Pavane
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Narrated by:
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Steven Crossley
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By:
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Keith Roberts
About this listen
Earphones Award Winner (AudioFile Magazine)
Award-winning author, narrator, and screenwriter Neil Gaiman personally selected this book, and, using the tools of the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX), cast the narrator and produced this work for his audiobook label, Neil Gaiman Presents.
A few words from Neil on Pavane: "When Old Earth Books told me they are reissuing Pavane, which was originally published in 1968, I told them: 'I read one story from Pavane when I was nine, and it scarred me…. I read the whole book as a teenager and learned where that story had come from, and the shape of the whole story and I felt the scars heal….' Pavane was Keith Roberts' masterpiece: profound and still remarkable."
Considered Keith Roberts' masterwork, this novel consists of linked short stories (six measures and a coda) of a 20th century in which the Roman Catholic Church controls the Western world, and has done so since Queen Elizabeth of England was assassinated in 1588. The Protestant Reformation never happened, and the world is kept in a Dark Age of steam-power transportation, with no allowance for electrical power, by a tyrannical Rome. Pavane shows the harshness of life in this society and details the generational struggle for independence by the citizens of Dorset, England. It's through this series of moving tales that Roberts interweaves a discussion of Destiny and History that take the book out of the ordinary. And the author's great love of his native country makes this the most English of novels, and one of the finest in fantastic literature.
To hear more from Neil Gaiman on Pavane, click here, or listen to the introduction at the beginning of the book itself.Learn more about Neil Gaiman Presents and Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX).
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The Last Crossing
- A Novel
- By: Guy Vanderhaeghe
- Narrated by: John Henry Cox, John Keating, Colin Lane, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Abridged
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This epic tale sweeps across continents and time, hovers over a key era in American history, and deftly realizes the humanity of a whole cast of characters. Told through flashbacks and alternating points of view, The Last Crossing is about redemption, about seeking and finding, about human feelings and strengths, about personal honor, and about that moment in life when we must decide to cross over and surrender to love.
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A Very Dark Story
- By Virginia on 04-05-04
By: Guy Vanderhaeghe
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Cry Wolf
- By: Wilbur Smith
- Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
- Length: 16 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Jake Barton is an American engineer, Gareth Swales a stylish Englishman with a nose for a quick deal. Both have always moved from one escapade to another. Now, as Mussolini prepares to annihilate the people of Ethiopia, the two adventurers come up against Vicky Camberwell, the beautiful but fiery reporter bent on espousing their cause. Striking a bargain with a beleaguered Ethiopian prince, the trio dares to run gauntlet, guns and a batch of run-down armoured cars in a final, desperate gamble for freedom....
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Awesome story about a beautiful part of our world
- By JDD on 05-31-19
By: Wilbur Smith
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The Door Before
- 100 Cupboards Prequel
- By: N. D. Wilson
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Hyacinth Smith can see things that others miss, stop attack dogs from attacking, and grow trees where no trees have grown before. But she's never had a real home. When her father tells them they've inherited a house from their great-aunt, Hyacinth sees trouble brewing. Their great-aunt has been playing with forces beyond her control, using her lightning-tree forest to create doors to other worlds. When one door opens, two boys tumble through...bringing with them a battle with the undying witch-queen, Nimiane.
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If Siri read you a book
- By Brian K on 06-29-17
By: N. D. Wilson
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Amber Magic
- Haven Series, Book 1
- By: B. V. Larson
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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The humans have no magic and are hunted for sport, but that is about to change. War is coming.... The Sun Dragon spawned nine lesser dragons which devoured their parent for the power the elder possessed. These young dragons fought for choice bits of the Sun Dragon, but each only managed to eat a portion, thus giving them specific powers. Over time, these foul dragons were hunted down and slain by heroes of old.
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Not Undying Mercenaries Thats for sure
- By John on 10-21-15
By: B. V. Larson
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The Anubis Gates
- By: Tim Powers
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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When Brendan Doyle is flown from America to London to give a lecture on Samuel Taylor Coleridge, little does he expect that he will soon be traveling through time and meeting the poet himself. But Brendan could do without being stranded penniless in the teeming, thieving London of 1810.
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Yesterday… All My Troubles Seemed So Far Away
- By Doug D. Eigsti on 06-21-16
By: Tim Powers
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The Emperor's Railroad
- By: Guy Haley
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Global war devastated the environment, a zombielike plague wiped out much of humanity, and civilization as we once understood it came to a standstill. But that was a thousand years ago, and the world is now a very different place. Conflict between city-states is constant, superstition is rife, and machine relics, mutant creatures, and resurrected prehistoric beasts trouble the land. Watching over all are the silent Dreaming Cities. Homes of the angels, bastion outposts of heaven on Earth.
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THE GONE BEFORE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-09-18
By: Guy Haley
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Flesh and Spirit
- Lighthouse, Book 1
- By: Carol Berg
- Narrated by: Allen O'Reilly
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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The rebellious son of a long line of pureblood cartographers and diviners, Valen has spent most of his life trying to escape what society - and his family - have ordained for him. His own mother has predicted that he will meet his doom in water, blood, and ice. Her divination seems fulfilled when a comrade abandons Valen in a rainy wilderness half-dead, addicted to an enchantment that converts pain to pleasure, and possessing only a stolen book of maps.
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FIGHTING TO ADD MORE WORDS TO THIS COLLECTION
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 07-13-14
By: Carol Berg
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Gravity's Rainbow
- By: Thomas Pynchon, Frank Miller - cover design
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 37 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Winner of the 1973 National Book Award, Gravity's Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the 20th century as Joyce's Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force.
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"Time to touch the person next to you"
- By Jefferson on 07-04-16
By: Thomas Pynchon, and others
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The Queen's Lady
- By: Barbara Kyle
- Narrated by: Barbara Kyle
- Length: 21 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Abducted as a child-heiress, Honor Larke escapes to London seeking justice from the only lawyer she knows: the brilliant Sir Thomas More. With More as her affectionate guardian, Honor grows to womanhood, when the glitter of the royal court lures her to attend Her Majesty, Queen Catherine of Aragon. But life at Henry VIII’s court holds more than artifice for an intelligent observer, and Honor knows how to watch - and when to act.
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Very Disappointing
- By elizabeth on 03-27-14
By: Barbara Kyle
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Daughters of the Storm
- By: Kim Wilkins
- Narrated by: Lucy Price-Lewis
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Lying in a magic-induced coma, the King of Thyrsland is on the brink of death: if his enemies knew, chaos would reign. In fear for his life and his kingdom, his five daughters set out on a perilous journey to try to save him, their only hope an aunt they have yet to meet, a shadowy practitioner of undermagic who lives on the wild northern borders. No one can stand before the fierce tattooed soldier and eldest daughter, Bluebell, an army commander who is rumoured to be unkillable....
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Boring, could not even get through half…
- By Diana M Meredith on 10-30-23
By: Kim Wilkins
What listeners say about Pavane
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Llewellyn
- 10-18-18
Total waste of time
I didn't enjoy this...I couldn't figure out what the point was. Where was the narrative? They seem like connected stories
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- Spike72
- 01-01-15
Enjoyable episodic alternate history
Would you listen to Pavane again? Why?
Not likely. There are just too many books to read.
What did you like best about this story?
I felt Roberts created a reasonable, though not necessarily likely alternate future where the Roman Catholic Church was not challenged by the Tudors or Germany. Technology and society grew in different directions which played out through the book.
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- Michael
- 01-03-12
Thank You Neil
This is a book I would have never listened to or read if Neil Gaiman hadn't recommended it. I am a big science fiction and fantasy fan but still had never heard of Pavane. And reading the descriptions here in Audible and on Amazon didn't really pull me in. But I tried it based on Neil's recommendation.
For the first 10 minutes I thought I had made a mistake. A few days later I came back, tried again from the beginning, and was hooked. I'm a big fan of the alternate history genre and this is not your usual alternate history novel. But in this case that is a very good thing.
My first real science fiction reading just happened to be 70's English "New Wave" like Michael Moorcock, Brian Aldiss and J.G. Ballard. Pavane reminds me a lot of the best New Wave writing I remember from my youth.
Not for everybody but fantastic for those who can appreciate it.
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11 people found this helpful
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- B. Wills
- 12-15-11
Dense & rich - not a light listen
I knew in the first 10 minutes of this recording that I would not be able to do anything requiring multi-tasking while listening. The story is so deep and so full of the facts of this alternate universe, that it needs full attention.
It is written as though the author didn't just consider the surface change of this non-reformation world, but the skeleton and tissue of it's history - each of the separate stories centers on how the characters would live and react in a world dominated and restricted by the one and only church. The reader does a superb job of conveying the feel of this world and its characters. Overall it is a dark world, but ends on a message of hope and the alternative world feels solid and real.
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5 people found this helpful
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- HeatherTwist
- 02-19-12
History rediscovered
I've read and listened to a lot of alternative and "real" history, and this is one of the best. Yes, it is hard to listen to sometimes, partly because it makes you THINK about history. About the changes that were needed to say, invent the airplane.
But also, it is so rich and detailed. The workers make you think about most jobs, the routines you go through every day, to make your job work. I listened to this just after "23 things they don't tell you" about Capitalism, which affected my feelings about this work too. About how the framework of your society, affects your personal decisions.
Pavane is not a work I would have selected, based on the description. I AM hooked now though, on Niel Gaiman's sense of taste. The only think I like better are the books he himself narrate.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- David R. Rishel
- 03-15-16
Very entertaining and creative
The author does a wonderful job telling this big story through several excellent, connected short stories. Really excellent.
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- Katherine
- 03-03-12
A beautiful collection
Pavane, by Keith Roberts, is a beautiful collection of six connected stories written in an alternate England where Queen Elizabeth was assassinated and Philip II won the throne of England. The Protestant Reformation never occurred and Europe, as well as the New World, fell under the control of the Pope. Now it???s 1968 and because the Roman Catholic Church has held back technological advances from the people, the English still live in a feudal society complete with candlelight, castles, moats, monasteries, and much superstition, though the Church has allowed some steam-powered vehicles and the use of semaphore telegraph lines for communication. The Church has electricity, people know they have been repressed, and there are rumors of revolution.
The title Pavane comes from the Spanish-style dance which has six steps and a coda. Likewise, after the short prologue, the book contains six stories and a coda. The stories span a couple of generations and occur in chronological order:
???The Lady Margaret??? ??? Here we meet Jesse Strange who carries freight on his steam engine, which is named ???The Lady Margaret??? after the barmaid he???s secretly in love with. On one of his business trips, during which he stops to see Margaret, he meets an old friend from college. On his way home, he???s attacked by bandits. Jesse, a competent and hard-working man, is the patriarch of the characters we???ll meet in the last two stories.
???The Signaller??? ??? Rafe, who is fascinated by the semaphore telegraph stations that span the country, has his wildest dreams fulfilled when he earns a spot as an apprentice in the Guild of Signallers. In this story we learn that the faeries are still active in England ??? the Roman Catholic Church has not been able to eradicate them.
???The White Boat??? ??? Fourteen-year-old Becky wants to be free and she thinks that the mysterious white boat she occasionally notices on the sea may be her ticket to a better life??? until the Church notices it, too.
???Brother John??? ??? The monk Brother John is commissioned by the Inquisition to use his artistic talents to document tortures and confessions.
???Lords and Ladies??? ???Jesse Strange, now a rich man, lies dying. As the priest intones last rites, Jesse???s niece Margaret remembers her recent humiliating experience with a young local lord and wonders if the faeries would treat her better than the priest???s god does.
???Corfe Gate??? ??? Lady Eleanor, daughter of Margaret in the previous story, defies the Church. Lord Henry, who represents the Pope in England, is sent to bring her down. With the help of Sir John, her seneschal, Eleanor prepares to stand firm. During her struggle, she suggests that history is like the pavane.
In the Coda, Sir John???s son visits Corfe Gate decades later and reads a letter from his father who explains what happened after Eleanor???s revolt. Sir John???s justification of the Church???s actions seems odd and tacked-on. Or perhaps Keith Roberts was going for an A Canticle for Leibowitz-type feel. Either way, it leaves the reader scratching his head and wishing Roberts had just stopped after the last story.
Overall, Pavane is a beautifully written book with well-developed characters, skillful use of language, and vivid imagery ??? dark brooding castles, hulking gothic churches, powerful steam engines, lines of clacking semaphores, horrid tortures at the hands of the Inquisition. These images will stay with me.
I listened to the audio version of Pavane which was produced by Neil Gaiman Presents. Gaiman introduces the book and explains why he loves it and chose to add it to his audio line. The narration by Steven Crossley was excellent; I recommend this version.
Originally Posted at FanLit.
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17 people found this helpful
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- Doug D. Eigsti
- 03-14-14
Religious Themed Science Fiction
This is a series of connected stories set in an alternate universe where the Protestant Reformation never happened. It is a biting critique of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), but has the ring of truth. The excesses and abuse of power , let alone ecclesiastical authority, are well known and this is an extrapolation of actual history. The surprise here is that the characters come alive in your ear. Their actions, motivated by unrequited love or honor, are authentic. This would benefit from multiple listenings. .This novel will help make the case that Science Fiction can deal with grand themes as well as any book I can think of.
Steven Crossley give a fine performance. His portrayal of the many female characters is well played and his tone for the males is always clear; every character getting his own voice, instantly recognizable. His skill is very much evident here.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Laurie A. Bobskill
- 08-11-16
Stunning.
I want more.
Each novella builds on the previous stories, and each is better than the last.
Just spectacular.
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- Betty
- 12-15-11
Dense & rich - not a light listen
I knew in the first 10 minutes of this recording that I would not be able to do anything requiring multi-tasking while listening. The story is so deep and so full of the facts of this alternate universe, that it needs full attention.
It is written as though the author didn't just consider the surface change of this non-reformation world, but the skeleton and tissue of it's history - each of the separate stories centers on how the characters would live and react in a world dominated and restricted by the one and only church. The reader does a superb job of conveying the feel of this world and its characters. Overall it is a dark world, but ends on a message of hope and the alternative world feels solid and real.
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21 people found this helpful