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Larklight

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About this listen

 In 1851 a mysterious visitor to Art Mumby's space home has plans for a calamity that will destroy not only the entire British Empire, but also the known universe. Can disaster be prevented with help from Art's irritating sister Myrtle, a few exotic space creatures, and an extraterrestrial pirate?

Author Phillip Reeve was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize Children's Book Award.

©2006 Philip Reeve (P)2007 Recorded Books Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy Fantasy

Critic reviews

"A Jules Verne-like concoction filtered through the sensibilities of Douglas Adams....The climax is an absolute hoot, and leaves the door wide open for any number of sequels. Ages 10-up." ( Publishers Weekly)
"This wonderfully imaginative story would make a perfect gift for any adventurous preteen." ( Children's Literature)
"This fun read will appeal mostly to fans of the steampunk genre." (VOYA)
All stars
Most relevant
Having been a fan of Phillip Reeve's books as a child I decided to hunt down an audiobook of Larklight to remind myself of why I enjoyed it as much as I did.
Reeve paints an imaginative and vivid picture of life in his solar system, and lights well on the personalities of the narrators in the process, while still delivering a satisfyingly perilous, delightfully fantastic and pleasingly tightly knit narrative.
And while the audiobook lacks the wonderful illustrations of the physical copy, it more than makes up for it with Greg Steinburner's wide and varied talents for vocal characterisation.
Great for children and adults alike.

Top Notch reading of an excellent book

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narrated in an unusual fake posh English voice which was a bit offputting for me. Story ok tho.

story ok

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What a terrible, sort of, British accent. , Please, please if you need a British accent use someone British, there are still some wonderful actors that have one. I couldn’t finish this book, there were so many mispronounced words, it just spoilt it for me.

British accent

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Reeve's creations are always enjoyable, the humour can be easy to see coming sometimes but for the target audience it is probably just right.

Where this audiobook falls down is in the performance and the editing. The notion that a posh accent makes you say "parsengers" instead of "passengers" breaks the fourth wall too often.
Also, the quality of editing, with huge gaps between some chapters and not between others, plus audible deep breaths and palate noises, make for a sub-standard production, compared to others from the same author.
Shame

Like the story, struggle with the reader

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