R. A. Salvatore - Demon Wars 02 - The Demon Spirit
unabridged audiobook + text
The Demon trilogy by R.A. Salvatore began with The Demon Awakens and continues with The Demon Spirit. Corona is a fantasy world regularly menaced by the "demon dactyl" who organizes the usual suspects--goblins, dwarfs, giants--in hope of wiping out humanity. Having been comprehensively blown up in book one, the now bodiless demon resorts to corrupting the soul of the abbot who is Corona's chief religious leader. It's an easy task, since despite a few good monks the church is already a murderous, hypocritical outfit.
R. A. Salvatore - Demon Wars 01 - The Demon Awakens
unabridged audiobook + text
Bulky new fantasy from the author The Dragon King (1996). As happens every so often, the demon dactyl--we learn eventually that his name is Bestesbulzibar--returns to life and, as demons do, schemes to conquer the world with his allies the goblins, fomorians (giants), and powries (evil dwarves). Young Elbryan Wyndon survives a goblin raid on the village Dundalis, while his girlfriend Pony Ault loses her memory and vanishes. Elbryan, adopted by the elves Tuntun and Juraviel, trains to be a ranger; Pony, after various adventures, joins the army. Meantime, pious young monk Avelyn Desbris--he has prodigious magic skills and powers--must collect magical stones as they plummet from the sky onto a remote island; returning, he finds that the abbot has ordered that he and his companions be killed to preserve the secret of the stones, so he flees with his haul--among them a huge amethyst of unknown powers. Eventually, Elbryan, Pony (she gets her memory back), Avelyn, and the elves will join the ancient centaur Bradwarden to plan an assault on the dactyl's volcanic cavern.
R. A. Salvatore - Demon Wars 03 - The Demon Apostle
unabridged audiobook + text
This is the third installment of Salvatore's Demon trilogy that starts with The Demon Awakens and The Demon Spirit.
Once again the demon dactyl of Corona seems defeated. Ranger Elbryan Wyndon goes north to protect the new settlers from goblins and powries, but his beloved Jilseponie returns to Palmaris. There Father Abbot Markwart is consolidating his power over Church and State with the aid of gemstone magic and the demon's power. Pony's determination to stop the evil abbots puts her and Elbryan in deadly peril, for even the king has been turned against them.
Wilbur Smith - Ballantynes 04 - The Leopard Hunts in Darkness (unabridged audibook + text)
The Leopard Hunts in Darkness is a novel of stunning power and pace, infused with a deep love for the landscape, the people and the wildlife of Africa.
Alone, disillusioned and empty of inspiration in New York, best-selling author Craig Mellow longs to return to his roots. Sole survivor of the Ballantyne family, who had farmed in the Zambezi valley for a hundred years, he fled the country when the bush war ended, and now he has lost his way.
So when he is asked to return to Africa on a secret mission funded by the World Bank, he seizes the chance. His cover is the writing of a book on Africa in collaboration with the brilliant and beautiful young American photographer, Sally-Anne Jay, but his real task is to send back information on ivory poaching and signs of Soviet interference in the country.
Back in Zimbabwe, exhilarated and full of hope once more, Craig embarks on a giant project – the restoration of the derelict family estates in the Matabele grasslands – only to be caught up in a bloody tribal war and pitted against a power-crazed fanatic who would sell his people into slavery and plunge his country into a new Dark Age.
This is a story of high adventure, of hatred and terrible violence but also of love, love of a man for a woman, of a man for his country, and love of a man for his friend.
Dreams of Empire, desire for land and its hidden mineral wealth and for power over a proud and warlike people: such were the forces that drove Englishmen in Queen Victoria's last years to thrust deep into an untamed continent and found a new dominion. The Angels Weep is about the way the seeds of hatred sown in battles fought round issues of land and race will germinate and produce anew ugly sprouts of the same tragic stock. An exciting, colourful and moving novel in both its parts, it is the third of the Ballantyne sequence of four novels.