Fantasy Stories

ABANDON

by Meg Cabot

read by Natalia Payne

running time 9hrs 15mins

Abandon series, Book 1. Last year, 17-year-old Pierce died - just for a moment. And when she was in the space between life and death, she met John: tall dark and terrifying, it's his job to usher souls from one realm to the next. There's a fierce attraction between them, but Pierce knows that falling for John means a life of shadows and loneliness in the underworld…

THE BAKER STREET PHANTOM

by Fabrice Bourland

read by Terrence Hardiman

running time 6hrs 6mins

Spring 1932 and London is terrorised by a series of brutal murders. Lady Arthur Conan Doyle has a premonition that the murders signal dreadful danger for mankind and she calls upon the services of a newly opened private detective agency, Singleton and Trelawney.

CARPE JUGULUM

by Terry Pratchett

read by Greg Georgeson

running time 12hrs 45mins

Book 23 in 'Discworld' series: Mightily Oats comes to Lancre to become a priest and is caught up in a war between witches and vampires!

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS: PART 1

by George R R Martin

read by Roy Dotrice

running time 24hrs 45mins

Part 1 of Book 5 of 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series. Tyrion Lannister, having killed his father, and wrongfully accused of killing his nephew, King Joffrey, has escaped from King’s Landing with a price on his head. And in the east Daenerys Targaryen struggles to hold a city built on dreams and dust.

THE EMPTY HAND

by Catherine Fisher

read by Karen Archer

running time 4hrs 30mins

Second in the Snow-Walker trilogy. Sequel to 'The Snow-Walker's Son' (616590). Surviving an accident in which both his parents were killed, Huw and his sister come to the haunted village of Usk to recover and start a new life.

FAIRYTALES OF THE FIERCER SEX

by Alison Larkin (selected by)

read by Alison Larkin

running time 6hrs 30mins

Alison Larkin selects and introduces fairytales of strong, independent, brave, and at times irreverent girls and women who take charge of their lives, rescue themselves and sometimes even save the men they love. These are not stories of helpless females shut up in high towers waiting around for a handsome man to rescue them. These heroines have far more to distinguish them than the fact that they (sometimes) end up married to a prince.

A GAME OF THRONES: PART 1

by George R R Martin

read by Roy Dotrice

running time 17hrs

Part 1 of Book 1 of 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series. The struggle for the Iron Throne has begun. It will stretch from the south all the way to the frozen north, where a wall of ice protects the kingdom from the dark forces that lie beyond. Kings and queens, knights and renegades...all will play the Game of Thrones. Continued in Part 2 (10463)

HALF A KING

by Joe Abercrombie

read by Ben Elliot

running time 9hrs 30mins

Prince Yarvi has vowed to regain a throne he never wanted. But first he must survive cruelty and the waters of the Shattered Sea. Gathering a strange fellowship of the outcast and the lost, he finds they can do more to help him become the man he needs to be than any court of nobles. But even with loyal friends, Yarvi’s path may end in tragedy. Book one in series.

I AM LEGEND

by Richard Matheson

read by Robertson Dean

running time 5hrs 30mins

By day, Robert Neville, the last living human being, hunts the sleeping undead vampires. By night he barricades himself in and prays he'll survive. How long will it be before he joins the undead too?

JOHNNY AND THE BOMB

by Terry Pratchett

read by Greg Georgeson

running time 5hrs 45mins

When Johnny and his friends find Mrs Tachyon semi-conscious in an alley they have to do something to help.

KNIGHTS OF DARK RENOWN

by David Gemmell

read by Christopher Kay

running time 14hrs 15mins

The knights of the Gabala, legendary protectors of the Nine Duchies, have disappeared through a demon-haunted gateway between worlds. The only one to hold back was Manannan, the Coward Knight. When murder and black magic beset the Duchies, Manannan must ride through the gate and seek out his companions.

LA BELLE SAUVAGE

by Philip Pullman

read by Michael Sheen

running time 12hrs 30mins

Eleven-year-old Malcolm and his dæmon, Asta, live at the Trout Inn near Oxford. Across the River Thames, which Malcolm navigates using his beloved canoe, La Belle Sauvage, is Godstow Priory where the nuns live. Malcolm learns they have a baby with them by the name of Lyra Belacqua. Malcolm and Lyra are caught up in a terrifying adventure that takes them into a new world. Volume 1 of 'The Book of Dust' series.

A MADNESS OF ANGELS

by Kate Griffin

read by David Hobbs

running time 20hrs

There is in London much more than life - there is power. It ebbs and flows with the rhythms of the city, makes runes from the alignments of ancient streets and hums with the rattle of trains and buses. It is a new kind of magic: urban magic. Enter the London of Matthew Swift, where rival sorcerers, hidden in plain sight, do battle for the very soul of the city . . .

A NATURAL HISTORY OF DRAGONS

by Marie Brennan

read by Kate Reading

running time 10hrs 15mins

From Scirland to the farthest reaches of Eriga, Lady Isabella Trent is known to be the world’s most eminent dragon naturalist. This is the story of a pioneering spirit who risked her reputation and her prospects to satisfy her scientific curiosity; of how she sought true love and happiness; and how she made the first of many historic discoveries that would change the world forever.

THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING

by T H White

read by Neville Jason

running time 33hrs

This is the extraordinary story of a boy called Wart - ignored by everyone except his tutor, Merlin - who goes on to become King Arthur. This masterful retelling of the Arthurian legend contains all five books about the early life of King Arthur (The Sword in the Stone, The Witch in the Wood, The Ill-Made Knight, The Candle in the Wind and The Book of Merlyn).

THE PORPOISE

by Mark Haddon

read by Tim McInnerny

running time 10hrs 50mins

A newborn baby is the sole survivor of a terrifying plane crash. She is raised in wealthy isolation by an overprotective father. She knows nothing of the rumours about a beautiful young woman, hidden from the world. When a suitor visits, he understands far more than he should. Forced to run for his life, he escapes aboard The Porpoise, an assassin on his tail… So begins a wild adventure, damp with salt spray, blood and tears.

QUEST FOR THE FARADAWN

by Richard Ford

read by Simon Edginton

running time 11hrs 30mins

Brought up by Brock the badger after being abandoned by his human parents, Nab undertakes the quest for the Faradawn, the three magical grains guarded by the Elflords of the Mountains, Forests, and Seas, which will help establish a new order of innocence and peace.

THE RADLEYS

by Matt Haig

read by Mark Meadows

running time 7hrs 45mins

Meet the Radleys: Peter, Helen and their teenage children, Clara and Rowan, live in a typical suburban English town. They are an everyday family, averagely dysfunctional, averagely content. But, as their children have yet to find out, the Radleys have a devastating secret.

THE SCARAB

by Catherine Fisher

read by Judith Boyd

running time 11hrs 10mins

Part 3 of The Oracle Trilogy, sequel to 'The Archon' (616595). The Archon returns from his journey across the desert to the Well of Songs to find the General Argelin has seized control and his reign of madness is oppressing the Two Lands.

TAGGERUNG

by Brian Jacques

read by Miscellaneous

running time 12hrs 45mins

The clan of Sawney Rath kidnaps one of Redwall's own, a baby otter, who they believe is destined to become their Taggerung, the warrior hero of ancient legend. But as the young Taggerung grows, he rebels against his destiny and goes off in search of the place where he was born, a home he can barely remember.

UN LUN DUN

by China Mieville

read by Pauline Beale

running time 13hrs 55mins

Zanna and Deeba find themselves in UnLondon where all the lost and broken things of London end up, including some of its people too. But the city is under siege and is awaiting its hero.

THE VALLEY OF SECRETS

by Charmian Hussey

read by Tony Lister

running time 13hrs 35mins

Stephen had been abandoned as a baby and given up all hope of ever finding his family. Behind locked gates, Stephen discovered his inheritance and a lost Cornish valley with strange secrets.

THE WALL

by William Sutcliffe

read by Ben Seymour

running time 10hrs 15mins

Joshua kicks his football into a building site and discovers a secret tunnel. It leads through pitch darkness under the Wall and into forbidden territory, where a boy like him shouldn't stray. When Joshua emerges into the light of the other side, his world is turned upside down - with kindness, terror and violence, and a debt he can never repay.