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Cloud of Sparrows
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
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Publisher's summary
“Exotic, entertaining...[an] exceptional first novel.” (San Francisco Chronicle)
The year is 1861. After two centuries of isolation, Japan has opened its doors to the West. And as foreign ships threaten to rain destruction on the Shogun’s castle in Edo, a small group of American missionaries has arrived to spread the word of their God. They have yet to realize that their future in Japan has already been foreseen. For a young nobleman has dreamt that his life will be saved by an outsider in the New Year...and it is said that Lord Genji has the gift of prophecy.
What happens next - when the handsome lord meets an apparently reformed gunslinger and a woman in flight from her own destructive beauty - sets the stage for a remarkable adventure. For as this unlikely band embarks on a journey through a landscape bristling with danger, East and West, flesh and spirit, past and future, collide in ways no one - least of all Genji - could have imagined.
Praise for Cloud of Sparrows
“The book seizes you from start to finish.” (The Washington Post)
“Adventure-filled.” (Entertainment Weekly)
“Rich...with an ambitious, unexpected ending that cuts deeper than a samurai sword.” (San Francisco Chronicle)
Critic reviews
“Exotic, entertaining ... [an] exceptional first novel.” (San Francisco Chronicle)
"The book seizes you from start to finish.” (The Washington Post)
“Adventure-filled.” (Entertainment Weekly)
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What listeners say about Cloud of Sparrows
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Blackmac
- 06-10-06
Interesting but...
This book was good in the fact that it is well written and it does seem to take the reader away to a different time and place: Edo Japan. Unfortunately, if you can get past the quite unbelievable plot and characters, you won't be able to escape the one dimensional narration. The narrator sounds better suited to a PBS documentary and does not pronounce many of the simplest Japanese words correctly (e.g. Edo). This would be a better read than listen.
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17 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Barry
- 12-16-03
The Quintessential Novel
Takashi Matsouka has written a masterpiece about Japan in the mid 1800's, where though threatened, the Samari culture still thrives. It does so, even though the Japanese live under the threats posed by the guns and canons of the multi-national war ships at anchor in their bays and the internal hatreds dating back hundreds of years.
Grover Gardner's reading of it provides a seamless transition from character to character, while imbuing each with the rich individuality that the author had so perfectly shaped with his words. If the book can be faulted in any way, it would be by its ending. Not because the author failed in any way, but because it ended. I wanted it to go on forever. With Gardner's final words, came the fearful realization that I might never again find a book so beautifully written and dramatically read.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Peyton
- 11-07-03
Good Quality Semi-historical Fiction
An enjoyable read, Lots of blood and guts, honor, and some pretty good characters. A bit of a slow start, but an excellent choice while you are waiting for the third book in The Otori Trilogy. Not the same level as Across the Nightingale Floor, but close.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Tim
- 07-16-06
Dismal...
I've given this dreaful book two stars because the author clearly put a lot of work into it. Unfortunately, it was to no avail -- in terms of quality it doesn't really deserve even one star.
To start with, if you want to introduce that many characters in such a short time you'd better be pretty sure that you're Tolstoy, otherwise you just have a list of names. And a list of names does not a novel make.
Then we have Japan and the fascinating Japanese people. Well, actually, we don't. Not even a little bit. Even the old pulp master James Clavell took some trouble to get into the Japanese psyche and the driving forces behind it and Japanese history. Here we just have cardboard cutouts.
Alas, this also holds true for the plot. Plod plod plod blood plod plod blod kiss plod plod plod missionaries. All very tedious.
To round it all off you have not even pedestrian narration by a reader who would clearly be better off recording special offer announcements for a big discount store.
Oh dear.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Stephanie
- 02-02-05
Quite good
This book gets a five star because it is good. Not the best book in the world that you listen to 500 times, but it is really a good book. I enjoyed it thoroughly and look forward to the next in the series. I found the clash of the Japanese and American cultures for the first time to be funny and very realistic - my husband is Japanese and I am American, and many of the observations were only too true. Also, the characters were, for the most part, ones you could be swept away with and care about. Good narration only adds to the book.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Mark
- 12-06-06
Great Listen
First the bad news...
The combination of Japanese names and jumping between various sub-plots, times and cultures can be challenging in an audio book. I imagine that this would be less disruptive in the written form.
but...
I found it worth the effort. Besides being entertaining, I absorbed a bit of Japanese history in spite of my general impatience with anything vaguely educational. It was somewhat of a cross between "Shogun" and the "Otori Trilogy". The ending was somewhat disappointing in that it seemed to resolve little and largely attempt to sell the next book of the series. To that extent, it worked - I'm anxious for the unabridged version of "Autumn Bridge"
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- jay
- 09-20-04
Clunk
That's the sound of the wooden characters and the sound of my player after struggling through the first 30 minutes. I was hoping it would be as enjoyable as Lian Hearn's trilogy but it wasn't even close.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Stephen Yarnall
- 09-09-09
Great listening
Thought this was right up there with Clavell's Shogun. Very enjoyable fictional history.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Sassbot
- 06-21-08
Listen to the Otori Series instead.
I have tried getting past the first two hours of this book about six times now and can't make it. The lack of plot moving action and the numerous characters bogged me down and I lost interest early into this novel. I got this as I enjoyed the sound of Autumn Bridge and then realized this book came first so I purchased that. I don't even want to attempt getting Autumn Bridge after the disappointment of this novel. If you're looking for a good read, check out the Otori series.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 04-28-06
Very entertaining
I really liked this book, its characters, and its subject matter. I saw one review that compared it to Lian Hearn's books. The topics are similar but the style, plot, tone and overall feeling are all very different. That comparison doesn't seem justified or accurate. I think this is an enjoyable book and very fascinating in its own way. I recommend it.
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2 people found this helpful
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Story
He was one the best Marine snipers in Vietnam. Today, 20 years later, all Bob Lee Swagger wants is to be left alone. But a shadowy military organization seduces him into one last mission for his country - unaware until too late that the game is rigged. The assassination plot is executed to perfection until Bob Lee Swagger, alleged lone gunman, comes out of the operation alive, the target of a nationwide manhunt, with his only allies a woman he just met and a discredited FBI agent.
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Beau Bridges ruined it for me...
- By Dawn on 05-07-15
By: Stephen Hunter
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Legends of the Samurai
- By: Hiroaki Sato
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Over the decades, the reputation of the samurai has grown to mythical proportions, owing to such films as Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, as well as works such as James Clavell's epic Shogun. In Legends of the Samurai, Hiroaki Sato confronts both the history and the legend of the samurai, untangling the two to present an authentic picture of these legendary warriors.
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Like nails on a chalkboard....
- By Sharon S. Dorondo on 06-25-17
By: Hiroaki Sato
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The Samurai's Garden
- A Novel
- By: Gail Tsukiyama
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The daughter of a Chinese mother and a Japanese father, Gail Tsukiyama uses the Japanese invasion of China during the late 1930s as a somber backdrop for her unusual story about a 20-year-old Chinese painter named Stephen who is sent to his family's summer home in a Japanese coastal village to recover from a bout with tuberculosis. Here he is cared for by Matsu, a reticent housekeeper and a master gardener. Over the course of a remarkable year, Stephen learns Matsu's secret and gains not only physical strength, but also profound spiritual insight.
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A Novel Painted with a Master's Brush
- By Bay Area Califa on 06-25-18
By: Gail Tsukiyama
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Child of Vengeance
- A Novel
- By: David Kirk
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 15 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Japan in the late 16th century was a land in turmoil. Lords of the great clans schemed against one another, served by aristocratic samurai bound to them by a rigid code of honor. Bennosuke is a high-born but lonely teenager living in his ancestral village. His mother died when he was a young boy, and his powerful warrior father Munisai has abandoned him for a life of service to his Lord, Shinmei. Bennosuke has been raised by his uncle Dorinbo, a Buddhist monk who urges the boy to forgo the violence of the samurai and embrace the contemplative life.
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Clever weaving of history and fiction.
- By JW Crummett on 02-25-16
By: David Kirk
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47 Ronin
- By: John Allyn, Stephen Turnbull - foreword
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For those looking for the real story behind the fictionalized movie account of the 47 Ronin story, this is the definitive, fascinating account of this unforgettable tale of a band of samurai who defied the Emperor to avenge the disgrace and death of their master, and faced certain death as a result. It led to one of the bloodiest episodes in Japanese history, and in the process, created a new set of heroes in Japan.
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Neither fish nor....
- By David on 11-05-14
By: John Allyn, and others
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Silence
- By: Shusaku Endo
- Narrated by: David Holt
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Recipient of the 1966 Tanizaki Prize, it has been called Endo's supreme achievement" and "one of the twentieth century's finest novels". Considered controversial ever since its first publication, it tackles the thorniest religious issues of belief and faith head on. A novel of historical fiction, it is the story of a Jesuit missionary sent to seventeenth century Japan, who endured persecution that followed the defeat of the Shimabara Rebellion.
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Remarkable
- By Helgi Sigurbjörnsson on 10-12-17
By: Shusaku Endo
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Point of Impact
- By: Stephen Hunter
- Narrated by: Beau Bridges
- Length: 3 hrs and 4 mins
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
He was one the best Marine snipers in Vietnam. Today, 20 years later, all Bob Lee Swagger wants is to be left alone. But a shadowy military organization seduces him into one last mission for his country - unaware until too late that the game is rigged. The assassination plot is executed to perfection until Bob Lee Swagger, alleged lone gunman, comes out of the operation alive, the target of a nationwide manhunt, with his only allies a woman he just met and a discredited FBI agent.
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Beau Bridges ruined it for me...
- By Dawn on 05-07-15
By: Stephen Hunter
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Legends of the Samurai
- By: Hiroaki Sato
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Over the decades, the reputation of the samurai has grown to mythical proportions, owing to such films as Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, as well as works such as James Clavell's epic Shogun. In Legends of the Samurai, Hiroaki Sato confronts both the history and the legend of the samurai, untangling the two to present an authentic picture of these legendary warriors.
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Like nails on a chalkboard....
- By Sharon S. Dorondo on 06-25-17
By: Hiroaki Sato
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The Street of a Thousand Blossoms
- By: Gail Tsukiyama
- Narrated by: Stephen Park
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Japan, 1939. On the Street of a Thousand Blossoms in Tokyo, two orphaned brothers are growing up with loving grandparents who inspire them to dream of a future firmly rooted in tradition. The older boy, Hiroshi, shows early signs of promise in sumo wrestling, while Kenji is fascinated by the art of creating exquisite masks for actors in the Noh theater. But as the ripples of war spread all the way to their quiet neighborhood, the brothers must put their dreams on hold - and then forge their own paths in a new Japan.
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Great Audio Book
- By Victor on 09-22-07
By: Gail Tsukiyama
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The Tale of Genji, Volume 1
- By: Murasaki Shikibu, Dennis Washburn - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 35 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Murasaki Shikibu, born into the middle ranks of the aristocracy during the Heian period (794-1185 CE), wrote The Tale of Genji, widely considered the world's first novel, during the early years of the 11th century. Expansive, compelling, and sophisticated in its representation of ethical concerns and aesthetic ideals, Murasaki's tale came to occupy a central place in Japan's remarkable history of artistic achievement and is now recognized as a masterpiece of world literature.
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Tales of Genji
- By Amazon Customer on 02-24-20
By: Murasaki Shikibu, and others
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Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter
- By: Richard Parks
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In an ancient Japan where the incursions of gods, ghosts, and demons into the living world is an everyday event, an impoverished nobleman named Yamada no Goji makes his living as a demon hunter for hire. With the occasional assistance of the reprobate exorcist Kenji, whatever the difficulty - ogres, demons, fox-spirits - for a price Yamada will do what needs to be done, even and especially if the solution to the problem isn’t as simple as the edge of a sword.
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Demon Hunter mini stories
- By mary on 01-29-15
By: Richard Parks
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The Way of the Warrior
- Young Samurai, Book 1
- By: Chris Bradford
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
August 1611. Jack Fletcher is shipwrecked off the coast of Japan - his beloved father and the crew lie slaughtered by ninja pirates. Rescued by the legendary sword master Masamoto Takeshi, Jack's only hope is to become a samurai warrior. And so his training begins. But life at the samurai school is a constant fight for survival. With courage in his heart and his sword held high, can Jack prove himself and face his deadliest rival yet?
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Great story, HORRIBLE Japanese pronunciation
- By Derek Sorenson on 12-24-20
By: Chris Bradford
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Hagakure
- The Book of the Samurai
- By: Yamamoto Tsunetomo, William Scott Wilson - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Living and dying with bravery and honor is at the heart of Hagakure, a series of texts written by an 18th-century samurai, Yamamoto Tsunetomo. It is a window into the samurai mind, illuminating the concept of bushido (the Way of the Warrior), which dictated how samurai were expected to behave, conduct themselves, live, and die.
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Great Way to Experience the Book Again
- By WildKarrde on 07-10-17
By: Yamamoto Tsunetomo, and others
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The Pillow Book
- By: Sei Shōnagon
- Narrated by: Georgina Sutton
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon is a fascinating, detailed account of Japanese court life in the closing years of the 10th century. Written by a lady of the court at the height of Heian culture, this book enthrals with its lively gossip, witty observations and subtle impressions. Lady Shōnagon was an erstwhile rival of Lady Murasaki, whose novel, The Tale of Genji, fictionalized the elite world Lady Shōnagon so eloquently relates.
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Exquisite. Truly!
- By Erick DuPree on 01-10-23
By: Sei Shōnagon
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Blossoms and Shadows
- By: Lian Hearn
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto, Marc Vietor
- Length: 17 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Japan, 1857. For centuries, Japan has been on its own; isolated by choice from the rest of the world. But the Western powers are now at its shores, demanding to be let in; the government is crumbling, and revolution is building. The age of the samurai is ending and in its place a new Japan will be born. And a young woman is readying herself for marriage in this, the most tumultuous period of her nation's history.
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Not as good as previous books
- By Stacy S. Scott on 11-22-11
By: Lian Hearn
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Samurai Rising
- The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune
- By: Pamela S. Turner
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Minamoto Yoshitsune should not have been a samurai. But his story is legend in this real-life saga. This epic warrior tale may sound like a novel, but this is the true story of the greatest samurai in Japanese history. When Yoshitsune was just a baby, his father went to war with a rival samurai family - and lost. His father was killed, his mother captured, and his surviving half-brother banished. Yoshitsune was sent away to live in a monastery. Skinny, small, and unskilled in the warrior arts, he nevertheless escaped and learned the ways of the samurai.
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Great Book
- By Jim on 05-24-17
By: Pamela S. Turner
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Under Heaven
- By: Guy Gavriel Kay
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 19 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Under Heaven takes listeners to Tang dynasty China, where the son of an honored general has received an unheard of gift: 250 Sardian horses. But this is a prize men would, and will, kill for.