Alan Sklar’s gravelly bass, its tone never far from irony, suits this reconsideration of the decades of struggle between the Roman Republic and Hannibal Barca (who took elephants over the Alps) and his city, Carthage. O’Connell builds his account around the fate of the Roman survivors of Hannibal’s victory at Cannae (the “Ghosts”), but this is a traditional story of generals and battles, not a discourse on soldiers’ lives. Occasionally, in his attempt to make ancient history more accessible, O’Connell dips too deeply into modern slang: for example, a “rumble” with the “Barcid Boys” (Hannibal and his brothers). Despite occasional lapses, Sklar does a good job with the legion of Latin, Greek, and Carthaginian names.
Pub Date: July 20, 2010
Duration: 13 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Tantor Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 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: Bloomsbury Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Narrator Julian Elfer has undertaken many daunting subjects: the pharmacist of Auschwitz, the Borgias, lost expeditions to the Greenland ice cap. Here, he faces down the challenge of a 300-year generational narrative in which all the principals are named either Ptolemy or Cleopatra. At the early death of Alexander, Ptolemy, his shrewdest commander, took the grandest prize: Egypt. Ptolemaic rule ended dramatically three centuries later with the suicide of Cleopatra VII in 30 BCE. Those familiar events are compressed here; the focus instead is on the skill and sagacity of Ptolemaic rule over Egypt--for example in honoring Egyptian gods and rituals, and introducing Macedonian agricultural methods to Egyptian farming. This superbly written and expertly performed narrative illuminates one of history's anomalies--and one of its high points.
Pub Date: April 8, 2025
Duration: 11 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781696619202
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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