Under the Pendulum Sun cover art

Under the Pendulum Sun

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
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.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Under the Pendulum Sun

By: Jeannette Ng
Narrated by: Emma Lysy
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
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.
Cancel

About this listen

Victorian missionaries travel into the heart of the newly discovered lands of the Fae, in a stunningly different fantasy that mixes Crimson Peak with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

Catherine Helstone's brother Laon has disappeared in Arcadia, legendary land of the magical fae. Desperate for news of him, she makes the perilous journey, but once there, she finds herself alone and isolated in the sinister house of Gethsemane. At last there comes news: Her beloved brother is riding to be reunited with her soon - but the Queen of the Fae and her insane court are hard on his heels.

©2017 Jeannette Ng (P)2018 Tantor Classics Dark Fantasy Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Witness for the Dead cover art
Elric of Melniboné cover art
Gideon the Ninth cover art
Paladin's Grace cover art
The Adorned cover art
Ombria in Shadow cover art
Heartstone cover art
The Sharing Knife, Volume 1 cover art
Beneath the Roots cover art
The Silvered Heart cover art
Five Enchanted Roses: A Collection of Beauty and the Beast Stories cover art
The Lost History of Dreams cover art
Stain cover art
Cruel Beauty cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
A really good story ruined by poor narration. really bizarre and odd pronunciations meant this took me far longer than normal to finish as it kept pulling out of the story. If they wanted an English narrator they should have got one rather than an American doing what they thought was a good 'English' accent.

good story ruined by awful narrator

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The reasons I give this book two stars and not one are the great world building and descriptions. They have a gothic tone to it and it’s enchanting. The story though… fae, humans trying to convert fae to Christianity and incest. Nothing major happens through the whole book, and I simply couldn’t feel anything for the characters.

Definitely not my cup of tea.

Nice voice and narration but the story is seriously lacking

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I wanted to like this book - the premise of Christian missionaries to a faerie world is a really interesting one, and the world-building around this is well done. But it is overshadowed by the very boring - and morally yuck - story that involves characters that are not particularly interesting. Ng’s writing is particularly overwrought in places that makes the book feel more like a Mills and Boon than an interesting fantasy.
The narrator does mispronounce words in places that is odd, but I didn’t find it as annoying as some other reviewers.

Interesting premise not well written

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I had heard decent things beforehand and the premise was admittedly rather interesting, but I was absolutely gripped by this throughout. Very much my cup of tea.
Ng weaves together the gothic horror, romance, taboo, critiques of religion and colonialism all so incredibly well. The entire book oozes atmosphere, and the themes of sin, temptation, redemption et al are all implemented well. The pacing is intentionally slow and moody, which adds to the unfolding tension, and the imagery is delightfully macabre.
It has big Jane Eyre and Crimson Peak energy, with a dash of Wonderland.

Highly recommend.

A Sumptuous Gothic Masterpiece

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Set in a Victorian England world which is very similar to our own historical Victorian England, the main difference is that, in this world, fae exist in a land called Arcadia. Catherine Helstone's brother, Laon, is a missionary in Arcadia, but he has gone missing. As such, Catherine makes the journey to Arcadia in search of news about him. Greeted by April Davenport, a changeling who is also the host of Laon, Catherine is taken to the castle Gethsemane, where her brother was supposedly staying. Not allowed to leave - purportedly for her own safety - Catherine is left to wander the castle and try to work out the secrets.

To say that there are secrets in this book is a bit of an understatement, and Catherine certainly begins discovering quite a few, the biggest of which is a bit of a mindf--k. The writing of the story is very beautiful - almost poetic - but it never quite grabbed me. It was very slow to start, and I felt like it didn't really pick up until we got to the major reveal after the ball. That slowness and the extremely flowery, poetic writing had me frequently putting the book down to go read or listen to something else for a bit. As much as I felt like I wanted to continue the story, the writing made that difficult. Not because it was bad; it wasn't. The writing was appropriate for the time period, too. But where other historical fantasies have pulled me fully into their world, this one seemed to keep me at arms' length.

Oddly, I think what I liked most in this story were the discussions regarding Christianity and whether or not the fae could even be saved. Was it even worth trying to convert them if they didn't have a soul? And what is a soul, really? Those discussions, while not the biggest parts of the book, were quite interesting. Along with that, I found Benjamin's intense fervor and belief, along with Catherine's shifting viewpoint, fascinating - and especially so when they interacted with each other. Indeed, it was largely those conversations that had me coming back to the book to finish it.

I had begun reading the book and went back and forth between reading and listening to the audiobook, which was narrated by Emma Lysy. Her narration style suited the novel very much, and her voice did a wonderful job of keeping me listening when I would have otherwise put the book down as a DNF. Though I don't know that I would read another novel by Ng, I would listen to Lysy narrate again.

Despite this somewhat negative review, I do want to stress that I do not read much historical fantasy, and when I do, it usually has more action than this. I also don't read many novels featuring the fae. As such, I think this book, which I chose because it fit a bingo square for me, just wasn't right for me. If you like gothic, flowery prose and stories about the fae, especially involving their political machinations, you might enjoy this book much more than I did.

Not bad, just not for me.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I enjoyed this book and the research, intelligence and craft of the author shines through. The story itself starts slow and the mysteries layer on top of the other.

Haunting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The writing and world building is dark and beautiful and I think there would be more to find with multiple reads. However I found the mystery and the end twist predictable from pretty early on which made a lot of the later story drag. Also found some of the subject matter a bit ick all the way through, though I think that might be part of the point.

The biggest let down is the terrible narration, with random simple words completely mispronounced which is very distracting and a lethargy which I think was meant to add to the dream like quality of the story but instead meant my attention wandered quite often. Better to read it if that's an option for you.

Beautiful writing, terrible narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
it's one of the only few books that I've stopped listening. hated everything about it

hated it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Decent story torpedoed by horrendous narration. Not sure why they didn't get a British narrator if they wanted a British accent. Listening at 125% speed helps a little.

Get the kindle version.

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