The Rook

A Novel

By: Daniel O'Malley

Narrated by: Susan Duerden

Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

Myfanwy Thomas awakes in a London park surrounded by dead bodies. With her memory gone, her only hope of survival is to trust the instructions left in her pocket by her former self. She quickly learns that she is a Rook, a high-level operative in a secret agency that protects the world from supernatural threats. But there is a mole inside the organization - and this person wants her dead.

As Myfanwy battles to save herself, she encounters a person with four bodies, a woman who can enter her dreams, children transformed into deadly fighters, and an unimaginably vast conspiracy.

Suspenseful and hilarious, The Rookis an outrageously inventive debut for listeners who like their espionage with a dollop of purple slime.

©2012 Daniel O'Malley (P)2012 Hachette

Quite Enjoyable and Imaginative

This was a pretty great book! A main character that was witty without being annoying! A good pace and light narrative style! An interesting and pretty original story! Creative supernatural elements! A narrator that can pronounce all those foreign words like a champ (even if her American accent wasn’t flawless)!

I only have a few minor problems. One is that the author likes pale skin, blond hair and blue eyes rather too much. Don’t get me wrong, he was very careful to have a diverse group of characters (though the main characters were pretty white). Also, more women would be nice, though he did a pretty good job of writing female characters. My other problem is that there were just too many characters. The climax was kind of ruined for me because I couldn’t keep everyone’s names straight and had no clue who was doing what. I think if I was reading the paper version of the book it would have been okay since I could flip back and remind myself who people are, but that’s kind of hard to do digitally.

All in all, I had a great time, and I’ve already recommended it to a friend!

Delightful!

This book has been a wonderful listening experience. From the opening paragraph it grabbed me, and entertained me, made me giggle. I appreciate Daniel's imagination. I love this book and can't wait to hear the next in line.

Excellent

This was one of the best books I have listened to. I was looking for something light. This was not exactly light, but it had a lot of funny parts and was very well written. I was engrossed from the beginning as it started with a bang and kept my attention through the whole book. I was very pleased.

great book made better by a wonderful reader

The Rook is one of my favorite books mixing intrigue, science fiction, and mystery, with a touch of comic book super hero. The story pulls you in and keeps you wanting more. The reader enhances the experience with a wonderful variety of voices bringing each character to life.

The Rook

Excellent,unusual book!I loved it!Susan Duerden was a fine narrator.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.' 

Perfect

Narration is top shelf and story is wonderful. Can't wait for Stiletto! Great series, love it!

SO GOOD

It's more funny than you'd expect.

Also, I'd have to disagree with what seems to be everyone. I loved the performance. It was light and conveyed the startling cleverness and humor of the scenes.

great book, robotic narration

I'm disappointed in the audio. It sounds like a Google assistant (or siri) doing the dictation. I feel as though the character dialogue is the only "color" with verbal inflection through the entire book.

I keep on listening to it

I love the characters so much. The male voices a bit too similar to differentiate.

Great read

This is one of my favorite Audible books. Suspenseful, creative, and expertly read. There are a lot of characters, so I recommend downloading a list for reference.