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Thunderstruck
- Narrated by: Bob Balaban
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
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Publisher's summary
Set in Edwardian London and on the stormy coasts of Cornwall, Cape Cod, and Nova Scotia, Thunderstruck evokes the dynamism of those years when great shipping companies competed to build the biggest, fastest ocean liners; scientific advances dazzled the public with visions of a world transformed; and the rich outdid one another with ostentatious displays of wealth. Against this background, Marconi races against incredible odds and relentless skepticism to perfect his invention: the wireless, a prime catalyst for the emergence of the world we know today. Meanwhile, Crippen, "the kindest of men", nearly commits the perfect crime.
With his superb narrative skills, Erik Larson guides these parallel narratives toward a relentlessly suspenseful meeting on the waters of the North Atlantic. Along the way, he tells of a sad and tragic love affair that was described on the front pages of newspapers around the world, a chief inspector who found himself strangely sympathetic to the killer and his lover, and a driven and compelling inventor who transformed the way we communicate.
Thunderstruck presents a vibrant portrait of an era of séances, science, and fog, inhabited by inventors, magicians, and Scotland Yard detectives, all presided over by the amiable and fun-loving Edward VII as the world slid inevitably toward the first great war of the 20th century.
Gripping from the start, and rich with fascinating detail about the time, the people, and the new inventions that connect and divide us, Thunderstruck is splendid narrative history from a master of the form.
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Critic reviews
"Larson has a knack for creating genuine suspense in his writing, and his latest is thoroughly enthralling." (Booklist)
"Splendid, beautifully written.... Thunderstruck triumphantly resurrects the spirit of another age." (Publishers Weekly)
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Story
This devastating book illuminates America's gun culture - its manufacturers, dealers, buffs, and propagandists - but also offers concrete solutions to our national epidemic of death by firearm. It begins with an account of a crime that is by now almost commonplace: on December 16, 1988, 16-year-old Nicholas Elliot walked into his Virginia high school with a Cobray M-11/9 and several hundred rounds of ammunition tucked in his backpack. By day's end, he had killed one teacher and severely wounded another.
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great reasoned book
- By Claire on 04-26-20
By: Erik Larson
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The Demon of Unrest
- A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Erik Larson
- Length: 17 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter.
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Vividly Told History of the Start of the Civil War
- By WLC on 05-01-24
By: Erik Larson
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Hotel Angeline
- A Novel in 36 Voices
- By: Erik Larson, Jamie Ford, Deb Caletti, and others
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Thirty-six of the most interesting writers in the Pacific Northwest came together for a week-long marathon of writing live on stage. The result? Hotel Angeline, a truly inventive novel that surprises at every turn of the page. Something is amiss at the Hotel Angeline, a rickety former mortuary perched atop Capitol Hill in rain-soaked Seattle. Fourteen-year-old Alexis Austin is fixing the plumbing, the tea, and all the problems of the world, it seems, in her landlady mother’s absence.
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Too Many Writers!
- By Lisa on 08-25-13
By: Erik Larson, and others
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The Devil in the White City
- Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds.
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A Rich Read!
- By D on 09-18-03
By: Erik Larson
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Mary Churchill’s War
- The Wartime Diaries of Churchill’s Youngest Daughter
- By: Mary Churchill, Emma Soames - editor, Erik Larson - introduction
- Narrated by: Beth Eyre, Emma Soames
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1939, seventeen-year-old Mary found herself in an extraordinary position at an extraordinary time: it was the outbreak of World War II and her father, Winston Churchill, had been appointed First Lord of the Admiralty; within months he would become prime minister. The young Mary Churchill was uniquely placed to observe this remarkable historical moment, and her diaries—most never published until now—provide an immediate view of the great events of the war, as well as intimate moments with her father. These diaries also capture what it was like to be a young woman during wartime.
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Love Mary Soames
- By Robert on 11-21-22
By: Mary Churchill, and others
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The Myth of Artificial Intelligence
- Why Computers Can’t Think the Way We Do
- By: Erik J. Larson
- Narrated by: Perry Daniels
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Futurists insist that AI will soon eclipse the capacities of the most gifted human mind. What hope do we have against superintelligent machines? But we aren't really on the path to developing intelligent machines. In fact, we don't even know where that path might be. Erik Larson takes us on a tour of the landscape of AI to show how far we are from superintelligence and what it would take to get there.
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dead wrong after 2 years
- By K. Lyon on 07-11-23
By: Erik J. Larson
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How to Survive the Titanic
- The Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay
- By: Frances Wilson
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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On the terrifying, chaotic night of April 14, 1912, while the Titanic was sinking, Bruce J. Ismay, the ship's owner, made a decision that would save his life - and end it. Ismay boarded a lifeboat meant for women and children, and within days became The Most Talked-of Man in the World. Branded a coward, he became a flesh-and-blood embodiment of Joseph Conrad's legendary eponymous character, Lord Jim.
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Not especially uplifting, but quite good
- By Anonymous User on 04-18-12
By: Frances Wilson
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The Wide Wide Sea
- Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution. Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment? Hampton Sides’ bravura account of Cook’s last journey both wrestles with Cook’s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration.
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Detailed story of third voyage
- By Sammi on 04-18-24
By: Hampton Sides
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The White Darkness
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 2 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Henry Worsley spent his life idolizing Ernest Shackleton, the 19th-century polar explorer who tried to become the first person to reach the South Pole and later sought to cross Antarctica on foot. Worsley felt an overpowering connection to those expeditions. In 2008, Worsley set out across Antarctica with two other descendants of Shackleton's crew, battling the freezing, desolate landscape and life-threatening physical exhaustion. He soon felt compelled to go back. In 2015, Worsley bid farewell to his family and embarked on his most perilous quest: to walk across Antarctica alone.
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Will Patton's narration
- By Carol on 01-18-19
By: David Grann
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American Demon
- Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America's Jack the Ripper
- By: Daniel Stashower
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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On September 5th, 1934, a young beachcomber made a gruesome discovery on the shores of Cleveland’s Lake Erie: the lower half of a female torso, neatly severed at the waist. The victim, dubbed “The Lady of the Lake,” was only the first of a butcher’s dozen. Over the next four years, twelve more bodies would be scattered across the city. The bodies were dismembered with surgical precision and drained of blood. Some were beheaded while still alive.
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Not what I expected at all
- By Iceboxannie on 11-10-22
By: Daniel Stashower
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Empire of Deception
- The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation
- By: Dean Jobb
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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It was a time of unregulated madness. And nowhere was it madder than in Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties. Speakeasies thrived, gang war shootings announced Al Capone's rise to underworld domination, Chicago's corrupt political leaders fraternized with gangsters, and the frenzy of stock market gambling was rampant. Enter a slick, smooth-talking, charismatic lawyer named Leo Koretz, who enticed hundreds of people (who should have known better) to invest as much as $30 million.
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Incredible Tale!
- By electricblue201 on 10-11-15
By: Dean Jobb
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The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel
- Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I
- By: Douglas Brunt
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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September 29, 1913: the steamship Dresden is halfway between Belgium and England. On board is one of the most famous men in the world, Rudolf Diesel, whose new internal combustion engine is on the verge of revolutionizing global industry forever. But Diesel never arrives at his destination. He vanishes during the night and headlines around the world wonder if it was an accident, suicide, or murder.
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Just a girl and an audio book.
- By Lori Rhodes on 09-26-23
By: Douglas Brunt
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The Wager
- A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, David Grann
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia.
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Gasping for Air
- By Jean Engle on 04-19-23
By: David Grann
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The Spy and the Traitor
- The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6.
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John Lee is GREAT!
- By David on 09-21-18
By: Ben Macintyre
What listeners say about Thunderstruck
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Brian
- 06-28-15
Excellent
Larson never disappoints. A great story. Truth is stranger than fiction. Fast paced with great characters.
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2 people found this helpful
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- triciamor
- 12-27-17
Glitch in chapter 23
Fairly good story and interesting history. Devil in the White City was better, though. Also, there is a glitch in chapters 23 and 24 (acknowledged b the publisher) that causes you to miss an unknown amount of time. Good, but not great.
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2 people found this helpful
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- S. Yates
- 09-08-16
Another solid history
Any additional comments?
Another solid outing by Larson. This time, he examines Marconi and the invention/development/deployment of wireless telegraphy, and how that cutting edge technology led to the apprehension of Dr. Crippen (famous for murdering his wife). Larson, as always, has done his historical homework, and he builds the suspense by tracking both Marconi and Crippen from early adulthood to their convergence (or at least the convergence of Marconi's device and Crippen's fate) by laying out what was happening in their lives and the world. You come away feeling pity for Crippen and his poor choice of life partner, and with admiration tinged with some annoyance for Marconi, who had character flaws aplenty. An interesting look at how technology shrunk the world and a reminder that the public's breathless voyeurism is not a 21st century invention.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mary
- 05-30-13
Informative & Entertaining
I always enjoy Erik Larson's way of blending historical facts and events with the seedy, sometimes gory details of true crime. While the subject matter is not as sinister as Devil in the White City, the book does not disappoint. Exploring Marconi's invention of the radio, something which we take for granted in today's world as practically passe, Larson weaves in a tale of murder which would seemingly have nothing to do with it. And yet, as ever, it all comes together in the end. A very good listen to anyone who enjoys true crime, biographies, or both.
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- Kevin S
- 06-16-18
solid but could have been better
I thoroughly enjoyed this book but the interweaving and convergence of two historical threads was less impactful here than in Devil In The White City. I do thoroughly reccomend this, but it will not be nearly as compelling.
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- John Zajaros
- 02-05-21
Another Masterwork by Larson
Erik Larson weaves seemingly coincidental events into a story that not only educates but fascinates. I’ve read several of Larson’s books, and they never disappoint.
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- Bluesky
- 11-12-22
An interesting review of historic events
The author has juxtaposed two stories which are essentially unrelated except for the time in which they occurred. However, both are interesting.
I am nonplussed by some of the comments about the narrator. I have listened to hundreds of audiobooks and no longer listen to those whose narrator does not appeal. Bob Balaban does a fine job with this book. He does not "act" it, he reads it. If some find the narration too fast, just slow the speed to 0.9x.
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- Darryl
- 01-05-07
very good
very good story, but i think the book is misconstructed in a couple of important ways and might have moved quicker. non-fiction buffs will still enjoy it i should think
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3 people found this helpful
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- miyaker
- 09-19-08
Excellent Book, Narration is fine
While perhaps not up to the level of Devil in the White City, I found Thunderstruck completely captivating. Just as in his previous book, both plots are very engaging. As the author admits in the prologue, sometimes the detail is just a bit over the top, but the vast majority of the time the extra bits of trivia are quite interesting.
While the narrator starts out speaking quickly at the very beginning (and only the beginning), I had no other issues with the narration. It was clear and never detracted from the story.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Stupid_Boy_Baker
- 06-18-19
Perfect History Story with Intrigue!
This is a NON-FICTION story. However, there is a intriguing twist that makes it a page-turner. The author apologizes for going into extreme details at times, but this engineer (by profession) feels that facet ADDS to the storyline rather than detracts.
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1 person found this helpful