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Cannae: The Longest Day

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Cannae: The Longest Day

By: Ben Kane
Narrated by: Ben Kane, Philip Stevens
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About this listen

 From the Sunday Times bestseller comes a gripping retelling of Hannibal's greatest trial - the battle of Cannae. Narrated by Phil Stevens, this audio-first novel features music, on-location sound effects and detailed sound design.

Cannae, 216 BC - Under a blisteringly hot sun, Hannibal Barca, perhaps the most skilful general in history, leads his army against the unstoppable might of Rome. His soldiers are outnumbered two to one.

The momentous battle will determine the Roman Republic's fate.

By the day's end, tens of thousands of men will be dead, the ground saturated in blood. Can Hannibal's army defeat the Roman legions, or will the challenge for the great general prove too much?

Recounted by soldiers on both sides, Ben Kane's historical epic Cannae brings the ancient battle to life as never before. Its cinematic, edge-of-the-seat action will drag readers into the midst of the fear, madness and brutality of Cannae, one of the bloodiest and most-studied battles in history.

Cannae: The Longest Day is the culmination of a 2 year first-in-its-kind project - an audio project jointly conceived by Orion Fiction, Audio and bestselling historical fiction author Ben Kane. This rich, immersive production throws readers into the frontlines of the battle as it features music, sound-design and exclusive effects recorded on location with recreation group Park in the Past.

Readers love Ben Kane:
'Powerful evocation of our history' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'An engaging and exciting read' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Gripped me from start to finish' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Epic tales, gorgeous prose, non-stop action' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Rich in period detail and lively in narrative' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐©2026 Ben Kane (P)2026 Orion Publishing Group Limited Action & Adventure Ancient Historical Fiction Military Rome Emotionally Gripping
All stars
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I liked the focus of personal courage, loss commitment, The pain and slaughter so poignantly depicted. How our ancestors suffered in pursuit of glory & power. Little has changed

Philip Stephen’s narration

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Awesome in depth story of the battle of Cannae.

Incredibly vivid, great addition of the sound affects, found it really immersive.

Not to be passed up! 👍🏻

History Come to Life!

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As an audiobook veteran I can confirm to you that this book is a unicorn and I will explain why.

Story Telling- This audiobook has been tailored made for listeners and will follow the story with varying background music that gradually changes in tone like the seasons through the year. It also has a lovely drizzle here and there of distinct sound effects like galloping, men chanting etc. to help give the story that added dimension that you don’t get in many audiobooks where it’s mainly a single narrator and nothing else. The narrators did a wonderful job carrying the story and really bringing it to life. A special mention to the author for putting himself out there having segments that he reads himself but more to set the scene and give historical context.

The actual story- Is largely historically accurate and you will gradually learn about the battle of canne without even realising. The fiction is more around specific characters and smaller parts of the bigger picture that are used to help guide you through the story. But without giving too much away it jumps cleverly between different people in different roles on both sides through the plot.
It has a steady build up but gets stuck into the action quite early. The book covers roughly 1 whole day in terms of events in the timeline but does it well.

Summary- A beautiful marriage of sound effects, music, narration, story telling and pacing, all falling so well into place like Hannibal’s plan. This book is worth every penny and is a very rewarding and distinct audiobook experience.

History as it’s never been told before.

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Massive Ben kane fan, but I think I wasn't sure on this format. the story was good... different angles, different perspectives... but still showing how close we all are.

Tthe sound affects were poor. They drowned out some of the audio and just made the mind wander, and the constant repetition of the main tactic from Carthage was a bit much. still read to the end. Good experiment.Look forward to more books ahead.

Too distracting

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