Medusa's Web
By: Tim Powers
Narrated by: Chris Sorenson
Forced Perspectives
Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
Why did Cecil B. DeMille really bury the Pharaoh's Palace set after he filmed The Ten Commandments in 1923? Fugitives Sebastian Vickery and Ingrid Castine find themselves plunged into the supernatural secrets of Los Angeles - from Satanic indie movies of the '60s, to the unqiet La Brea Tar Pits at midnight, to the haunted Sunken City off the coast of San Pedro...pursued by a Silicon Valley guru who is determined to incorporate their souls into the creation of a new and predatory World God.
An unusual series
Something weird is happening to the Los Angeles freeways - phantom cars, lanes from nowhere, and sometimes unmarked off-ramps that give glimpses of a desolate desert highway - and Sebastian Vickery, disgraced ex-Secret Service agent, is a driver for a covert supernatural-evasion car service. But another government agency is using and perhaps causing the freeway anomalies, and their chief is determined to have Vickery killed because of something he learned years ago at a halted Presidential motorcade. Reluctantly aided by Ingrid Castine, a member of that agency, and a homeless Mexican boy....
Audible perfection!
By LISA K OMEARA on 09-04-18
Fault Lines, Book 2
Ghosts can be caught, bottled, and sold by covert dealers to addicts who inhale the things - and when a young boy named Kootie accidentally inhales the ghost of Thomas Edison, he finds that all the factions of Los Angeles's occult underground are after him, determined to kill him and get Edison's powerful ghost for themselves. Aided by Edison's confused and irascible ghost, Kootie flees - and finds himself dodging perils natural and supernatural in the gritty alleys and trainyards of a Los Angeles that tourists never see.
Finally!!
By art on 08-31-19
Narrated by: Simon Prebble
As a young double agent infiltrating the Soviet spy network in Nazi-occupied Paris, Andrew Hale finds himself caught up in a secret, even more ruthless war. Two decades later, a coded message draws Professor Andrew Hale back into Her Majesty's Secret Service. Elements from his past are gathering in Beirut, including ex-British counterespionage chief and Soviet mole Kim Philby, and a beautiful former Spanish Civil War soldier-turned-intelligence operative.
Oh Fish. Art Thou Constant???
Earthquake Weather
The Fault Lines Series, Book 3
A young woman possessed by a ghost has slain the Fisher King of the West, Scott Crane. Now, temporarily freed from that malevolent spirit, she seeks to restore the King to life....
The Stress of Her Regard
Narrated by: Simon Vance
When Michael Crawford discovers his bride brutally murdered in their wedding bed, he is forced to flee not only to prove his innocence but to avoid the deadly embrace of a vampire who has claimed him as her true bridegroom. Joining forces with Byron, Keats, and Shelley in a desperate journey that crisscrosses Europe, Crawford desperately seeks his freedom from this vengeful lover who haunts his dreams and will not rest until she destroys all that he cherishes.
Terrifying - A New Benchmark for Vampires Stories
By Dave on 01-17-12
The Anubis Gates
When Brendan Doyle is flown from America to London to give a lecture on Samuel Taylor Coleridge, little does he expect that he will soon be traveling through time and meeting the poet himself. But Brendan could do without being stranded penniless in the teeming, thieving London of 1810.
Yesterday… All My Troubles Seemed So Far Away
By Doug D. Eigsti on 06-21-16
Hide Me Among the Graves
Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham
Winter 1862, London. Adelaide McKee, a former prostitute, arrives on the doorstep of veterinarian John Crawford, a man she met once seven years earlier. Their brief meeting produced a child who, until now, had been presumed dead. McKee has learned that the girl lives - but that her life and soul are in mortal peril from a vampiric ghost. But this is no ordinary spirit; the bloodthirsty wraith is none other than John Polidori, the onetime physician to the mad, bad, and dangerous Romantic poet Lord Byron.
One More Mortal Sin
Scott Crane abandoned his career as a professional poker player 20 years ago and hasn't returned to Las Vegas, or held a hand of cards, in 10 years. But troubling nightmares about a strange poker game he once attended on a houseboat on Lake Mead are drawing him back to the magical city. For the mythic game he believed he won did not end that night in 1969—and the price of his winnings was his soul. Now, a pot far more strange and perilous than he ever could imagine depends on the turning of a card.
Fans of American Gods will like this one
By Cliff on 02-07-14
On Stranger Tides
On Stranger Tides follows the exploits of John Chandagnac, who travels to the new world after the death of his puppeteer father to confront his uncle, who has apparently made off with the family fortune. During the voyage, he befriends Beth Hurwood and her father, Benjamin Hurwood, an Oxford professor. Before they arrive at their destination, their ship is waylaid by Blackbeard and his band of pirates.
This Swashbuckler Will Steal Your Heart
By: Peter Straub
Narrated by: Buck Schirner
For four aging men in the terror-stricken town of Milburn, New York, an act inadvertently carried out in their youth has come back to haunt them. Now they are about to learn what happens to those who believe they can bury the past - and get away with murder. Peter Straub's classic best seller is a work of "superb horror" ( Washington Post Book World) that, like any good ghost story, stands the test of time - and conjures our darkest fears and nightmares.
Great Story! The Best of Peter Straub
By Jaimie on 07-17-12
Warbound
Book III of the Grimnoir Chronicles
By: Larry Correia
Only a handful of people in the world know that mankind's magic comes from a living creature, and it is a refugee from another universe. The Power showed up here in the 1850s because it was running from something. Now it is 1933, and the Power's hiding place has been discovered by a killer. It is a predator that eats magic and leaves destroyed worlds in its wake. Earth is next. Former private eye Jake Sullivan knows the score. The problem is, hardly anyone believes him.
You've Come Along Way Baby!!!
By W. on 11-15-13
Kill Creek
By: Scott Thomas
Narrated by: Bernard Setaro Clark
When best-selling horror author Sam McGarver is invited to spend Halloween night in one of the country's most infamous haunted houses, he reluctantly agrees. At least he won't be alone; joining him are three other masters of the macabre, writers who have helped shape modern horror. But what begins as a simple publicity stunt will become a fight for survival. The entity they have awakened will follow them, torment them, threatening to make them a part of the bloody legacy of Kill Creek.
UNUSUAL PREMISE, COULDN'T STOP LISTENING
By Linda Likes to Learn on 12-02-17
Book II of the Grimnoir Chronicles
Dark fantasy goes hardboiled in Book II of the hard-hitting Grimnoir Chronicles by the New York Times best-selling creator of Monster Hunter International. The Grimnoir Society's mission is to protect people with magic, and they've done so - successfully and in secret - since the mysterious arrival of the Power in the 1850s, but when a magical assassin makes an attempt on the life of President Franklin Roosevelt, the crime is pinned on the Grimnoir.
Spellbound is Pure Magic
By Paulette on 02-12-14
A Cosmology of Monsters
By: Shaun Hamill
Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
Noah Turner sees monsters. His father saw them - and built a shrine to them with The Wandering Dark, an immersive horror experience that the whole family operates. His practical mother has caught glimpses of terrors but refuses to believe - too focused on keeping the family from falling apart. And his eldest sister, the dramatic and vulnerable Sydney, won't admit to seeing anything but the beckoning glow of the spotlight...until it swallows her up. Noah Turner sees monsters. But, unlike his family, Noah chooses to let them in....
ELEVATED HORROR
By JohnnyUtah915 on 09-19-19
The Ceremonies
By: T. E. D. Klein
Narrated by: Adam Sims
For graduate student Jeremy Freirs, citified, cynical, yet prone to daydreams, summer is the time to shed a few pounds and finally get some reading done for a course on Gothic literature. He's picked just the right place: the small, secluded village of Gilead, New Jersey, only 90 minutes from Manhattan but, with its antique customs and clannish traditions, seemingly centuries away. For farmers Sarr and Deborah Poroth, young members of Gilead's fundamentalist community, the summer threatens a conflict between their passionate natures and the stern dictates of their faith.
An all but forgotten classic - finally available!
By Dana Minyard on 08-22-19
The Trouble with Peace
By: Joe Abercrombie
Narrated by: Steven Pacey
Savine dan Glokta, once Adua's most powerful investor, finds her judgment, fortune, and reputation in tatters. But she still has all her ambitions, and no scruple will be permitted to stand in her way. For heroes like Leo dan Brock and Stour Nightfall, only happy with swords drawn, peace is an ordeal to end as soon as possible. But grievances must be nursed, power seized, and allies gathered first, while Rikke must master the power of the Long Eye...before it kills her.
Pacey's Performance is Award-Worthy
By Tkinsey3 on 09-16-20
From the award-winning author of Hide Me Among the Graves, Last Call, Declare, and Three Days to Never, a phantasmagoric, thrilling, mind-bending tale of speculative fiction in which one man must uncover occult secrets of 1920s Hollywood to save his family.
In the wake of their Aunt Amity's suicide, Scott and Madeline Madden are summoned to Caveat, the eerie, decaying mansion in the Hollywood hills in which they were raised. But their decadent and reclusive cousins, the malicious wheelchair-bound Claimayne and his sister, Ariel, do not welcome Scott and Madeline's return to the childhood home they once shared.
While Scott desperately wants to go back to their shabby South-of-Sunset lives, he cannot pry his sister away from this haunted "House of Usher in the Hollywood Hills" that is a conduit for the supernatural. Decorated by bits salvaged from old hotels and movie sets, Caveat hides a dark family secret that stretches back to the golden days of Rudolph Valentino and the silent film stars.
A collection of hypnotic eight-limbed abstract images inked on paper allows the Maddens to briefly fragment and flatten time - to transport themselves into the past and future in visions that are both puzzling and terrifying. Though their cousins know little about these ancient "spiders" which provoke unpredictable temporal dislocations, Ariel and Claimayne have been using for years - an addiction that has brought Claimayne to the brink of selfish destruction.
As Madeline falls more completely under Caveat's spell, Scott discovers that to protect her, he must use the perilous spiders himself. But will he unravel the mystery of the Madden family's past and finally free them...or be pulled deeper into their deadly web?
©2015 Tim Powers (P)2016 Recorded Books
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What listeners say about Medusa's Web
mrbennopolis
Great story, worst narration of any Powers book
This is another great Tim Powers novel with wonderfully weird characters and an inventive magic system. Unfortunately, out of the several hundred audiobooks I've listened to so far in my life the narration of this one has quite easily been the worst listening experience I've ever had. The problem isn't that he's speaking too slowly, the problem is that the tone and inflection are completely bizarre and wrong for the story and the characters. The narrator's mannerisms and the tone of his voice are extremely distracting and it took me a while at the start of the novel to be able hear the story beyond the extremely annoying narration. I don't understand how this narrator/narration could have possibly been paired with this story. What were the producers of the audio version thinking? How do narration disasters like this happen and why are they then foisted on a hapless public? It's really a shame because it ruins the enjoyment of an otherwise wonderful story. Had I not burned a credit on it I would have just gone to the print version.
Engaging story hampered by indifferent narration.
The story is classic Powers, intriguing and well researched. The narration is indifferent and gives no emotion to the story. I'm wondering if the computer narration in Kindle wouldn't be better.
Listen Faster
The usual entertaining Powers magic, and this time the fragmentation of time takes us back into silent-era Hollywood. Sorenson's performance is good, but too slowly paced--better if listened to at 1.25 acceleration.
Margaret Wheeler
Medusa's Web narrator is fine!
Ignore the Bronson Pinochet groupies! Yes his narration is fabulous, but this narrator is just fine. I do think that it's a bit slow but since the previous reviewer's suggestion to listen at 1.25 fixes the problem with no distortion I suspect that the speed is an artifact of production error.
Grannie Cats
I had to stop and go back to the hardback
Would you try another book from Tim Powers and/or Chris Sorenson?
I love everything Tim Powers writes, but the narrator simply ruined this audible version
The old Hollywood themes
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Chris Sorenson?
Bronson Pinchot or Simon Prebble
Do you think Medusa's Web needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
I would never presume for this Author
Kimmie S
Meh:( It's ok
The story may have been good if the narration had kept my attention. Absolutely the wrong narrator for the story. Just couldn't sound ominous enough.
Awful narration
Not Power's best book, but an entertaining read for fans. The narration, however, is done in an obnoxious nasal tone; and when the speaker attempts to alter his voice for dialigue, he tends to continue the same tone into the prose text beyond, something I found very annoying.
Thor Christianson
Good book wrecked by reader
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
I really like Tim Powers, but the narration is so bad it is painful. It kept taking me out of the book. I am not done with it, and I may not finish the book because of it. I guess I will just have to get the e-book and read it.
Would you be willing to try another one of Chris Sorenson's performances?
NO! His performance was terrible! I am sure I could do a better job myself. That is not to say it would be good if I did it myself, it would just be better than Mr. Sorenson's.
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
Yes. I am enjoying the writing in spite of the narration.
I hope Mr. Powers does not let Mr. Sorenson narrate any more of his books!
M. McCann
Tim Powers may become one of my go-to authors--the kind I can trust to deliver a good story every time. Characters are well-developed, ideas are interesting, story is well written and well told.
The narrator nearly ruined it for me
His whining voice, poor vocal range, and poor delivery made the book almost unlistenable. It's a pity because the story is so good.