Showing results by publisher "Penguin Audio" in Science Fiction & Fantasy

In Ancient Greece, the Twelve Gods demand the ultimate tribute – food, treasure, even human sacrifice. There are some mortals who cling to a desperate prophecy – telling of one to come who’ll set them free. But few truly believe it. Until Danae, a fisherman's daughter, eats a mysterious golden apple. And suddenly, her life unravels and a strange and dangerous path unfolds before her.

Most of us grow up having always known to touch wood or cross our fingers, and what happens when a princess kisses a frog or a boy pulls a sword from a stone, yet sadly, some of these things are now beginning to be forgotten. Legends, myths, and fairy tales: our world is made up of the stories we told ourselves about where we came from and how we got there. It is the same on Discworld, except that beings which on Earth are creatures of the imagination - like vampires, trolls, witches, and possibly, gods - are real, alive and in some cases kicking on the Disc.

Here is the gorgeous and sinister story of Marius, patrician by birth, scholar by choice, one of the oldest vampires of them all, which sweeps from his genesis in ancient Rome, in the time of Emperor Augustus, to his meeting in the present day with a creature of snow and ice. Thorne is a Northern vampire in search of Maharet, his maker, the ancient Egyptian vampire queen who holds him and others in thrall with chains made of her red hair, 'bound with steel and with her blood and gold'.

All stories come to an end. Effy learned that when she defeated the Fairy King. Even though she may never know exactly what happened at Hiraeth, she is free of her nightmares and is able to pen a thesis with Preston on the beloved national fairytale Angharad. She has finally earned a spot at the literature college, making her the first woman in history to enroll. But some dreams are dangerous, especially when they come true. The entire university—and soon the entire nation—is waiting for her to fail.

Professor Beth Pickering is on the verge of finally capturing the rare Deathwhistler bird when Professor Devon Lockley swoops in, capturing both her bird and her eye. For his part, Devon has never been more smitten than when he first set eyes on Beth. When a competition to become Birder of the Year by capturing an endangered caladrius bird is announced, Beth and Devon are forced to team up to have any chance of winning.

All is not well within the Unseen University. The endemic politics of the place have ensured that it has finally got what it wished for: the most powerful wizard on the disc - which could mean that the death of all wizardry is at hand. And that the world is going to end, depending on whom you listen to. Unless, of course, one inept wizard can take the University's most precious artefact, the very embodiment of magic itself, and deliver it halfway across the disc to safety.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Lancelot by Giles Kristian. The legions of Rome are a fading memory. Enemies stalk the fringes of Britain. And Uther Pendragon is dying. Into this fractured and uncertain world the boy is cast, a refugee from fire, murder and betrayal. An outsider whose only companions are a hateful hawk and memories of the lost. Yet he is gifted, and under the watchful eyes of Merlin and the Lady Nimue he will hone his talents and begin his journey to manhood.

Written by number one New York Times best-selling author Marieke Nijkamp, Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin follows a brand-new story, featuring the cunning ranger Vex'ahlia and the conning rogue Vax'ildan (and, of course, Trinket) years before they meet Vox Machina. After leaving the unwelcoming refuge of Syngorn, the twins become entangled in a web spun by the Clasp, and for the first time Vex and Vax find themselves on opposite sides of a conflict that threatens the home they have carried with each other for years.

Born at the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space, Adina is a baby of unusual perception. Tiny and jaundiced, she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognises she is different, not least because of her strange knowledge of a faraway planet. When a fax machine arrives at home, her suspicions are confirmed: it allows her to communicate with her extraterrestrial relatives, who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings.

Enter the world of Gormenghast...the vast crumbling castle to which the seventy-seventh Earl, Titus Groan, is Lord and heir. Gothic labyrinth of roofs and turrets, cloisters and corridors, stairwells and dungeons, it is also the cobwebbed kingdom of Byzantine government and age-old rituals, a world primed to implode beneath the weight of centuries of intrigue, treachery, manipulation and murder.

You are SEMIRAMIS. You are orphaned and raised on the outskirts of an empire, born into a life of toil and anonymity. But dreams of power and potential course through your veins. You're strong, cunning and quick... and hungry for more. If you want the world to know your name, you will have to chart your path from your village of shadows and dust to the hallowed halls your emperors walk. Legend has it you will rise from nothing to rule kingdoms and command armies. But how far will you go to claim a throne no one promised you? And what are you prepared to sacrifice along the way?

In the 21st century, information is king. But computers can be hacked and files can be broken into - so a unique government initiative has been born. Five ordinary people have been selected to become Minders - the latest weapon in thwarting cyberterrorism. Transformed by a revolutionary medical procedure, the country's most classified information has been taken offline and turned into genetic code implanted inside their heads.

Following her dazzling five-novel portrait of our age, the ‘Seasonal’ sequence, Ali Smith returns with the first of two novels which belong together but can be read independently. Gliff – a Scots or Northern word for a glimpse, a shock, a glance - will not only tell its own story but also contain within it a hidden story, to be revealed only in a second novel, Glyph – from the Greek, meaning a mark, carving or symbol -- to be published a year later.

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 enamoured 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.

Edgin Darvis' life is a mess. All that he has left are his lute, his dashing good looks, and...not much else. After a chance encounter with badass bruiser Holga, Edgin is forced to take a hard look at his bad choices. But the road to redemption is long, and paved with unforeseen expenses. Fortunately, the world is full of rich fools begging to be parted from their money. And so Edgin and Holga do what any sensible entrepreneurs would do - they form a crew.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, written and read by Mohsin Hamid. 'Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened by my beard. I am a lover of America....' So speaks the mysterious stranger at a Lahore cafe as dusk settles. Invited to join him for tea, you learn his name and what led this speaker of immaculate English to seek you out.

When Lady Viviane leaves the lakes of the far North for the splendour of Camelot, she knows the destiny her father has planned for her. To capture the heart and hand of the young prince, Arthur. To bring her family richness and glory. But it is Arthur’s sister Morgan who captures Viviane’s eye. Fierce and headstrong, Morgan sees another path – one she and Viviane can carve for themselves in this world built for knights and kings. Now everything has shifted and changed. Under the guidance of the court sorcerer Merlin, she discovers magical powers within herself.

The vampire world is in crisis – their kind have been proliferating out of control and, thanks to technologies undreamed of in previous centuries, they can communicate as never before. Roused from their earth-bound slumber, ancient ones are in thrall to the Voice: which commands that they burn fledgling vampires in cities from Paris to Mumbai, Hong Kong to Kyoto and San Francisco. Immolations, huge massacres, have commenced all over the world. Who – or what – is the Voice?

Years have passed since the clash of shieldwalls echoed across the land. The Saxons are now the lords of Britain. And yet the bards still sing of Arthur - 'In our darkest time, when we need him most, shall he come again.' Yet old Beran has no love of bards' songs. Nor of people, unless they are paying him to steal or kill. He is a mercenary, in the employ of the cutthroat Nabor ap Nabor, and he has been ordered to murder a boy fleeing a burning city. No ordinary boy either. No, this boy is the son of King Constantine and the grandson of High King Ambrosius.

Stubborn, plain-spoken and from an unimpressive family, Lydia Polk never expected to be chosen to work under Isadora Goode, the Grand Mistress of the Royal Academy of Witches. Now, three years into her apprenticeship, and with Hitler’s armies rampaging across Europe, the Witches of Britain have joined the war effort – but not without some resistance from within, the British government having originally forced the witches into hiding. As Lydia’s power grows, she too joins the cause, tracking down magical relics in order to keep them out of Nazi hands.