Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Kingdoms cover art

The Kingdoms

By: Natasha Pulley
Narrated by: Theo Solomon
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street cover art
The Bedlam Stacks cover art
The Ship of Doom cover art
Momenticon cover art
The Ward Witch cover art
The Night Raven cover art
The Librarian of Crooked Lane cover art
Keeper of Enchanted Rooms cover art
All the Murmuring Bones cover art
The Invisible Library cover art
The Path of Thorns cover art
The Fireraisers cover art
Constant Tides cover art
New Spring cover art
Six of Crows cover art
Elantris (Dramatized Adaptation) cover art

Summary

Bloomsbury presents The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley, read by Theo Solomon.

Come home, if you remember.

The postcard has been held at the sorting office for 91 years, waiting to be delivered to Joe Tournier. On the front is a lighthouse - Eilean Mor, in the Outer Hebrides.

Joe has never left England, never even left London. He is a British slave, one of thousands throughout the French Empire. He has a job, a wife, a baby daughter.

But he also has flashes of a life he cannot remember and of a world that never existed - a world where English is spoken in England and not French.

And now he has a postcard of a lighthouse built just six months ago, that was first written nearly 100 years ago, by a stranger who seems to know him very well.

Joe’s journey to unravel the truth will take him from French-occupied London to a remote Scottish island and back through time itself as he battles for his life - and for a very different future.

©2021 Natasha Pulley (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic reviews

"I loved the vivid and intricate alternate universes of The Kingdoms, and the flawed and complicated people who inhabit them." (Katherine Addison)

"At once fiercely original, joyous and horrifying, The Kingdoms is an awe-inspiring feat of imagination and passion which had me in tears by the end." (Catriona Ward)

"The Kingdoms is an intricate and complex but ultimately very satisfying read, blending time slip and historical fiction with the pace of a thriller and the sweetness of a love story. A unique book." (Sinead Crowley)

What listeners say about The Kingdoms

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    187
  • 4 Stars
    73
  • 3 Stars
    50
  • 2 Stars
    17
  • 1 Stars
    5
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    164
  • 4 Stars
    67
  • 3 Stars
    44
  • 2 Stars
    15
  • 1 Stars
    16
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    187
  • 4 Stars
    55
  • 3 Stars
    45
  • 2 Stars
    11
  • 1 Stars
    6

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book but ...

I have loved all Natasha Pulley’s books to date and it’s possible, with a different narrator, I would love this book too. However, I’ve got to chapter 21 and I am so distracted by Theo Solomon’s delivery, that I’m not sure I’m going to carry on. I think I’ll buy a hard copy instead.
Update: increasing the speed to 1.2x helps - well it does me anyway.
Update 2: I'm sorry to say that with less than 3 hours to go, I have given up and returned the book. I never felt anything for any of the characters and was totally confused by the plot. I think that, with a different narrator, I would try again but for some reason this narrator just grated on me.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Insulting Scottish impersonations

I can't listen to any more of this awful narration.

The narrator's impersonation of the Scottish accent is so dreadful, it's bordering on racist.

Setting a book where a black Englishman visits Scotland is tricky. Given this narrator seems never to have even visited Scotland, perhaps Scottish narrators could have been employed to voice the Scottish parts?

This audiobook might be OK for listeners in England or America, but I very much doubt anyone else in Scotland could listen to this insulting cacophony.

This isn't an anti-English rant; I'm English myself but live in Scotland.

It was clearly produced in England by English people who think it's OK to parody accents... the narrator can't even pronounce some Scottish place names!

This rendition has made my blood boil.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

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

Overcomplicated

Found this story hard to follow with all the changes in dates and geography. Thought it was too long and the plot was extremely convoluted. I felt it kept going round in circles. I finished listening to it out of sheer determination, but didn't really enjoy it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
  • JS
  • 08-12-21

Don't start here

If you haven't read any Natasha Pulley yet don't start with this book! I read her other two novels and her writing, the story and the narration are far better than that of this book. If I'd started with this book I may never have listened to her other novels. If you've listened to the other novels and like me thought you'd give this one a go, I can only say get the hard copy and read it for yourself!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Terrible narrator

I love Natasha Pulley, but the narrator butchers this book. I will try it in paper form and hope that a new narrator could be found to re-record this book in the future.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Clever writing as ever from Natasha Pulley

Clever writing as ever from Natasha Pulley. I’m a bit of a dozer and found I had to keep going back a couple of chapters and then decided to go right back to the beginning and start again as I kept losing the gist, with dates, places etc changing from chapter to chapter. Very complex piece of writing and once again a clever & great story by Natasha Pulley.

Narration was excellent- Theo Solomon has a lovely velvety voice and great phrasing which suits Natasha’s style of writing. Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant historical fiction

No spoilers!
Story: fascinating, and brilliant. There's not a lot I can say without spoilers for the story, but suffice it to say that I finished this in a few days - I couldn't put it down! I was even excitedly waiting to listen in my lunch breaks at work!

Performance: Ok, I have to admit, there were some points where the performance of this got to me a bit... The narrator was plainly being reminded to slow down at the start of some chapters - or trying to keep himself slow. It means he sometimes gets annoyingly nasal - but once he gets into his natural cadence and the speed improves, it's markedly better. Those slow bits are infrequent, so stick with it! I like the different voices of characters. Still 5*!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Sadly disappointing

I love Natasha Pulley's other books. I'm already on my third time round of the Watchmaker duo of books and was eagerly waiting for this latest offering to arrive in audiobook format.

The beginning and the ending few chapters are great, just what I expect of her, but the loooooong middle was, sadly, decidedly meh.

Neither the characters nor the story were engaging, it just seemed to drone on in a soup of wishy washy durge back and forth.

In her other works, if the beautiful machinations of the plot are taking a breath, then the character development and exposition, or the character interactions are picking up the baton and making you fall in love with them. But this work was really lacking both in form and content between those few chapters mentioned.

It also wasn't helped by the editing and, at times, the performance: there was rarely pause or much other definition between chapters, so it was largely like one large run-on chapter. This was a tad confusing at times as chapters skip between time periods and iterations of characters therein.

Hoping this was just a one-off lull, I'm staying optimistic for her next publication.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

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

Mot sure about this one

I have had all 4 books by Natasha Pulley as audio books, and the first 3 I really enjoyed. I think this one was too complicated in audio format. At least for me, as I usually do other stuff at the same time as I listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Couldn't finish it.

I very quickly found I didn't know or care what was going on.
I chose this book because I am interested in the Napoleonic wars and naval warfare but it was a mistake.
The dialogue throughout is anachronistic, even when the twofold timeframe is taken into account.
The central character (I can't even remember his name) is a complete void. His lack of a past doesn't explain his lack of personality. He has no defining characteristic whatsoever apart from his strange circumstances. He's annoyingly passive, always 'wondering' and never bloody 'doing.' The author seems to have mistakingly formed the impression that this is compelling stuff.
The narration is excruciating. He was obviously told to speak slowly but the effect is that he sounds put-upon and peevish. When he tries to
imitate a woman he uses a strained, feeble voice, like a child pretending to be an old lady. There's a longish section narrated by a female character (don't know who, don't care) and that's when I gave up.
A badly constructed story inhabited by forgettable characters, poorly read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful