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    The Troupe
    The Troupe
    The Troupe
    Audiobook18 hours

    The Troupe

    Written by Robert Jackson Bennett

    Narrated by Luis Moreno

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Best-selling author Robert Jackson Bennett has won widespread critical acclaim for his unique brand of darkly inventive fiction. In The Troupe, 16-year-old George Carole joins vaudeville in search of Heironomo Silenus, the man he believes to be his father. But what he discovers casts a dark pall over his world: Silenus' troupe hides a dangerous secret -- one that invites death to all in its vicinity.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateNov 30, 2012
    ISBN9781470328283
    The Troupe
    Author

    Robert Jackson Bennett

    Robert Jackson Bennett is the author of Foundryside and the Divine Cities trilogy, which was a 2018 Hugo Awards finalist in the Best Series category. The first book in the series, City of Stairs, was also a finalist for the World Fantasy and Locus Awards, and the second, City of Blades, was a finalist for the World Fantasy, Locus, and British Fantasy Awards. His previous novels, which include American Elsewhere and Mr. Shivers, have received the Edgar Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Philip K. Dick Citation of Excellence. He lives in Austin with his family.

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    Reviews for The Troupe

    3.5/5

    67 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      In a pre-WWI US, a traveling troupe seeks pieces of the First Song that keeps the world mostly intact while trying to avoid the wolves of nothingness trying to devour being. American Gothic, sort of; the POV character is the young white son of the troupe’s leader, who’s found him after years of searching. The leader’s cryptic and mean statements keep the son resentful and confused even after he lusts after the dancer Colette, whose dark skin is a barrier to the success she craves even though our protagonist doesn’t understand why (apparently racism hadn’t made it to Ohio in his time?). I was not impressed by the callow youth or his ultimate role in saving/remaking the world and getting a happily ever after. Sometimes an author just hits once for me, and maybe City of Stairs is like that.
    • 3/5
      The story is a bildungsroman about a sixteen-year boy who joins the Vaudeville circuit to find his father. Based on picture on an old flyer, he tracks the man down and joins his father's troupe of players. The group has four acts, the last of which is the performance of a unique song; and this song is the raison d'être for the troupe's existence... [Man, when it was good, it was really good; but when it was bad it drove me crazy!] The story was original, fascinating, and challenging; but the heavy-handed use of similes vandalized the plot. The narrator did a great job with a couple of the male character's voices; but seems to be sort of out of sync with the internal meter of the book (maybe because of the way the story was broken up with all the similes?); and a couple of the voices didn't ring true, especially that of the young mulatto girl from New Orleans (She sounded just like the protag of the story both in tone and style.)
    • 3/5
      This started out really well but I just could not finish it after about 60% of the book.I picked this up after reading City of Stairs. Robert Jackson Bennett really tells a great story.
    • 4/5
      George Carole desperately wants to join the vaudeville troupe run by the great Heironomo Silenus the man he believes to be his father. George questions people who have seen Silenus’s troupe perform, but they only vaguely remember the performance. They recall a puppet act, a strong woman or maybe another puppet show, a beautiful dancing girl and then nothing. The last act is mysterious and mesmerizing and is the reason why the troupe is being pursued by dark forces that are trying to envelop the world.This novel is part creation myth, part coming-of –age story, part fairy tale, and part horror story. The world was created with a song that helps to prevent darkness from taking over. The troupe performs the song at the end of the show to strengthen the world. They are also constantly on the lookout for more parts to the tune. Throughout the novel different characters try to play God or creator with horrible consequences. This is the main theme of the novel, though it has a lot of other fantasy elements. The first three acts are only there to keep the crowds coming in. The first act is a puppeteer with freaky scary puppets that reminded me of the movie Puppet Master. The second act, and my favorite character in the novel, is a strong woman named Franny who is wrapped from head to toe in bandages like the Bride of Frankenstein and acts like a somnambulant. Franny and the mute cellist Stanley are the most sympathetic characters in the story. The third act is a beautiful dancer who claims to be a Persian princess. George is sixteen at the beginning of the book. The story is a journey of discovery for him. He learns who he is, where he came from and how he is different from others. He has an unrequited love and in the end a long lasting true love.Yes, with all this going on the author has time to through in some fairies. These are strange intriguing characters who wear masks to hide their years. They are sadistic, cruel, self-absorbed and cunning like most interpretations of fairies. Oh, and did I mention the Greek gods of the north, south, east and west winds? They make an appearance as well.With all these elements going on in the story it was still a coherent narrative. How George fixes everything in the end is a little far-fetched, but I enjoyed the ride. The story moves fast and I looked forward to picking the book up and continuing reading to see what was coming up next.
    • 5/5
      WOW!I was completely blown away by this book! Robert Bennett has written a truly mesmerizing novel that engrosses the reader and transports them to another dimension.The story is about George Carole, a young man looking for his father, a vaudevillian actor. But it's more than that. It's a story about light vs dark, creation, mankind, love, heartache, sacrifices and the universal question of "Why?"The author is a master storyteller creating a deep story well written, flowing seamlessly and succinctly. Mr. Bennett creates characters that are deep, endearing, believable and human. This story begs me to use the term 'achingly beautiful'. I don't think I have ever used that term before but it feels so right. The author expertly weaves his prose evoking strong emotions from the reader leaving you breathless and wanting for more.As I read this book, I found myself constantly thinking and asking questions about life in general. I also found this novel to have a strong underlying religious component to it. Several passages reminded me of Biblical stories and the issue of ethics. An extremely deep, well rounded story!
    • 5/5
      Robert Jackson Bennett is a difficult writer to pin down. What exactly is it that he writes? Horror? Fantasy? Science Fiction? Well the answer seems to be all three and much more besides. In this era of clone fiction, where the safest option from a publishing perspective is to write something in an established and popular sub genre, zombie novels or gritty epic fantasy, say, and then just keep on writing the same thing, Bennett has chosen to walk a much riskier path. His first novel, the award winning Mr. Shivers was a fine piece of American Horror, wrapped up in a Southern Gothic meets Dark Fantasy package. Then for his second novel, The Philip. K. Dick nominated The Company Man, he went off on a completely different track and wrote a Noir Sci-Fi meets Corporate Thriller. Now in The Troupe, we have a kind of Historical Urban Fantasy, a character driven ensemble piece set in the vaudeville era, that is really rather brilliant. The story of The Troupe focuses on the young George Carole and his desire to find the father he has never known. A man he believes is the leader of an enigmatic troupe of travelling vaudevillians, The Silenus Troupe. The first section of the book is taken up with George's efforts to track and then join this mysterious band of entertainers. From the get-go Bennett does an excellent job of evoking a sense of mystery and magic around this group. As soon as I heard about them, I wanted to know more about them. Then when they appear in full and put on their first performance, I felt like he had in some ways crafted an exaggerated sense of what it might have been like to watch such bizarre acts in their day. At the same time proving once again his gift for mining elements of American History and finding there a rich vein of dark fable. The Silenus Troupe itself is peopled by a wonderful band of oddballs. Each of the characters, the creepy and sombre puppet master, Professor Kingsley Tyburn, the darkly alluring dancer, Collette de Verdicere; the vacant strong woman, Francis Beatty, and the beguilling Heironomo Silenus himself, are wonderfully vivid. Bennett's later revelations about how these performers accomplish their stage acts, are fantastically inventive, and often more than a little twisted. There is also another member of the troupe who remains mostly in the background during their performances, a mute fellow by the name of Stanley who communicates by writing on a chalk board. I loved Stanley. He is presented as a warm, compassionately grounded chap, who apparently has something of a soft spot for George. All of the characters have their stories, each is intriguing, and often ultimately quite sad. As the main story progresses, it quickly grows in scope. In many ways this book surprised me. It is much more fantastical and 'big picture' than I was expecting. The secret behind the Silenus Troupe is not a little thing, and this book has a grand mythic theme worthy of any epic fantasy. George's desire to find the truth of his unknown father becomes a metaphor in a way for a much larger quest, and the stage magic of the vaudevillians a symbol for a dying era of enchantment in the world. But there is no shortage of magic in this story, and at times I wondered what weird and wonderful thing was going to happen next. Thematically it explores the mystery of being, and the endless desire to know what lies beyond. In a way it both mourns the loss of belief in our world, and praises the virtue of finding magic in the ordinary. It is infused with melancholy, but not without its uplifting moments. With Mr. Shivers, Bennett earned himself a reputation as something of a horror writer, and the The Company Man also had its fair share of the dark. The same is true of The Troupe to an extent. There are definite moments of darkness here, but this is also very much a fantasy novel, albeit unlike any you are likely to have read recently. I opened this review by stating how difficult Bennett's writing is to pin down, but there is some consistency of theme to his work, namely, American Myth. I find in his writing an amazing sensitivity to the icons of American History. In his novels so far he's already given us The Great Depression, The rise of American Corporate Power, and now the last of a very special type of American Showmanship. I'm an Americanophile at heart, I often don't love American Politics, but who can deny the romantic impact of so many aspects of the history of the United States over the last few centuries? Bennett seems especially attuned to these facets of the American Story. Simply put, I loved The Troupe. Many of the characters made a real impression, and I admire the intent and scope behind Bennett's vision. I think Bennett is one of the most interesting young writers to emerge on to the SF scene in a while, and I'm not surprised that he has already picked up a number of awards. His writing is accessible and yet he's clearly following his own muse. He's not writing stuff that fits within any neat category, but he's also not writing stuff that tries to be deliberately obscure (a kind of category in itself). The Troupe is a great example of this, an ambitious piece of myth making that is thoroughly entertaining. In this tale of the dying days of magic, Bennett proves he has plenty of his own.