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  • The Last Days of Thunder Child

  • Victorian Britain in Chaos!
  • By: C.A. Powell
  • Narrated by: Jack Wynters
  • Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (57 ratings)
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The Last Days of Thunder Child cover art

The Last Days of Thunder Child

By: C.A. Powell
Narrated by: Jack Wynters
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Summary

Pastiche story from H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds from the perspective of H.M.S. Thunder Child’s Royal Navy crew. The year is 1898, and the story unfolds through the eyes of an ironclad crew and a land-based war office clerk Mister Albert Stanley. Gradually, everyone moves toward the dreadful outcome as the strange alien tripods rampage around Victorian Britain.

©2009, 2017 C.A. Powell (P)2020 C.A. Powell

What listeners say about The Last Days of Thunder Child

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

A poor story turned into a truly dreadful listen

The story:
- full of stereotypes: the crusty sea dog Quartermaster, the run-of-the-mill civil servant turned hero, the "Mein Gott!" muttering foreign naval officers
- long-winded passages with little relevance to the supposed story
- repetitive phrase use (how many times does that alien screech and / or heat ray "tear" across the sky??)
- amateur dramatic-level dialogue full of awful terms that no-one probably ever really used. And thousands chanting "Thunder Child! We will always love you!" - I literally laughed out loud it was so cringeworthy (and unrealistic - no-one on shore would have had a clue what the boat was called)
- massively unbelievable love element - they decide to marry each other within hours of meeting? Really?!?
- absolutely no suspense or dread
- pointless sub plots that passed me by - what was the French professor about? Why were the Martians ignoring masses of people and shipping just to chase some paddle steamer?

So, the narrator already has a job on his hands with the material in front of him. However, there doesn't appear to be any attempt to roll this turd in glitter.

- the audio version features a huge catalogue of exactly one sound effect: a gun firing. Why use this at all if that's literally all you have?
- the narrator makes no attempt to set the tone of his voice to match what he's actually reading. Sentences like '"She's going down, Perry!" cried the Quartermaster' are read in a drab monotone usually reserved for police court statements
- the accents given to the stereotypes are a horrendous mix of Monty Python meets CBeebies. The captain with the supposedly gentle Edinburgh accent sounds like a Hebridean hermit trying to mimic Mel Gibson in Braveheart. A Welsh seaman sails way too close to a Pakistani / Indian accent, while the young sailors all sound like alike with their high-pitched naughty schoolboy verbalisation. And don't get me started on the Allo Allo French and German accents (despite the book clearly stating they had barely any accent at all).

I gave up after chapter 2, then camp back and somehow pushed on to the end just to see how much worse it could get. It's certainly consistent in it's dreadfulness.

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4 people found this helpful

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

Enthralling

I liked everything about it, did they get the third Tripod, it was a bit vague about that

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1 person found this helpful

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

A tribute to H G Wells masterpiece

Good voice for this story, think Mr Wells would of liked this point of view from Thunderchild.

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1 person found this helpful

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

a fantastic story

Having grown up with the works of H G Wells and The War of the Worlds
C A Powell invents a revealing insight into the world of the infamous Ironclad. A wonderful imaginative story which grips until the end.

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1 person found this helpful

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

Great story based on Martian war

Yet another great follow on to the H.G.Wells classic war of the worlds. The character's are believable and the story is well read. I enjoyed the sound effects. Thunderchild is a main part of Wells's story so it good to hear how he men lived, served and died in battle against the tripods in the river blackwater. On to the next book.

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1 person found this helpful

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

THis is a fantastic story, you must listen'

This story, from the number one bestseller on Amazon, is great for the audible. I suggest you listen to it right through to the end. The story is told from several points of view. The more you listen, the more you will be drawn into this wonderful story, and all it's interesting characters. Based on the War of The Worlds, it is very British in its narration. It will grip you from beginning to end. A great movie in the making, very soon, love it.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
Listener received this title free

Hooray for Thunderchild

War of the worlds is my favourite books for years and I've also been a big fan of the musical by Jeff Wayne

My favourite parts of both has to be the heroic battle of HMS thunderchild when she takes out 3 Martian tripods
This book does a wonderful job of telling their story leading up to this fateful battle with great characters would you come to care for.

I especially liked Mr Stanley and boys Seaman Perry.

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1 person found this helpful

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

if I could I'd give 3.5 stars

overall I enjoyed it, it wasn't terrible but wasn't amazing ever. the voice actors performance could have been better. and some story threads where never tied up like the French professor and how did Perry survive. the ending kinda felt sudden and there was more to find out and tell.

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

Story enjoyable. Narration terrible.

Enjoyed the story but the different voices, including that of the Martian were atrocious. Would do much better being re-recorded by a professional.

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

God awful

A horrid mix of Wells' work, Waynes musical and complete made up nonsense. Goes against Wells' own chronology and stated fact. No doubt Powell likes naval history but there are so many errors in his work that he evidently didn't research either the naval or literacy side of shipping in those times. Random sound effects stop the flow of the book and are all the same. The pacing is dreadful. The addition of a love story is out of place. There's now a way to avoid the black smoke for some people but it's subjective as to how/when it works. Can only be generously described as "fan fiction". Narration off in general with several misprounciations, lack of tone, wrong vocal representation (not raising his voice or even adding tension for a sailor screaming, etc.) Just avoid this.

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