed are the warring lords and princes in their own petty feuds that few notice that an upstart mage from Dal Hon has gained control of the southern seas. But some powers are alarmed
And in the meantime, as Purge and Tali indulge in what seems like a their never-ending game of war, a mercenary caught up in the fight between the two states suddenly refuses to play along and causes all sorts of chaos. Simultaneously, a pair of escapees from Castle Gris make their way across this ravaged landscape of flame and butchery. Their intention to seek out the legendary Crimson Guard.
And then there's Kellanved who could not care less about any of this petty politicking or strategy or war. Something other and altogether more mysterious has caught his attention and he - together with a reluctant and decidedly sceptical Dancer - traverse continents and journey through the Realms in pursuit . . . But this ancient mystery that has so captivated Kellanved is neither esoteric nor ephemeral. No, it is of an altogether darker and more dangerous hue. It involves the Elder races themselves, and more specifically - certainly more alarmingly - the semi-mythic, and universally dreaded, Army of Dust and Bone.
Surely no one in their right mind would be so foolish as to embark on a journey from which none have returned? Well, no one except Kellanved that is . . .
Returning to the turbulent early history of what would become the Malazan Empire, here is the third awesome chapter in Ian C. Esslemont's new epic fantasy sequence.
The return of the Crimson Guard could not have come at a worse time for an empire exhausted by warfare and weakened by betrayals and rivalries.
Into the seething cauldron of Quon Tali - the Malazan Empire's heartland - they march, and with their return comes the memory of their vow: undying opposition to the Empire. But elements within the Guard's élite, the Avowed, have set their sights on far greater power, while other, more ancient entities are rising up, intent on furthering their own arcane ends. And what of the swordsman called Traveller who, with his companion Ereko, seeks a confrontation from which none have ever returned?
As the Guard prepare to wage war, the Empress Laseen's generals and mages grow impatient at what they perceive as her mismanagement of the Empire. Is she losing her grip on power or has she outwitted them all? Could she be using the uprisings to draw out and finally eliminate the last irksome survivors from the days of Kellanved, her illustrious predecessor?
