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  • The Second Sleep

  • By: Robert Harris
  • Narrated by: Roy McMillan
  • Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (2,044 ratings)
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The Second Sleep cover art

The Second Sleep

By: Robert Harris
Narrated by: Roy McMillan
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

The latest novel from Robert Harris: chosen as a Book of the Year by The Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Mail on Sunday, and Express.

What if your future lies in the past?

Dusk is gathering as a young priest, Christopher Fairfax, rides across a silent land.

It’s a crime to be out after dark and Fairfax knows he must arrive at his destination – a remote village in the wilds of Exmoor – before night falls and curfew is imposed.

He’s lost and he’s becoming anxious as he slowly picks his way across a countryside strewn with the ancient artefacts of a civilisation that seems to have ended in cataclysm.

What Fairfax cannot know is that, in the days and weeks to come, everything he believes in will be tested to destruction, as he uncovers a secret that is as dangerous as it is terrifying....

©2019 Robert Harris (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"One word: wonderful. Two words: compulsive [listening]. Three words: buy it tomorrow. Four words: tonight, if possible." (Stephen King)

"A thoroughly absorbing...narrative." (Sunday Times)

"Genuinely thrilling." (Daily Telegraph)

What listeners say about The Second Sleep

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

appeal for a considerd eanding

enjoyable but audible please allow the reader a brief pause at the end to savour the moment before rabbiting on with with the legal crap and hard sell

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46 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Something different that will make you think...

This story is quite different from Robert Harris and adds another dimension to the Master story tellers range. The narration delivered by Roy McMillan is absolutely superb, he conjures up the mood and pace and establishes Christopher Fairfax as a character that we need to hear from in the future.
A beautifully written story that will make the reader or listener think about the world and the way that we are all evolving.

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32 people found this helpful

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

Engaging Story, tepid end

An engaging and original story, loses its way at the end for an unsatisfactory conclusion

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22 people found this helpful

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

Is Robert Harris On The Decline ?

An enjoyable read but like its predecessor Munich (released in 1917), Robert Harris’s latest novel - The Second Sleep - falls short of the author’s highest standards. Both novels are worthwhile but there is a feeling that the author is going through the motions. The storyline, briefly, is about a priest assigned to a small village in Wessex where a mysterious past is unravelled, following a time shifting apocalypse. Compared to other novels like Lamentation and The Name Of The Rose, this novel is found wanting. Not bad but not a classic.

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15 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Loved this book.

This was not at all what I expected but I absolutely loved it, could not stop listening. It is a book that I will remember and think about for a long while, a message for our times?!

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12 people found this helpful

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

Thought provoking novel.

The Second Sleep is an unconventional historical novel. Set in the year 1468 in Wessex, it tells the story of a priest sent on a simple task to perform a funeral in a remote Exmoor village.
But all is not as it seems in this mystery.
A well written book, with superb narration from Roy McMillan. But I feel the plot lacking substance and direction, - maybe this was deliberate. A thought provoking novel indeed, it asks questions of what we see as history, knowledge, civilisation, and the future...

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11 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting idea, that doesn't quite deliver.

I purchased this after seeing Harris being interviewed and finding the concept intriguing. While I did enjoy the story, and it was certainly well narrated, I felt it didn't quite follow through on its promise. It seemed to gradually run out of steam, and the ending felt rushed and a little anti-climactic.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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His Best yet

Having read almost all of Harris' previous work I admit to being a follower. Some were excellent and one or two were hard work ie. too statistical for me! Fortunately with Second Sleep I was stuck on a long drive to the South of France so was committed to listening as I drove down to the ferry at Portsmouth. I thought I knew which way the story was unfolding, so nearly drove off the road when without warning it changed direction. The story is so enthralling, and captivating, that most of my family and friends have now listened to or read it.
I fear that there are more books in the series to come because there were some major loose ends at the end. But, I doubt that I will read a better book in 2020.

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8 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Typical Harris- a well-researched page turner

Whatever this author chooses as a subject it is invariably a well-researched and always a gripping read. The denouement seemed a little rushed however, with an almost deus ex machina finish.

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8 people found this helpful

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

Utter codswallop

I wish l hadn't taken someone's recommendation to read/listen to this book, it was cods wallop!

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5 people found this helpful