Tales of Pain and Wonder, Caitlin R. Kiernan
Tales of Pain and Wonder, Caitlin R. Kiernan
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Tales of Pain and Wonder

Author: Caitlín R. Kiernan

Narrator: Kevin Kenerly, various narrators, Xe Sands, Andrew Eiden, Amy Landon, Lisa Flanagan, Neil Hellegers, Sophie Amoss, Paul Woodson, Jayme Mattler, Chelsea Stephens

Unabridged: 14 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/27/2021


Synopsis

This collection of twenty-two short stories by the author of Daughter of Hounds and Alabaster firmly established Caitlín R. Kiernan as one of the preeminent voices in dark fantasy today. Through a cycle of interconnected narratives, Kiernan unflinchingly explores a surreal world where the fantastic and the mundane are never separated by more than the insubstantial thickness of a shadow.From the murderous backstreets of New Orleans to an abandoned shipyard of the Hudson River, from sun-weary Los Angeles to a maze of dank and forgotten tunnels beneath Manhattan, these stories present a landscape at once alien and undeniably familiar.

About Caitlín R. Kiernan

Caitlín R. Kiernan was born near Dublin, Ireland, but has spent most of her life in the southeastern United States. In 1992, she began writing her first novel, The Five of Cups (it remained unpublished until 2003). Her first published novel, Silk (1998), earned her two awards and praise from critics and such luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Peter Straub, and Poppy Z. Brite. Her next novel, Threshold (2001), was also an award-winner. She is a prolific short fiction author, and her award-winning short stories have been collected in numerous volumes. Her short science fiction novel The Dry Salvages was published in 2004.

About Kevin Kenerly

Kevin Kenerly, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, earned a BA at Olivet College. A longtime member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he has acted in more than twenty seasons, playing dozens of roles.

About Xe Sands

Xe Sands has more than a decade of experience bringing stories to life through narration, performance, and visual art, including recordings of the Nightwalkers series from Jaquelyn Frank. She has received several honors, including AudioFile Earphones Awards and a coveted Audie Award, and she was named Favorite Debut Romance Narrator of 2011 in the Romance Audiobooks poll.

About Andrew Eiden

Andrew Eiden is an actor and winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award for narration. He has been acting since the age of four, working at regional theaters, in national commercials, and on numerous television shows.

About Amy Landon

Amy Landon, Earphones Award–winning narrator, is a voice artist and classically trained actress with numerous film, television, and off-Broadway stage credits. Her voice can also be heard on many television and radio commercials. She has an easy facility with dialects, which she also coaches and teaches, and she is happy to find her lifelong obsession with books pairing up with her acting and vocal work. Her narration of Texts from Jane Eyre placed as a finalist for the Audie Award for Best Humor Narration in 2016.

About Lisa Flanagan

Lisa Flanagan is a classically trained soprano, comedian, voice-over artist, and Earphones Award–winning narrator.

About Neil Hellegers

Neil Hellegers grew up in New Jersey and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a BA in theater arts and a minor in psychology before getting an MFA in acting from the Trinity Rep Conservatory in Providence, Rhode Island. He moved to New York City in 2003 and, since then, has made a career of theatrical performance, percussion, theater education, and audiobook narration. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.

About Paul Woodson

Paul Woodson has won SOVAS & Earphones awards, and has recorded close to 350 audiobooks in many different genres—including romance, fiction, history, biography, and mystery—in American and British accents—and received his BFA in acting at Boston University. In his theater days, he worked in many NYC shows, toured the USA and Europe, and starred in NYC as Vincent van Gogh in the sung-through, OOBR Award–winning musical Vincent. He enjoys backpacking the Appalachian Trail and visiting national parks in his spare time. He is a member of SAG-AFTRA.

About Jayme Mattler

Jayme Mattler is a professional voiceover artist with years of experience in recording, directing, and producing. Passionate about narrating audiobooks, she has been the recipient of multiple Audie Award nominations.

About Chelsea Stephens

Chelsea Stephens is an experienced voice actor with a talent for mystery, sci-fi, and YA novels. She won an AudioFile Earphones Award for her narration of Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter. She has a longtime love and appreciation for the performing arts, with experience in onstage acting, singing, and voice-over. Her love for reading books and the pursuit of the story led her to narration. She enjoys unfolding characters and bringing listeners into new worlds.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Karen

This is one of my most favorite books. I think about the stories contained within this edition often. It's almost as if Caitlin R.Kiernan was possessed by lonely but omnipotent spirits when she was writing this. Jimmy DeSade and Salmagundi are fascinating characters that are woven in and out of this......more

Goodreads review by James

It is no secret that CRK is in the top three of my favorite writers in any genre. This volume is a collection of mostly previously published short works. It is for the fan and it is for the intrepid explorers of the painful and wonderful. I am in no way capable of truly reviewing this book, other th......more

Goodreads review by Traci

Some of these were good, others were just sort of there. Of course, when I got close to the end, I realized there's an "alternative table of contents", putting the stories in chronological order, rather than publication order. Wish I'd seen that before I had started the book, as I was confused by so......more

Goodreads review by Dries

I’m giving this book 4 stars. Goodreads says that’s a score that means I “really liked it”, but I’m actually pretty conflicted about it... Not that Tales of Pain & Wonder was bad—far from it; it’s just that it was, at times, a very frustrating read. As with the previous Kiernan work I read, The Drow......more