Showing results by narrator "Ben Allen" in All Categories

All is in turmoil as the world moves towards war. In Solarno, spies eye one another and ready their knives – while the people of Myna watch troops gather at its borders. Emotions run high as old fears reawaken. And in Collegium students argue politics, too late to turn the tide. At the heart of the Empire, new pilots complete their secretive training, generals are recalled to service and armies are readied to march. Their Empress, heir to two worlds, intends to claim her birthright. For nothing – either within the Empire or beyond it – will stand in her way.

Imagine waking up one day to discover that you have forgotten everything about your life. Your only link with the past, your only hope for the future, is your identical twin. Now imagine, years later, discovering that your twin had not told you the whole truth about your childhood, your family, and the forces that had shaped you. Why the secrets? Why the silences? You have no choice but to begin again. This has been Alex's reality: a world where memories are just the stories people tell you, where fact and fiction are impossible to distinguish.

Ancient powers are waking. The war with the Wasp Empire has ended in a bitter stalemate, and Collegium has nothing to show for it but wounded veterans. Cheerwell Maker finds herself broken in ways no doctor can mend, haunted by ghosts of the past. Meanwhile, the powerful Wasp Empress is regaining control over those imperial cities that refused to bow to her.

Twelfth-century Europe. Newly crowned King Philip of France is determined to restore his nation to its former empire and bring glory to his name. But when his greatest enemy, King Henry of England, threatens to end his reign before it can even begin, Philip is forced to make a precarious alliance with Henry’s volatile son—risking both his throne, and his heart.

Uctebri’s long search for the Shadow Box is finally over. Now the vampiric sorcerer can begin his dark ritual. The Wasp-kinden’s emperor believes this will grant him immortality, but Uctebri has his own plans - for the emperor and the empire. The mighty Wasp armies are on the march. And now war is imminent, spymaster Stenwold can finally separate allies from false friends. For the empire won’t stop until a black and gold flag hangs over Collegium, Stenwold's home city.

The Iremongers are a mean and cruel family, robust and hardworking, living in the Heaps, a vast sea of lost and discarded items. A storm is brewing over Heap House. The Iremongers are growing restless and the whispers are getting louder. When Clod meets Lucy, a girl newly arrived from the city, everything changes. The secrets that bind Heap House together begin to unravel to reveal a dark truth that threatens to destroy Clod's world.

Liverpool: a suburban crime family grips a whole city with fear. And their ambition reaches further still. Galicia: an entire community waits on the windswept edge of Europe for the delivery of four tonnes of cocaine, brought across the ocean in an almost unbelievable craft. London: Jonas Merrick, grey and quiet, alone in a small office, seems an unlikely character to be tasked with bringing down an international drug network. But while Jonas's colleagues regard him as scratchy, fastidious, old, he is also ruthless, cunning and brutally pragmatic.

Artists flock here, not just for wealth and fame, but for revolutionary color. Yet artist Giorgione “Zorzo” Barbarelli’s career hangs in the balance. Competition is fierce, and his debts are piling up. When Zorzo hears a rumor of a mysterious new pigment, brought to Venice by the richest man in Europe, he sets out to acquire the color and secure his name in history.

When Otto and Xavier Shin declare their love, an aunt gifts them a trip on a sleeper train to mark their new commitment—and to get them out of her house. Setting off with their pet mongoose, Otto and Xavier arrive at their sleepy local train station but quickly deduce that The Lucky Day is no ordinary locomotive. Their trip on this former tea-smuggling train has been curated beyond their wildest imaginations, complete with mysterious and welcoming touches, like ingredients for their favorite breakfast.

Audible editor Katie O’Connor explores the craft of writing for the audio format with Audible Originals authors Samantha Allen, Lauren Blakely, Dennis Mahoney, and Ben H. Winters. Listen in as the authors discuss how they changed their approach to their work with audio in mind. You’ll also hear from two Audible Originals editors - Lara Blackman and Steve Feldberg - about how they collaborate with their authors and where they think the future of audio is going.  

Countries die. Sometimes it’s murder, sometimes it’s by accident, and sometimes it’s because they were so ludicrous they didn’t deserve to exist in the first place. Occasionally they explode violently. A few slip away almost unnoticed. Often the cause of death is either ‘got too greedy’ or ‘Napoleon turned up’. Now and then they just hold a referendum and vote themselves out of existence. This is an atlas of nations that fell off the map.

In the office at MI5 where he works, they call Jonas Merrick 'the eternal flame'. It isn't a compliment. It's because he never goes out. He never goes undercover, never does surveillance, never goes with the teams that kick down the doors or seize the suspects off the street. He commutes into work and sits at his desk and then he goes home. But Jonas has qualities the hot-shots fail to notice: a steely concentration, a ruthless ability to focus and find the enemy hiding in plain sight.

This is the true story of a Londoner who gives up his job as an estate agent in the city, moves to the wilds of Exmoor, starts a smallholding and becomes self-sufficient, with a few bumps along the way. Simon's journey from urbanite to self-sufficient smallholder is brimming with incidents - some funny and some tragic - leading him to question Mother Nature, himself, the food he eats and his role in it all.

While contemplating his life and deeming himself ridiculous, a man on the verge of suicide is interrupted by a young girl begging for his help. In his dark mood, he brushes her away, but when he returns home to commit the act he cannot move past his feelings of guilt over his treatment of the girl.

In the aptly named borough of Foulsham, Grandfather Umbitt Iremonger has found a way of making everyday objects assume human shape, and turning real people into objects. Lucy Pennant has been discarded as a clay button, abandoned in the Heaps. Meanwhile, Clod has been turned into a gold coin and is being passed as currency through the town. Everywhere people are searching for Clod, who, it is believed, has the power to bring the mighty Umbitt down.

How far can you go before you're in too deep? A dark, chilling psychological thriller from number one best-selling author Conn Iggulden. Davey has always lived in the shadow of his older brother, a smiling sociopath who will stop at nothing to protect himself and his family. But when the shadowy figure of Denis Tanter comes into Davey's life, how far will the bond of brotherhood reach?

In June 1862, Dostoevsky left St. Petersburg on his first excursion to Western Europe. Ostensibly making the trip to consult Western specialists about his epilepsy, he also wished to see the source of the Western ideas he believed were corrupting Russia. Over the course of his journey he visited a number of major cities, including Berlin, Paris, London, Florence, Milan, and Vienna. His impressions on what he saw, Winter Notes on Summer Impressions, were first published in the February 1863 issue of "Vremya" (Time), the periodical he edited, and are collected here.

When his village is destroyed by the evil Prince Mephtik, young Jarral Gullen must search for answers. With the help of his three friends Archer, Scythe and the Lady Mandragorina - a band of magically talented adventurers - Jarral must make a terrifying journey into the unknown. Only then will he be able to answer the questions that haunt him. Will he be able to discover what strange talents he possesses? And why does the spectre known as the Poisoner want to hunt him down?

The Red Waaagh! has fallen on Alaric Prime, and the mekboys are working on Big Mek Mogrok's cunning and brutal plan - to pull a comet from space with the massive and dangerous 'Klaw of Mork' and bring it down on the heads of the world's human defenders.

Hazel and Jamie are happily married. Or so it would seem. Behind closed doors, things are far from normal. Jamie has an unhealthy obsession, and Hazel is more worried about herself than her husband. So when Millicent injects herself into their lives, with Jamie firmly in her sights, the trio end up on a path that will end in death. Everyone has secrets. Everyone has a dark side. But who is good, who is bad, and who is going to get away with murder?