The Jewel of Seven Stars

By: Bram Stoker

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

"Hither the Gods come not at any summons. The Nameless One has insulted them and is forever alone. Go not nigh, lest their vengeance wither you away!"

The warning was inscribed on the entrance of the hidden tomb, forgotten for millennia in the sands of mystic Egypt. Then the archaeologists and grave robbers came in search of the fabled Jewel of Seven Stars, which they found clutched in the hand of the mummy. Few heeded the ancient warning, until all who came in contact with the Jewel began to die in a mysterious and violent way, with the marks of a strangler around their neck.

Now, in a bedroom filled with ancient relics, a distinguished Egyptologist lies senseless, stricken by a force that challenges human understanding. From beyond the grave Queen Tera is reaching out for the mysterious jewel that will bring her 5,000-year-old plan to fulfillment.

(P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Widely considered his best supernatural novel." (Times)

A Classic Well Worth a Visit

This is an early 1900's classic and for a reason…not many people know that Bram Stoker wrote other good Horror stories other than Dracula, and this book was the original that inspired all those Hollywood "Tales of the Egyptian Mummy" genres. That said it was much better than I expected and was not at all like those original film plots, but rather had a sophistication that belied the film industries attempts to portray such stories, and a depth of knowledge about the rites of ancient Egypt that had me running to look up Abraham Stokers Bio! It built the suspense well and the characters, and It seems there were two endings and the original ending was too horrific for 1915 readers so it was softened and this is the 1915 ending but the original ending can still be read in Penguin editions. That said it was a cracking listen and the overly quaint language reflects a time gone by but also adds to the eerie “atmosphere”. A solid performance by Simon Vance.

Good, but not quite great.

I finished this last night, and I've been thinking about it ever since.

I've wanted to read this for years, and never got around to it. I've seen several movies based on this book, though, and I always wondered what the *real story* was like.

The good: this book grabbed me, and managed to hold my attention for the duration. I found it very interesting.

The bad: the ending was kind of a letdown. There are several things that are either hinted at or clearly set up that never pay off, and as a result, the ending is unsatisfying.

I have since learned that there are 2 different endings - the original 1903 ending, and the revised 1912 ending. This recording contains the revised ending... To be honest, I'm not sure which is better or worse. Neither ending seems to really utilize all of the setups that are peppered throughout the story.

Now I kind of understand why every movie adaptation changes the ending... It needs it.

I am glad I read/listened to this, and I still consider it good... But it falls short of greatness.

A classic of its time, but dated to modern ears

Simon Vance, as usual does a superb job or the narration, in both voice character and pace.

The story itself if written today would likely be far shorter. The flowery language, especially when discussing the romantic feelings of the narrator, are a bit over the top to modern ears and the monologues sometimes drag on. That aside, it is a great example of the early days of the genre. The descriptions of the environment do a good job at helping visualise the scene. I'm tempted to go back and read the original ending.

Good to buy when on sale, not sure I'd invest a full credit.

Fantastic reader carries it

The narration of this Bram Stoker novel was excellent and held my attention captive throughout the story. Unfortunately despite the excellent reader, as the story progressed it became somewhat derivative and slow. The ending failed to build any tension and was anticlimactic.

The lesser known work from Bram Stoker

The narrative is building up as you go through the chapters, which makes it extremely painful to stop listening. The audio is very well produced and this is one of the works I wouldn't have the patience to read but make an awesome listen.

Good story

I really enjoyed this story. a little less than Dracula but still good. I would recommend this to any Bram stoker fans

Underdeveloped Story of Bram Stoker

The narration was masterful. A 5 star performance! However I can see why Dracula was Stoker's masterpiece, not this. I got through it, but it goes on and on about unimportant details, it introduces characters who have nothing whatsoever to do with the plot, it spends half the book with the main action just sitting by a comatose man's bedside, never explained why he was comatose...the love story was dubious. It was told, not shown, and certainly jumped a great deal of intimate moments of conversation and bonding. It was so stiff and uptight that you get a sense that the lovers barely liked one another and everyone jumped to the conclusion they were engaged after a single kiss. There was no depth to any of it. Positive things, I'm pretty sure a bunch of authors were inspired by this, only they felt they could do better (and did). So I suppose there is merit in reading pioneer works, if only to understand modern literature.

An obscure jewel

A unique story idea and early appearance of a non linear causal paradox plot presentation

Hope you find this useful.

It felt that the audio recording had been saved sped up. I found this distracting and had to slow it down to get what felt like a "regular" pace. This ended up being 85% of the normal speed. As a result of the distraction from the recording speed, I had some difficulty being invested and had, occasionally, following along. I found certain themes or threads that were built up felt either unresolved or resolved poorly and left me feeling unsatisfied at the end.

Simon Vance is a highly talented narrator.

I recommend listening to just about anything he narrated. I enjoyed this book even more because of him.