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Titus Groan
- Volume 1 of the Gormenghast Trilogy
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins
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Publisher's summary
In this first volume, the Gormenghast Castle, and the noble family who inhabits it, are introduced, along with the infant firstborn son of the Lord and Countess. Titus Groan is sent away to be raised by a wet nurse, with only a gold ring from his mother, and ordered to not be brought back until the age of six. By his christening, he learns from his much older sisters that epileptic fits are "common at his age." He also learns that they don't like his mother. And then, he is crowned, and called, "Child-inheritor of the rivers, of the Tower of Flints and the dark recesses beneath cold stairways and the sunny summer lawns. Child-inheritor of the spring breeze that blow in from the jarl forests and of the autumn misery in petal, scale, and wing. Winter's white brilliance on a thousand turrets and summer's torpor among walls that crumble..."
In these extraordinary novels, Peake has created a world where all is like a dream - lush, fantastical, vivid; a symbol of dark struggle.
Critic reviews
"[Peake's books] are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception of the range of possible experience." (C.S. Lewis)
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The Shadow of the Torturer
- The Book of the New Sun, Book 1
- By: Gene Wolfe
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The Shadow of the Torturer is the first volume in the four-volume epic, the tale of a young Severian, an apprentice to the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession - showing mercy towards his victim.
Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun" is one of speculative fiction's most-honored series. In a 1998 poll, Locus Magazine rated the series behind only "The Lord of the Rings" and The Hobbit as the greatest fantasy work of all time.
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great writing, won't appeal to everyone
- By Ryan on 03-20-10
By: Gene Wolfe
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Dreamsnake
- By: Vonda N. McIntyre
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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When the healer Snake was summoned, she traveled the blasted landscape with her three serpents. From the venom of two of them, she distilled her medicines. But most valued of all was the alien dreamsnake, whose bite could ease the fear and pain of death.
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Sets the Mark for Fantasy Excellence
- By 'houla on 03-15-15
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Viriconium
- By: M. John Harrison
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 19 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Available to the American audience for the first time, this landmark collection gathers four groundbreaking fantasy classics from the acclaimed author of Light. Set in the imagined city of Viriconium, here are the masterworks that revolutionized a genre and enthralled a generation: The Pastel City, A Storm of Wings, In Viriconium, and Viriconium Nights. Back after a long absence, these singular tales of a timeless realm and its enigmatic inhabitants are now reborn and compiled to captivate a whole new generation.
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great and descriptive e
- By Michael Rose on 02-18-24
By: M. John Harrison
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Volume I: The King of the Elves
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 20 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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The King of the Elves is the opening installment of a uniform, five-volume edition of The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, expanded from the previous Collected Stories set to incorporate new story notes, and two added tales, one previously unpublished, and one uncollected.
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Fantastic stories!
- By Renee Tang on 04-18-17
By: Philip K. Dick
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Tigana
- By: Guy Gavriel Kay
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 24 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Eight of the nine Palm provinces of the Peninsula have been overcome by warrior sorcerers Brandin and Alberico. But the sorcerers don't know that a small band of survivors is plotting their removal. With tensions mounting, the sorcerers become increasingly at odds as each decides where his own path - and that of the land - should truly lie.
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A little self-indulgent
- By Diana M. on 05-31-20
By: Guy Gavriel Kay
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Lord Foul’s Bane
- The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Book 1
- By: Stephen R. Donaldson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 19 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Thomas Covenant is a leper, a bitter and solitary pariah who is mystically transported to another Earth where time moves differently than ours, one in which magic takes many forms. The Land is threatened by many evils, the most immediate of which is a maddened Cavewight whose subterranean excavations have unearthed the ancient and puissant Staff of Law. More dangerous to the free people of the Land is the Gray Slayer, Lord Foul, the Despiser, who intends to destroy the actual foundations of the Earth that he might wage war against the universe’s creator.
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The most underrated saga of our time
- By Matthew D. Bixby on 09-02-20
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Mordew
- By: Alex Pheby
- Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
- Length: 18 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In the slums of the sea-battered city, a young boy called Nathan Treeves lives with his parents, eking out a meagre existence by picking treasures from the Living Mud and the half-formed, short-lived creatures it spawns. Until one day his desperate mother sells him to the mysterious Master of Mordew.
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Next level creepy fantasy with spectacular narration!
- By Casey on 10-29-22
By: Alex Pheby
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Elric of Melniboné
- Volume 1: Elric of Melnibone, The Fortress of the Pearl, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and The Weird of the White Wolf
- By: Michael Moorcock, Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 24 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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When Michael Moorcock began chronicling the adventures of the albino sorcerer Elric, last king of decadent Melniboné, and his sentient vampiric sword, Stormbringer, he set out to create a new kind of fantasy adventure, one that broke with tradition and reflected a more up-to-date sophistication of theme and style. The result was a bold and unique hero: a rock-and-roll antihero who would channel all the violent excesses of the '60s into one enduring archetype.
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Skip the first chapter, it's not Moorcock.
- By Ted C. on 02-17-22
By: Michael Moorcock, and others
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The Worm Ouroboros
- By: E. R. Eddison
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 20 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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E.R. Edison’s The Worm Ouroboros inspired the epic-fantasy that followed him. This production is of the first edition (1922). The Lords of Demonland are celebrating Lord Juss’s birthday when an envoy arrives from Witchland. He brings demands from King Gorice XI of Witchland that the Lords of Demonland “kiss his toe, and acknowledge him to be their King and they, his ill-conditioned, disobedient children”. The Lords of Demonland reject this utterly and, to settle the matter, they challenge King Gorice to a wrestling match against their champion, Lord Goldry Bluszco.
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Heavy in language but light in heart
- By LITRPG Audiobook Reviews on 05-05-18
By: E. R. Eddison
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Perdido Street Station
- By: China Mieville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the center of the world. Humans and mutants and arcane races brood in the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the river is sluggish with unnatural effluent and foundries pound into the night. For a thousand years, the Parliament and its brutal militias have ruled over a vast economy of workers and artists, spies and soldiers, magicians, crooks, and junkies. Now a stranger has arrived, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand. And something unthinkable is released.
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Brilliant, wonderful book -- horrible recording
- By James on 08-19-09
By: China Mieville
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The Fountains of Paradise
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Vannemar Morgan's dream is to link Earth to the stars with the greatest engineering feat of all time: a 24,000-mile-high space elevator. But first he must solve a million technical, political, and economic problems while allaying the wrath of God. For the only possible site on the planet for Morgans Orbital Tower is the monastery atop the Sacred Mountain of Sri Kanda.
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Hard
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-30-11
By: Arthur C. Clarke
What listeners say about Titus Groan
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- baffle 239
- 08-04-21
It's a classic
This book, to me, is a classic; a work of genius. I read the whole trilogy in my college years and decided to listen to Vol 1 a few months ago. It made an impression on me the first time and I was not disappointed this time. The contrast between the grimness of the world that Mervyn Peake has created and the lushness of the imagery and language with which he describes it make it unique. The denizens of this weird world have the most wonderful names. How can you not revel in characters whose names are Flay, Steerpike, Prunesquallor, and Swelter? Not to mention Groan. Simon Vance enhances the experience by bringing both the characters and the text to vibrant life. Ordinarily a world so ugly, claustrophobic, and grim would not be my cup of tea, but yet again I found it irresistible.
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1 person found this helpful
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- gabry79
- 10-20-16
One of the best performances I have heard
Simon Vance did an excellent job. This is not an easy book to read yet his voice, his pace, his tone made it justice. It is mesmerizing, both the story and the narration are excellent.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Pie
- 12-30-08
Very very :)
VERY slow in the start and along the way. It takes four hours to properly introduce everyone in the castle. BUT, if you're not in a hurry AND you like the unusual: this is one of those. Very well written, very thickly textured, very strange characters... and very surreal. A slow paced dip into a dream (world). A medieval circus of royal sorts. Nice.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Vincent
- 05-25-17
The best English you ever heard or read.
What made the experience of listening to Titus Groan the most enjoyable?
The wordsmithing of Mervyn Peak can turn a fly dying in a jar into literary art.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Fuschia - She is the most normal.
Which character – as performed by Simon Vance – was your favorite?
Dr. Prunesqaullor. Simon Vance makes him both frustrating and endearing.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Sure.
Any additional comments?
The single best guide on how to write.
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- tas237
- 02-15-18
Beautifully written & performed.
I don’t know if there’s a better wordsmith in the fantasy genre than Peake. Just the way things are worded in this novel can leave you spellbound.
Not a lot happens in the story, but it is still engaging. The performance is also top notch.
Well worth a listen!
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- Book Reader
- 05-18-23
Story plus it’s narrator
Absolutely fantastic! The best of the best.
Read with authority and complete understanding of the authors words.
Both book and narrator must not be missed.
Thanks to M Peake for this wonderful story and thanks to Simon Vance for the pleasure given with his voice as he narrates.
Barbara
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Overall
- James V Wallis
- 01-03-06
Superb
I read the Gormenghast triology about a year ago and was delighted to find it in unabridged format on Audible.
The narrator, Robert Whitfield, is one of the best I've heard on Audible (excellent in Don Quixote). If you are a Mervyn Peake fan, you won't find a better download than this.
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5 people found this helpful
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- David S. Mathew
- 12-08-17
Welcome to Gormenghast
I’d often heard Mervyn Peake compared to J. R. R. Tolkien and his Gormenghast Trilogy compared to Lord of the Rings. That comparison works in that both are elaborate fantasy epics written with stunningly beautiful prose. However, that’s really where the comparisons end. Mr. Peake’s story is far more melancholic than anything found in Middle Earth, his outlook on life far more myopic, and his characters far stranger despite all being completely human.
Essentially, this is the story of Gormenghast Castle, a huge gothic labyrinth making up its own cloistered world, and the lives of its inhabitants. I won’t bother describing the plot further than that, because this is more the sort of story you have to experience for yourself. Suffice it to say, I couldn’t put it down.
Also, Simon Vance is absolutely perfect for this novel. Vance already earned his place as one of my favorite narrators from other fantasy books on Audible, but here in particular his voice illuminates Peake’s gorgeous prose. What more can I say? Beyond highly recommended!
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- Doreen Alessi
- 05-24-18
The absurd can be amusing, but...
Wildly descriptive language, but uniformly absurd to the point of monotony. The characters aren’t very likable; I don’t think the author liked these characters very much. I wanted to like the story, but I found it rather tedious. Narrator does a great job.
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- Daniel W. Leahey
- 10-23-19
A Brand New Sound
TItus Groan is exquisitely written. Its language is rich and thorough, hovering over the smallest detail or action until it has been rendered as a perfect image in the mind. The characters are vivid, with each person's name perfectly capturing both their role in the endlessly sprawling and decrepit castle of Gormenghast but also in the story. Swelter. Flay. Steerpike. Prunesquallor. They all speak in circles, in riddles, in labyrinths that match the senselessly wending halls of the castle in which they are trapped. They have become so indentured to their daily ceremony that they can no longer relate to other people. Beyond the walls the girl Keda tries to find and understand love for all things, but even outside of Gormenghast there are deadly mazes. This is an absolute classic and I can't wait to continue the series.
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