Senlin Ascends: The Books of Babel, Book 1

Good morning! This remarkable and astonishingly original novel, Senlin Ascends, written by Josiah Bancroft, is now available in a freashly published edition from the Little, Brown Book Group and as an audiobook, which was released yesterday in the UK and on 17th in the US.

Josiah originally self-published his story in 2013 and I'd be fascinated to know the journey the book has undertaken in order to have been picked up by a major international publishing house like Little, Brown. The release of the audio book seems to have generated quite a bit of interest and I'm delighted to have heard directly from Josiah, that he is pleased with how his novel has transferred to audio. His very generous comments with regard to my voice characterisations are gratifying indeed and I thank him for them.

The story is quite tricky to summarise, though this is a pretty good shot from Nazia at Little, Brown UK: “Try to imagine what would happen if Studio Ghibli and William Goldman collaborated with Mervyn Peake, and they reimagined Dante’s Divine Comedy.”  Indeed!

The audio book is available from audible and amazon and here are some details:

"Mild-mannered headmaster Thomas Senlin prefers his adventures to be safely contained within the pages of a book. So when he loses his new bride shortly after embarking on the honeymoon of their dreams, he is ill-prepared for the trouble that follows.

To find her, Senlin must enter the Tower of Babel - a world of geniuses and tyrants, of menace and wonder, of unusual animals and mysterious machines. He must endure betrayal, assassination attempts and the long guns of a flying fortress. And if he hopes to ever see his wife again, he will have to do more than just survive...this quiet man of letters must become a man of action."

Narrated by John Banks - unabridged audio book: 14 hours - 13 minutes 


"John Banks' wonderful narration of the Senlin Ascends audio book is available today in the UK. 
I'm so happy to finally be able to share John Banks' excellent performance with everyone!"

                                                                                                                Josiah Bancroft - author

 

Reviews for the book:

"One of my favourite books of all time." (Mark Lawrence)

 

"An extraordinary debut that is well worthy of the hype. A beautifully written, highly engaging page-turning masterpiece." (Fantasy Book Review)

 

"Thomas Senlin is the most unlikely yet likeable hero since a certain hobbit rushed out of Bag End leaving his second breakfast half-finished and entirely unwashed-up." (Fantasy Faction)

©2013 Josiah Bancroft (P)2018 Little, Brown Book Group

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Senlin Ascends is the first novel of a trilogy, part two of which, Arm of The Sphinx, I start recording next week, once again with producer Neil Gardner; should be fun!

...all for now, more just as soon as it happens! 

 

Dark Imperium

With the release of Dark Imperium from The Black Library, it now feels as though the working year has begun. Although, behind the scenes of course, work has never really stopped. The Christmas and New Year 'holiday' was taken up with preparation for recording the first audio book of 2018, which was done 3rd to 5th of January and as I keep mentioning, I have a further three books to prep and record by the first week of February, so no time off at all - Happy Days!

And so, here we go; Good Luck 2018!

Dark Imperium

Warhammer 40,000

The galaxy has changed. Darkness spreads, warp storms split reality and Chaos is everywhere – even Ultramar. As Roboute Guilliman's Indomitus Crusade draws to a close, he must brave the perils of the warp to reach his home and save it from the depredations of the Plague God.

Fell times have come to the galaxy. Cadia has fallen, destroyed by the onslaught of Chaos. A Great Rift in the warp has opened and from its depths spew daemons and the horrors of Old Night. But all hope is not lost...

A hero, long absent, has returned and with him comes the wrath of the Ultramarines reborn. Roboute Guilliman has arisen to lead the Imperium out of darkness on a crusade the likes of which has not been seen since the fabled days of the Emperor.

But never before have the forces of Ruin amassed in such numbers, and nowhere is safe from despoliation. From the dreaded Scourge Stars come the hordes of the Plaguefather, Lord Nurgle, and their pustulent eye is fixed on Macragge.

As the Indomitas Crusade draws to an end, Guilliman races to Ultramar and a confrontation with the Death Guard.

Written by Guy Haley, Narrated by John Banks & Produced by Kylia Whitehead

 Audiobook running time: 12 hours and 45 minutes

...all for now, more just as soon as it happens!

 

The Maggotkin of Nurgle...

And we're already into the second week of 2018; how extraordinarily swiftly does time fly by! January, for me, continues pretty much as December ended - busily! As mentioned previously, I have four audiobooks to record this month and into the first week of February. At the moment, one book has been completed and I'm once again, deep in preparation for the next three, which are to be recorded over a very intense two-week period.

So far, there are no new releases to mention, although the first of this year's recordings should be available next week sometime and I'll post details here when I know more. In the meantime, Games Workshop and The Black Library are promoting new story lines to accompany new games and figures, featuring The Grandfather - Nurgle himself and his rot infested army!

Part of that promotion is this trailer, which I recorded a couple of weeks ago. It was great fun to come up with voices for these three characters and I'm delighted to see the accompanying animation, which has been so imaginatively and skillfully created by Laura at Games Workshop.

In my opinion, the artwork for this game and story line is quite exceptional and if I knew who was responsible for it, I would be delighted to credit them here - what fabulous work!

I hope you 'enjoy' listening to the brothers Glottkin trailer - make sure to play it loud!

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As a quick post script: I mentioned that one of last month's Advent stories, The Autumn Prince, had the wrong cast credited to it on the Black Library web site. The cast I published here is correct and I'm assured that Steve Conlin does indeed appear at the very beginning of the story; I'll have to listen to it more carefully!

...all for now, more just as soon as it happens!

Happy New Year!

My thanks to all who have dropped by to peruse this web site over the last year and I hope you'll keep checking in throughout 2018, which, professionally speaking, is about to start for me tomorrow. I have four audio books scheduled to record this month, so there has been no slacking over the - short - festive break.

There's nothing to report yet in terms of available recordings or other items of news; however, there is the final 'Advent' recording to mention from last month/year from the Black Library and here are some details:

The Autumn Prince

A Warhammer Age of Sigmar audio drama

An aelven wanderer prince seeks to wrest the secret of cheating death from one of the Katophranes in Shadespire. But why does a nigh-immortal aelf seek power over death?

Lured into the cursed city of Shadespire by the promise of the secret of cheating death, the aelf wanderer Prince Maesa seeks the Katophrane Thanaton.

Surrounded by the spirits of the dead who cannot die, trapped in the last moments before the city's destruction, Maesa nears his goal… but just why does a nigh-immortal aelf seek this power over death?

John Banks, Beth Chalmers, Tim Bruce, Melvyn Rawlinson, Luis Soto, Steve Conlin

Written by Guy Haley & Produced by Matt Renshaw

I'm playing Prince Maesa in this story and having now had the chance to listen to it, I think the BL web site has credited the wrong cast for this production. I have given the correct cast list above, although, having again announced on the actual recording, that Steve Conlin is in this story, in fact, I can't hear his very distinctive voice and so, I think his inclusion may also be incorrect. I'll update when I've clarified the situation with the folks at BL.

In the meantime, that's...

...all for now, more just as soon as it happens - Happy New Year!