Showing results by narrator "John Banks" in All Categories

Darujhistan, city of dreams, city of blue flames, is peaceful at last; its citizens free to return to politicking, bickering, trading and, above all, enjoying the good things in life. Yet there are those who will not allow the past to remain buried. A scholar digging in the plains stumbles across an ancient sealed vault. The merchant Humble Measure schemes to drive out the remaining Malazan invaders. And the surviving agents of a long-lost power are stirring, for they sense change and so, opportunity.

The Tower of Babel is the greatest marvel in the world. Immense as a mountain, the ancient Tower holds unnumbered ringdoms, warring and peaceful, stacked one on the other like the layers of a cake. It is a world of geniuses and tyrants, of airships and steam engines, of unusual animals and mysterious machines. Soon after arriving for his honeymoon at the Tower, the mild-mannered headmaster of a small village school, Thomas Senlin, gets separated from his wife, Marya, in the overwhelming swarm of tourists, residents, and miscreants.

In six weeks in 1940, France was overrun by German troops and surrendered. One junior French general, refusing to accept defeat, made his way to England. On 18 June he spoke to his compatriots over the BBC, urging them to rally to him in London. At that moment, Charles de Gaulle entered into history. For the rest of the war, de Gaulle frequently bit the hand that fed him. He insisted on being treated as the true embodiment of France, and quarrelled violently with Churchill and Roosevelt. But he managed to have France recognised as one of the victorious Allies.

Detective Sergeant Washington Poe can count on one hand the number of friends he has. And he'd still have his thumb left. There's the guilelessly innocent civilian analyst, Tilly Bradshaw of course. Insanely brilliant, she's a bit of a social hand grenade. He's known his beleaguered boss, Detective Inspector Stephanie Flynn for years as he has his nearest neighbour, full-time shepherd/part-time dog sitter, Victoria. And then there's Estelle Doyle. Dark and dangerous and sexy as hell.

2017 has been a monumental year for Audible, having just celebrated our 20th anniversary, a milestone that would have never been possible without our wonderful and loyal listeners. One of our major commitments is bringing new and diverse audio experiences to our members, so this year, as our gift to you, we pulled together a collection that reflects a little bit of everything we’ve been up to recently.

It is said the Phoenix Lords arrive on the eve of great moments.... Guided by fate, Asurmen the Hand of Asuryan comes to the craftworld of Ulthwé. At the behest of the head of the seer council, he joins the warriors of Ulthwé and the young seer Eldrad on a quest to the Crone Worlds in search of the oracle Hiron-athela. It is believed that this being holds an artefact that could safeguard Ulthwé's future, but in order to obtain it the eldar must travel a dark road....

In the lower reaches of Necromunda's Hive Primus, countless hired guns and bounty hunters seek to make their fortune by using their deadly skills to bring in criminals, outlaws and those unlucky souls who've fallen foul of the Guilders. Each of these rogues and killers is different, with particular skills that put them on their path. Neither heroes nor villains, they live in the grey areas - and in these three audio dramas, a trio of bounty hunters have their tales told.

Greymane believed he'd outrun his past. With his school for swordsmanship in Falar, he was looking forward to a quiet life, although his colleague Kyle wasn't as enamored with life outside the mercenary company, the Crimson Guard. However, it seems it is not so easy for an ex-Fist of the Malazan Empire to disappear, especially one under sentence of death from that same Empire.

Washington Poe has a story to tell. And he needs you to listen. You'll hear how it started with the robber birds. Crows. Dozens of them. Enough for a murder. He'll tell you about a man who was tied to a tree and stoned to death, a man who had tattooed himself with a code so obscure, even the gifted analyst Tilly Bradshaw struggled to break it. He'll tell you how the man's murder was connected to a tragedy that happened fifteen years earlier when a young girl massacred her entire family. And finally, he'll tell you about the mercy chair.

Tens of thousands of years of ice is melting, and the land of Assail, long a byword for menace and inaccessibility, is at last yielding its secrets. Tales of gold discovered in the region's north circulate in every waterfront dive and sailor's tavern, and now countless adventurers and fortune-seekers have set sail in search of riches. All these adventures have to guide them are legends and garbled tales of the dangers that lie in wait - hostile coasts, fields of ice, impassable barriers and strange, terrifying creatures.

Borrowing from painting’s fresco technique to make an original literary double-take, it's a fast-moving, genre-bending conversation between forms, times, truths, and fictions. There’s a Renaissance artist of the 1460s. There’s the child of a child of the 1960s. Two tales of love and injustice twist into a singular yarn where time gets timeless, structural gets playful, knowing gets mysterious, fictional gets real--and all life’s givens get given a second chance.

The Panthers resume their duties as Rangers upon leaving the Refuge. A new mystery of foremost importance will be revealed to them. They will have to undertake a mission as complicated as it is risky. Will they manage to survive the mission? Will they solve the mystery?

In 1461, Nicholas is in Florence. Backed by none other than Cosimo de' Medici, he will sail the Black Sea to Trebizond, last outpost of Byzantium, and the last jewel missing from the crown of the Ottoman Empire. But trouble lies ahead. Nicholas's stepdaughter—at the tender age of thirteen—has eloped with his rival in trade: a Machiavellian Genoese who races ahead of Nicholas, sowing disaster at every port. And time is of the essence: Trebizond may fall to the Turks at any moment.

Following the whim of the Laughing God, the Masque of the Fading Dawn conduct an audacious attack against mon-keigh invaders. Battling to secure their legacy, the troupe put on a performance worthy of remembrance against a backdrop of acerbic remarks from their Death Jester, Adroniel. Intent on a spectacular finale, Adroniel becomes hell-bent on obliterating their unremarkable human foe with deadly artistry, until a strange encounter challenges her role in the final act....

Hounded by the Sons of Horus, legendary Blackshield Endryd Haar battles enemies from within and without his ranks. Betrayed by his second in command, Erud Vahn, Haar finds himself imprisoned and facing a slow death. Determined to escape and stay one step ahead of the traitors, Endryd must enact his riskiest gamble yet if he is to fulfil his oath to kill the Warmaster Horus.

The road to becoming a Doan warrior is a long one. While Cam must face distrust and long days of training, he also attracts the interest of Uelia, the beautiful Festival Master of High Home. His acts of bravery swell his fame and the jealousy of his brother. With winter approaching, the people of High Home decide to cross the Long Dark to see what’s on the other side.

While voyaging through the depths of the warp, the infamous blademaster Lucius the Eternal is challenged by a servant of another god - a champion of the old Death Guard Legion, no less. Keen to remain dominant over his preening and ambitious rivals in the Cohors Nasicae, Lucius takes up his sword without a second thought...but could an unfeeling daemonhost of Nurgle, or the voices inside his own head, be the undoing of his Slaaneshi curse?

Doses of concentrated thrills and pure, raw excitement are delivered directly on the heels of the most explosive musical theme in radio - a crashing rendition of Mussorgsky's "Night On Bald Mountain". Produced and directed by William N. Robson, Norman MacDonnell, and Antony Ellis - and featuring stories by Rudyard Kipling, Ambrose Bierce, and more - Escape is capable of chilling spines as expertly as it accelerates heartbeats.

Failed father, failed husband, and failed scholar, Charles Hayden hopes to put his life back together with a new project: a biography of Caedmon Hollow, the long-dead author of a legendary Victorian children’s book, In the Night Wood, and forebear of his wife, Erin. Deep in mourning from the loss of their young daughter, they pack up their American lives, Erin gives up her legal practice, and the couple settles in Hollow’s remote Yorkshire mansion.

Oakharrow has been conquered—for now. But Aelthena has never given up easily. Fleeing her city, she goes to the jarls of Baegard, seeking their aid to take back her home. But politics are at play, and Ha-Sypt is on the move. Only one can wear the Iron Circle and lead Baegard's armies. In determining who will wear the crown, Aelthena must make a choice: do what is best for her nation, or for herself.