In an authoritative bass voice, Corey Snow splendidly narrates Harl's account of the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe. The author explains how they shaped events in their day and how those events echo today. Looking at the peoples through their leaders, we hear the stories of such historical giants as Attila the Hun, the Mongol Ghengis Khan and his grandson Kublai, and Tamerlane the Great, among a host of other tribes and individuals. Snow's resonant voice has a slight raspy quality that is quite easy to understand. He never rushes the text and sounds confident and appropriately expressive throughout the production.
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
Duration: 17 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9781488215308
Publisher: Harlequin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
WORLD | HISTORY | GENERAL HISTORY | ANCIENT | MILITARY
This is history for the modern listener, clear, efficient, and reliable.
There’s something calming about listening to ancient history, as this well-researched audiobook amply demonstrates. Mark Elstob’s polished, quietly nuanced narration maintains distance and balance while giving full weight to the narrative’s many fine details. Elstob has narrated two of Goldsworthy’s previous audiobooks, companion histories of the long competition between Rome and Persia. He perfectly matches this prolific popular historian’s lucid and impartial narrative style and his knack for balancing a panoramic view with a close recreation of place and action. The long, contentious rivalry between Athens and Sparta turned victory over Persia into division and civil strife.
This is history for the modern listener, clear, efficient, and reliable.Pub Date: May 12, 2026
Duration: 20 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9781549135439
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
Author/narrator William Dalrymple shares his fascination with the remarkable history of India's profound worldwide intellectual influence. His idiosyncratic and charming British speech and manner, along with his amiability and intelligence, are engaging throughout. His pacing and phrasing are natural, unaffected, and dictated by the material. He varies longish pauses--which allow the listener to absorb the sometimes complex details--with shorter sentences expressing excitement. His emphasis and shading of words, and his occasional deeply felt reactions, mirror the sense of the text and, therefore, illuminate it. The clear, unpretentious narration that takes the listener through this wide-ranging story of the spread of Indian religion, art, philosophy, mathematics, and science makes for an educational pleasure.
Pub Date: April 29, 2025
Duration: 13 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781639734689
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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