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The Last Days of Thunder Child
- Victorian Britain in Chaos!
- Narrated by: Jack Wynters
- Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction
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Summary
Pastiche story from H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds from the perspective of H.M.S. Thunder Child’s Royal Navy crew. The year is 1898, and the story unfolds through the eyes of an ironclad crew and a land-based war office clerk Mister Albert Stanley. Gradually, everyone moves toward the dreadful outcome as the strange alien tripods rampage around Victorian Britain.
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What listeners say about The Last Days of Thunder Child
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- anon
- 05-03-20
A poor story turned into a truly dreadful listen
The story:
- full of stereotypes: the crusty sea dog Quartermaster, the run-of-the-mill civil servant turned hero, the "Mein Gott!" muttering foreign naval officers
- long-winded passages with little relevance to the supposed story
- repetitive phrase use (how many times does that alien screech and / or heat ray "tear" across the sky??)
- amateur dramatic-level dialogue full of awful terms that no-one probably ever really used. And thousands chanting "Thunder Child! We will always love you!" - I literally laughed out loud it was so cringeworthy (and unrealistic - no-one on shore would have had a clue what the boat was called)
- massively unbelievable love element - they decide to marry each other within hours of meeting? Really?!?
- absolutely no suspense or dread
- pointless sub plots that passed me by - what was the French professor about? Why were the Martians ignoring masses of people and shipping just to chase some paddle steamer?
So, the narrator already has a job on his hands with the material in front of him. However, there doesn't appear to be any attempt to roll this turd in glitter.
- the audio version features a huge catalogue of exactly one sound effect: a gun firing. Why use this at all if that's literally all you have?
- the narrator makes no attempt to set the tone of his voice to match what he's actually reading. Sentences like '"She's going down, Perry!" cried the Quartermaster' are read in a drab monotone usually reserved for police court statements
- the accents given to the stereotypes are a horrendous mix of Monty Python meets CBeebies. The captain with the supposedly gentle Edinburgh accent sounds like a Hebridean hermit trying to mimic Mel Gibson in Braveheart. A Welsh seaman sails way too close to a Pakistani / Indian accent, while the young sailors all sound like alike with their high-pitched naughty schoolboy verbalisation. And don't get me started on the Allo Allo French and German accents (despite the book clearly stating they had barely any accent at all).
I gave up after chapter 2, then camp back and somehow pushed on to the end just to see how much worse it could get. It's certainly consistent in it's dreadfulness.
3 people found this helpful
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- Ged Maxted
- 14-03-22
Enthralling
I liked everything about it, did they get the third Tripod, it was a bit vague about that
1 person found this helpful
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- A.Barham
- 09-03-22
A tribute to H G Wells masterpiece
Good voice for this story, think Mr Wells would of liked this point of view from Thunderchild.
1 person found this helpful
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- MARK G.
- 04-08-21
a fantastic story
Having grown up with the works of H G Wells and The War of the Worlds
C A Powell invents a revealing insight into the world of the infamous Ironclad. A wonderful imaginative story which grips until the end.
1 person found this helpful
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- lee lucas
- 11-05-21
Great story based on Martian war
Yet another great follow on to the H.G.Wells classic war of the worlds. The character's are believable and the story is well read. I enjoyed the sound effects. Thunderchild is a main part of Wells's story so it good to hear how he men lived, served and died in battle against the tripods in the river blackwater. On to the next book.
1 person found this helpful
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- rockyboy2
- 16-02-20
THis is a fantastic story, you must listen'
This story, from the number one bestseller on Amazon, is great for the audible. I suggest you listen to it right through to the end. The story is told from several points of view. The more you listen, the more you will be drawn into this wonderful story, and all it's interesting characters. Based on the War of The Worlds, it is very British in its narration. It will grip you from beginning to end. A great movie in the making, very soon, love it.
1 person found this helpful
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- Ian
- 12-02-20
Hooray for Thunderchild
War of the worlds is my favourite books for years and I've also been a big fan of the musical by Jeff Wayne
My favourite parts of both has to be the heroic battle of HMS thunderchild when she takes out 3 Martian tripods
This book does a wonderful job of telling their story leading up to this fateful battle with great characters would you come to care for.
I especially liked Mr Stanley and boys Seaman Perry.
1 person found this helpful
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- Mike Glyde
- 19-03-22
let down by dry narration
I love the premise and have the physical book, so thought I would enjoy the audio version. Alas the almost monotonous and characterless narration sends you to sleep rather than carrying you on a ripping victorian adventure.
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- Jax White
- 07-02-22
mediocre
I found the narration boring and cumbersome. 'Thunderchild, Thunderchild' actually made me angry how badly it was narrated
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- Andy
- 22-01-22
Good but not great
the story is close to my heart, having listened to the musical version a lot when I was a kid and a spin off therefore felt like a great idea. overall I thought it was a good story though as others have said, it's more written for kids. the narration was good on the most part but the accents are a little humorous! worth a credit.
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- James E. Jourdan
- 16-06-20
Must read for fans of the original book
Left me wanting more. A must read for any fan of the original war of the worlds couldn't get enough of