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    Four Summoner's Tales
    Four Summoner's Tales
    Four Summoner's Tales
    Audiobook11 hours

    Four Summoner's Tales

    Written by Kelley Armstrong, Christopher Golden, David Liss and Jonathan Maberry

    Narrated by Ray Porter, Phil Gigante, Nico Evers-Swindell and Jeff Cummings

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    About this audiobook

    Four bestselling authors. One hellraising premise.

    What if the dead could be summoned from their graves—for a price? What if a quartet of distinctive storytellers took a stab at this deceptively simple idea—on a dare? The answers lie here, in Four Summoner’s Tales, as these acclaimed writers accept the challenge and rise to the occasion—in four brilliantly chilling ways. It’s all in the execution….

    "Suffer the Children" by Kelley Armstrong
    #1 New York Times bestselling author
    A preacher and his adopted daughter must solve the mystery of the newcomers to their isolated 19th-century village—men who are preying on residents’ overwhelming grief with promises to bring the stricken back to life.

    "Pipers" by Christopher Golden
    New York Times bestselling author
    Twenty-three people have already lost their lives to the ruthless cartel terrorizing their small Texas border town. But one man has a plan for revenge, if the town’s survivors will let him use their loved ones—to raise an army of the undead.

    "A Bad Season for Necromancy" by David Liss
    Nationally bestselling author
    In merry old England, a rascally con man stumbles upon a book for raising the dead. But instead of using it to make money reviving relatives for the rich, he’ll do just the opposite. Because some family skeletons need to stay buried.

    "Alive Day" by Jonathan Maberry
    New York Times bestselling author
    In war-torn Afghanistan, a U.S. military operative and his team face off against an ancient horror during a harrowing off-the-books search-and-rescue mission.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateSep 17, 2013
    ISBN9781480530232
    Author

    Kelley Armstrong

    Kelley Armstrong is the author of over fifty novels, including the Rip Through Time mysteries and the horror novel, Hemlock Island. She lives with her family in Canada.

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    Reviews for Four Summoner's Tales

    4/5

    42 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I wanted to read this book solely because Maberry had a short story in it and I've enjoyed his novels. It turned out the best were A Bad Season for Necromancy by Liss (5 stars) and Suffer the Children by Armstrong (4 stars). The Golden & Maberry stories were disappointments - at best 2 1/1 stars. Definitely worth a read as I discovered two authors new to me and will look for more from them. Overall, I recommend it to others who like this genre.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      All of these novellas are fantastic, I look forward to all of the author's other work! Highly recommended.
    • 1/5
      The premise is absurd. X x x x x z.
    • 3/5
      This was a themed anthology of 4 stories that stuck to the theme of bringing back the dead. Some but not all were settings that the writers had used before but all the stories had that creepy factor. Only one really had what you could call a happy ending. And one was just sad from start to finish. If you like reading stories about raising the dead then this is a really great collection for this and it shows off the talents of the writers as well. I'll be checking out books by some of the other writers.

      Digital copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss
    • 4/5
      I was thrilled to have the opportunity to read and review Four Summoner's Tales, and I found it to be an enjoyable read. Prior to reading this anthology, I was only familiar with Armstrong's writing which is the reason the anthology appealed to me in the first place. However I tend to favor reading anthologies as a chance to "meet" new authors, and this set of tales does a great job at giving the reader a glimpse of some great storytelling. Armstrong's "Suffer the Children" does what I have come to expect from her work with great character development, a suspenseful tale, a writing style that really draws the reader in, and an entertaining read. Golden's "Pipers" delivered a compelling tale that begins with the heartbreak of loss that turns into the thread of hope and then into a nightmare. Golden does a great job at tugging at the heartstrings making you feel his characters’ pain and justifies their actions with their hope of being reunited with their loved ones. I really enjoyed his writing style and his ability to draw the reader in. Liss’s “A Bad Season for Necromancy" also proved to be a chilling tale that unlike the two previous tales gives a glimpse into the summoner rather than the person being affected by the summoning. Making his main character not your typical hero but rather a con man out for himself was an interesting take. Liss does a great job at developing his main character and giving the reader his motivations as he tries to con the woman he loves. When that turns bad, Liss does a great job at surprising the reader with another twist of events. I really loved how Liss continues to surprise the reader until the story's chilling conclusion. I have to admit that Maberry's "Alive Day” was the one story I struggled with. It said at the beginning that these characters were from his previous works but that previous knowledge wasn't needed to enjoy this story. The story was good and entertaining, but I didn't get the character development from this one like the other three works. I personally didn't get the same connection to these characters as I did from the other stories, but overall I did enjoy his story. The entire anthology was a really enjoyable read that I would most definitely recommend. I loved the overall theme of a summoner and the effects of what can happen, and I think each author did a great job at providing an entertaining tale.Received a copy of Four Summoner's Tales through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review
    • 4/5
      Tales by 4 authors with one theme: Raising the dead. Ah, but what’s the price and what exactly will be raised? I read this as an eBook ARC, but each story appears to be 80-90 printed pages long, giving enough world and character building, emotion and a sense of horror (for one reason or another) that you won’t feel like you’ve been short-changed. I read this because of Kelley Armstrong and am new to the other authors. I found that I enjoyed all of the stories and am looking forward to checking out books by the other three authors. I believe the first 3 are stand-alone stories. The last one by Jonathan Maberry is part of his Joe Ledger series, although you don’t have to be familiar with those books to get into this one. I’ve read plenty of Urban Fantasy, and books containing necromancy, but these stories felt a lot creepier than the other things I’ve read. Suffer the Children by Kelley Armstrong is set in the past in a small wilderness town in Canada. Over 1/3 of the population was just wiped out by diphtheria; a great many of them children. Two men walk into town; speaking to just the town council they offer to help by raising any that passed in the last 4 days. But after luring them in with hope, tell them just a portion of the real price.Part of the story is told thru the eyes of a wild 12 year-old girl who finally learns what love of family means. This story felt the most horrific in terms of what people are willing to do.Pipers by Christopher Golden is set in Lansdale, TX along the Mexican border and is told through the eyes of Zeke. His daughter, along with 22 other people, is gunned down at a town celebration by the Matamoros cartel in retaliation for the disruption of their drug trafficking operation. Months later a man shows up offering to return their loved ones to them, but it’s an all or nothing proposition and getting vengeance is part of the package. What we get out of this story is the heavy emphasis on morality that not only is Zeke struggling with, but most of the other people involved. But once started they can’t back out. The results take a surprising turn. This story hit my emotions the hardest. A Bad Season for Necromancy by David Liss is set in England in the early 1700s as we follow an acknowledged rogue and scam artist conning his way into the ton in order to snag a rich bride. He comes across a book telling him how to raise the dead and in a fit of anger, uses it to hurt someone. I loved the writing style of this author that gave a humorous slant to a number of things even though it was said in a straight way; reminded me of the way comedian Bob Newhart tells a story. And I was surprised to find that I not only liked the scoundrel but was rooting him on. Alive Day by Jonathan Maberry is part of the Joe Ledger series. Echo Team is sent into Afghanistan to back-up Snake Team who is trying to take out the Taliban’s drug trade. But Snake Team ran into trouble with an old spirit and a bargain is made to save the leader’s team.This one is obviously military-based and is probably the most horrific in terms of what each of the men face, and unless you witness it, no one is going to believe you. Chilling.