Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Master and God cover art

Master and God

By: Lindsey Davis
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble, Clare Corbett
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Course of Honour cover art
Vesuvius by Night cover art
Falco: The Complete BBC Radio Collection cover art
Medicus cover art
Marius' Mules I: The Invasion of Gaul cover art
A Plague on Both Your Houses cover art
Into the Wilderness cover art
The Capsarius cover art
The Unquiet Bones cover art
Under the Eagle cover art
The Ionia Sanction cover art
The Lammas Feast cover art
The Fifth Knight cover art
Harvest of Rubies cover art
Hyperion cover art
The Wolves of Savernake cover art

Summary

It is AD 81. The Roman emperor Domitian seizes power. Afflicted by classic paranoia, the self-styled Master and God sees enemies everywhere - and he is right. The Senate loathes him, his advisers are terrified, he cannot trust his wife, and barbarians menace the frontiers. As he vents his suspicions, no one is safe.

Gaius Vinius Clodianus survives physical and mental scars to reach high rank in the Praetorian Guard. Flavia Lucilla tends the privileged women at court; when Domitian's inherited talent unravels into madness, she loses her patron cruelly. In the haven of their shared apartment, Gaius and Lucilla find solace together, yearning for normality while living in a Reign of Terror.

Moves against Domitian are begun by his own household. Lucilla has to watch Gaius choose between love for her and risking death; between his sworn duty to protect the emperor and killing Domitian for the good of Rome. The plot careers close to exposure. Rome teeters on the brink of its Golden Age. A group of unlikely conspirators must now act with decency and courage, whatever the personal cost.

Master and God is the epic story of a despot whose contemporaries wrote him out of history. Told in Lindsey Davis' sardonic style, it is an intimate portrait of resilience, friendship, and love.

©2012 Lindsey Davis (P)2012 Hodder & Stoughton

What listeners say about Master and God

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    66
  • 4 Stars
    30
  • 3 Stars
    15
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    53
  • 4 Stars
    14
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    47
  • 4 Stars
    15
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

More romance than thriller

A thoroughly enjoyable experience. I particularly enjoyed the two narrators' performances, especially in dialogue.

The story itself is more of romance with the thriller plotting plot tacked on the end, but it does build up to it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Superb!

I loved the story, which was interwoven with historical accuracy.

Loved the characters and the fact that there were two narrators.I think audible should do this more often! Thoroughly enjoyable !

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A departure from the Falco character...

but a good read nonetheless. Convuluted, with the usual twists and turns Lindsay Davis is so good at writing into her novels but in the end, this is a love story and Romeo does get his Juliet. I love that Lindsay makes her women capable and feisty. What I found difficult to listen to though was the narrator's voice used for the main female character.. that grated on me somewhat. On the whole a book worth listening to or for reading.

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
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story and performance

Loved the story (always happy to be in Lindsey Davis' Rome) and the performance, looking for more titles performed by these narrators now :)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good, but not the best.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes. But with reservations.

Any additional comments?

I think this came across as a bit of a 'pot-boiler' for Lindsay Davies. The usual characters are on parade, but the humour falls a bit flat. I have read many of this series and enjoyed most of them more than this one.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very illuminating

A good mixture of fact and fiction, I really felt I understood what life was like in Domitians empire

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Enhanced Listening with Two Performers

When I selected this audiobook, I was intrigued as to how the narrative would be split between the two performers. Rarely did the change between them seem odd, but always the interplay between the two main characters was convincing. On reflection, it is hard for the memory to be tricked into thinking it had been a radio play. This is not a criticism. They bring and breathe vitality to the characters and the story. For me, depictions of Rome were less engaging (hence the dropping of one star overall) than when characters were involved, especially showing their development. The two performers are excellent and entirely credible. Lindsey Davis shows, again, that there is more to her writing than Falco. Embrace this audio-book and the adventure it affords.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting

This was a very interesting and unusual way of telling the history of the Roman Emperor Domitian. I enjoyed it very much.

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
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Easy listening

great narration and story, recommend for a quick read!! nothing intense really easy to settle into!.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Simply Superb

Think "I Claudius" merged with "Much Ado About Nothing", mix it with Davis's excellent writing style and sprinkle with the reality of historic first century Rome and you will be some way to appreciating what a superb novel this is.

The basis of this novel, as the title suggests, is the reign of Domitian, not one of Rome's better emperors. It opens in the aftermath of the eruption of Vesuvius and takes us on a journey of almost twenty years. In Davis's usual way, real historical characters are entwined with those of her rather idiosyncratic imagination. The main protagonists are neither hero nor anti-hero, but beautifully crafted flawed human beings doing their best to get by in a Rome in the grip of an increasingly insane emperor.

The use of two narrators, which can sometimes grate on the ear, works extremely well and the delivery adds depth to the characters.

This novel will be an instant hit with those who are already fans of Davis's books. For anybody who has not yet come across her work, I would seriously suggest that they give this novel a chance. I can guarantee that nobody will regret their choice and will come back to this book again and again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful