The Red Winter

De: Cameron Sullivan

Narrado por: Imogen Church, Rory Barnett

A devastating love story. A bewitching twist on history. A blood-drenched hunt for purpose, power, and redemption.

"...narrator Rory Bennet voices Sarmodel like a French Peter Lorre, and it’s *chef’s kiss*" — Book Riot

In 1785, Professor Sebastian Grave receives the news he fears most: the terrible Beast of Gevaudan has returned, and the French countryside runs red in its wake.

Sebastian knows the Beast. A monster-slayer with centuries of experience, he joined the hunt for the creature twenty years ago and watched it slaughter its way through a long and bloody winter. Even with the help of his indwelling demon, Sarmodel – who takes payment in living hearts – it nearly cost him his life to bring the monster down.

Now, two decades later, Sebastian has been recalled to the hunt by Antoine Avenel d’Ocerne, an estranged lover who shares a dark history with the Beast and a terrible secret with Sebastian. Drawn by both the chance to finish the Beast for good and the promise of a reconciliation with Antoine, Sebastian cannot refuse.

But Gevaudan is not as he remembers it, and Sebastian’s unfinished business is everywhere he looks. Years of misery have driven the people to desperation, and France teeters on the edge of revolution. Sebastian’s arcane activities – not to mention his demonic counterpart – have also attracted the inquisitorial eye of the French clergy. And the Beast is poised to close his jaws around them all and plunge the continent into war.

Debut author Cameron Sullivan tears the heart out of history with this darkly entertaining retelling of the hunt for the Beast of Gevaudan. Lifting the veil on the hidden world behind our own, it reimagines the story of Europe, from Imperial Rome to Saint Jehanne d’Arc, the madness of Gilles de Rais and the first flickers of the French Revolution.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

Reseñas de la Crítica

“An absolute feast of a book: rich, red, sinfully delicious. I've rarely been this satisfied—or this hungry for more.” —Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of Starling House

“So bloody good. The Red Winter is absolute ripper entertainment—miss it at your peril!” —Shelley Parker-Chan, bestselling author of She Who Became the Sun

“A gorgeous tangle of history and fresh-made myth. You'll eat this one up.” —Cassandra Khaw, bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth

“Charming, haunting, ambitious, and a great deal of fun.” —T. Kingfisher, New York Times bestselling author of A Sorceress Comes to Call

Masterpiece

Everything about this is just excellent. Best thing I've read in years. The prose is elegant and brutal in equal measure, the humor is dry as a beautiful desert, and the way the story blends together various histories and lores creates something both comfortably familiar and wholly unique.

A dang good debut!

If you've been searching for something to soothe the itch that Empire of the Vampire left behind, look no further! The Red Winter is kind of like EotV’s little werewolf bro but with a slightly less profane mouth. It's still plenty violent, horrifying, and sexy though.

This story features a frame narrative told via Sebastian recording his tale across three timelines: His journey with Jacques in 1785; his history with Jacques’s dad, Antoine, in 1766; and Livia’s reports detailing an important search for a bone relic belonging to Joan of Arc in the 1430s.

Rory Barnett's narration was perfect, and he is one of the best narrators I've heard. I listened and read along to the physical book. Barnett gives some characters accents, but I didn't find them silly or distracting. I also liked how he handled the book's footnotes. He finishes the sentence or paragraph where the footnotes appear before reading them.

Unfortunately, I thought Imogen Chruch's narration was not good. She reads Livia's addendum chapters. Her voices, accents, and handling of the footnotes were so distractingly overwrought/bad that I skipped her chapters and just read from the book until it was time to put Barnett back on. That being said, there are only a few addendum chapters.

Fantastic

A dark and tragic romance with demons and monsters. Well written with excellent character development.

Exceptional (Think Empire of the Vampire meets The Lamplighter series)

This is one of those rare occasions these days when a book has the ability to kidnap you and refuse to release you until the very last word. It’s just one of those stories that you have to plan your day around because you won’t be able to escape from it until you’ve devoured every last morsel. It’s worth a year’s amount of credits. I hope that this author is already at work on the next installment of this series. It has to be a series! Positive thinking!

4.25 Stars ⭐️

This is one of those stories that is a little bit harder for me to review because it is so very different from most anything else out there.

This story is narrated by Imogen Church and Rory Barnett with the majority of the story being performed by Mr. Barnett who does a really fantastic job with his portrayal.

The story is told in alternating timelines, starting in the prologue in 2013 and then dramatically going back in time to the late 1700's - 1785 to be specific. I have to admit that it really confused me in the beginning while I was listening to the audio so I went back and started reading the actual print version. That gave me a much better idea of what was going on while at the same time helping me to get a better handle on our MMC Professor Sebastian Grave.

Sebashtian begins to tell us a story, and it unfolds rather slowly - taking the entirety of the book until we finally get the whole story. Basically, he is an immortal something or other that also shares his body (and maybe his soul?) with a demon named Sarmodel. The two of them have an unusual relationship. I don't think he ever tells us how the two of them became entwined.

Anyway, he is remembering back to a time when he met and had a relationship with a nobleman's son, a young Antoine Avenel d’Ocerne. The two of them - along with men from all over - are involved in the hunt for "the Beast", a monster terrorizing the countryside of Antonine's family's lands. He begins the tale 20 years after that time period when he is approached by Antoine's son informing him that The Beast is back and his father Antoine is again calling in the contract that Sebashtian signed contract to again help now that the same monster is back.

As Sebashtian and the son begin the long journey back to Antoine's homeland, he begins to tell him the tale of what happened those 20 years ago. It also becomes apparent that something is not right with the son who rode all the way to find him, and as Sebashtian's tale unfolds, it begins to become clear that the events that occurred decades before had many secrets that Sebashtian has been trying to forget.

The timeline jumps back and forth between 1766 and 1785 as we learn more and more of the earlier events the farther into the book that we go. It is quite the tale, with many different characters and many hidden agendas. There is quite a bit of foreshadowing, so some of the major "reveals" were not as surprising as they might have been meant to be. There was also some confusing overlap as we also begin to follow another entwined character - a succubus demon also tied to Sebashtian - and her tale of that time period as well.

The world building is rich and descriptive and the tension in the story begins to build the closer we get to finding out exactly what occurred that first summer. As I mentioned before, the narration by.
Rory Barnett is wonderful and he does a fantastic performance with his portrayal of Sebashtian. He helps to more fully create the world that we find ourselves immersed in.

This is a unique yet interesting tale that encompasses a somewhat tragic love story, a betrayal, the arcane and a very unusual relationship between two very distinct characters who share a body.