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Territory  By  cover art

Territory

By: Emma Bull
Narrated by: Michael Kramer, Kate Reading
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Publisher's summary

Tombstone, 1881: site of one of the richest strikes in American history, where veins of silver run like lay lines under the earth, a network of power that belongs to anyone who knows how to claim it and defend it.

Above the ground, power is also about allegiances. A magician can drain his friends' strength to strengthen him, and place them between him and danger. The one with the most friends stands to win the territory.

Jesse Fox left his Eastern college education behind to wander west, after his sister suffered a mental breakdown - an event she insisted was a supernatural assault. Now Jesse's been summoned to Tombstone by his friend the physician (and magician) Chow Lung. Lung insists that Jesse has magical talent, but if Jesse believed that he'd have to accept that the thing that destroyed his sister's mind lives in his own as well.

Jesse meets the tubercular Doc Holliday, whose inner magic is as suppressed as his own, but whose power is enough to attract the sinister attention of Wyatt Earp, who means to use Holliday to put himself and his family in positions of power in Arizona. And Jesse also meets Mildred Benjamin, a young Jewish widow who makes her living first as a newspaper typesetter, then as a reporter, as she discovers her true nature - personal and supernatural - in the scrambling boomtown environment of Tombstone.

Then, when a failed stage holdup results in two dead, Tombstone explodes with speculation about who attempted it. The truth could destroy Wyatt Earp's plans for wealth and glory, and he'll do anything to bury it. Meanwhile, outlaw leader John Ringo wants the same turf as Earp.

Events (including fire, floods, Apaches, and rustlers, and a surprising Fourth of July) are building toward the shootout of which you may have heard. But you haven't heard the whole, secret story until you've read Emma Bull's unique take on an American legend, in which absolutely nothing is as it seems

©2007 Emma Bull (P)2008 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Vivid and deeply felt. Readers will think about the story long after it ends." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Territory

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic book with a great big BUT...

Western and fantasy all mixed together? I wasn't sure I'd like it but it sounded different and I am tired of same old same old, so I gave it a chance. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book! The characters are interesting, the story grabs you, and the narrator is excellent. And here's where the big but comes in. I finished it and immediately came to Audible to buy the next book because this is the first in the sequel. But...there isn't a next book. This was published in 2008 and if there has been a sequel published, Audible doesn't have it. And this book does not have an ending. It just stops, waiting for the non-existent sequel to pick up and carry on. I'm still glad I read it but I think it should be made clear that there is no ending and most likely will never be one.

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Good book, great reading

The long wait for a new Emma Bull has been rewarded; 'Territory' is well-written, humorous, sharp-edged, and much more historically accurate than the beguiling preface would suggest. It is very definitely the first part of something; it's not just that it leaves many, many plot points unresolved, to be addressed in the subsequent book(s), it's also that it does more to build complexity in character and relationships than to provide a really gripping story arc that can stand alone. There is action, adventure, drama, humor, and things changing and developing, but it's not paced like a stand-alone novel. I enjoyed the complexity of the foundation laid in this first volume, as well as enjoying its story, characters, and dialogue (perhaps especially dialogue), but I found myself wishing for just a little steeper a plot arc, even though I know it's the first piece of something and I like it that way.

My first time through it, I felt a little flat at the ending. But in its praise, I can say that every time I've listened to it again since then, I've enjoyed it more and more.

The readers are both *extremely* good. Kate Reading does a marvelous job, which is what I have come to expect from her. I think it's a pity that the production gave us one male reader for two different male point-of-view characters (Jesse Fox and Doc Holliday), but Michael Kramer does a fine job with a challenging task.

I wavered between giving this a 4 and a 5. As I finish writing this review, I'm still not sure. And I don't hand out 5's often.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

7 Years and No Sequel

I first listened to this book in 2008. I loved it. It is read by two of the greatest narrators still working. As promised by other reviewersI still think about it. I expect that it is a measure of the writer's skill that the characters are so strange, the atmosphere so odd that I still wonder what happens to these characters and this town. After all these years I still check back to see if there is another book in that place and time.

Its been seven years and in spite of teasing rumors, no sequel.

I am not suggesting this story is left with a cheesy cliff-hanger. It is just that the reader is left a bit off-balance. So I think I will finally stop wondering how these spell-slinging, gun slingers are doing. Feeling a bit frustrated, and a bit silly, I think I will let this book and these characters go.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Warning: series

Hey thanks, Macmillan Audio, for telling us that this is PART 1 OF A SERIES. There is zero resolution at the end of this title. It's a decent story, but now if I want to know how it ends I'm obligated to purchase the entire series. Had that been mentioned anywhere at all in the description I would not have wasted a credit on this audiobook.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A great combination of western and magic

I've always liked every book I've read by Emma Bull, this one's not an exception. And I've got to say, with the added western accent of the narrators, really help to immerse myself to the setting and greatly added to my enjoyment of the story.

This title deserves more than a five star, for the great book and excellent narrators. Don't hesitate to try it.

Hearing that there's going to be a sequel makes me giddy with happiness.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The best book I've heard in years

Practically perfect in every way. Historically accurate, well-written, the narration makes it more like theatre than a book. This is fantasy that is totally believeable and enjoyable every step of the way.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful

I loved the interplay of the Wild West (and its familiar characters) with a whole new fantasy overlay. I wonder, though, when the sequel will come out? It leaves the reader with a lot of loose ends.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Best Spell-Slinger Book

I've encountered several novels that have attempted to combine the magic of Fantasy with the style of Western gun-slinging romance, but this is by far the most successful. In most cases, these kind of novels read like what they are, a lumpy hodgepodge of ideas taken from different cultural sources thrown in together. This book is one of a handful where these flavors blend to create a unified whole. It's also much more tightly written than the likes of the Dark Tower saga and unfailingly entertaining throughout. It is the only book I have ever recommended to my Western loving grandfather, my horse loving mother, and my fantasy loving best friend and gotten a universally positive response.

The book's main flaw is that it reads like the second book of a series; it's not. This is a stand alone novel, unless Ms. Bull has written short stories about these characters that I'm unaware of. The main character Jesse and his friend Chow Lung constantly refer back to a shared past the reader knows nothing about. Lung is even written like a cameo character, as if we should all ready know him well. The novel ends before the infamous Gunfight at the OK Corral, probably off the assumption that everyone knows what happened there all ready. This does leave us wondering what becomes of the main characters, which isn't by itself a bad thing, but the conclusion comes off as rushed and abrupt.

I read the text version of this book some years ago and had fond memories of it, therefor I was relieved to discover that the readers do it justice. Kate Reading is a perfect choice for Millie and I'm glad they cast a male reader for the places where the narrative switches to Jesse. Reading still has the problem of only having one "voice" for male characters but to be fair Kramer has exactly the same problem with female characters, Kate Holliday and Millie sound exactly the same when he reads them. This is only a minor complaint. The audiobook is a wonderful listen and very entertaining.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good mix of magic and old West

A solid take on the old West legends with an interesting magic system.
best of all are the characters and details that really bring them all to life

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great take on Tombstome

Interesting swapping of readers, works in this instance, not usually a fan of this style of audiobook. Really want to continuation of the story to be available on Audible. Or other of her books!

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