-
Underground Airlines
- Narrated by: William DeMeritt
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $21.83
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Golden State
- By: Ben Winters
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an alternate society that values law and truth above all else, Laszlo Ratesic is a 19-year veteran of the Speculative Service. He lives in the Golden State, a nation standing where California once did, a place where like-minded Americans retreated after the erosion of truth and the spread of lies made public life and governance impossible. In the Golden State, knowingly contradicting the truth is the greatest crime - and stopping those crimes is Laz's job. In its service, he is one of the few individuals permitted to harbor untruths, to "speculate" on what might have happened.
-
-
3.41 stars
- By ibillinsly@gmail on 02-04-19
By: Ben Winters
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
Fatherland
- By: Robert Harris
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Berlin, 1964. The Greater German Reich stretches from the Rhine to the Urals and keeps an uneasy peace with its nuclear rival, the United States. As the Fatherland prepares for a grand celebration honoring Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday and anticipates a conciliatory visit from US president Joseph Kennedy and ambassador Charles Lindbergh, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin's most prestigious suburb.
-
-
1960's Nazi Germany comes alive
- By Daniel Black on 10-19-17
By: Robert Harris
-
The Underground Railroad (Television Tie-in)
- A Novel
- By: Colson Whitehead
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.
-
-
Stupendous book, hard to follow in audio
- By JQR on 12-01-16
By: Colson Whitehead
-
Lock In (Narrated by Wil Wheaton)
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever, and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent - and nearly five million souls in the United States alone - the disease causes "Lock In": Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge.
-
-
Fun! Things you might want to know:
- By Alexis on 08-29-14
By: John Scalzi
-
Full Throttle
- Stories
- By: Joe Hill
- Narrated by: Zachary Quinto, Wil Wheaton, Kate Mulgrew, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this masterful collection of short fiction, Joe Hill dissects timeless human struggles in 13 relentless tales of supernatural suspense, including “In The Tall Grass”, one of two stories cowritten with Stephen King, basis for the terrifying feature film from Netflix.
-
-
A Strong Collection
- By Celeste on 11-05-19
By: Joe Hill
-
Golden State
- By: Ben Winters
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an alternate society that values law and truth above all else, Laszlo Ratesic is a 19-year veteran of the Speculative Service. He lives in the Golden State, a nation standing where California once did, a place where like-minded Americans retreated after the erosion of truth and the spread of lies made public life and governance impossible. In the Golden State, knowingly contradicting the truth is the greatest crime - and stopping those crimes is Laz's job. In its service, he is one of the few individuals permitted to harbor untruths, to "speculate" on what might have happened.
-
-
3.41 stars
- By ibillinsly@gmail on 02-04-19
By: Ben Winters
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
Fatherland
- By: Robert Harris
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Berlin, 1964. The Greater German Reich stretches from the Rhine to the Urals and keeps an uneasy peace with its nuclear rival, the United States. As the Fatherland prepares for a grand celebration honoring Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday and anticipates a conciliatory visit from US president Joseph Kennedy and ambassador Charles Lindbergh, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin's most prestigious suburb.
-
-
1960's Nazi Germany comes alive
- By Daniel Black on 10-19-17
By: Robert Harris
-
The Underground Railroad (Television Tie-in)
- A Novel
- By: Colson Whitehead
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.
-
-
Stupendous book, hard to follow in audio
- By JQR on 12-01-16
By: Colson Whitehead
-
Lock In (Narrated by Wil Wheaton)
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever, and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent - and nearly five million souls in the United States alone - the disease causes "Lock In": Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge.
-
-
Fun! Things you might want to know:
- By Alexis on 08-29-14
By: John Scalzi
-
Full Throttle
- Stories
- By: Joe Hill
- Narrated by: Zachary Quinto, Wil Wheaton, Kate Mulgrew, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this masterful collection of short fiction, Joe Hill dissects timeless human struggles in 13 relentless tales of supernatural suspense, including “In The Tall Grass”, one of two stories cowritten with Stephen King, basis for the terrifying feature film from Netflix.
-
-
A Strong Collection
- By Celeste on 11-05-19
By: Joe Hill
-
The Water Dancer (Oprah’s Book Club)
- A Novel
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her - but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known. So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North.
-
-
We Must Always Remember
- By Cammie on 09-28-19
By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
-
The Plot Against America
- By: Philip Roth
- Narrated by: Ron Silver
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an astonishing feat of empathy and narrative invention, our most ambitious novelist imagines an alternate version of American history. In 1940 Charles A. Lindbergh, heroic aviator and rabid isolationist, is elected president. Shortly thereafter, he negotiates a cordial "understanding" with Adolf Hitler while the new government embarks on a program of folksy anti-Semitism.
-
-
Life is imitating Roth's art
- By Matthew on 08-04-16
By: Philip Roth
-
The Chestnut Man
- A Novel
- By: Soren Sveistrup
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A psychopath is terrorizing Copenhagen. His calling card is a “chestnut man” - a handmade doll made of matchsticks and two chestnuts - which he leaves at each bloody crime scene. Examining the dolls, forensics makes a shocking discovery - a fingerprint belonging to a young girl, a government minister’s daughter who had been kidnapped and murdered a year ago. A tragic coincidence - or something more twisted? To save innocent lives, a pair of detectives must put aside their differences to piece together the Chestnut Man’s gruesome clues.
-
-
Good until it is wasn’t
- By chitty chitty bang bang on 10-09-19
By: Soren Sveistrup
-
Upgrade
- A Novel
- By: Blake Crouch
- Narrated by: Henry Levya
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep. But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways. The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade.
-
-
Needs a better reader
- By Jeff W. on 07-12-22
By: Blake Crouch
-
Snow Falling on Cedars
- By: David Guterson
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a Japanese-American fisherman stands trial for murder on an island in Puget Sound, snow blankets the countryside. The whiteness covers the courthouse, but it cannot conceal the memories at work inside: the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, an unrequited love, and the ghosts of racism that still haunt the islanders. First novels rarely attract as much attention as Snow Falling on Cedars. Remaining on best seller lists for months, it has cast a spell on listeners across the country.
-
-
Beautiful!!!
- By Patricia on 01-12-18
By: David Guterson
-
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
- A Novel
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: Peter Riegert
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For 60 years Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the federal district of Sitka, a temporary safe haven created in the wake of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. The Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. But now the district is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end.
-
-
Didn't finish...
- By Ann E O'Connor on 10-16-17
By: Michael Chabon
-
Gone with the Wind
- By: Margaret Mitchell
- Narrated by: Linda Stephens
- Length: 49 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, Margaret Mitchell's great novel of the South is one of the most popular books ever written. Within six months of its publication in 1936, Gone With the Wind had sold a million copies. To date, it has been translated into 25 languages, and more than 28 million copies have been sold. Here are the characters that have become symbols of passion and desire....
-
-
not to miss audible experience
- By dallas on 12-08-09
-
Kindred
- By: Octavia E. Butler
- Narrated by: Kim Staunton
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning White boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes she's been given a challenge.
-
-
The Past of Slavery Still Moves and Wounds Us
- By Jefferson on 12-05-10
-
Chain Gang All Stars
- A Novel
- By: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
- Narrated by: Shayna Small, Aaron Goodson, Michael Crouch, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.
-
-
Can’t wait for more from this author!
- By Brian Sheldon on 06-04-23
-
Artemis
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Rosario Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.
-
-
A ferrari with no motor
- By will on 11-18-17
By: Andy Weir
-
The Talisman
- By: Stephen King, Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 28 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a brisk autumn day, a 13-year-old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amusement park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: His father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America - and into another realm. One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery.
-
-
Still Good
- By Bill S. on 03-24-10
By: Stephen King, and others
-
Blade Runner
- Originally published as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill. Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there lurked several rogue androids. Deckard's assignment: find them and then..."retire" them. Trouble was, the androids all looked exactly like humans, and they didn't want to be found!
-
-
This is the original Do Androids Dream of Electric
- By D. ABIGT on 08-29-10
By: Philip K. Dick
Publisher's summary
It is the present day, and the world is as we know it: smartphones, social networking, and Happy Meals. Save for one thing: The Civil War never occurred.
A gifted young black man calling himself Victor has struck a bargain with federal law enforcement, working as a bounty hunter for the US Marshal Service. He's got plenty of work. In this version of America, slavery continues in four states called "the Hard Four". On the trail of a runaway known as Jackdaw, Victor arrives in Indianapolis knowing that something isn't right—with the case file, with his work, and with the country itself.
A mystery to himself, Victor suppresses his memories of his childhood on a plantation and works to infiltrate the local cell of an abolitionist movement called the Underground Airlines. Tracking Jackdaw through the back rooms of churches, empty parking garages, hotels, and medical offices, Victor believes he's hot on the trail. But his strange, increasingly uncanny pursuit is complicated by a boss who won't reveal the extraordinary stakes of Jackdaw's case as well as by a heartbreaking young woman and her child, who may be Victor's salvation. Victor himself may be the biggest obstacle of all—though his true self remains buried, it threatens to surface.
Victor believes himself to be a good man doing bad work, unwilling to give up the freedom he has worked so hard to earn. But in pursuing Jackdaw, Victor discovers secrets at the core of the country's arrangement with the Hard Four—secrets the government will preserve at any cost.
Underground Airlines is a groundbreaking novel, a wickedly imaginative thriller, and a story of an America that is more like our own than we'd like to believe.
Critic reviews
Campbell Memorial Award, 2017, Third Place
NOMINATED FOR THE BEST HARDCOVER NOVEL ITW THRILLER AWARD
A FINALIST FOR THE CHAUTAUQUA PRIZE
A New York Times Bestseller; a Goodreads Choice finalist; named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, Slate, Publishers Weekly, Hudson Bookseller, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kirkus Reviews, AudioFile Magazine, and Amazon
"This one kept me up at night and changed the way I saw the world once I was finished."—Ann Patchett, Time
"This is one of the most thoughtful and inventive books I've read. Part alternate history and part detective novel, Underground Airlines couldn't be more timely or thrilling. It's a page-turner with a big mission: to warn against placing our history on a dusty shelf. On every page is the spirit of Faulkner's quote—The past is never dead. It's not even past. Here, Winters takes America's legacy as a slaveholding nation all the way to its logical and terrifying conclusion."—Attica Locke, Edgar Award-nominated author of Bluebird, Bluebird
"An extraordinary work of alternate history . . . Indisputably a winner"—Maureen Corrigan, NPR
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
The Last Policeman
- The Last Policeman, Book 1
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway? Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.
-
-
Not your regular mystery
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 09-20-16
By: Ben H. Winters
-
The Long Way Down
- Daniel Faust, Book 1
- By: Craig Schaefer
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobody knows the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas like Daniel Faust, a sorcerer for hire and ex-gangster who uses black magic and bullets to solve his clients' problems. When an old man comes seeking vengeance for his murdered granddaughter, what looks like a simple job quickly spirals out of control. Soon Daniel stands in the crossfire between a murderous porn director; a corrupt cop with a quick trigger finger; and his own former employer, a racket boss who isn't entirely human.
-
-
Urban fantasy noir. Done right..
- By Cliff on 02-19-15
By: Craig Schaefer
-
Superheroes
- By: Peter S. Beagle, Daryl Gregory, James Patrick Kelly, and others
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Joe Barrett, Christina Delaine, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Modern gods and goddesses, remote, revered - and like the pantheon of heroes and heroines of ancient myth - possessing great power tempered with flaws. Now, find within this anthology great tales by gifted and award-winning authors who move superheroes from the four-color panels of comic books to the fantastic pages of fiction, stories that will remind anyone who ever wanted to wear a cape or don a cowl of the extraordinary powers of the imagination!
-
-
Pretentious tired old concepts
- By BookofJoy on 12-29-14
By: Peter S. Beagle, and others
-
A Nail Through The Heart
- A Poke Rafferty Thriller
- By: Timothy Hallinan
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Poke Rafferty was writing offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored when Bangkok stole his heart. Now the American expat is assembling a new family with Rose, the former go-go dancer he wants to marry, and Miaow, the tiny, streetwise urchin he wants to adopt. But trouble in the guise of good intentions comes calling just when everything is beginning to work out.
-
-
Ever been to Bangkok?
- By Richard Delman on 12-11-11
By: Timothy Hallinan
-
The Talisman
- By: Stephen King, Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 28 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a brisk autumn day, a 13-year-old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amusement park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: His father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America - and into another realm. One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery.
-
-
Still Good
- By Bill S. on 03-24-10
By: Stephen King, and others
-
Niceville
- By: Carsten Stroud
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A boy literally disappears from Main Street. A security camera captures the moment of his instant, inexplicable vanishing. An audacious bank robbery goes seriously wrong: Four cops are gunned down; a TV news helicopter is shot and spins crazily out of the sky, triggering a disastrous cascade of events that ricochet across twenty different lives over the course of just 36 hours. Nick Kavanaugh, a cop with a dark side, investigates. Soon he and his wife, Kate, a distinguished lawyer from an old Niceville family, find themselves struggling to make sense of it all.
-
-
Good Story- Wrong Reader
- By Stacy on 06-28-14
By: Carsten Stroud
-
The Last Policeman
- The Last Policeman, Book 1
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway? Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.
-
-
Not your regular mystery
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 09-20-16
By: Ben H. Winters
-
The Long Way Down
- Daniel Faust, Book 1
- By: Craig Schaefer
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobody knows the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas like Daniel Faust, a sorcerer for hire and ex-gangster who uses black magic and bullets to solve his clients' problems. When an old man comes seeking vengeance for his murdered granddaughter, what looks like a simple job quickly spirals out of control. Soon Daniel stands in the crossfire between a murderous porn director; a corrupt cop with a quick trigger finger; and his own former employer, a racket boss who isn't entirely human.
-
-
Urban fantasy noir. Done right..
- By Cliff on 02-19-15
By: Craig Schaefer
-
Superheroes
- By: Peter S. Beagle, Daryl Gregory, James Patrick Kelly, and others
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Joe Barrett, Christina Delaine, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Modern gods and goddesses, remote, revered - and like the pantheon of heroes and heroines of ancient myth - possessing great power tempered with flaws. Now, find within this anthology great tales by gifted and award-winning authors who move superheroes from the four-color panels of comic books to the fantastic pages of fiction, stories that will remind anyone who ever wanted to wear a cape or don a cowl of the extraordinary powers of the imagination!
-
-
Pretentious tired old concepts
- By BookofJoy on 12-29-14
By: Peter S. Beagle, and others
-
A Nail Through The Heart
- A Poke Rafferty Thriller
- By: Timothy Hallinan
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Poke Rafferty was writing offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored when Bangkok stole his heart. Now the American expat is assembling a new family with Rose, the former go-go dancer he wants to marry, and Miaow, the tiny, streetwise urchin he wants to adopt. But trouble in the guise of good intentions comes calling just when everything is beginning to work out.
-
-
Ever been to Bangkok?
- By Richard Delman on 12-11-11
By: Timothy Hallinan
-
The Talisman
- By: Stephen King, Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 28 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a brisk autumn day, a 13-year-old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amusement park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: His father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America - and into another realm. One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery.
-
-
Still Good
- By Bill S. on 03-24-10
By: Stephen King, and others
-
Niceville
- By: Carsten Stroud
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A boy literally disappears from Main Street. A security camera captures the moment of his instant, inexplicable vanishing. An audacious bank robbery goes seriously wrong: Four cops are gunned down; a TV news helicopter is shot and spins crazily out of the sky, triggering a disastrous cascade of events that ricochet across twenty different lives over the course of just 36 hours. Nick Kavanaugh, a cop with a dark side, investigates. Soon he and his wife, Kate, a distinguished lawyer from an old Niceville family, find themselves struggling to make sense of it all.
-
-
Good Story- Wrong Reader
- By Stacy on 06-28-14
By: Carsten Stroud
-
Cash City
- By: Jonathan Fredrick
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is an obsession that has haunted Nick Malick for seven years - to avenge the murder of his young son. In his gut Malick knows who did it. But the psychopath is in prison for another crime, scheduled to be released in a year. All Malick has to do is wait...and survive.
-
-
Great New Series
- By Lia on 08-21-17
-
Fourth of July Creek
- A Novel
- By: Smith Henderson
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Jenna Lamia
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral 11-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times. But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Pearl's activities spark the full-blown interest of the FBI, putting Pete at the center of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed.
-
-
The Ghost of Tom Joad & the Wrath of Grapes
- By Mel on 06-30-14
By: Smith Henderson
-
A Drink Before the War
- By: Dennis Lehane
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With novels like Mystic River and Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane has dramatically altered the landscape of the crime thriller—while boldly overstepping the boundaries that have long separated mystery from literature. Now two of his sensational early novels have been combined in a single volume—two gritty and mesmerizing masterworks of suspense featuring the private eye duo of Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro.
-
-
White Bread
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 06-30-12
By: Dennis Lehane
-
Cold City
- Repairman Jack: Early Years Trilogy, Book 1
- By: F. Paul Wilson
- Narrated by: Alexander Cendese
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If you've never read a Repairman Jack novel, this is the place to begin. It's 1990. A twenty-one-year-old named Jack has dropped out of college, leaving his old life behind to build a new one in New York City. Manhattan's rough edges are jagged enough to shred any unwary newcomer, but perhaps not one who is determined to stay off the grid, at any cost, in the busiest metropolis on earth. And to do so, he'll have to take jobs of a less than legal nature.
-
-
Fun, as long you don't think too much
- By Andrew Pollack on 01-17-14
By: F. Paul Wilson
-
The Hundredth Man
- Carson Ryder/Harry Nautilus #1
- By: Jack Kerley
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When bizarre and cryptic messages are found on a pair of corpses in Mobile, Alabama, junior police detective Carson Ryder and veteran cop Harry Nautilus find themselves in a mysterious public-relations quagmire pitting public safety against office politics. With the body count growing, Ryder must confront his family's terrifying past by seeking advice from his brother, a violent psychopath convicted of similarly heinous crimes.
-
-
Definitely a case for Matthew McConnaghey
- By Cheryl on 08-19-14
By: Jack Kerley
-
Past Crimes
- A Van Shaw Novel
- By: Glen Erik Hamilton
- Narrated by: Jeff Harding
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the time he was six years old, Van Shaw was raised by his Irish immigrant grandfather, Donovan, to be a thief - to boost cars, beat security alarms, crack safes, and burglarize businesses. But at 18 Dono's namesake and protégé suddenly broke all ties to that life and the people in it. Van escaped into the military, serving as an elite army ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, after ten years of silence, Dono has asked his grandson to come home to Seattle.
-
-
15 Stars! Okay?
- By Ted on 03-06-16
-
The Stand
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 47 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides - or are chosen.
-
-
My First Completed Stephen King Novel
- By Meaghan Bynum on 02-20-12
By: Stephen King
-
Pandemonium
- By: Daryl Gregory
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is a world like our own in every respect, save one. In the 1950s, random acts of possession begin to occur. Ordinary men, women, and children are the targets of entities that seem to spring from the depths of the collective unconscious, pop-cultural avatars some call demons. As a boy, Del Pierce is possessed by the Hellion, an entity whose mischief-making can be deadly. With the help of Del's family and a caring psychiatrist, the demon is exorcised... or is it?
-
-
loved it
- By swyrlgirl on 09-17-19
By: Daryl Gregory
-
Dynamite Road
- A Weiss and Bishop Novel
- By: Andrew Klavan
- Narrated by: Andrew Klavan
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A routine investigation into corruption at a North Californian airport sets in motion shocking events that lead hard man Jim Bishop and world-weary ex-cop boss Scott Weiss into the center of a massive criminal conspiracy. The trail of blood that ensues brings them dangerously closer to Weiss's old nemesis, an expert gun-for-hire known only as Shadowman and to a plan set to climax with an act of audacious violence and a murder that would be impossible for any killer but one....
-
-
Fantastic Read
- By Peter Gage on 02-20-09
By: Andrew Klavan
-
Last Call
- By: Tim Powers
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scott Crane abandoned his career as a professional poker player 20 years ago and hasn’t returned to Las Vegas, or held a hand of cards, in 10 years. But troubling nightmares about a strange poker game he once attended on a houseboat on Lake Mead are drawing him back to the magical city. For the mythic game he believed he won did not end that night in 1969—and the price of his winnings was his soul. Now, a pot far more strange and perilous than he ever could imagine depends on the turning of a card.
-
-
Powers is Under-represented on Audible
- By tim on 01-18-11
By: Tim Powers
-
Good People
- By: Marcus Sakey
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean, Dan John Miller
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The $400,000 would take care of the mortgage payments that are starting to back up on Tom and Anna Reed. It would cover the credit-card debt they can't get out from under. It would help them find a way to have the child they desperately want but can't seem to conceive. It is more money than either of them has ever seen in one place. But they have no idea what it's doing in their house.
-
-
What were the producers thinking?
- By cristina on 08-04-13
By: Marcus Sakey
-
Koko
- Blue Rose Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 22 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
KOKO. Only four men knew what it meant. Now they must stop it. They are Vietnam vets — a doctor, a lawyer, a working stiff, and a writer. Very different from each other, they are nonetheless linked by a shared history and a single shattering secret. Now, they have been reunited and are about to embark on a quest that will take them from Washington, D.C., to the graveyards and fleshpots of the Far East to the human jungle of New York.
-
-
7 hours in and I am done
- By bionichands on 01-26-12
By: Peter Straub
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Golden State
- By: Ben Winters
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an alternate society that values law and truth above all else, Laszlo Ratesic is a 19-year veteran of the Speculative Service. He lives in the Golden State, a nation standing where California once did, a place where like-minded Americans retreated after the erosion of truth and the spread of lies made public life and governance impossible. In the Golden State, knowingly contradicting the truth is the greatest crime - and stopping those crimes is Laz's job. In its service, he is one of the few individuals permitted to harbor untruths, to "speculate" on what might have happened.
-
-
3.41 stars
- By ibillinsly@gmail on 02-04-19
By: Ben Winters
-
The Quiet Boy
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: William DeMeritt
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2008, a cheerful ambulance-chasing lawyer named Jay Shenk persuades the grieving Keener family to sue a private LA hospital. Their son, Wesley, has been transformed by a routine surgery into a kind of golem, absent all normal functioning or personality, walking in endless empty circles around his hospital room. In 2019, Shenk - still in practice but a shell of his former self - is hired to defend Wesley Keener’s father when he is charged with murder...the murder, as it turns out, of the expert witness from the 2008 hospital case.
-
-
Think twice
- By eugene m edele on 08-10-21
By: Ben H. Winters
-
Big Time
- A Novel
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Grace Berney is a mid-level bureaucrat in the Food and Drug Administration, a woman who once brimmed with purpose but somehow turned into a middle-aged single mom with a dull government job and a melancholy sense that life has passed her by. Until the night a strange photo comes across her desk, of a young woman in a hospital bed who has been subjected to a mysterious procedure.
-
-
Waaaaay too many F bombs!
- By Kindle Customer on 03-07-24
By: Ben H. Winters
-
The Last Policeman
- The Last Policeman, Book 1
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway? Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.
-
-
Not your regular mystery
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 09-20-16
By: Ben H. Winters
-
Self Help
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton, Ron Perlman
- Length: 3 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jack Diller is just one more struggling actor on the road to nowhere. He’s got an agent who barely remembers his name, his ex-girlfriend has hooked up with a Silicon Valley dude, and the milk in his fridge is so far past its sell-by date it’s historic. The only way Jack can scrape together a bare existence is by delivering food to exactly the types of successful people he wishes he could be. Then, one day, a very strange audiobook shows up on his phone.
-
-
Entertaining and slightly thought provoking, overall humorous
- By Jaxon on 05-30-22
By: Ben H. Winters
-
The Bonus Room
- A Novel
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Susan and Alex Wendt have found their dream apartment in a gorgeous Brooklyn brownstone. Sure, the landlady is a little eccentric. And the elderly handyman drops some cryptic remarks about the basement. But the rent is so low, it’s too good to pass up. Big mistake. Susan awakens every morning with fresh bug bites, but neither Alex nor their daughter, Emma, has a single welt. An exterminator searches the property and turns up nothing. The landlady insists her building is clean. Susan fears she’s going mad—until she makes a chilling discovery in the bonus room.
-
-
Meh with a side of an annoying child
- By Gus S. on 08-05-23
By: Ben H. Winters
-
Golden State
- By: Ben Winters
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an alternate society that values law and truth above all else, Laszlo Ratesic is a 19-year veteran of the Speculative Service. He lives in the Golden State, a nation standing where California once did, a place where like-minded Americans retreated after the erosion of truth and the spread of lies made public life and governance impossible. In the Golden State, knowingly contradicting the truth is the greatest crime - and stopping those crimes is Laz's job. In its service, he is one of the few individuals permitted to harbor untruths, to "speculate" on what might have happened.
-
-
3.41 stars
- By ibillinsly@gmail on 02-04-19
By: Ben Winters
-
The Quiet Boy
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: William DeMeritt
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2008, a cheerful ambulance-chasing lawyer named Jay Shenk persuades the grieving Keener family to sue a private LA hospital. Their son, Wesley, has been transformed by a routine surgery into a kind of golem, absent all normal functioning or personality, walking in endless empty circles around his hospital room. In 2019, Shenk - still in practice but a shell of his former self - is hired to defend Wesley Keener’s father when he is charged with murder...the murder, as it turns out, of the expert witness from the 2008 hospital case.
-
-
Think twice
- By eugene m edele on 08-10-21
By: Ben H. Winters
-
Big Time
- A Novel
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Grace Berney is a mid-level bureaucrat in the Food and Drug Administration, a woman who once brimmed with purpose but somehow turned into a middle-aged single mom with a dull government job and a melancholy sense that life has passed her by. Until the night a strange photo comes across her desk, of a young woman in a hospital bed who has been subjected to a mysterious procedure.
-
-
Waaaaay too many F bombs!
- By Kindle Customer on 03-07-24
By: Ben H. Winters
-
The Last Policeman
- The Last Policeman, Book 1
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway? Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.
-
-
Not your regular mystery
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 09-20-16
By: Ben H. Winters
-
Self Help
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton, Ron Perlman
- Length: 3 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jack Diller is just one more struggling actor on the road to nowhere. He’s got an agent who barely remembers his name, his ex-girlfriend has hooked up with a Silicon Valley dude, and the milk in his fridge is so far past its sell-by date it’s historic. The only way Jack can scrape together a bare existence is by delivering food to exactly the types of successful people he wishes he could be. Then, one day, a very strange audiobook shows up on his phone.
-
-
Entertaining and slightly thought provoking, overall humorous
- By Jaxon on 05-30-22
By: Ben H. Winters
-
The Bonus Room
- A Novel
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Susan and Alex Wendt have found their dream apartment in a gorgeous Brooklyn brownstone. Sure, the landlady is a little eccentric. And the elderly handyman drops some cryptic remarks about the basement. But the rent is so low, it’s too good to pass up. Big mistake. Susan awakens every morning with fresh bug bites, but neither Alex nor their daughter, Emma, has a single welt. An exterminator searches the property and turns up nothing. The landlady insists her building is clean. Susan fears she’s going mad—until she makes a chilling discovery in the bonus room.
-
-
Meh with a side of an annoying child
- By Gus S. on 08-05-23
By: Ben H. Winters
-
Twelve Years of Turbulence
- The Inside Story of American Airlines' Battle for Survival
- By: Gary Kennedy, Terry Maxon - contributor
- Narrated by: Gary Kennedy
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the twelve years following 9/11, American Airlines lost billions of dollars and endured years of crisis and turmoil. Financial upheaval, the crash of Flight 587, grueling confrontations with labor, a rival’s push to acquire the company, and a challenging fight with the government tested the mettle and fortitude of its top executives. Against all odds, American found a way to save what was once the world’s largest airline from certain ruin. Told through the eyes of American’s chief lawyer....
-
-
Very informative
- By Josh on 08-15-18
By: Gary Kennedy, and others
-
Turnaround Time
- Uniting an Airline and Its Employees in the Friendly Skies
- By: Oscar Munoz, Brian DeSplinter - contributor
- Narrated by: Oscar Munoz, Christopher Salazar
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
United Airlines, the iconic brand that invented the “Friendly Skies” and built modern aviation, found itself amid rough turbulence and was anything but united in 2015. With its reputation in freefall, operations and profits cratering, customer and employee trust fraying—and competitors pushing into coveted routes—United needed a new captain to turn things around, fast.
-
-
It’s a good book and…
- By Tionne Jackson on 01-14-24
By: Oscar Munoz, and others
-
The End is Nigh
- The Apocalypse Triptych
- By: John Joseph Adams, Hugh Howey, Scott Sigler
- Narrated by: Mur Lafferty, Rajan Khanna, Kate Baker, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Famine. Death. War. Pestilence. These are the harbingers of the biblical apocalypse, of the End of the World. In science fiction, the end is triggered by less figurative means: nuclear holocaust, biological warfare/pandemic, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm. But before any catastrophe, there are people who see it coming. During, there are heroes who fight against it. And after, there are the survivors who persevere and try to rebuild. THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH will tell their stories. Edited by acclaimed anthologist John Joseph Adams and bestselling author Hugh Howey, THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH is a series of three anthologies of apocalyptic fiction. THE END IS NIGH focuses on life before the apocalypse. THE END IS NOW turns its attention to life during the apocalypse. And THE END HAS COME focuses on life after the apocalypse.
-
-
THE REIGNING KING OF ANTHOLOGY
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 10-19-16
By: John Joseph Adams, and others
-
Phoenix Rising
- By: John J. Nance
- Narrated by: Brian Emerson
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Internationally acclaimed aviation insider and novelist John J. Nance moves with polished ease and compelling authenticity from the cockpit to the boardroom in a world where the big three U.S. airlines have achieved national dominance, with high prices and poor service. Challenging them comes a new, visionary airline, one that combines a great name from aviation's recent past with new standards of comfort and elegance.
-
-
Phoenix Rising
- By Bob on 12-29-05
By: John J. Nance
-
Stranger
- By: Ben H. Winters
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Harry, aspiring tech entrepreneur. He’s a would-be Steve Jobs trapped in a cubicle gig at an angel investor firm, so close and yet so far from his dreams. His marriage is foundering, his career is stalled out, and all he wants is to create an app like Uber, or Tinder, something to make real change in the world, and change his own life forever. Now meet Peter, a deeply troubled computer genius who lives in a basement apartment, chugging red wine, nursing old grudges and writing code. When Harry meets Peter, it’s both of their lives that will change, when they invent an app for murder.
-
-
Be careful the ideas you share
- By Noah chapman on 07-11-23
By: Ben H. Winters
-
Wanderers
- A Novel
- By: Chuck Wendig
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman, Xe Sands
- Length: 32 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon, they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other "shepherds" who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.
-
-
Recommended, with some issues
- By Allan T. Maule on 07-29-19
By: Chuck Wendig
What listeners say about Underground Airlines
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mark
- 10-29-17
Original and disturbing novel
The first half of this story was interesting but only mildly engaging. In this revisionist historical novel, the Civil War was not fought, and there is still slavery in the modern day deep south. The narrator is a black man who captures runaway slaves in the north (doing the devil's work, as he describes it). The novel has a slow noir feel to it and a very original premise. I was intrigued early on. The novel gets more engaging and faster paced in the second half, when we learn more about this slave catcher. When the story moves into slave territory in the south, it is at its most disturbing and most riveting. This is a novel that stayed with me after I finished it. It was worth the listen!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
99 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joel
- 02-04-17
Great Setting, So-So Story
After reading Ben H. Winters trilogy, The Last Policeman, I became cautiously optimistic about his latest venture Underground Airlines. On the surface, it's a novel that takes place in an alternative history where the Civil War didn't take place, and slavery wasn't abolished. Instead, it was relegated to four southern states. To avoid war a new set of amendments were added to the constitution that made it impossible to abolish slavery without basically disbanding the entire constitution. A compromise to avoid the Civil War.
Underground Airlines, similar to Winters past trilogy, at times falls victim to its lofty setting. I found myself far more interested in the alternative version of reality than the plight of Victor, the stories main character. Without spoiling anything, Victor is in charge of tracking down runaway slaves who are trying to escape via the "underground airlines." With a very successful track record, Victor is set to find Jackdaw, the latest runaway, but he realizes really quick that this isn't the typical case.
I never really became part of Team Victor. Winters still doesn't do much with character development, instead leans heavier into the setting and the world than in the mystery of the case. At times I actually wondered if this book would have been better off as just a straight alternative history, instead of a mystery/thriller set in an alternative history. I will say though that you could still make some interesting parallels into the real world and this fictitious world that was quite biting.
As much as I love the setting, the actual moment to moment story and characters fell flat. It felt a lot like the first novel in The Last Policeman where it wasn't until later books that you ever really cared about any of the characters. Underground Airlines ended up being a solid story in a fascinating world.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
90 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jim "The Impatient"
- 05-19-17
A CLEAN HAND STATE
HE SMILED, I SMILED, WE SMILED AT EACH OTHER.
If I graded on concept alone, I would give this an A+. If I graded on language alone, I would give this an A. On storyline, a B-, on character development a C. For the first hour I was completely enthralled due to the whole concept of the story and I loved the magical why Ben puts together words. This is one of those classical type of books where you often get three different words to describe one feeling or sight or whatever.
I CAUGHT MYSELF COMPLETELY ALONE IN THE PRESENCE OF MYSELF
What Ben could not due was get me involved in the story, get me in the head of the main character, Victor and get me to care what was happening. Once I was used to the new idea and once Ben explored how this new world works, and the newness wore off, I did not have a story or character that stuck with me.
EVERYTHING'S EVERYBODIES
Joel from Newport Beach, writes a more articulate review, voicing better, what I am trying to say.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
88 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David
- 09-13-16
An Inventive Novel from Takeoff until Landing
'Underground Airlines' may be the most inventive book I have read this year. While slave narratives have been markedly on the increase in the last year or two, Winters offers a fresh, thrilling approach to this somewhat belabored genre.
I will avoid a plot summary, as this is easily found online and too much information could inadvertently lead to spoilers. The novel reads more like a mystery/thriller than a traditional literary work, though I do not mean that in a bad way. I read the novel in a span of two days and could barely resist putting it down. I continually kept thinking about the characters, shifting plot and felt compelled to keep pressing forward with the story. I believe any novel's aim - beyond education, entertainment or both - should be to engage, and 'Underground Airlines' did this for me.
My one criticism would be Winters' use of alternate history. I found his tweaking of 19th and 20th century American history to be unique, thought-provoking and decently plausible. However, he did not take it far enough for me. While some would argue this is the fulcrum of the book, I would beg to disagree. I felt like Winters wanted to tell a story of modern racism, and he needed to utilize the idea of overt modern slavery to fit his narrative. While his writing is successful, I couldn't help but feel his alternative world was a mere gimmick to prop up his exposition on race relations. That's unfortunate, as I feel dystopian/alternate narratives often do not work - they are at once too primitive or too sci-fi - and his felt spot-on. I felt his alternative world could have been expanded and explored in much more detail without causing the story to feel overwrought.
In the grand scheme, however, this is a minor quibble. I feel many, if not most, works of contemporary fiction feel contrived and like they try to make a denouement greater than the sum of their parts. Winters combines a sensitive subject, an alternative history and a unique literary voice to create a sublime work of fiction and one of the most provoking reads of 2016.
Lastly, William DeMeritt's narration was among the top three I have ever listened to. His accents, voices and cadence are sheer perfection. Highly recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
36 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kenneth J. Katschke
- 07-11-16
Interesting what if...
Imagine a USA without a civil war and slavery was still legal in 2016. This is the premise of Underground Airlines. It's an interesting way to frame and examine racism today and how it may not be all that far removed from that distant past, and it's intimate connection. The story is like a crime novel, and it moves along nicely. I recommend the story.
William DeMerrit is excellent. Each character is uniquely and expertly performed. I look forward to hearing his other work.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
34 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Teresa Gregory
- 10-15-16
Wear a Seatbelt Because You Won't See The Turns
I wasn't familiar with this author, but I saw he was going to make an appearance in a local bookstore and was curious what he was promoting, so I looked him up. When I saw that the book was set in my home town, Indianapolis, I was intrigued. It was available on Audible, I had a credit, and that's how it started.
I usually read straight mysteries, so this was a little different for me. I liked the narrator very much, so much so that I didn't speed up the playback.
Victor is a very interesting character: hardened by life, trying to stay detached, but not soulless. He tracks runaway slaves and can successfully infiltrate abolitionism groups because he is Black. He has freedom but is not free.
His current case has not been well defined for him and he's struggling. The more he figures out, the more he knows that the real case is not the one that he's investigating. What is the underlying story?
I wasn't as charmed by Martha. I wasn't sure who she really was.
The book is divided into three parts. Once I got into the third part, I couldn't put it down. I also rewound several times just to make sure I was keeping everything straight.
This was a very interesting and thought-provoking read on what might have been. I like a book that makes me think. This is that book.
I would have liked to have given it 4.5 stars because there were a few continuity issues, but it was better than 4 stars so I rounded up.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
29 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 11-25-17
Extremely entertaining but . . .
Any additional comments?
This book is extremely entertaining, but once it was finished I felt Winters had exploited the highly charged subject matter of race and slavery in America for emotional affect. Other than some simplistic ideas like slavery is bad/immoral and racism is cruel and unjust, there's not much to take away. No broader truths are unveiled forcing the reader to think about race in more nuanced or complex ways. No seeing our America differently as a result of this alternative history. Yet Winters hurls the N-word along with racial stereotypes and horrific imagery in ways that propel the narrative. Using such content easily pushes emotional buttons. But alas, once the book ends, it seems like yet one more case of a white man telling the story of what it is to be a black man; using dialogue he could never actually use in his real life and all for the purpose of entertainment. Of course, creative license is legitimate and I wouldn't ever say people shouldn't write from the perspective of someone else, but maybe it's time we gave this specific relationship (white man writing as a black man) a break.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
28 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Emanuel McCown III
- 07-19-16
Excellent book!!
I loved this book. I could not stop listening to it!The story was very creative and wound along paths that you did not expect. It is spellbinding
I really liked the main character.
The narration, which can destroy a good book, was excellent.
Ben Winters is a very good writer. This is the first book of his that I read. I am going to read another one very soon!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
28 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Flo
- 07-23-16
There but for the grace of God...
A smart, compelling story that transports the listener to a world that could so easily be ours. The performance is riveting, thanks to the narrator, who makes you connect with the characters while opening your eyes to the small and large differences in this alternate America. The writer has captured An important reflection at an important time in America's history. Highly recommended to all who want to be reminded of just how far we've come even as we are eager to go farther still. Race relations in America - as it could have been.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
20 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- D. Leedy
- 07-11-16
"Everything Happens"
A great premise, well plotted and executed, wryly humorous. Solid narrator, William DeMeritt, who handles the introspective passages and character dialog equally adroitly. This is more like an American Noir antihero driven story than an Alt History. While unfortunately timely, the book isn't a preachy polemic, or a nerdy fleshing out of an alternate timeline. It's very much like modern America with the conceit throwing its contradictions into relief without tedious exposition. The good aren't as good as they think and evil is more prosaic than dastardly. It's about a man against himself more than his adversaries or circumstances. He's got layers and goes all the way down. He's good, isn't he? Ultimately it's a great story, worth your time and not a trendy edifying read for false liberal solidarity. Winters opened himself up to all sorts of backlash to write this story but acquits himself splendidly.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
20 people found this helpful