Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Revolver
    Revolver
    Revolver
    Audiobook3 hours

    Revolver

    Written by Marcus Sedgwick

    Narrated by Peter Berkrot

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    A LOADED GUN. STOLEN GOLD. And a menacing stranger. A taut frontier survivor story, set at the time of the Alaska gold rush.

    In an isolated cabin, fourteen-year-old Sig is alone with a corpse: his father, who has fallen through the ice and frozen to death only hours earlier. Then comes a stranger claiming that Sig's father owes him a share of a horde of stolen gold. Sig's only protection is a loaded Colt revolver hidden in the cabin's storeroom. The question is, will Sig use the gun, and why?

    Revolver is a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateApr 13, 2010
    ISBN9781441845689
    Author

    Marcus Sedgwick

    Marcus Sedgwick was one of this generation’s most lauded and highly regarded writers for children and young people, having published over forty books including acclaimed Midwinterblood and The Monsters We Deserve. He won multiple prestigious awards, most notably the Michael L. Printz Award, the Branford Boase Award, the BookTrust Teenage Prize and the Blue Peter Book Award.

    Related to Revolver

    Related audiobooks

    Children's Action & Adventure For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The In-betweeners

      Nov 12, 2019

      Two years ago, during the Writing Popular Fiction MFA winter residency at Seton Hill University, a discussion broke out amongst my students in a critique workshop geared toward young adult (YA) writers: They didn’t think YA novels were really written

      6 min read

    • Article

      Life after Harry

      Jun 12, 2020

      Life after Harry
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Tale of Paddy Ahern

      Oct 1, 2019

      THERE ONCE WAS a lad named Paddy Ahern who trod the green hills of Limerick, Ireland, offering to help farmers with their chores in return for food and lodging. Trudging uphill and down over the country roads, day after day, wore Paddy’s shoes so thi

      4 min read

    • Article

      Last Christmas

      Oct 6, 2022

      Last Christmas
      6 min read

    • Article

      Drawn to THE MOORS

      Feb 8, 2022

      Drawn to THE MOORS
      11 min read

    • Article

      LOST Summers

      Jun 14, 2023

      LOST Summers
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Wing King

      Nov 24, 2022

      The Wing King
      8 min read

    • Article

      All I Want For Christmas

      Dec 16, 2020

      IT was more than an icicle. More like an icy boulder, oversized and murkily white, faceted like a cartoon jewel and, shortly, dripping. It had lurked beneath a low stone bridge at the bottom of the wood, where sycamore thickets bald for winter gave w

      18 min read

    • Article

      Wolves of Karelia

      Jul 19, 2019

      Wolves of Karelia
      19 min read

    • Article

      Home to ROOST

      Jan 11, 2022

      Home to ROOST
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Firefox

      Jan 5, 2023

      The Firefox
      3 min read

    • Article

      Intarsia

      Feb 6, 2020

      Intarsia
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Parsonage in New Hope

      Dec 4, 2023

      A Parsonage in New Hope
      12 min read

    • Article

      Ingrid

      Dec 17, 2020

      Ingrid
      4 min read

    • Article

      Dark DEEDS

      Jan 13, 2021

      Dark DEEDS
      9 min read

    • Article

      HOME To Roost

      Mar 5, 2024

      HOME To Roost
      11 min read

    • Article

      Duke’s Deer Stick

      Nov 20, 2019

      Duke’s Deer Stick
      5 min read

    • Article

      By the RIVER’S EDGE

      Mar 22, 2023

      By the RIVER’S EDGE
      9 min read

    • Article

      My Oz trials

      Dec 14, 2022

      My Oz trials
      3 min read

    • Article

      Once Upon A Time In A Deep, Dark Mine

      Jan 1, 2021

      Once Upon A Time In A Deep, Dark Mine
      4 min read

    • Article

      That’s Norway To Do It

      Apr 5, 2023

      That’s Norway To Do It
      4 min read

    • Article

      Shoes for MY LADY

      Oct 25, 2023

      Shoes for MY LADY
      10 min read

    • Article

      A Southern Christmas

      Nov 1, 2023

      A Southern Christmas
      7 min read

    • Article

      Lucky Country

      Jul 17, 2019

      Lucky Country
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Back Of Beyond

      Mar 29, 2020

      The Back Of Beyond
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Lifelong Love Affair

      Jan 2, 2024

      Christmas morning, 1959. A skinny 12-year-old kid, one normally almost impossible to get jump-started in time to get him to school before the tardy bell, bounces out of bed at the crack of dawn and thunders down the hall, like a cutting horse after a

      3 min read

    • Article

      Simply Summer

      Dec 17, 2019

      Simply Summer
      16 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Revolver

    4/5

    185 ratings28 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      I can't say enough good things about Marcus Sedgewick or about this book. Though the reader has an inkling where the story is going, it is a taut, edge-of-the-seat read. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Sig's father died trying to cross the ice. Now a man who has been stalking him has trapped Sig and his sister Anna and is threatening them. He claims that their father cheated him out of gold ten years ago and he wants it.
    • 4/5
      The action was excellent and I liked how it wasn’t to long
    • 4/5
      The book begins in the year 1910, in a cabin set in the remote town of Giron, 100 miles North of the Arctic Circle. The reader is instantly pulled into the freezing, solitary world of Sig Andersson, an adolescent boy who is mourning the tragic death of his father and who is forced to deal with the consequences of both his father's life and death. The story flashes back to a decade earlier, when Sig's family traveled North during the Alaskan Gold Rush. They began their journey with an optimism that most felt as they antipicated fortune, yet their journey would ultimately lead to disappointment and despair. Along the way Sig struggles with the lessons his father taught him, and must make a choice between doing what he thinks his father would want and following a faith he is not sure he has. Sedgwick does an excellent job of pulling the reader into Sig's world, where we can almost feel the cold as Sig feels it; we can experience the loneliness and wildness of the Arctic, and question for ourselves the importance and power of the Revolver.
    • 4/5
      Teen/adult fiction. Historical (Alaska gold rush); suspense. Sig is left alone with the frozen corpse of his father in a isolated cabin in the arctic when he hears a menacing knock on the door--a large, threatening man from his father's past that is demanding his share of the gold, gold that Sig doubts even exists. Sig's only hope is to get to his father's revolver, hidden in the store room, but the stranger is wary and Sig may never have that chance.
    • 4/5
      A quick, suspenseful, but not scary read. The cold, and the primitive conditions of Alaska at the turn of the last century add to the story's appeal. Sedgwick is, as always, a great story teller. Still, I think this will appeal to adults more than teens, who tend to avoid historical fiction, at least at my school.
    • 4/5
      This was another one of this years Printz Honor books. Sig finds his father frozen to death on the ice. The same day while his sister and step mother go for help a man he's met before as a child that he has no memory of appears in their cabin in Giron. Gunther Wolff claims to have been Einar's business partner and that he and Wolff were cheating prospectors and that Sig and his family ran off with Wolff's half. Sig must figure out what the truth is and whether he should get his father's revolver and try and get out. The story alternates between Sig and Wolff and what really happened ten years ago between Einar and Wolff.

      This story felt like it was all about the mood. The tension just built and built as Sig tried to figure out how to escape, what he should do and what could possibly have happened ten years ago. I felt like I was on the edge of my seat wondering what Sig would do. I really liked how the Sig chose to handle the situation in the end. He was true to himself by finding a mid ground between his parents and their feelings on the revolver.

      I also thought that learning about how Einar and the family survived in Nome in 1900 was interesting. I also thought the quotes between sections were interesting giving both an interesting idea of how the colt revolver has been perceived and a few other interesting elements of the story. I also liked the very ending of the story. I felt like it gave an interesting sense of realism to the story.
    • 4/5
      Sedgwick's books are always pretty hit or miss for me. This one was definitely more of a hit.
    • 3/5
      A few pages in I stopped thinking about the writing, and started following the story. Alone in the frozen Arctic circle with his father's frozen corpse a Bear of a man arrives at the door. A past that he doesn't remember has caught up with him. 'Love, sing, cry, and fight, but all the time, seek to know everything you can about the earth upon which you stand, till your time is done.' Both Einar and Maria had tried to teach Sig this same message. it was simply that they went about it in very different ways, and sometimes, like all parents, they both failed to teach their children anything at all."
      His mind turns to the memories of his past, his father's revolver, and his mothers Bible, but how will this help him survive and save his sister?
      I enjoyed the book and I liked the message that was revealed at the end, but it could be read as much for the tension of the situation.
      It's possibly more of a boy book than my typical favourites. Snow White, Blood Red is still my favourite Sedgwick book.
    • 4/5
      This is the perfect book for teens looking for quick, fast paced historical fiction. Survival in Alaska during and after the gold rush is woven into a tightly paced mystery that centers on stolen gold, an old revolver and some familial advice. Winner of the Printz Award.
    • 4/5
      After reading Revolver, I am very pleased with it. I don't usually have any interest in YA books, but this one is more than good enough to be enjoyed by adults. It is a bit adult for younger children, but just right for young teens all the way up.

      I've won a copy on First Reads and I look forward to reading it. I like the description and think it sounds like a neat read.
    • 3/5
      For a book about a gun it was kinda boring and incredibly frustrating. My issues was with the compellingness (I made up that word because I'm lazy.) More in a blog post later.
    • 4/5
      This was a very different young adult historical fiction book; it is written with a lyrical quality yet is very suspenseful. In the Arctic Circle in 1910 Sig is alone in his cabin well alone with the corpse of his father who died earlier that day when surprisingly there is a knock on the door and a scary looking man named Wolff is looking for his father, they have unfinished business. This starts the tension that flows through this book like a pulse. The title of the book comes from the revolver that is in a box in the next room and Sig’s decision to try to get to it or not. I can see why this has won many awards as it is so different than anything out there. But I think if you are a fan of Hatchet you’ll really like this book. This is definitely one I will be picking up in paper form for our local library because I do think this is one that male readers and /or reluctant readers will get into. This is a short book but packs quite a punch I enjoyed this story and will recommend it in audio & print. However for myself the audio version really brought it to life for me.Peter Berkrot is a new to me narrator and I was very impressed with his narration of this book, his voices were distinct and you always knew who was talking, he seamlessly went from voicing a 15 year old boy to the gruff and rough Wolff with ease. I will definitely look for more books narrated by, Peter Berkrot.All in all I highly recommend this one.4 Stars
    • 1/5
      This book was slow moving I did not enjoy it was very hard to read. It is all about a boy who's father died no the ice. A stranger comes and says that his father owes him gold. He says no and this who story begins I never finished it so I ca tell you the end but it was okay.
    • 3/5
      Dark and creepy. A really bad villain. An ethical choice for Sig. Some adult themes are insuated. Good suspense.
    • 5/5
      Booktalk: After finding his father's frozen body on the lake, fourteen-year-old Sig, with his sister and step-mother, drag the body back to their cabin in the Arctic wilderness; Sig's sister and step mother travel six miles back to the town for help while Sig waits with his father's body in their cabin for their return. Towards evening, a menacing, bear-like man arrives at the cabin looking for the gold Sig's father supposedly stole from him. The stranger is clearly intent on getting this gold that Sig doesn't know anything about, and it becomes increasingly obvious that he intends to kill Sig and his family if they do not produce "his" gold. Sig knows how to handle the colt revolver that is hidden in the storeroom, and now he must decide if he should take a chance of getting to the gun before this stranger kills him and his family. (A well-written and tension-filled "cat and mouse" mystery-thriller enhanced by the isolated setting in the Arctic wilderness.)
    • 5/5
      Not long after he finds his father's frozen body on the lake near his remote arctic homestead, Sig is visited by a menacing stranger who has unfinished business with his father. This taut thriller makes excellent use of its remote, punishing setting as well as the protagonist's moral dilemma: take advantage of the power of his father's revolver or protect the humanity instilled by his mother's bible?
    • 3/5
      A book full of suspense. Do you have to be violent to beat evil?
    • 4/5
      Deceptively simple tale of a family living in the Arctic Circle in the early 1900's. Sig and Anna's father has fallen through the ice and died. While waiting at home for men to come take the body away, Sig meets Wolff, a terrifying bully who claims his father owed him money.Sig knows where his father has hidden the gun, but weighs his options while trying to figure out his father's past.A great book that shows the power of a gun.Sedgwick's sparse language mimics the cold landscape. Very well written and deserving of the Printz honor that it won.
    • 3/5
      I liked the story, but not how it was told. Sedgwick seemed to get in his own way. He'd start to build tension in a scene, and then tangent to a flashback, killing the suspense. He did it too many times for it not to have been deliberate. I found it frustrating.
    • 4/5
      I was hoping that this book would be more suspenseful than it was. It's a great idea. The characters didn't really come to life for me, though. A quick read.
    • 3/5
      Overall the book was well written and the characters were well rounded. The book, for the most part, revolves around a 36 hour period that occurs after Sig's father is found dead on the lake. There are also several chapters that look back at events that occurred earlier in Sig's life to help the reader understand what has led to the visitor's arrival. I feel like teen boys that enjoy reading about history and guns would enjoy the book. Although not my typical type of book, it did hold my attention to the very end.
    • 4/5
      A brilliant, edge-of-your-seat thriller that adults as well as young people will also enjoy. The villain is so very villainous, and Sig and Anna just the right combination of brave and uncertain. The author was able to incorporate the Arctic setting and the facts about guns beautifully into the story, and I liked how he sort of let the reader make up their own minds as to whether guns are good or bad. I would read this author again.
    • 5/5
      Sig's father died trying to cross the ice. Now a man who has been stalking him has trapped Sig and his sister Anna and is threatening them. He claims that their father cheated him out of gold ten years ago and he wants it.
    • 4/5
      PLUS - * This interesting story is unusual in that one of the main characters is an object (a gun), and another is already dead at the beginning of the book.* There are two interlinked plots - the story of Sig, as he spends time in his family's cabin, first alone and then with a mysterious and threatening stranger after the death of his father, and also the story of his family's time at the centre of an Alaskan gold rush ten or so years earlier. * The tension runs really high throughout the book, and the writing is so atmosopheric. There's real sense of place and time.* It created lots of interesting points about the use of guns, both historically and today. MINUS - * It's a novel written for teenagers, and it is an excellent read, but it has to be a fairly committed and seriously teenager to really appreciate it. A lot of the teenagers I work with would go for something far more snappy than this. OVERALL - * A thriller, but a psychologial one rather than an action-packed one. Well worth a read and will be enjoyed by thoughtful young readers and adults alike.
    • 4/5
      Read this book as part of the Carnegie shadowing and thoroughly enjoyed it. The setting is unusual, the Arctic, and the characters really well realised. The story takes place over a couple of days in a cabin isolated in the woods. The main character's father has died by falling through the ice of a frozen lake and is lying on the kitchen table awaiting help to come because the ground is too frozen to bury him. During the wait for help, a truly frightening character arrives who has been stalking the family for ten years as they have moved around the Arctic. He believes the father has gold which belongs to him and he wants his share. The revolver appears throughout the story, both its history and its use and is woven into the story in a multitude of ways. The way this is done is thought-provoking and adds additional interest to the story.
    • 4/5
      It have me the uncomfortable, krizzly feeling in my stomach when reading about mean, awful adults bullying kids, the icky, shivering feeling when reading about the brutal cold of the polar regions, and the uneasy, creepy dread when it becomes apparent that a kid has to use violence to defend himself.Taking place during the Alaska gold rush, this book focuses more on the fringes of the event. This is a terrific book.
    • 5/5
      Sedgwick writes primarily for the young adult audience, but his books have much wider appeal and are always thought-provoking reads for adults too. I loved one of his other titles, Blood Red, Snow White, and I also really enjoyed another of his which I read last Easter, Kiss of Death. So I was really looking forward to reading his latest book.Revolver is the story of a boy and a gun – a Colt forty-four forty revolver to be precise. It’s set in the Arctic north, where three continents meet around the North Pole. It starts in the northernmost town in Sweden, Giron (Kiruna), and Sig Andersson is sitting alone at home, except for the corpse of his father, who died falling through the ice that day as if he was running away from something, or someone.Sig’s sister and step-mother had gone for help, leaving the young teenager to think about his father and their hard life up in the Arctic, but also his late mother. When Sig was little, they had lived in Nome, Alaska during the gold-rush of 1899; Sig’s father Einar was an assay clerk in the claims office. Einar’s most prized posession is a Colt revolver – it lives in its original box in the storeroom, and needless to say, Sig has always been fascinated by it...." ‘A gun is not a weapon, Einar once said to Sig, ‘It’s an answer. It’s an answer to the questions life throws at you when there’s no one else to help.’Sig hadn’t understood what he meant by that. Not then."While Sig is mounting his vigil over his father’s body, there is a knock at the door. But it’s not the help he was waiting for, it’s a giant of a man who has come looking for Einar, to claim back what he thinks is his. Wolff knew Einar back in Alaska, and has a tale to tell of gold and the corruption and lust it brings. Now Sig knows why Einar kept a gun; if only he could manage to get it out of the storeroom. Einar had let him and his sister shoot the Colt just once to know what it was like."He tried not to smile, for Anna’s sake, but inside he felt the best he’d ever felt in his whole life. It had felt amazing, incredible, indescribable. It hadn’t been frightening at all."The only frightening thing was how easy it had been, but it would be years before he understood that."The tension rises with each short chapter, and there is a definite frontier feel to this novel with its themes of gold and guns. The far north too has never seemed as cold as when Einar is explaining about the effects of sub-zero temperatures on gunmetal – as always, Sedgwick’s research is top notch. Ultimately though, Sig’s dilemma over whether or not to use the gun is the most fascinating part of the story and makes this short novel a great little thriller making it my first 10/10 read of the year.