The Hod King

Hello and welcome! A short yet, hopefully, perfectly formed posting for this chilly Friday evening.

The Hod King, by Josiah Bancroft, was released on January 22nd in all formats. This is the third of Josiah's 'Books of Babel' series, which has had such an incredible reception since the first self-published volume, Senlin Ascends, became available and which was ultimately taken up and re-published by the Little,Brown Book Group.

Reviews for all three books have been remarkable, including this one, which appeared in my Twitter feed a few days ago:

“‘Books of Babel’ are something you hope to see perhaps once a decade - future classics, which may be remembered long after the series concludes. Only a few days into 2019, I think we’ve already found a contender for fantasy book of the year.”
                                                                                 
                                                                                     Ant Jones (the LA Times)

Here are some details:

The third novel in the highly acclaimed Books of Babel series, set in a labyrinthine world of menace and wonder. 

On the orders of the mysterious Sphinx, Thomas Senlin and his crew are dragged ever further into the Tower's conspiracies.

Meanwhile, the hods climb the Black Trail in darkness and whisper of their king.

"One of my favourite books of all time." (Mark Lawrence, author of Prince of Thorns)

"These books are absolutely incredible." (The Quill to Live)

"An engrossing, intoxicating delight." (Forbidden Planet)

 Written by Josiah Bancroft, Produced by Neil Gardner & Narrated by John Banks
 
Audio book length: 20 hours - 16 minutes

©2019 Josiah Bancroft (P)2019 Hachette Audio UK

By the way, an audio sample of The Hod King appears above in this blog.

 

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A short selection of Audible.co.uk reviews:

Senlin Ascends

"imaginative and exciting" 

beautifully written, fantastic narration.

                                                            Joe Arnold 23.3.18

"Outstanding audiobook" 

Absolutely loved this book! It is well deserving of the praise it receives, and the narration brought it to exceptional levels. Wonderful pacing and voices and so often I forgot I was listening to a book - everything played out in my mind like a film. 

                           Lauren 1.2.18 

Arm of The Sphinx

 

"Read this book!" 

 Loved every second of it and the Narrator is phenomenal! 

                      Richard Woodrow 29.3.18 

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January has been a very busy month so far: I completed the second of this month's audio books earlier this afternoon and I'm looking forward to recording a couple of audio dramas next week.

February is now also looking busy, with some very interesting stuff coming in the pipeline. But more of that later, because that's...

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

The Gutter Prayer

Good afternoon and thanks once again for stopping by!

After a hugely enjoyable week of recording the first audio book of the new year, my task for the coming few days, is to continue preparation for the second book of 2019, which is scheduled to be recorded from the middle of next week. These first two books are, respectively, parts 2 & 3 of different series and, as mentioned previously, it's paticularly tricky to remember and re-create character voices last used many months ago and indeed, several thousand other voices ago!

In saying that, I'm now wondering just how many character voices I actually had to come up with in last year's recordings; at a very rough guess, I think it must be somewhere between two and three thousand. The character count for the soon to be released House of Niccolo books alone, came close to fifteen hundred...

But more on that in a couple of month's time. For today, here are some details of my narrated audio edition of Gareth Hanrahan's debut novel, The Gutter Prayer, which I had great fun recording with producer Neil Gardner.


"In the ancient city of Guerdon, three thieves - an orphan, a ghoul and a cursed man - are accused of a crime they didn't commit. Their quest for revenge exposes a perilous conspiracy, the seeds of which were sown long before they were born.

A centuries-old magical war is on the verge of reigniting, and in the tunnels deep below the city, a malevolent power stirs. Only by standing together can the three friends prevent a conflict that would bring total devastation to their city - and the world beyond."

 Produced by Neil Gardner & Narrated by John Banks

Running Time: 16 hours - 57 minutes

©2018 Gareth Hanrahan (P)2018 Hachette Audio UK

There's a short clip taken from the audio book posted above on this web site, should you wish to hear it. 

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I feel fortunate to have some enjoyable and interesting projects coming up over the next several weeks; I'm looking forward to working on them and indeed, to telling you all about them at the earliest opportunity.

In the meantime, that's...

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

 

Good afternoon and all good wishes for a Happy New Year!

The hugely demanding pace of recording last year, calmed as December progressed. Purely for my own interest, I really ought to make an accurate tally of how much I recorded in 2018; off the top of my head, I think it was something like 23 audiobooks, 42 short stories and 22 audio dramas, though I'll have to check.

Having had some free time over the holidays, January began with preparation for two quite challenging audiobooks, the first of which is scheduled to be recorded next week. My extended vocal warm up has been underway for several days, as I don't fancy the idea of performing a couple of hundred extreme creature character voices without 'tuning up' first!

In the meantime, the first Black Library release of mine for 2019 will be available to download from 19th January and here are some details:

The Horus Heresy: Nightfane

A Horus Heresy audio drama

Arriving at a seemingly abandoned underwater rigging station on the moon of Bael, Aeonid Thiel and the Red-Marked discover a plot to devastate the 500 Worlds… Can they stop it in time?

After the war to save Ultramar from the traitor hosts of Horus ended, formerly disgraced Ultramarines Sergeant Aenoid Thiel believes that enemies still linger within the borders of the empire. Finding other men of purpose, fellow Space Marines known as the ‘Red-Marked’, Thiel wages a guerrilla war to root out these enemies and vanquish them for good.

Following the threads of a previous mission, the Red-Marked arrive on the moon of Bael. There they find an underwater rigging station that has seemingly been abandoned. But this place and its secrets could hold the key to the so-called ‘Nightfane’, a mysterious plot intended to bring about the destruction of Ultramar and only Thiel and his men can stop it.

Annie Aldington, Tom Alexander, Gareth Armstrong, John Banks, Steve Conlin, Andrew Fettes, Matthew Hunt,
Jonathan Keeble, Gesella Ohaka & Richard Reed

Written by Nick Kyme & Produced by Matt Renshaw

Running time: 1 hour and 13 minutes

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And that's about it for the first posting of 2019. There's lots of varied and hopefully interesting stuff in the pipeline and I hope you'll stop by the web site again soon.

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