• Kingdom of Fear

  • Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
  • By: Hunter S. Thompson
  • Narrated by: Scott Sowers
  • Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (209 ratings)

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Kingdom of Fear  By  cover art

Kingdom of Fear

By: Hunter S. Thompson
Narrated by: Scott Sowers
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Publisher's summary

Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson penned groundbreaking works as outrageous - and provocative - as the author himself. His memoir Kingdom of Fear provides compelling insight into his life and literary output.

©2003 Hunter S. Thompson (P)2012 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

“He amuses; he frightens; he flirts with doom. His achievement is substantial.” ( Washington Post)

What listeners say about Kingdom of Fear

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Sowers ruins Thompson

What did you love best about Kingdom of Fear?

The writing

Would you be willing to try another one of Scott Sowers’s performances?

I don't want to. I want Phil Gigante.

Any additional comments?

Please get Phil Gigante from the rolling stone book to do all of the Thompson books, he is perfect. I will buy them all.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Only for the most hardcore fans of HST.

"Kingdom of Fear" is essentially a collection of articles and essays by Hunter S. Thompson, chronicling his well-documented problems with authority starting at a very young age.

In the preface, HST gives some thoughts on the immediate post September 11th world, which are revelant even today (a dangerous, long lasting "anti-terrorist" security apparatus, for example).

"Kingdom" goes on to Hunter's early run-ins with the law in Louisville, his rise in the journalistic scene and the "Freak Power" campaign for Sheriff of Aspen that Thompson ran; Hunter being falsely accused of sexual assault by pornstar Gail Palmer; his hilarious guerilla war aganist a nouveau riche businessman who decides to set up his massive estate in Woody Creek, and of course, "Fear and Loathing in Elko" which poses the question "what if Clarence Thomas was really more depraved than previously thought?"

To conclude this is a decent compilation, but I would suggest "Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone" (also available on audible) first and foremost. That compilation includes some overlap with this one (such as "Fear and Loathing in Elko") but has far more content.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Ugh

How do you ruin a Thompson book? Read it like you think your a total badass. Few voices make me physically cringe when I hear them, but this reading of, admittedlyThompson’s weakest work, is painful. Sowers reads this book like it’s a manifesto a 1980’s action movie villain. Rather then the musings of an light hearted and irresponsible genius.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Love HST

I love HST. He was a man's man. Give me a GD gun, a line of blow, a tape record for playback and a friend to laugh with about it all. That's Hunter. However the nar. came along for the ride as well, and that's where this beast took a flying leap straight into the path of the barreling locomotive name HST. The end result was a F..ing mess. What a bummer.... Can we get a good nar. ?

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

We need a HST of this generation

I mean what is there to say, if you're reading this you already realize the impact HST made. Well, we seem to be back to square one. We lost! Now , the great USA is not a high-school small city football rivalry. Like more wacko people seem to buy into. You are not either a conservative or a liberal. So stop it. Your both in most cases, or maybe neither. Still if your an American, HST will help you to stop drinking that awful drink everyone keeps feeding you- bring you back into the fold of reality that we are not one of two sides but a massive area of gray rooting both teams in some shape. He called it back in the 2000's and wisdom can't be taught. Perhaps you will get there a bit quicker however, if you listen to real fuc**ng journalism and change your homeroom ra-ra channel off for a couple days.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic

What a ride! Great book and narration was done well. On to the next HST book!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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gonzopapers vol 4?

the trial of aspen is good the fack nicolsonstort is okaythe clarence rhomas story is a repeat the grenada story was pk

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride!

“There is no shortage of dangerous gibberish in the classrooms and courts of this nation. Weird myths and queer legends are coins of the realm in our culture, like passwords or keys to survival. Not even a monster with rabies would send his child off to school with a heart full of hate for Santa Claus or Jesus or the Tooth Fairy. That would not be fair to the child. He (or she) would be shunned & despised like a Leper by his classmates & even his teachers, and he will not come home with good report cards. He will soon turn to wearing black raincoats & making ominous jokes about Pipe Bombs.

Weird behavior is natural in smart children, just as curiosity is to a kitten. I was no stranger to it myself, as a youth growing up in Kentucky. I had a keen appetite for adventure, which soon led me into a maze of complex behavioral experiments that my parents found hard to explain. I was a popular boy, with acceptable grades & a vaguely promising future, but I was cursed with a dark sense of humor that made many adults afraid of me, for reasons they couldn’t quite put their fingers on. . . .”

Enough said.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Still my favorite book of all time

I remember reading this book for the very first time around 2003 and nothing has ever matched it or even come close. His writing style is so intense and gripping like a crocodile taking you down for a death roll but laughing your ass off the whole time with a huge smile on your face while simultaneously realizing the grave threats that the former century (the American century) has festered and left in place for us to try to survive with. Rest in supreme power and the beautifully rarest weirdness Hunter S Thompson

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Awesome!!

This requires a minimum of ten plus five words but the main phrase is Awesome!!

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