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The Blue Sword
- Narrated by: Diane Warren
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
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Publisher's summary
From the New York Times bestselling author of Sunshine is the Newberry Award–winning classic novel that has enthralled listeners for decades.
This is the story of Corlath, golden-eyed king of the Free Hillfolk, son of the sons of the Lady Aerin.
And this is the story of Harry Crewe, the Homelander orphan girl who became Harimand-sol, King’s Raider, and heir to the Blue Sword, Gonturan, that no woman had wielded since Lady Aerin herself bore it into battle. And this is the song of the kelar of the Hillfolk, the magic of the blood, the weaver of destinies …
Featured Article: The top 100 fantasy listens of all time
When compiling our list of the best fantasy listening out there, we immediately came up against the age-old question: Is this fantasy or science fiction? The distinction is not as clear as you may think. Dragons, elves, and wizards are definitely fantasy, but what about wizards that also fly space ships? (Looking at you, Star Wars.) For the sake of fantasy purity, the top 100 fantasy listens include the best audio works in all manner of fantasy subgenres.
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By: Robin McKinley
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The Outlaws of Sherwood
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Young Robin Longbow, subapprentice forester in the King's Forest of Nottingham, must contend with the dislike of the Chief Forester, who bullies Robin in memory of his popular father. But Robin does not want to leave Nottingham or lose the title to his father's small tenancy, because he is in love with a young lady named Marian - and keeps remembering that his mother too was gentry and married a common forester. Robin has been granted a rare holiday to go to the Nottingham Fair, where he will spend the day with his friends Much and Marian.
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A great story paired with the wrong narrator
- By Gail N. on 11-01-19
By: Robin McKinley
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Daughter of the Blood
- Black Jewels, Book 1
- By: Anne Bishop
- Narrated by: John Sharian
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Seven hundred years ago, a Black Widow witch saw an ancient prophecy come to life in her web of dreams and visions. Now, the Dark Kingdom readies itself for the arrival of its queen, a witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself. But she is still young, still open to influence - and corruption.
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A Walk on the Dark Side of Fantasy
- By Wrightaway on 06-07-10
By: Anne Bishop
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Spindle's End
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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All the creatures of the forest and field and riverbank knew the infant was special. She was the princess, spirited away from the evil fairy, Pernicia, on her name-day. But the curse was cast: Rosie was fated to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a poisoned sleep - a slumber from which no one would be able to rouse her....
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New title: Detailed lies.
- By Katie-Rose on 03-11-21
By: Robin McKinley
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Book of Night
- By: Holly Black
- Narrated by: Sara Amini
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Charlie Hall has never found a lock she couldn’t pick, a book she couldn’t steal, or a bad decision she wouldn’t make. She's spent half her life working for gloamists, magicians who manipulate shadows to peer into locked rooms, strangle people in their beds, or worse. Gloamists guard their secrets greedily, creating an underground economy of grimoires. And to rob their fellow magicians, they need Charlie Hall.
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Just what I was expecting, but maybe not for all
- By Ollie Oxyn Free on 05-11-22
By: Holly Black
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Alanna, The First Adventure
- Song of the Lioness, Book 1
- By: Tamora Pierce
- Narrated by: Trini Alvarado
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Alanna of Trebond is no ordinary girl: her dream is to become a knight. So she disguises herself as a boy and begins training at the palace of King Roald. Alanna quickly finds out that the road to knighthood is not an easy one, but her skills and stubborness help her become friends with Prince Jonathan and his followers. At the same time, Alanna makes an enemy of the prince's uncle, the overly charming Duke Roger.
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my favorite
- By Hallie on 08-19-04
By: Tamora Pierce
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Ruby Red
- Ruby Red Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Kerstin Gier, Anthea Bell - translator
- Narrated by: Marisa Calin
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Gwyneth Shepherd's sophisticated, beautiful cousin Charlotte has been prepared her entire life for traveling through time. But unexpectedly, it is Gwyneth who, in the middle of class, takes a sudden spin to a different era! Gwyneth must now unearth the mystery of why her mother would lie about her birth date to ward off suspicion about her ability, brush up on her history, and work with Gideon, the time traveler from a similarly gifted family that passes the gene through its male line, and whose presence becomes, in time, less insufferable and more essential.
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Where's the rest?
- By betsy on 11-26-11
By: Kerstin Gier, and others
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Sabriel
- By: Garth Nix
- Narrated by: Tim Curry
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since she was a tiny child, Sabriel has lived outside the walls of the Old Kingdom, away from the random power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who won't stay dead. But now her father, the Mage Abhorsen, is missing, and to find him Sabriel must cross back into that world.
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Enraptured
- By T. HICKS on 06-20-09
By: Garth Nix
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Senlin Ascends: Booktrack Edition
- By: Josiah Bancroft
- Narrated by: John Banks
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Booktrack Edition: The Tower of Babel is the greatest marvel in the world. Immense as a mountain, the ancient Tower holds unnumbered ringdoms, warring and peaceful, stacked one on the other like the layers of a cake. Soon after arriving for his honeymoon at the Tower, the mild-mannered headmaster of a small village school, Thomas Senlin, gets separated from his wife, Marya. Senlin is determined to find Marya, but to do so he'll have to navigate madhouses, ballrooms, and burlesque theaters. He must survive betrayal, assassins, and the illusions of the Tower.
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So Entertaining
- By Jamie on 12-11-21
By: Josiah Bancroft
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Water
- Tales of Elemental Spirits
- By: Robin McKinley, Peter Dickinson
- Narrated by: Bianca Amato
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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What magical beings inhabit Earth’s waters? Some are as almost-familiar as the mer-people; some as strange as the thing glimpsed only as a golden eye in a pool at the edge of the Great Desert Kalarsham, where the mad god Geljdreth rules; or the unknowable, immense Kraken, dark beyond the darkness of the deepest ocean, who will one day rise and rule the world. Here are seven tales from the remarkable storytellers Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson. Vividly imagined and written, they transform the simple element of water into something very powerful indeed.
By: Robin McKinley, and others
What listeners say about The Blue Sword
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Gentle Reader Jill
- 07-27-13
Groundbreaking, interestingly dated, & odd
In 1982, when this book was published, I loved it without reservations. It broke new ground mixing magic and alternate history, it had a capable, self-aware heroine, and it built an exotically evocative, engaging, and appealing world.
Thirty-one years later, listening to Diane Warren's excellent performance, I realized that all those things are still true--but there's more to it. Time has brought some disturbing threads and nuances to the surface of the story, as a whole body of other works grew up following in this one's footsteps, and as capable, self-aware heroines became normal instead of oddities. Noticing those disturbing threads adds richness and complexity that, if anything, reinforces simple enjoyment of the story.
To write this book with this heroine and this plot, McKinley had to fight her way out of confining cultural expectations and stereotypes. She succeeded amazingly well--but the lingering strands of those expectations and stereotypes still show. They certainly don't undermine the book's quality or the importance of what McKinley accomplished, but they do add a kind of fey light that casts odd shadows (rather like the heroine's dual vision in the story itself). The book, caught at the hinge of a literary turning point, is, honestly, rather odd.
In some ways, this is a book about possession. The main characters perform brave, unexpected, history-changing deeds--but usually when they perform them, their will and choice is compromised by being under the influence-compulsion-control of another force. In some ways, it's a book about abduction. The main character is kidnapped, and although McKinley carefully foreshadows and justifies the character's change of allegiance, there are still queasy echoes of the Stockholm syndrome in the shift of her loyalty and affection.
Ultimately, it's a tribute to McKinley's accomplishment that even today the book succeeds on its own terms despite the overtones that were invisible (though powerful) more than thirty years ago. One believes in the romance. One cheers the shift in allegiance. The possession is more enviable than creepy.
This isn't a simple book, but it's certainly an interesting, enjoyable, and worthwhile book to listen to.
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76 people found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 01-23-13
The BEST ever YA
This has been a favorite young adult novel for over 20 years! I'm so happy to have it on my iPod now! Yay me!! The story is still excellent and satisfies many levels of story telling - who doesn't like war horses, swords and kings, challenges, magic and legends. If you love grounded fantasy and horses and magic swords then this will be a sure win. The narrator has a nice voice, pleasant to the ear.
Enjoy.
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15 people found this helpful
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- Sonic the Hedgehog
- 04-10-18
Great book, wrong narrator
I have read the Blue Sword plenty of times in hard copy and have always loved it. I was disappointed after listening to it here, however. Diane Warren is a talented narrator, but she was very much the wrong choice. The book is full of action, adventure, and different accents. Ms. Warren read with similar cadence throughout, making a sword fight sound the same as a breakfast scene. I even fell asleep on the couch in the midst of a battle! There were also cultural and language differences in the book that did not come across at all during the narration. For example, the Damarian version of the protagonist’s name, “Hari,” sounds very different than what she calls herself in her own Homelander language, “Harry.” Without giving anything away, a very sweet moment between her and another character is completely lost because of the lack of this inflection. Once again, Diane Warren is a lovely narrator, just the wrong one for the part.
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13 people found this helpful
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- Kris
- 02-11-13
Now, Improved Audio Quality!
This has been one of my favorite books for a long time, so I was delighted to get it as an Audible book. However, when I first downloaded it, the recording quality was awful. I contacted Audible, and they fixed it! All I had to do was delete my copy and download again and now it works great. So, if you previously bought this book with the recording errors, try again now, I think you'll be as pleased as I am.
As for the story, it's the story of Harry Crewe. When her father dies, is sent overseas to the care of her brother whom she has not spent time with in years and to the household of a childless couple. In her new country, she is drawn to the native people and their ways without knowing why. She finds herself thrown into entirely unanticipated adventures with equally unexpected joys and struggles. If you like this book, you should also look into the Hero and the Crown, which is a related story.
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13 people found this helpful
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- Jessie
- 05-05-17
Great old story. Narration makes heroine seem dull
The Blue Sword was the fantasy novel of my childhood. It's one of those magical stories that just makes you sigh and wish you could be there. I accidentally ended up with two copies and wore through the covers on both of them from rereading them so often. Robin McKinley created such a vivid world in the Province of Daria/Damar.
That being said ...
Listening to the audiobook as an adult, I was disappointed to discover that Harry is not the plucky heroine of my memory. Rather she's a plucky woman who gets handed things on a silver platter and called a heroine for it. Everyone is just so gosh darn nice to her. The vivid descriptions of the desert and the lives of the Riders mask the fact that there's almost no conflict until the very end, which itself is abruptly resolved in a very impersonal manner.
This is compounded in the recording by a very slow-paced narration that doesn't do anything to capture Harry's temperamental nature. There are long pauses that make it a difficult audiobook to listen to.
I still love this book. However, I would recommend picking up a hard copy instead.
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11 people found this helpful
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- W
- 05-12-14
Works better for reading, not listening
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Recently, I've begun listening audio versions of favorite novels to help me with a long commute to/from my job. The Blue Sword is the novel I read and re-read the most in my teen years, so I was excited to see an audio book existed. I began listening to it with childlike glee, only to stop listening after a few chapters.
For most titles, I have found the audio book experience only increases my already profound love for whichever novel I'm listening to. The Blue Sword, however, does not translate well to audio book for me.
For one, the back-and-forth between character thoughts, back story, and narrator description that worked well on the page instead interrupt the listening experience so that I find myself having to consciously remind myself of what's going on. Add the back-and-forth with a vocal performance that slows down the pace of an already slowish beginning, I find I cannot make it past the first few chapters of the audiobook.
For this one, I'll return to the old dogeared pages.
What three words best describe Diane Warren’s voice?
Soft, slow, invariable
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10 people found this helpful
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- Janeite
- 08-22-13
Narrator drives me mad.
Unlike others who have a sentimental attachment to the book from having read it in the past, this was the first time I read or listened to The Blue Sword. After reading that it was published in 1982, I got some insight into why I am so unimpressed.
The story is slow and repetitious, yet abrupt in some ways. For example, there isn't much justification for the main character, who was drugged and kidnapped, to feel "safe" almost immediately with her abductors.
But the real problem is the excruciatingly slow pace of the narration. For the first time ever, I had to raise the speed on my player. Even at 2x, it was easy to keep up. Long pauses between sentences, listening to the reader draw breath, the slow enunciation and lack of expression made for an aggravating listen.
I am very disappointed in this audiobook, both from the story and the reader's presentation.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Jeanne
- 03-20-13
Great story, good narrator, poor recording quality
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
I loved the book and would think that anyone, YA or adult, who likes fantasy would enjoy it as well.
Which scene was your favorite?
I don't think I can select just one scene as a favorite; I liked the entire book.
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Blue Sword?
None.
Any additional comments?
I have hoped for an Audible recording of this book, but I was very disappointed (along with most of the other reviewers) with the quality of the recording (pops and skips, etc.); I persevered because I do love this book, and parts were of better quality. However, overall it was a disappointment because of that problem.
Should it be recorded again (and I have NO problem with the reader, as Diane Warren did a great job!!), I would be interested in listening to this again.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Laura Burgandy Ice
- 02-24-17
Dreamworthy
I love this story. McKinley admitted to some indulgence in this story and I see it. Harry's and Senay's hair fall past their wastes. Tsornin is a magnificent war-trained stallion who is incredibly well-behaved. Legends come to life at every turn and we see Damar for the first time. Who can read about Damar and not fall in love with the place. It's vibrant and gritty and more real than reality. This is McKinley's most indulgent story, I think. Her other books have more grit and terror, whereas this is all HEA.
The reader does a good job. Her voice doesn't fit with Harry, in my opinion, but it made me think the reader could've been a friend of McKinley's, or something. Definitely a storyteller sort of voice rather than the voice of adventure.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-22-16
it's because of this book that I started reading
this is one of the first books that I read cover to cover and found that it was an audible so I had to buy it I've listened to it 2 times and I love it
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