Meet Simon Vance

Vance’s performances have a pied piper quality, able to keep the listener
enthralled over the long haul, no matter the type of story.
Top Performances
Greatest Hits
-
Dune
- By: Frank Herbert
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Orlagh Cassidy, Euan Morton, and others
- Length: 21 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Maud'dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.
-
-
This classic deserves better
- By Matthew Salvo on 07-01-21
-
Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories
- A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition
- By: Agatha Christie
- Narrated by: David Suchet, Hugh Fraser, Nigel Hawthorne, and others
- Length: 35 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The dapper, mustache-twirling little Belgian with the egg-shaped head and curious mannerisms has solved some of the most puzzling crimes of the century - and, in his own humble opinion, is "probably the greatest detective in the world". In this complete collection of more than 50 stories, ranging from short tales to novellas, Poirot faces violent murders, poisonings, kidnappings, and thefts - all solved with his characteristic panache. Only Agatha Christie could have devised cases worthy of Hercule Poirot's skill and "little gray cells".
-
-
Excellent! (List of Narrators)
- By Margaret C. on 02-25-22
-
By Any Other Name
- A Novel
- By: Jodi Picoult
- Narrated by: Billie Fulford-Brown, Laura Benanti, Jodi Picoult, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.
-
-
Shakespeare’s wealth of works penned by a female
- By Brendolynne on 08-27-24
-
The Girl with Ice in Her Veins
- A Lisbeth Salander Novel (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Series, Book 8)
- By: Karin Smirnoff
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sweden’s far north is growing colder; even in springtime, the town of Gasskas is buried under a relentless snow. As temperatures drop, tensions rise between a global corporation shamelessly exploiting the area's natural resources and wary locals who have scores to settle. A bomb blasts apart a crucial bridge. Soon after, a young journalist is found murdered. Meanwhile, Lisbeth is at home in Stockholm, looking to fill the void her last lover left behind. When she discovers that fellow hacker Plague has been kidnapped and taken up North, she has no choice but to return to Gasskas.
-
Dune
- By: Frank Herbert
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Orlagh Cassidy, Euan Morton, and others
- Length: 21 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Maud'dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.
-
-
This classic deserves better
- By Matthew Salvo on 07-01-21
-
Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories
- A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition
- By: Agatha Christie
- Narrated by: David Suchet, Hugh Fraser, Nigel Hawthorne, and others
- Length: 35 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The dapper, mustache-twirling little Belgian with the egg-shaped head and curious mannerisms has solved some of the most puzzling crimes of the century - and, in his own humble opinion, is "probably the greatest detective in the world". In this complete collection of more than 50 stories, ranging from short tales to novellas, Poirot faces violent murders, poisonings, kidnappings, and thefts - all solved with his characteristic panache. Only Agatha Christie could have devised cases worthy of Hercule Poirot's skill and "little gray cells".
-
-
Excellent! (List of Narrators)
- By Margaret C. on 02-25-22
-
By Any Other Name
- A Novel
- By: Jodi Picoult
- Narrated by: Billie Fulford-Brown, Laura Benanti, Jodi Picoult, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.
-
-
Shakespeare’s wealth of works penned by a female
- By Brendolynne on 08-27-24
-
The Girl with Ice in Her Veins
- A Lisbeth Salander Novel (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Series, Book 8)
- By: Karin Smirnoff
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sweden’s far north is growing colder; even in springtime, the town of Gasskas is buried under a relentless snow. As temperatures drop, tensions rise between a global corporation shamelessly exploiting the area's natural resources and wary locals who have scores to settle. A bomb blasts apart a crucial bridge. Soon after, a young journalist is found murdered. Meanwhile, Lisbeth is at home in Stockholm, looking to fill the void her last lover left behind. When she discovers that fellow hacker Plague has been kidnapped and taken up North, she has no choice but to return to Gasskas.
-
Dune Messiah
- By: Frank Herbert
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Katherine Kellgren, Euan Morton, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The second Dune installment explores new developments on the planet Arrakis, with its intricate social order and strange, threatening environment. Dune Messiah picks up the story of the man known as Muad'Dib, heir to a power unimaginable, bringing to fruition an ambition of unparalleled scale: the centuries-old scheme to create a superbeing who reigns not in the heavens but among men. But the question is: DO all paths of glory lead to the grave?
-
-
Good-not-great book, not as fond of the narration
- By Joel D Offenberg on 11-13-09
-
North Woods
- A Novel
- By: Daniel Mason
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall, Michael Crouch, Jason Culp, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When two young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become the home of an extraordinary succession of human and nonhuman characters alike. An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to growing apples. A pair of spinster twins navigate war and famine, envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths an ancient mass grave—only to discover that the earth refuse to give up their secrets.
-
-
An American Masterpiece
- By Psumissyh on 09-21-23
-
Chapterhouse Dune
- By: Frank Herbert
- Narrated by: Euan Morton, Katherine Kellgren, Scott Brick, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The desert planet Arrakis, called Dune, has been destroyed. Now, the Bene Gesserit, heirs to Dune's power, have colonized a green world—and are tuning it into a desert, mile by scorched mile. Chapterhouse Dune is the last book Frank Herbert wrote before his death: A stunning climax to the epic Dune legend that will live on forever.
-
-
Great Story! Horrible way to compile a narration.
- By Chris Carl on 05-23-14
-
Heretics of Dune
- Dune Chronicles, Book 5
- By: Frank Herbert
- Narrated by: Simon Vance, Scott Brick
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Arrakis, now called Rakis, known to legend as Dune, 10 times 10 centuries have passed. The planet is becoming desert again. The Lost Ones are returning home from the far reaches of space. The great sandworms are dying, and the Bene Gesserit and the Bene Tleilax struggle to direct the future of Dune. The children of Dune's children awaken as from a dream, wielding the new power of a heresy called love.
-
-
Mixed Feelings
- By John on 12-11-08
-
Children of Dune
- By: Frank Herbert
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Simon Vance
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The sand-blasted world of Arrakis has become green, watered, and fertile. Old Paul Atreides, who led the desert Fremen to political and religious domination of the galaxy, is gone. But for the children of Dune, the very blossoming of their land contains the seeds of its own destruction. The altered climate is destroying the giant sandworms, and this in turn is disastrous for the planet's economy.
-
-
great story, more production problems
- By Ziya on 04-22-08
-
The Complete Sherlock Holmes
- The Heirloom Collection
- By: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 58 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tales are rightly ranked among the seminal works of mystery and detective fiction. Included in this collection are all four full-length Holmes novels and more than forty short masterpieces - from the inaugural adventure A Study in Scarlet to timeless favorites like “The Speckled Band” and more. At the center of each stands the iconic figure of Holmes - brilliant, eccentric, and capable of amazing feats of deductive reasoning.
-
-
A Table of Contents & Audible Part/Chapter Notes
- By SantaFePainter on 11-18-13
-
Dracula [Audible Edition]
- By: Bram Stoker
- Narrated by: Alan Cumming, Tim Curry, Simon Vance, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The modern audience hasn't had a chance to truly appreciate the unknowing dread that readers would have felt when reading Bram Stoker's original 1897 manuscript. Most modern productions employ campiness or sound effects to try to bring back that gothic tension, but we've tried something different. By returning to Stoker's original storytelling structure - a series of letters and journal entries voiced by Jonathan Harker, Dr. Van Helsing, and other characters - with an all-star cast of narrators, we've sought to recapture its originally intended horror and power.
-
-
IS THAT NOT SO?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-05-15
-
A Slowly Dying Cause
- A Lynley Novel
- By: Elizabeth George
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 21 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Michael Lobb has just been found dead on the floor of his family’s tin & pewter workshop. It’s suspicious enough that his body was found by a representative of Cornwall EcoMining, a company keen on acquiring his family’s land, and it’s made even worse when he’s revealed to have been the majority owner of the business and the sole obstacle preventing a deal from being made. But it doesn’t take long for Inspector Beatrice Hannaford to unearth the layers of estrangement that surrounded Michael in his final days, pointing suspicions elsewhere.
-
The Brothers Karamazov
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Constance Garnett - translator
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The book probes the possible roles of four brothers in the unresolved murder of their father, Fyodor Karamazov. At the same time, it carefully explores the personalities and inclinations of the brothers themselves. Their psyches together represent the full spectrum of human nature, the continuum of faith and doubt. Ultimately, this novel seeks to understand the real meaning of faith and existence and includes much beneficial philosophical and spiritual discussion that moves the reader towards faith.
-
-
An expert abridgement
- By Tad Davis on 04-26-13
-
The Vampire Lestat
- The Vampire Chronicles, Book 2
- By: Anne Rice
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 21 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once an aristocrat in the heady days of pre-revolutionary France, now Lestat is a rockstar in the demonic, shimmering 1980s. He rushes through the centuries in search of others like him, seeking answers to the mystery of his terrifying exsitence. His story, the second volume in Anne Rice's best-selling Vampire Chronicles, is mesmerizing, passionate, and thrilling.
-
-
Finally unabridged! Excellently read, great listen
- By Patricia on 06-29-11
-
Fire & Blood (HBO Tie-in Edition)
- 300 Years Before A Game of Thrones
- By: George R. R. Martin
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 26 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen - the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria - took up residence on Dragonstone. Fire & Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart.
-
-
150 years of Westeros history
- By Kingsley on 11-22-18
-
The House in the Woods
- Atticus Priest, Book 1
- By: Mark Dawson
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Christmas Eve, DCI Mackenzie Jones is called to a shooting at a remote farmhouse. Ralph Mallender believes his father lies dead inside. When three more bodies are discovered, it's clear a festive family gathering has turned into a gruesome tragedy. At first it seems like an open and shut case: a murder suicide committed by Ralph's volatile brother Cameron. Then new evidence makes Mack suspect the man who reported the crime is in fact the perpetrator. But Mack isn't the only one with a stake in the case.
-
-
Pure reading enjoyment
- By VA Barnhill - Author on 06-10-20
-
The Burning White
- Lightbringer, Book 5
- By: Brent Weeks
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 39 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the stunning conclusion to the epic, New York Times best-selling Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks, kingdoms clash as Kip must finally escape his family's shadow in order to protect the land and people he loves. As the White King springs his great trap, and the Chromeria itself is threatened by treason and siege, Kip Guile and his companions will scramble to return for one impossible final stand. In the darkest hour, will the Lightbringer come?
-
-
An Actual Review, after I got done listening to it
- By The Story Adict on 10-26-19
-
A Tale of Two Cities [Tantor]
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Tale of Two Cities is one of Charles Dickens's most exciting novels. Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, it tells the story of a family threatened by the terrible events of the past. Doctor Manette was wrongly imprisoned in the Bastille for 18 years without trial by the aristocratic authorities.
-
-
it's the singer not the song*
- By Maynard on 11-09-13
-
Crucible of Gold
- Book Seven of Temeraire
- By: Naomi Novik
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The French have invaded Spain, forged an alliance with Africa’s powerful Tswana empire, and brought revolution to Brazil. Captain Will Laurence and his indefatigable fighting dragon, Temeraire, must travel to South America to negotiate with the Incas, who are also being wooed by the French. If they fail, Napoleon may conquer yet another continent in his campaign for world domination, and the tide of the war may prove impossible to stop.
-
The Essential Lovecraft
- By: H.P. Lovecraft, Leslie S. Klinger - editor
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Marc Vietor, Scott Brick, and others
- Length: 50 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forty-eight of H.P. Lovecraft’s most important stories are brought together in this collection–available only from Audible–selected and with introductions by the award-winning, best-selling Lovecraft editor Leslie S. Klinger. Howard Philips Lovecraft was the early 20th-century genius who, almost singlehandedly, pioneered horror and scientific fiction, only to die in near-obscurity. Rediscovered by critics and scholars in the 1970s, Lovecraft’s work has influenced—by their own admission—every major horror or science-fiction writer of today.
-
-
introductions ruined it
- By Heath Long on 10-23-24
Editor's Pick
"A perfect match for the author and material."
"Sure, this is a great book with a phenomenal heroine, but set that aside—this is a truly special listen. Simon Vance’s delivery is that of a journalist letting you in on an incredible story over a beer, a perfect match for the author and material. He creates a range of subtly delineated voices for characters from all over Europe. And the way he pronounces Swedish names and places is so perfect, you’ll find yourself absentmindedly repeating them to yourself weeks after you finish listening."
More About Simon Vance
Awards and Accolades
Audie Award
Mystery, 2019
Audie Award
Best Male Narrator, 2017
Audie Award
Literary Fiction, 2015
AudioFile Golden Voice
Award Winner
