Angela Dawe’s precise enunciation and continual vocal changes evoke the setting and mix of people in thirteenth-century Constantinople. With these skills she depicts the myriad emotions Perry gives her characters, who face a world that roils with political intrigue and religious and social clashes. Strongest is Dawe's portrait of heroine Anna Zarides. She is a woman skilled in medicine who cloaks herself as the eunuch Anastasius so that she can practice her art and discover the scheme that sent her twin brother into exile. Anna has to keep her gender secret and negotiate the deadly manipulations of a powerful woman as well as her attraction to a man. Dawe uses the complex plot and Anna’s vulnerability to generate a tension that doesn’t let go.
Pub Date: March 23, 2010
Duration: 19 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781441824929
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
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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