audio books

These are the voyages of the starship, A.S.F. Willful Child. Its ongoing mission: to seek out strange new worlds on which to plant the Terran flag, to subjugate and if necessary obliterate new life-forms, to boldly blow the...

And so we join the not-terribly-bright but exceedingly cock-sure Captain Hadrian Sawback - think James T Kirk crossed with ‘American Dad' - and his motley crew on board the Starship Willful Child for a series of devil-may-care, near-calamitous and downright chaotic adventures through ‘the infinite vastness of interstellar space’... 

The bestselling author of the acclaimed Malazan Book of the Fallen sequence has taken a life-long passion for 'Star Trek' and transformed it into a hugely entertaining spoof on the whole mankind-exploring-space-for-the-good-of-all-species-but-trashing-stuff-with-a-lot-of-hi-tech-kit-along-the-way type over-blown science fiction adventure. The result is smart. inventive, occasionally OTT and often very funny - a novel that both deftly parodies the genre and pays fond homage to it.

Willful Child by Steven Erikson (Audiobook extract) Read by MacLeod Andrews

Russell Brand wants YOU to join the revolution.

We all know the system isn't working. Our governments are corrupt and the opposing parties pointlessly similar. Our culture is filled with vacuity and pap, and we are told there's nothing we can do - "it's just the way things are".

In this book, Russell Brand hilariously lacerates the straw men and paper tigers of our conformist times and presents, with the help of experts as diverse as Thomas Piketty and George Orwell, a vision for a fairer, sexier society that's fun and inclusive.

You have been lied to, told there's no alternative, no choice and that you don't deserve any better. Brand destroys this illusory facade as amusingly and deftly as he annihilates Morning Joe anchors, Fox News fascists and BBC stalwarts.

This book makes revolution not only possible, but inevitable and fun.

Narrated by Russell himself.

Revolution by Russell Brand (Audiobook extract) Read by Russell Brand

This week on the Penguin Podcast we are thinking about the planet that we call home - from the perils of its great oceans, and the impact of our own way of life on the planet, to enjoying the simple pleasures of walking. 

The Penguin Podcast: Mother Nature feat. Will Self, Naomi Klein and Clare Balding

An audio extract from the brand new unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Annie, read by Annie Potts

It's 1933 and for as long as she can remember, 11 year old Annie has believed that her mother and father would come back to her New York City orphanage to get her. But mean Miss Hannigan the headmistress is making Annie's life a misery. So she runs away to find her parents - and along the way she rescues a friendly dog, meets millionaire Oliver Warbucks, and has a many scary and exciting adventures. Will kind-hearted Annie find a way to escape her hard-knock life?

Thomas Meehan: Annie (audiobook extract)read by Annie Potts

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? What does it desire, and why? 

There is only one vampire, only one blood drinker, truly known to the entire world of the Undead. Will the dazzling hero-wanderer, the dangerous rebel-outlaw Lestat heed the call to unite the Children of Darkness as they face this new twilight? 

Prince Lestat by Anne Rice (Audiobook extract) Read by Simon Vance

GOING PUBLIC 4.19.13 - PEDRO'S GUIDE TO THE PERFECT DINNER PARTY
Written by, and recorded with permission from by the wonderful Peter Davey﻿
...offered in two parts. 

Link to author's original post: 
http://peterdavey2.com/2012/10/06/pedros-guide-to-the-perfect-dinner-party/


As I said earlier, there is still joy in the world, and I find that when everything seems to have gone to hell in a handbasket - when in fact we're all starting to secretly harbor thoughts that perhaps the Mayans got it right - it soothes my soul to find sources of amusement, little reminders that we are more than the sum of our personal or global tragedies.

Enter this week's Going Public, which is lovingly offered as pure amusement from author Peter Davey (with my apologies to dear Peter for my not brilliant attempt at a British accent...I just couldn't bear to say "arse" and "paracetamol" without one!). 


Pedro's Guide to the Perfect Dinner Party, Part 1, by Peter Davey (read by Xe Sands)

Penguin Books publishes blockbusting, prize-winning, celebrated, controversial, heart-warming, thought-provoking and inspiring books by a range of authors from Ali Smith to Zadie Smith, Jeremy Clarkson to Jeremy Paxman and Jamie Oliver to Oliver Goldsmith.

Willful Child by Steven Erikson (Audiobook extract) Read by MacLeod Andrews

Penguin Books UK