Rotherweird cover art

Rotherweird

Rotherweird, Book 1

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Rotherweird

By: Andrew Caldecott
Narrated by: Kris Dyer
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About this listen

Rotherweird is a twisted, arcane murder-mystery with shades of Deborah Harkness, Hope Mirrlees and Ben Aaronovitch, Mervyn Peake and Edward Gorey at their disturbing best.

The town of Rotherweird stands alone - there are no guidebooks, despite the fascinating and diverse architectural styles cramming the narrow streets, the avant-garde science and offbeat customs. Cast adrift from the rest of England by Elizabeth I, Rotherweird's independence is subject to one disturbing condition: nobody, but nobody, studies the town or its history.

For beneath the enchanting surface lurks a secret so dark that it must never be rediscovered, still less reused.

But secrets have a way of leaking out.

Two inquisitive outsiders have arrived: Jonah Oblong, to teach modern history at Rotherweird School (nothing local and nothing before 1800), and the sinister billionaire Sir Veronal Slickstone, who has somehow got permission to renovate the town's long-derelict Manor House.

Slickstone and Oblong, though driven by conflicting motives, both strive to connect past and present until they and their allies are drawn into a race against time - and each other. The consequences will be lethal and apocalyptic.

Welcome to Rotherweird!

©2017 Andrew Caldecott (P)2017 WF Howes Ltd Historical Fiction Fiction Feel-Good Mind-bending Funny

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Critic reviews

"Intricate and crisp, witty and solemn: a book with special and dangerous properties." (Hilary Mantel)
"Baroque, Byzantine and beautiful - not to mention bold." (M. R. Carey)
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Intriguing story, interesting array of characters and great narration. I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book.

Brilliant and fun

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Good story, brilliantly read (1,4x). Even pretty good Latin pronunciation. Lots of goodies for language and history nerds.

Inventive

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A rather good tale that has blendend terrible crimes (that have occurred in a secret town) with all the usuals. There are goodies, baddies, humour, history, bizarre creatures, weird vehicles all mixed together in a kind of ' Lyra's Oxford' and 'Harry's Hogwarts'. Well worth a read. Be prepared to have your Lord of the Rings head on though as there are lots of characters and there forebears. A wonderful new world awaits you.

A mixture of Terry Pratchett and Phillip Pullman.

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I loved listening to this audiobook. The plot is intriguing and rich, but not difficult to follow (important for a cycle commuter - I only have so much mental resource to devote to listening). It may be a bit easy to guess ahead, but the denouement is still very enjoyable.

The narration is absolutely perfect, with distinctive voices for each of the characters that makes even busy dialogue between multiple characters very simple to follow.

Brilliantly moreish fantasy fiction

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Enjoyed listening to this book. Great narration, trouble is I tend to do other things whilst listening and frequently had to replay parts. With still an hour to go after what I thought was the end, I was determined to concentrate and saw the story through to the bitter long end. Only then did I confirm my fear that I haven’t really got much of a clue as to what it was all about. Oh hum!

Good story - I think

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One or two of the reviews below say this reads like a good first draft and I'd go along with that. It's overly long, confusing in places and at the end there's so many loose ends the characters all meetup to work out what actually happened. That's never a good sign. here it ends in a feeling of exposition and reported events that was rather flat.

There's much to enjoy at the beginning as we're introduced to Rotherweir. the book is slow going and the character moments are good moments, but full development doesn't happen and the tone is rather uneven.

I had high hopes for this book and feel a little robbed by investing so much time in it (and i listened at double speed and still found it slow). I won't be reading the next book in the series, which is a shame as the basic ideas are fascinating.

Ok

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Since I got into audiobooks in September last year this has been one of the best I’ve listened to, certainly the best of 2018 so far.
I was enthralled by the depth and breadth of the story line, it would certainly have been deserving of a series.
The narration was ok but perhaps the story would have soared to superstar status with a top class narrator. I’m splitting hairs though with that, I’ll certainly look for any other books by Andrew Caldecott

My best book of the year (so far!)

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On more than one occasion I considered returning this book, in fact I listened to another complete book halfway through.
The concept is good but I didn’t find any of the characters well rounded or particularly likeable. A good editor could perhaps have made it less long winded. I did stick with it to the end and really feel it had the potential to be a good book.

A little tedious

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At first it drew me in,when I was there it got kind of broad and comfortable,like a Hobbit shire, then I started to get bored with it as it got more and more self congratulatory. I nuked it after about 10 hours and drew a sigh of relief that I didnt need to go on.

it kind of ran out....

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As the title and synopsis might suggest this book is a little.... Weird.
That being said, it is a fantastic read with the storyline holding onto you all the way through and you the reader never knowing what will next.

A lot of characters to remember at the start of the book, but if you give it a chance after a few chapters you'll be hooked!

Already committed and brought the sequal as my next listen.

The narrator Kris Dyer is fantastic and emotive all the way throughout.

Perfectly weird and gripping.

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