With Rosalyn Landor's performance, time falls away. Listeners are transported to the sixteenth century with all its intrigues and betrayals. Book 2 in Weir's Tudor Rose trilogy speculates on the motives behind mass murderer, adulterer, and bigamist Henry VIII. Listeners of Weir's "Six Wives" series will find themselves in familiar company--yet here the characters are viewed from Henry's vastly different perspective. Landor's impeccable diction and range of voices invest each character with fully credible personas. From childhood to death, Henry is self-centered, spoiled, mercurial, and deadly. His anguish at his personal losses sounds very much like whining. It's hard to feel sorry for a man whose only pleasure is pleasuring himself. Landor, however, is superb. There isn't a low moment in the twenty-plus hours of listening.
Pub Date: 2023
Duration: 23 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781705061558
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Ayla, one of the "others," is adopted by a clan of Neanderthal cave people. She struggles to conform to their ways, but her advanced human traits overwhelm and threaten their primitive culture in this initial installment of an immensely popular series. Although the story might benefit from abridgment, Rowena Cooper easily carries out the formidable task of enlivening the mostly silent and stereotypical characters with consistent, diverse personalities and human dimension. Through skillful phrasing and inflection, she maintains the reader's interest and suspense, especially with Ayla and her plight, throughout this rambling and imaginative story.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 22 hrs
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America/ Chivers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This lyrical, sensual novel of woman's lot in Manchu, China, is as well researched as it is well written. Authentic in tone, it's nonetheless written for Westerners by a Western expert on China. Moreover, Susan Clark performs the demanding text superbly, with only occasional signs of fatigue. For the most part she not only sustains the quaint diction and Asian atmosphere, but also, creates whole worlds with her voice. She acts the book, rather than reads it, and, in so doing, turns a pretty trifle into a stupendous beauty.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 4 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Audio Literature
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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