Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Deep Secret cover art

Deep Secret

By: Diana Wynne Jones
Narrated by: Chris Webster,Harriet Carmichael
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £13.00

Buy Now for £13.00

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Sabriel cover art
The Colour of Magic cover art
The Silence cover art
The Very First Damned Thing cover art
Clockwork Boys cover art
Paladin's Grace cover art
Faerie Wars cover art
Witchmark cover art
White Silence cover art
Say It With Poison, Mitchell and Markby Village, Book 1 cover art
Where Old Bones Lie, Mitchell and Markby Village, Book 5 cover art
Down Cemetery Road cover art
Wild Cards I cover art
Singing the Sadness cover art
The Last of the Greenwoods cover art
The Christmas Secret cover art

Summary

A fantasy adventure about saving the universe one world at a time from Diana Wynne Jones. The companion novel to the bestselling The Merlin Conspiracy.

Magids look after all worlds, steer them towards magic, and keep history happening. But Rupert Venables’ mentor has just died, and as the junior magid on earth he has to find a replacement while also trying to find the lost heir of a collapsing empire, worlds away.

Rupert interweaves the fate lines to get all the candidates together at a sci-fi fantasy convention, and havoc ensues as they all converge on a very strange hotel, where everything is always linked, the walls keep moving, people are trying to kill him, and nothing is as it seems...a magical, epic story from the Godmother of fantasy.

©2013 Diana Wynne Jones (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

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)
“Diana Wynne Jones ought to be crowned with coloured garlands because she is the best writer of magical fantasy for children in this country.” ( Evening Standard)
“Diana Wynne Jones could teach Stephen King and JK Rowling a thing or two...[she] has a skill for inserting just the right amount of detail in her written words, leaving you satiated but not stuffed.” ( SFX)

What listeners say about Deep Secret

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    75
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    58
  • 4 Stars
    15
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    69
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great interpretation of a favourite DWJ story

Any additional comments?

This is one of my favourite DWJ stories. There's a lot going on in it, it is clever, in a subtle way, rather than being in your face. It stretches across worlds with a narrative that unfurls slowly, revealing things as it goes along. One of the best things about DWJ characters is that they are believable... they are not perfect and you like them in spite of or even because of their failings. The central characters, Rupert and Maree are beautifully drawn. I wasn't sure about the performances initially, but they really grew on me. One slight annoyance is that the sound level of Chris Webster's performance varies a bit too much. You can suggest whispering or shouting without doing it. Apart from that, it is a great performance of all the voices and I liked Harriet Carmichael too, although I tend to think Maree's voice is a bit lower than she plays it. I particularly liked that they both seemed to have worked together to make their character voices similar but without overdoing it. This book is like an old friend that is a joy to revisit time after time and I'm pleased that now I can revisit the audio version as well as on the page. Also a relief to get an unabridged version. Whoever thinks that DWJ needs abridging is frankly nuts - she's never wastes a word, so why would you cut them?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This is definitely NOT suitable for children!!

This has been wrongly described as a children’s book and wrongly categorised. It is an excellent young adult/adult title. It contains descriptions of orgies, graphic murder of children and is very adult in its story line and subject matter. A brilliant book but not suitable for children.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A good fantasy with twists.

A good story.
The readers seemed too young and the supposed adult male curiously naive and teenagers in the narrative.
But the story itself seemed good enough to push those annoyances aside.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Superbly read and amazingly written

Some areas were a little hard to follow when there was so much 'summing up' information but the rest was wonderfully written.
The story is written from 2 people's perspective intertwining beautifully. The characters and imagery are thoroughly described and the different voices/accents really help keep the individual characters alive.
i really enjoyed the whole story apart from the 'anti fat' language used occasionally.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Complicated but terrific book, well narrated.

This isn't the easiest book to get into, but it is very worthwhile persevering with it. What starts off as a rather weird sci-fi sort of narrative rapidly returns to earth for a story full of human interest, characters and situations that are definitely quirky but very absorbing. The readers do it full justice

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

body shaming misogyny fatphobia ahoy

I'm a real fan of Wynne-Jone's other works but she must have been having a real self-hatred episode when she wrote this. A female character is not introduced without first being evaluated for her looks. Fat characters are routinely dehumanised and in one case a main character actually gets up and leaves a room because he cannot abide a fat person sitting next to him.
Don't give this to impressionable young adults, don't read it yourself.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Entertaining once you get into it

I am a DWJ fan, and I enjoyed this, but it is not her best. If you stick with it the story does build and get exciting. Female narrator is good and does character voices well, the male narrator is good at the narration but terrible at the character voices.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Not for me

slow burner really couldn't get in to it the more I listened I just lost interest.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Story!

This was brilliant! Read on a suggestion from a friend and am delighted. Magic and technology is a great combination! Really enjoyed the characters and their voice acting!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fabulous!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, yes and yes - if you enjoy fantasy then I'd be really surprised if you didn't love Diana Wynne Jones. This book is one of her best and one of my absolute favourites - fun the whole way through with a bit of everything thrown in - adventure, science fiction, fantasy, romance, comedy, drama, all given a good stir and well-seasoned with a bit of tongue-in-cheek affection.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Deep Secret?

Good the whole way through - its pretty even - but the fantasy con is perfectly done.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Don't make me pick - not fair. It's good the whole way through!

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Not sure it would be possible so a tagline would have to be: Forget the film, just read the book!

Any additional comments?

Excellent narration - it can make or break a book, but the two narrators do a terrific job.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!