Archer’s Goon cover art

Archer’s Goon

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Archer’s Goon

By: Diana Wynne Jones
Narrated by: Miriam Margolyes
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About this listen

Read by Miriam Margoyles.

Fact: A Goon is a being who melts into the foreground and sticks there…

When the Goon turns up demanding "Archer’s two thousand", life turns upside-down. As Howard desperately tries to get to the bottom of this peculiar demand, he discovers that the town is run by seven crazy wizards (not all of whom live in the present!) and someone is trying to take over the world!

Exciting, bizarre and truly hilarious! Listening fun for all the family.

 Action & Adventure Fantasy Fiction Growing Up & Facts of Life Humorous Fiction Literature & Fiction Mysteries Mystery & Suspense Science Fiction & Fantasy Survival Stories Witty Funny

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Critic reviews

“…Her hallmarks include laugh-aloud humour, plenty of magic and imaginative array of alternate worlds. Yet, at the same time, a great seriousness is present in all of her novels, a sense of urgency that links Jones’s most outrageous plots to her readers’ hopes and fears…”
Publishers Weekly
All stars
Most relevant
Some lines are missing, but what's left is well read. The story is excellent, of course. But I wish I'd known this was abridged before buying it.

Abridged. Be aware

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I love all of Dana Wynne Jones's books and re-read or re-listen to them frequently, Archer's Goon is no exception and Miriam Margolyes is a great narrator.

Diana Wynne Jones wrote different types of fantasy/sci-fi/magic books and this is of the kind set in our own world but secretly magic exists.

The only very slight criticism is it isn't unabridged, but it is still really good :)

A much loved book

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Loved this book as a kid - some favourite scenes seem to have been cut in the abridged version … would love to see the full version :) Narration is absolutely spot on 👌

Hilarious

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I have always loved the story of archer's goon, but as others have mentioned, this is the abridged version which is a shame. However, I was not able to finish listening to this book as the moronic narrator manages to mispronounce the name Catriona the whole way through, pronouncing it phonetically when it is actually pronounced Katrina. Such a small thing completely ruined the experience to the point that I could not listen. Surely you check things like name pronunciation before you start recording. But apparently not. Extremely disappointed.

Wonderful story, ruined by narrator unable to pronounce names correctly

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