Caroline Peckham Audiobooks

Romantasy at its most unrepentant is where Caroline Peckham operates, and Cinder Vale is a fair sample of the mode: a world of zodiac-marked power, enemies who cannot leave one another alone, and a plot that treats restraint as a wasted opportunity.

The book is the third instalment of the Sins of the Zodiac sequence, a darker and more villainous corner of a wider fantasy world rather than a standalone. Readers who like their magic systems ornate and their leads morally compromised are the intended audience, and the writing apologises for neither.

Scale is part of the appeal. This is fiction built for immersion, the sort of series people vanish into for a fortnight and then talk about relentlessly.

Nineteen hours and more is a serious commitment, and Bridget Bordeaux carries it, sustaining the heat and the menace across a long arc without letting either tip into monotony.

One practical note. Cinder Vale is book three, so newcomers should start at the opening of the Sins of the Zodiac run rather than here, or a good deal of the emotional payoff will land flat. Returning readers can simply pick up where the previous volume left them. Explore the audiobook below and see where you are in the sequence.