
Perilous Times
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $22.50
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Nicola F. Delgado
-
By:
-
Thomas D. Lee
About this listen
An immortal Knight of the Round Table faces his greatest challenge yet—saving the politically polarized, rapidly warming world from itself—in this slyly funny contemporary take on Arthurian legend.
“An utterly original take on Arthurian myth.”—The Times
A POPSUGAR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Legends don’t always live up to reality.
Being reborn as an immortal defender of the realm gets awfully tiring over the years—or at least that’s what Sir Kay’s thinking as he claws his way up from beneath the earth yet again.
Kay once rode alongside his brother, King Arthur, as a Knight of the Round Table. Since then, he has fought at Hastings and at Waterloo and in both World Wars. But now he finds himself in a strange new world where oceans have risen, the army’s been privatized, and half of Britain’s been sold to foreign powers. The dragon that’s running amok—that he can handle. The rest? He’s not so sure.
Mariam’s spent her life fighting what’s wrong with her country. But she’s just one ordinary person, up against a hopelessly broken system. So when she meets Kay, she dares to hope that the world has finally found the savior it needs.
Yet as the two travel through this bizarre and dangerous land, they discover that a magical plot of apocalyptic proportions is underway. And Kay’s too busy hunting dragons—and exchanging blows with his old enemy Lancelot—to figure out what to do about it.
In perilous times like these, the realm doesn’t just need a knight. It needs a true leader.
Luckily, Excalibur lies within reach.
But who will be fit to wield it?
With a cast that includes Merlin, Morgan le Fay, the Lady of the Lake, and King Arthur himself—all reimagined in joyous, wickedly subversive fashion—Perilous Times is an Arthurian retelling that looks forward as much as it looks back . . . and a rollicking, deadpan-funny, surprisingly touching fantasy adventure.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Skyward
- By: Brandon Sanderson
- Narrated by: Suzy Jackson
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Brandon Sanderson, the number one New York Times best-selling author of the Reckoners series, Words of Radiance, and the internationally best-selling Mistborn series, comes the first book in an epic new series about a girl who dreams of becoming a pilot in a dangerous world at war for humanity's future.
-
-
Has Sanderson been reading Craig Alanson???
- By Customer on 11-18-18
-
The Will of the Many
- Hierarchy, Book 1
- By: James Islington
- Narrated by: Euan Morton
- Length: 28 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Catenan Republic—the Hierarchy—may rule the world now, but they do not know everything. I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilized society in allowing my strength, my drive, and my focus—what they call Will—to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.
-
-
I don’t know what the other reviews are on about
- By Chase on 06-24-23
By: James Islington
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
The Book That Wouldn't Burn
- By: Mark Lawrence
- Narrated by: Jessica Whittaker
- Length: 22 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The boy has lived his whole life trapped within a book-choked chamber older than empires and larger than cities. The girl has been plucked from the outskirts of civilization to be trained as a librarian, studying the mysteries of the great library at the heart of her kingdom. They were never supposed to meet. But in the library, they did. Their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another.
-
-
Keeps the reader guessing
- By Gr on 08-17-23
By: Mark Lawrence
-
Fourth Wing (Part 2 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation)
- The Empyrean, Book 1
- By: Rebecca Yarros
- Narrated by: full cast, Robb Moreira, Megan Poppy, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.
-
-
5 REDEMPTION-FOR-PART-1 ⭐️’s
- By ➷➹➸❥HFB🔹🔹🔹 on 03-02-24
By: Rebecca Yarros
-
The Fragile Threads of Power
- By: V. E. Schwab
- Narrated by: Kate Reading, Marisa Calin, Michael Kramer
- Length: 21 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once, there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power and connected by a single city: London. Until the magic grew too fast and forced the worlds to seal the doors between them in a desperate gamble to protect their own. The few magicians who could still open the doors grew more rare as time passed and now, only three Antari are known in recent memory—Kell Maresh of Red London, Delilah Bard of Grey London, and Holland Vosijk, of White London.
-
-
Best in the series!
- By Pat on 10-09-23
By: V. E. Schwab
-
Skyward
- By: Brandon Sanderson
- Narrated by: Suzy Jackson
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Brandon Sanderson, the number one New York Times best-selling author of the Reckoners series, Words of Radiance, and the internationally best-selling Mistborn series, comes the first book in an epic new series about a girl who dreams of becoming a pilot in a dangerous world at war for humanity's future.
-
-
Has Sanderson been reading Craig Alanson???
- By Customer on 11-18-18
-
The Will of the Many
- Hierarchy, Book 1
- By: James Islington
- Narrated by: Euan Morton
- Length: 28 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Catenan Republic—the Hierarchy—may rule the world now, but they do not know everything. I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilized society in allowing my strength, my drive, and my focus—what they call Will—to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.
-
-
I don’t know what the other reviews are on about
- By Chase on 06-24-23
By: James Islington
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
The Book That Wouldn't Burn
- By: Mark Lawrence
- Narrated by: Jessica Whittaker
- Length: 22 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The boy has lived his whole life trapped within a book-choked chamber older than empires and larger than cities. The girl has been plucked from the outskirts of civilization to be trained as a librarian, studying the mysteries of the great library at the heart of her kingdom. They were never supposed to meet. But in the library, they did. Their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another.
-
-
Keeps the reader guessing
- By Gr on 08-17-23
By: Mark Lawrence
-
Fourth Wing (Part 2 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation)
- The Empyrean, Book 1
- By: Rebecca Yarros
- Narrated by: full cast, Robb Moreira, Megan Poppy, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.
-
-
5 REDEMPTION-FOR-PART-1 ⭐️’s
- By ➷➹➸❥HFB🔹🔹🔹 on 03-02-24
By: Rebecca Yarros
-
The Fragile Threads of Power
- By: V. E. Schwab
- Narrated by: Kate Reading, Marisa Calin, Michael Kramer
- Length: 21 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once, there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power and connected by a single city: London. Until the magic grew too fast and forced the worlds to seal the doors between them in a desperate gamble to protect their own. The few magicians who could still open the doors grew more rare as time passed and now, only three Antari are known in recent memory—Kell Maresh of Red London, Delilah Bard of Grey London, and Holland Vosijk, of White London.
-
-
Best in the series!
- By Pat on 10-09-23
By: V. E. Schwab
-
The Combat Codes
- By: Alexander Darwin
- Narrated by: Donald Chang
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a world long ago ravaged by war, the nations have sworn an armistice never to use weapons of mass destruction again. Instead, highly-skilled warriors known as Grievar Knights represent their nations’ interests in brutal hand-to-hand combat. Murray Pearson was once a famed Knight until he suffered a loss that crippled his homeland—but now he’s on the hunt to discover the next champion.
-
-
Good until we’re in UFC Academy
- By M. Rossi on 11-10-23
By: Alexander Darwin
-
The Malevolent Seven
- By: Sebastien de Castell
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
My name is Cade Ombra, and though I currently make my living as a mercenary wonderist, I used to have a far more noble-sounding job title—until I discovered the people I worked for weren't quite as noble as I'd believed. Now I'm on the run and my only friend, a homicidal thunder mage, has invited me to join him on a suicide mission against the seven deadliest mages on the continent. Time to recruit some very bad people to help us on this job.
-
-
Wandered off the promised path
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 09-30-23
-
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi
- A Novel
- By: Shannon Chakraborty
- Narrated by: Lameece Issaq, Amin El Gamal
- Length: 16 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.
-
-
Not City of Brass, A Fun Swashbuckling Adventure
- By Pele on 03-23-23
-
Translation State
- By: Ann Leckie
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Enae's grandmaman passes away, Enae inherits something unexpected: a diplomatic assignment to track down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. No one actually expects Enae to succeed; it's an empty assignment meant to keep hir occupied. But Enae has never had a true purpose—no one ever expected hir to do more than care for grandmaman—so sie is determined to accomplish this task to the best of her ability.
-
-
Single themed and not on par with the series
- By Andrew Pollack on 07-01-23
By: Ann Leckie
-
The Book of Koli
- By: M. R. Carey
- Narrated by: Theo Solomon
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable landscape. A place where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don't get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will.mKoli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He believes the first rule of survival is that you don't venture too far beyond the walls. He's wrong.
-
-
A Very Special Book
- By Charles Elmore on 04-22-20
By: M. R. Carey
-
Masters of Death
- A Novel
- By: Olivie Blake
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Viola Marek is a struggling real estate agent, and a vampire. But her biggest problem currently is that the house she needs to sell is haunted. The ghost haunting the house has been murdered, and until he can solve the mystery of how he died, he refuses to move on. Fox D’Mora is a medium, and though is also most-definitely a shameless fraud, he isn’t entirely without his uses—seeing as he’s actually the godson of Death.
-
-
Great story! Weird whiny female voice attempt
- By Caitlin Yawger on 09-30-23
By: Olivie Blake
-
Red Rabbit
- By: Alex Grecian
- Narrated by: John Pirhalla
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sadie Grace is wanted for witchcraft, dead (or alive). And every hired gun in Kansas is out to collect the bounty on her head, including bonafide witch hunter Old Tom and his mysterious, mute ward Rabbit. On the road to Burden County, they’re joined by two vagabond cowboys with a strong sense of adventure–but no sense of purpose–and a recently widowed schoolteacher with nothing left to lose. And as their posse grows, so too does the danger.
-
-
Mix of lonesome dove and Swan Song.
- By Amazon Customer on 09-21-23
By: Alex Grecian
-
The Crimson Spark
- Vagabond Legacy, Book 1
- By: William Hastings
- Narrated by: Vic Mignogna
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leo is a boy grieving his twin. Nea is a girl living as a boy to escape her past. Two slaves, carrying the scars of abuse. They form a connection, only to be split apart when their ship arrives in a mysterious and fragmented land, cut off from the rest of the world. Leo becomes apprentice to a vagabond swordsman and together the two set out to find a stolen weapon locked away in a catacomb city. But what is his new teacher hiding? Tormented by a crippling injury and an anxious heart, Leo must find the strength within himself to keep going despite all that he has lost.
-
-
Phenomenal work
- By athainesegirl on 03-05-21
By: William Hastings
-
Prophet
- By: Helen Macdonald, Sin Blaché
- Narrated by: Jake Fairbrother, Ryan Forde Iosco, Charlotte Davey
- Length: 17 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adam Rubenstein and Sunil Rao have been nemeses and reluctant partners since their Uzbekistan days. Adam is a seemingly unflappable American Intelligence officer and Rao is an ex-Mi6 agent, an addict and rudderless pleasure hound, with the uncanny ability to discern the truth of things—about everyone and everything other than Adam. When an American diner turns up in a foggy field in the UK and is followed by a mysterious death, Adam and Rao are called in to investigate.
-
-
Recording is terrible
- By Shaun on 10-02-23
By: Helen Macdonald, and others
-
Of Blood and Fire
- The Bound and the Broken, Book 1
- By: Ryan Cahill
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Epheria is a land divided by war and mistrust. The High Lords of the South squabble and fight, only kept in check by the Dragonguard, traitors of a time long past, who serve the empire of the North. In the remote villages of Southern Epheria, still reeling from the tragic loss of his brother, Calen Bryer prepares for The Proving - a test of courage and skill that not all survive. But when three strangers arrive in the village of Milltown, with a secret they are willing to die for, Calen’s world is ripped from under him and he is thrust headfirst into a war.
-
-
Didn’t expect a “grow up power fantasy”
- By Mike Thomas on 07-23-22
By: Ryan Cahill
-
The Mountain in the Sea
- A Novel
- By: Ray Nayler
- Narrated by: Eunice Wong
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rumors begin to spread of a species of hyperintelligent, dangerous octopus that may have developed its own language and culture. Marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, who has spent her life researching cephalopod intelligence, will do anything for the chance to study them. The transnational tech corporation DIANIMA has sealed the remote Con Dao Archipelago, where the octopuses were discovered, off from the world. Dr. Nguyen joins DIANIMA’s team on the islands: a battle-scarred security agent and the world’s first android.
-
-
Enjoyable and interesting
- By AudioReader on 10-10-22
By: Ray Nayler
-
The God of Endings
- A Novel
- By: Jacqueline Holland
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Collette LeSange is a lonely artist who heads an elite fine arts school for children in upstate New York. Her youthful beauty masks the dark truth of her life: she has endured centuries of turmoil and heartache in the wake of her grandfather’s long-ago decision to make her immortal like himself. Now in 1984, Collette finds her life upended by the arrival of a gifted child from a troubled home, the return of a stalking presence from her past, and her own mysteriously growing hunger.
-
-
I enjoyed the story. Excellent narrator.
- By Stacey on 03-29-23
Critic reviews
“[A] hugely entertaining yet thought-provoking cli-fi novel . . . The book [is] properly hilarious, that kind of whimsical and observational humor that Fforde and Pratchett fans are going to love. . . . Lee has brought Arthur’s legends into these modern, perilous times.”—The Fantasy Hive
“A breakneck pace and a compelling urgency that pulls readers along on a wild, glorious, and epic ride . . . Highly recommended for lovers of Arthurian reinterpretations and climate-disaster thrillers.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“Full of dark humor and insights into the ills of the twenty-first century, [Lee] hits close to home by asking readers to reflect on how King Arthur would save modern-day England if it were plagued by rampant racism and political infighting as well as the devastating effects of climate change. . . . A fresh, irreverent perspective on the well-known myth.”—Booklist
What listeners say about Perilous Times
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- GKing
- 08-27-24
Edit for length
Clever, but it DRAGS on. The story would benefit by editing out at least 1/4.
I wish I hadn't wasted a credit.
Normally, I shun any Arthurian bs, but this is modern & quirky- not the usual schlock...so make up your own mind.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- LilMar
- 09-15-23
Fascinating take on the Legends
I really really enjoyed this book!
Mr. Lee did a fascinating and wonderful job blending the people we know from history into a somewhat forward in time future that isn’t looking so good for humanity as a whole.
I loved the narrator’s voice, and she did an excellent job infusing distinct personalities and ways of speaking into each character.
The plot reads like something not so far in the future- that we’re barreling towards at a breakneck pace, but which will have no helpful (semi-helpful?) Druids, knights or Kings of old to rescue us. Are we doomed without them?
I think not.
It’ll just take more work.
Kudos for a very interesting book that sometimes made me want to strangle people, but who, in the end, got out of their own way and did what needed to be done.
Would love to know if Galahaut’s tree lived.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lizeth Martinez
- 06-01-23
Fun read
A delightful and fun take on knights from the round table clashing with people in the new world.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jTacy67
- 06-23-23
This book was, I thought, going to be full of tropes
I couldn’t have been more wrong! It was an original and fascinating new idea: Kay and Lancelot, Nimüe, and Morgan Le Fey as well as the “real writer of Shakespeare”, who are all brought to life when Britain is “in peril”. Or who have stayed alive for 100’s of years. (1,000yrs really) Not only are the names of knights pronounced correctly, the women members formerly not on the round table are shown to be both powerful and strong, while the men are strong, but not perhaps the brightest bulbs on the tree. Their oft-broken thousand year ‘sleep’ under their personal tree when called upon to save Britain leads to some fascinating insights about Merlin, as well as Arthur. I have a degree in medieval history, as an undergraduate, and I was fascinated by the new ideas awaiting Kay and others as they confront their beliefs, climate change, pollution and other problems of the modern world.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Caleb A. Case
- 05-03-24
Just sad
Aside from ruining well known classical characters, and a very “I’m bored, but paid to read this” completely dead read, it might be a decent story. But I’m not interesting in listening through just to find out. More of a propaganda piece than an actual piece of entertainment literature.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Janet
- 06-18-24
meh
review said in tbe vein of Pratchett and Gaiman - not! a big arthurian buff. greatly disappointed. protagonist extremely whiny and preachy...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jessica
- 06-28-23
It was okay-ish
If you’re a traditional fan of Arthurian legend you might not like it. The idea of bringing feminism and climate change into the legend of Arthur is a unique concept but not well done in this book. A bit predictable and slow. Just wasn’t my cup of tea. The narrator was okay. Not great with voices but has good pacing.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jake
- 04-02-24
Concept had potential
I like the concept of the immortal knights coming back during times of peril. It had potential but the author chose to fill it with thinly veiled leftist politics.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!