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The Great Troll War
- The Last Dragonslayer Chronicles, Book 4
- Narrated by: Jane Collingwood
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
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Publisher's summary
The final instalment of the Last Dragonslayer Chronicles, demonstrating that with a small band of committed followers, a large tin of resolve and steely determination, almost anything can be achieved....
Sixteen-year-old Jennifer Strange and her sidekick and fellow orphan Tiger Prawns have been driven to the tip of the UnUnited Kingdoms - Cornwall - by the invasion of the Trolls. Their one defence is a six-foot-wide trench full of buttons, something which the Trolls find unaccountably terrifying (it's their clickiness).
Worse than being eaten by Trolls is the prospect of the Mighty Shandar requisitioning the Quarkbeast and using him to achieve supreme power and domination - an ambition that has been 400 years in the planning and which will ultimately leave the Earth a cold cinder, devoid of all life.
Nothing has ever looked so bleak, but Jennifer, assisted by a renegade vegan Troll, a bunch of misfit sorcerers, the Princess (or is she now the ruler?) of the UnUnited (or are they now United?) Kingdoms, and Tiger, must find a way to vanquish the most powerful wizard the world has ever seen, and along the way discover the truth about her parents, herself, and what is in the locked glovebox of her VW Beetle....
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What listeners say about The Great Troll War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Will Friday
- 06-24-23
Rollicking good conclusion to a wonderful series
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this series. Fforde is great at world building, magical systems, character development and humor. Like a combination of Piers Anthony and Brandon Sanderson. I love his work.
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- Alexandra
- 06-18-23
Great ending
The third book brought a great ending to the story that initially was quite juvenile. Applause to the author.
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- s_mcbride
- 05-03-23
fell in love Thursday
I've been reading every book this author has put out there. This series was just the latest I followed. As the author did with the Thursday Next series, his character's voices are fresh and engaging. I hear myself responding the exact way his characters do. Calm, even if it's a troll discussing the best garnish for a meal of humans. Now, I've just got to wait till his next project. *looks at watch* Geeze, thought the newest book would be out by now. Definitely urge readers to dive deep into ALL the author's books.
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- e
- 02-22-23
Worth the wait
The third book seemed unfinished. This was the endcap we needed on the series. And the epilogue was <chef’s kiss>.
I could see this being optioned to Netflix or the BBC (please please)….
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- Kerry H
- 02-12-23
A Fforde classic, magnificent end to the story
This book is a wonderful cap to the Dragonslayer series, but it’s more than that… maybe one of Fforde’s best books. It has many of his trademark elements we so love: satire, humor, intrigue, , and more.
From humor reminiscent of Thursday Next to the dystopian memes similarly hued to Shades of Grey, this book sings Fforde, but to its own melody. Love it!
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- cheryl retired bookseller
- 02-01-23
I love Jasper Fforde
I think I have read and loved every book he has written. This one was fun.
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- Ur local anime fan
- 01-22-23
Seemed rushed
I think the first three books were magnificent. But here, Fforde clearly was trying to quickly wrap things up and had a hard time of it. First and last 5th of the book were disappointing. Middle is good. At first I was bummed about the new reader, but she did a good job.
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- Rivkah Penarelli
- 12-01-22
Fantastic!
Great story, clever, witty and well told. Excellent conclusion to the series by a fantastic writer. I highly recommend everything by Jasper Fforde!
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- Don
- 09-09-22
Another Jasper Gem
I thoroughly enjoyed this reading oh The Great Troll War. I know it was good when I’m sad it’s over.
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- Cats Everywhere
- 04-26-22
Finally! An audio version worthy of the Jennifer Strange series!
This was extremely enjoyable; what a great wrapup to an amazing series. The narrator finally got it right! No screeching feminine voices or ridiculous masculine interpretations, I was gratified to note that reviews are noticed and taken into account.
Compared to the former books in the series, this one it hits the mark 100%, not only in story and overall writing, but performance as well.
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- Tess
- 12-21-21
Fun but some elements really niggle
I love so much of Jasper Fforde’s work and the quartet is a lot of fun, but occasionally the editing lets the story down and some of the more obvious plot holes are really annoying. There’s quite a few inconsistencies between the books and overall the plot feels a little bit like someone making it up as they go along. The big reveals don’t seem to be consistent with what’s gone before, for example Jenny’s beserker ancestry seems to have been entirely forgotten (except for one mention which appears to be an attempt to mask the plot hole). Fforde is clearly aware of his plot holes - see the the hole-smith in the Thursday Next series - but I’m clearly more bothered by them than he is!
I always enjoy his work but sometimes end up going away with a slightly frustrated feeling, as if I were a teacher reading a C standard essay from an A standard student who couldn’t be bothered with the extra effort. For me, his novel Shades of Grey with a more limited but fully realised world view is vastly superior.
If you’re a Fforde fan this is definitely worth a listen but don’t expect a polished quartet.
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- Sarah
- 09-14-21
Fantastic
A brilliant last instalment of the last dragon slayer chronicles. Tissues at the ready though xxx
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- Anonymous User
- 09-11-21
'Don't you start'
Epic end to a fabulous series with Ffordeian quirks and twists aplenty. But is it really the end?
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- Chrissie Ann
- 04-07-22
Fantastic, brilliant.
I absolutely loved this book. So we'll written, such wonderful loveable characters, a superb story and a fabulous narration. It made me laugh and it made me cry. What a fabulous series!
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- Caitlin
- 06-02-23
Fabulous end to the series
This was my favourite of the four part series. The twists and turns were great fun, and the characters very charismatic. Loved how the other books tied in together as they had initially felt quite separate to me. Would love to see an entire book for the epilogue, but still an excellent way to end the tale.
Also, thoroughly enjoyed the poke at Redside Story still being in the works 🙈
Overall lots of fun, whilst also being able to contemplate some aspects of life and humanity more deeply (or not if you prefer!)
Would happily recommend to family, friends, and colleagues .. basically anyone who likes a good book !
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- Anonymous User
- 01-28-22
I'd Love to Give This Five Stars, but...
Jasper Fford's book have long held a firm affection in our family, The Last Dragon Slayer series being a standout as we shared them with our two daughters over the years. Fforde weaves his tale of flawed magic into an irresistible finale with all the wonder, love, oddities, mystery and palatable complexity contained in the previous three Jennifer Strange books. As always, he's written Jennifer with that magnetic combination of curiosity, resilience and strength. The world of the Un-United Kingdoms, and its motley characters, charm, amuse and infuriate us no less in this, the final installment in the series. And I would love to rave about it, but... BUT. Fforde, I assume unwittingly, severely undermines his heroine as a role model for his female-identifying readers in a baffling fashion. Perhaps he never set out to write a feminist main character at all. But I for one reveled in joy that my daughters had such a wonderful female role model in Jennifer Strange. The books drew them and me in for this very reason. Therefore imagine my disappointment when, after detailed description of the Hollow Men as Shandar's leathal guards, Fforde reveals the Hollow Women in Shandar's inner sanctum who function solely as ...domestic maids. Hollow Women, made of magic, given female designation across the board, who do nothing but sweep, washing up, serving food, etc. The sexism, again, probably unconscious on the author's part, sticks out like a lasagne at a cake stall. The inequity in designations and designated jobs pretty much sends the message that this what women usually do unless you are magical like Jennifer or Once Magnificent Boo. Yes, The Princess and Molly are wonderful characters. But to bring these pointlessly gendered magical beings in right towards the end really let us down. Finally, though honestly appropriate, the change in voices at the end threw me to the point of losing focus on the book itself. TLDR: Great book if you can overlook the pointlessly gendered beings and the narrator voice switch.
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-
Story
An inimitable blend of satire, fantasy, and thriller, The Constant Rabbit is the latest dazzlingly original foray into Jasper Fforde's ever-astonishing creative genius. England, 2022. There are 1.2 million human-sized rabbits living in the UK. They can walk, talk, drive cars, and like to read Voltaire, the result of an Inexplicable Anthropomorphising Event 55 years before.
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great book!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-07-20
By: Jasper Fforde
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Early Riser
- A Novel
- By: Jasper Fforde
- Narrated by: Thomas Hunt
- Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every Winter, the human population hibernates. Your name is Charlie Worthing, and it's your first season with the Winter Consuls, the committed but mildly unhinged group of misfits who are responsible for ensuring the hibernatory safe passage of the sleeping masses. You are investigating an outbreak of viral dreams which you dismiss as nonsense; nothing more than a quirky artifact borne of the sleeping mind. When the dreams start to kill people, it's unsettling. When you get the dreams, too, it's weird. When they start to come true, you begin to doubt your sanity.
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A different book from Jasper Fforde
- By Marilyn Armstrong on 02-16-19
By: Jasper Fforde
-
The Eyre Affair
- A Thursday Next Novel
- By: Jasper Fforde
- Narrated by: Susan Duerden
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Jasper Fforde's Great Britain, circa 1985, time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection.
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A Worthy Read
- By chicagoalum on 01-21-10
By: Jasper Fforde
-
The Big Over Easy
- A Nursery Crime
- By: Jasper Fforde
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's Easter in Reading, a bad time for eggs, and no one can remember the last sunny day. Ovoid D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III, minor baronet, ex-convict, and former millionaire philanthropist, is found shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. All the evidence points to his ex-wife, who has conveniently shot herself.
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Total Whimsy
- By Bruce Sabin on 08-10-05
By: Jasper Fforde
-
The Very First Damned Thing
- An Author-Read Audio Exclusive
- By: Jodi Taylor
- Narrated by: Jodi Taylor
- Length: 2 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jodi Taylor reads the long-awaited prequel in her Chronicles of St Mary’s series, as Dr Bairstow struggles to set up St Mary’s as we know it in a world still scarred by the ravages of civil war. Ever wondered how it all began? It’s two years since the final victory at the Battersea Barricades. The fighting might be finished, but for Dr Bairstow, just now setting up St Mary's, the struggle is only beginning. How will he assemble his team? From where will his funding come?
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Wait for it on Kindle. Not the best on audio
- By Sheryl on 11-05-15
By: Jodi Taylor
-
His Majesty's Dragon
- Temeraire, Book 1
- By: Naomi Novik
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo - an unhatched dragon egg - fate sweeps Captain Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle.
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-
Excellent AU period fantasy
- By Melanie on 07-08-10
By: Naomi Novik
-
The Constant Rabbit
- A Novel
- By: Jasper Fforde
- Narrated by: Andrew Wincott
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An inimitable blend of satire, fantasy, and thriller, The Constant Rabbit is the latest dazzlingly original foray into Jasper Fforde's ever-astonishing creative genius. England, 2022. There are 1.2 million human-sized rabbits living in the UK. They can walk, talk, drive cars, and like to read Voltaire, the result of an Inexplicable Anthropomorphising Event 55 years before.
-
-
great book!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-07-20
By: Jasper Fforde
-
Early Riser
- A Novel
- By: Jasper Fforde
- Narrated by: Thomas Hunt
- Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every Winter, the human population hibernates. Your name is Charlie Worthing, and it's your first season with the Winter Consuls, the committed but mildly unhinged group of misfits who are responsible for ensuring the hibernatory safe passage of the sleeping masses. You are investigating an outbreak of viral dreams which you dismiss as nonsense; nothing more than a quirky artifact borne of the sleeping mind. When the dreams start to kill people, it's unsettling. When you get the dreams, too, it's weird. When they start to come true, you begin to doubt your sanity.
-
-
A different book from Jasper Fforde
- By Marilyn Armstrong on 02-16-19
By: Jasper Fforde
-
The Eyre Affair
- A Thursday Next Novel
- By: Jasper Fforde
- Narrated by: Susan Duerden
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Jasper Fforde's Great Britain, circa 1985, time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection.
-
-
A Worthy Read
- By chicagoalum on 01-21-10
By: Jasper Fforde
-
The Big Over Easy
- A Nursery Crime
- By: Jasper Fforde
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's Easter in Reading, a bad time for eggs, and no one can remember the last sunny day. Ovoid D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III, minor baronet, ex-convict, and former millionaire philanthropist, is found shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. All the evidence points to his ex-wife, who has conveniently shot herself.
-
-
Total Whimsy
- By Bruce Sabin on 08-10-05
By: Jasper Fforde
-
The Very First Damned Thing
- An Author-Read Audio Exclusive
- By: Jodi Taylor
- Narrated by: Jodi Taylor
- Length: 2 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jodi Taylor reads the long-awaited prequel in her Chronicles of St Mary’s series, as Dr Bairstow struggles to set up St Mary’s as we know it in a world still scarred by the ravages of civil war. Ever wondered how it all began? It’s two years since the final victory at the Battersea Barricades. The fighting might be finished, but for Dr Bairstow, just now setting up St Mary's, the struggle is only beginning. How will he assemble his team? From where will his funding come?
-
-
Wait for it on Kindle. Not the best on audio
- By Sheryl on 11-05-15
By: Jodi Taylor
-
His Majesty's Dragon
- Temeraire, Book 1
- By: Naomi Novik
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo - an unhatched dragon egg - fate sweeps Captain Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle.
-
-
Excellent AU period fantasy
- By Melanie on 07-08-10
By: Naomi Novik