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An Awkward Commission
- John Pearce, Book 3
- Narrated by: Peter Wickham
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
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An Awkward Commission
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His application to William Pitt finds him sailing off with secret dispatches for Admiral Lord Hood. But when Captain Ralph Barclay puts the lives of his crew at risk in his vain search for glory, Pearce is obliged to embark on a dangerous mission before he can free his friends.
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- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 717
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 612
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 605
It is 1780, and 17-year-old Alan Lewrie is a brash, rebellious young libertine. So much so that his callous father believes a bit of naval discipline will turn the boy around. Fresh aboard the tall-masted Ariadne, Midshipman Lewrie heads for the war-torn Americas, finding - rather unexpectedly - that he is a born sailor, equally at home with the randy pleasures of the port and the raging battles on the high seas. But in a hail of cannonballs comes a bawdy surprise.
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5 out of 5 stars
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"Sex, Swords, Sailing Ships"
- By Andrew on 05-16-10
By: Dewey Lambdin
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Mutiny on the Bounty
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Michael Carman
- Length: 22 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 784
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 679
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Story5 out of 5 stars 675
The mutiny on HMS Bounty, in the South Pacific on 28 April 1789, is one of history's truly great stories - a tale of human drama, intrigue and adventure of the highest order - and in the hands of Peter FitzSimons it comes to life as never before. Commissioned by the Royal Navy to collect breadfruit plants from Tahiti and take them to the West Indies, the Bounty's crew found themselves in a tropical paradise. Five months later, they did not want to leave.
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5 out of 5 stars
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You don't know the whole story.
- By Justin Sluyter on 05-01-19
By: Peter FitzSimons
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Badge of Glory
- By: Douglas Reeman
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 27
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
It was an age of empire, an age of contrast, and an age of dramatic change - and one which would determine the destinies of nations as well as of men. Captain Philip Blackwood of the Royal Marines rejoins his ship, HMS Audacious, in August of 1850, anxious to get back into action. "Per Mare - Per Terram" is the marines' motto. In the torturous heat of Africa, where they are sent to stamp out the remaining strongholds of slavery, and later, in the bitter war of the Crimea, Philip Blackwood and his men learn to obey it without question.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good story
- By Thomas Crawford on 05-29-23
By: Douglas Reeman
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The House of the Four Winds
- One Dozen Daughters, Book 1
- By: Mercedes Lackey, James Mallory
- Narrated by: Emily Sutton-Smith
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 356
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 317
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Story4 out of 5 stars 318
The rulers of tiny, impoverished Swansgaard have twelve daughters and one son. While the prince’s future is assured, his twelve sisters must find their own fortunes. Disguising herself as Clarence, Princess Clarice intends to sail to the New World. When the crew rebels, Clarice/Clarence, an expert with rapier and dagger, sides with the handsome navigator, Dominick, and kills the cruel captain. Dominick leads the now - outlawed crew in search of treasure in the secret pirate haven known as The House of the Four Winds.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Solid story, but this one is popcorn
- By Phillip on 09-19-14
By: Mercedes Lackey, and others
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A Beautiful Blue Death
- Charles Lenox Mysteries Series #1
- By: Charles Finch
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,253
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,109
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,108
Charles Lenox, Victorian gentleman and armchair explorer, likes nothing more than to relax in his private study with a cup of tea, a roaring fire and a good book. But when his lifelong friend Lady Jane asks for his help, Lenox cannot resist the chance to unravel a mystery. Prudence Smith, one of Jane's former servants, is dead of an apparent suicide. But Lenox suspects something far more sinister: murder, by a rare and deadly poison.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I like cozy
- By Sheryl on 05-21-12
By: Charles Finch
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The Bright and Breaking Sea
- Kit Brightling Series, Book 1
- By: Chloe Neill
- Narrated by: Danielle Cohen
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 51
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 51
Kit Brightling, rescued as a foundling and raised in a home for talented girls, has worked hard to rise through the ranks of the Isles' Crown Command and become one of the few female captains in Queen Charlotte's fleet. Her ship is small, but she's fast - in part because of Kit's magical affinity to the sea. But the waters become perilous when the queen sends Kit on a special mission with a partner she never asked for. Rian Grant, Viscount Queenscliffe, may be a veteran of the Continental war, but Kit doesn't know him or his motives....
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4 out of 5 stars
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It's really good, but not quite great
- By Mariya Joldzic on 11-29-20
By: Chloe Neill
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John Paul Jones
- Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy
- By: Evan Thomas
- Narrated by: Dan Cashman
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 196
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 123
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 123
John Paul Jones is more than a great sea story. Jones is a character for the ages. John Adams called him the "most ambitious and intriguing officer in the American Navy." The renewed interest in the Founding Fathers reminds us of the great men who made this country, but John Paul Jones teaches us that it took fighters as well as thinkers, men driven by dreams of personal glory as well as high-minded principle to break free of the past and start a new world. Jones' spirit was classically American.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Swashbuckler or Saviour
- By Bruce on 03-16-04
By: Evan Thomas
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Burning Bright
- Extraordinaries Series, Book 1
- By: Melissa McShane
- Narrated by: Cat Gould
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 220
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 197
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 194
Elinor is an Extraordinary and the only one in England capable of wielding fire in over 100 years. As an Extraordinary she is respected and feared, but to her father she represents power and prestige for himself. Mr. Pembroke, having spent his life studying magic, is determined to control Elinor and her talent by forcing her to marry whom he chooses, a marriage that will produce even more powerful offspring.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing story and narration!
- By sweetliks on 07-06-17
By: Melissa McShane
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His Majesty's Dragon
- Temeraire, Book 1
- By: Naomi Novik
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,737
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,693
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,693
When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo - an unhatched dragon egg - fate sweeps Captain Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent AU period fantasy
- By Melanie on 07-08-10
By: Naomi Novik
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Quillifer
- Quillifer, Book 1
- By: Walter Jon Williams
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 160
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 148
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 147
Quillifer is young, serially in love, studying law, and living each day keenly aware that his beloved homeport of Ethlebight risks closure due to silting of the harbor. His concerns for the future become much more immediate when he returns from a summery assignation to find his city attacked by Aekoi pirates, leading to brigands in the streets and his family and friends in chains.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The opposite of George R R Martin (in a good way)
- By A reader on 10-30-17
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Becoming Lady Lockwood
- By: Jennifer Moore
- Narrated by: Luone Ingram
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 240
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 220
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 219
Amelia Beckett is delighted to be a widow. Married by proxy to a man she'd never met, Amelia recognizes that a fortuitous entry into widowhood frees her from meddlesome chaperones and matchmakers. Heiress to her mother's sugar plantation in Jamaica, she happily anticipates working in a man's world, with the additional credibility of her new title: Lady Lockwood. But with the arrival of Captain Sir William Drake, her plans quickly go awry...William has traversed the Atlantic with one purpose.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I loved this book!!!
- By Amazon Customer on 05-19-18
By: Jennifer Moore
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Bloody Jack
- By: L. A. Meyer
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,433
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,743
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,746
Life as a ship's boy aboard HMS Dolphin is a dream come true for Jacky Faber. Gone are the days of scavenging for food and fighting for survival on the streets of 18th-century London. Instead, Jacky is becoming a skilled and respected sailor as the crew pursues pirates on the high seas. There's only one problem: Jacky is a girl. And she will have to use every bit of her spirit, wit, and courage to keep the crew from discovering her secret.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Sometimes it clicks
- By Terry on 12-09-09
By: L. A. Meyer
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Treasure Island
- By: Robert Louis Stevenson
- Narrated by: David Ian Davies
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 45
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 22
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 21
The excitement, adventure, and magical sense of time and place, outraying from the heart of Robert Louis Stevenson's 18th-century pirate tale, is captured in all its glory by actor David Ian Davies in this new One Voice Recordings release. Be swept away by the story of young Jim Hawkins, caught up in his journey to the Caribbean islands upon a ship with a memorable and explosive crew, and led by the cryptic map from a Dead Man's Chest.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Predictable, but enjoyable
- By Alden on 11-28-07
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Batavia
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Richard Aspel
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 515
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 452
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 451
The story begins in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia, is on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave Holland. The magnificent ship is already boiling over with a mutinous plot that is just about to break into the open when, just off the coast of Western Australia, it strikes an unseen reef in the middle of the night. While Commandeur Francisco Pelsaert decides to take the longboat across 2,000 miles of open sea for help, his second-in-command Jeronimus Cornelisz takes over....
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4 out of 5 stars
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Disaster, Mutiny, Murder, Survival
- By Todd on 02-07-13
By: Peter FitzSimons
What listeners say about An Awkward Commission
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Kevin
- 12-17-13
Didn't want the book to end.
Would you listen to An Awkward Commission again? Why?
I have listened to a lot of sailing books and this series ranks right up with the Hornblower series.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- James Wagner
- 11-02-15
Peter Wickham makes it
the performance by Peter Wickham is great.
the story is little much about the other captain
and slow to start. The main character is little to full of himself and at times just stupid.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Bruce
- 05-08-22
Good tale.
A good fictional tale. And a fish tale it is. Having myself served in the military, John Pierce would have spent his entire Naval career and years afterward in the brig. Insubordination is not acceptable.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Jean
- 12-21-14
Engaging
This is book three in the 1790 naval series of John Pearce. In book one John Pearce and friend were illegally caught by a press gang in London at a Pub called the Pelican. So the group called themselves the Pelican from there on. The Napoleonic war has started and Britain’s navy is short of men. At the end of book two, Pearce is separated from his friends and made a Lieutenant by the King.
In this book he is hunting for his friends on the HMS Leander commanded by a flogging captain. The HMS Brilliant captained by Ralph Barclay has been send to the Mediterranean. Pearce is sent to the Mediterranean to be an 8th lieutenant on HMS Victory the flag ship of Admiral Lord Hood. The action moves to the port of Toulon, the tension between crews and Captains intensifies coming to a brilliant head when HMS Leander is detached from the fleet under orders of Captain Horatio Nelson bound for North Africa.
The book is well written and has some exciting sea battles. The author obviously knows his history and the book is well researched. The story is complex and at times filled with power plays, plots twist and suspense. My only complaint is the author leaves too many unresolved threads to carry forward to the next book.
For anyone who is enthusiastic about seafaring stories as I am will enjoy the book. Peter Wickham does a good job narrating the story.
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6 people found this helpful