Nation cover art

Nation

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Nation

By: Terry Pratchett
Narrated by: Tony Robinson
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
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.
Cancel

About this listen

 Finding himself alone on a desert island when everything and everyone he knows and loved has been washed away in a huge storm, Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. He's also completely alone - or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. She has no toes, wears strange lacy trousers like the grandfather bird, and gives him a stick which can make fire.

Daphne, sole survivor of the wreck of the Sweet Judy, almost immediately regrets trying to shoot the native boy. Thank goodness the powder was wet and the gun only produced a spark. She's certain her father, distant cousin of the Royal family, will come and rescue her but it seems, for now, all she has for company is the boy and the foul-mouthed ship's parrot.

As it happens, they are not alone for long. Other survivors start to arrive to take refuge on the island they all call the Nation and then raiders accompanied by murderous mutineers from the Sweet Judy. Together, Mau and Daphne discover some remarkable things - including how to milk a pig and why spitting in beer is a good thing - and start to forge a new Nation.

©2008 Terry Pratchett and Lyn Pratchett (P)2008 Random House Audiobooks Action & Adventure Fiction Literature & Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy Survival Stories Fantasy Survival Comedy Paranormal

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Truckers cover art
The Colour of Magic cover art
The Colour of Magic cover art
Only You Can Save Mankind cover art
Terry Pratchett in His Own Words cover art
The Wrong Unit cover art
Blue Lagoon cover art
Carpentaria cover art
A Prayer for Owen Meany cover art
Doctor Who: Dark Horizons cover art
Sanctum: A Jake Crowley Adventure cover art
Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes cover art
The Secret River cover art
Dawn of Wonder cover art
Magyk cover art
All stars
Most relevant  

Would you listen to Nation again? Why?

Yes, a gripping story

What about Tony Robinson’s performance did you like?

Easy on the ear & you can feel the characters

Any additional comments?

A great story, a different theme from the Discworld Series, but a well written & well read book

Should have bought the Unabridged

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Trust me, this will probably be one of the best books you've ever read.

The best book ever

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
well worth it. Tony Robinson's narration is as good as ever. a story that makes you cry, laugh, sigh, laugh and cry again.
wonderful.

even better than reading it yourself.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It's Pratchett. Not as obliquely humoured as Discworld, but as insightful and thought-provoking as the man ever managed.

The setting is an alternative history Earth in the 1860s, A tsunami obliterates all but a few inhabitants of a chain of tropical islands and drops a well-to-do English girl, whose father is 180th-or-so in line for the throne, into their midst when the tidal wave sweeps her ship into the treeline of the Nation, the largest of the so-small-they're-barely-charted islands.

Basic survival, communication, disposal of the dead and how to milk a sow, the problems of religion and new evidence and the intrusive voices of the Ancestors are set aside when a psychopathic mutineer arrives with raiding cannibal allies.

It's Pratchett, so that ain't the half of it. The man always did enjoy shifting his readers' perspectives and Nation is no different.

Unfortunately, I was over-eager and didn't notice the narrator would be Tony Robinson. Tony Robinson isn't the issue but his presence acts as an indicator: Tony Robinson narrations of Terry Pratchett are abridged narrations of Terry Pratchett and, for me, that's watering the currency to the point of homeopathy. Darn it.

ABRIDGED. Run Away!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I'm sorry to say this did not enthrall me, -other Terry Pratchett books hold me spellbound, but this did not. The saving grace was Tony Robinson's aminated reading, this brought colour to an otherwise slow progression of storyline, without much of the humour I usually find in Mr Pratchett's stories.
Not boring, but not exciting either.
Maybe the humour and excitment passed over my head, but I don't think so.
Worth Mr Pratchett fans owning so they have all of his works, but not as good as most of his other work.

average

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Fantastic gripping book. Well read by Tony Robinson

Nation

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Engaging, amusing, a thoroughly good listen. Just what you would expect from this combination of author and reader.

Brilliant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A good story and well read, although the female characters are not played particularly well. Also, occasionally felt a little rushed as if they were running out of studio time and wanted to get it finished.

Good book. Vocal performance was ok but...meh.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This was my first Terry Pratchett and I found it wholly enjoyable that I can't wait to try another one. I particularly enjoyed seeing the world from the islanders perspective. It was such a simple beautiful world view. Tony Robinson is also a great narrator that you become absorbed into the world Terry Pratchett describes.

A good introduction to Terry Pratchett

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Terry Pratchett is a UK author, but the unabridged version of Terry's new book is currently only available in the US. I can't understand the reasoning behind denying us the ability to buy this book. It just encourages people to seek things by other means.

Where's the Unabridged Version?

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