This was a very entertaining addictive listen and often had me laughing out loud.
Stephen Fry is such a talented man

I really enjoyed this modern retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo! I had to keep reading to find out what Ned was going to do. Enjoyed it way more than I expected. Great fun.

Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Random House Audio and Stephen Fry for an eAlc in exchange for an honest review.

Not what I was expecting. A comedic style caper but with some very dark themes and a cold revenge story at it's heart. Some things did not quite go how I expected but mostly in a good way. I will look out for more novels from Stephen Fry.

This is the audiobook of the author’s 2000 novel based on The Count of Monte Cristo and the book is full of crazy characters and has many snort out loud moments. Of course Stephen Fry is the very best in book narration. Thanks to Penguin Random House UK Audio for a copy.

How could an audiobook narrated by Stephen Fry not receive a 5*?! This was fantastic. It is a modern-day ‘Count of Monte Cristo’ - and it is so fantastically written. Having not read Monte Cristo, I feel like some of the cleverness of this novel went over my head. Still, I was fully enraptured by this story of revenge.

It is dark and it’s entirely unbelievable. Still though, I felt incredibly clever when I could (somewhat) follow/guess what would happen next. I can’t say much because I feel like anything I want to say is potentially a spoiler.

This is a must-read. I’d recommend the audiobook, the actual story would have been a 4* but bonus star for Fry’s beautiful voice. Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers and Stephen Fry for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

I wanted to listen to Stephen Fry audio and I must say it lived up to expectations, Nice listen both story and narration. .

I was given a free copy by netgalley but the review is entirely my own

This audiobook was excellent. Stephen Fry is a wonderful narrator and does such brilliant evocative voices. The story itself was intriguing and difficult to stop listening to! The characters were complex and I loved the twists and turns the story took.

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publishers for this free copy of this audiobook!

I had the book with the alternate title The Stars’ Tennis Balls which seems just a little too whimsical for the subject matter.

Ned Maddstone is a pleasant young man who, following a train of events triggered by a terrible trick played by his classmates, ends up confined and isolated in a mental asylum.
When he finally gets out he wants revenge.

This is definitely a story in three acts.
The first is light, mocking certain pompous stereotypes and general satirizing the 1980s London business and political scene.
The second is more serious as Ned settles into life in the asylum.
The third is a gore fest of ferocious, unrelenting revenge.

The opening chapters were as I would expect from Stephen Fry. Mildly mocking in the style of Oscar Wilde. Well-crafted barbs poking fun at the self-important and the self-involved.

I was intrigued when the story turned into more of a thriller and while surprised by a rather unoriginal plot line (yes I realise it is inspired by the Count of Monte Cristo), it was well written, if a little contrived.

However I was quite shocked by the cold-blooded, brutality of the third act. There was no moderation and little introspection, simply a headlong charge into vicious revenge.
Although I felt the ending was fitting, the lack of any kind of subtlety diminished the story for me.

I listened to the audio which is read by the author himself.
He reads it with a slightly mocking tone which vaguely satirizes the subjects it is describing, especially at the beginning, but never undermines the seriousness of the events occurring in the main part of the story.

This was a 3.5 story for me but is rounded up to 4 stars by the quality of the narration.

Funny, but brutal.

The year is 1980. Ned attends a very elite school. His future is bright as he’s about to finish school and go to Oxford. He is a brilliant sailor and cricketer. His father is a member of Parliament and to complete his life, he is in love with Portia, a young vibrant and beautiful girl who returns his love. Unfortunately, he has enemies; some of his fellow pupils are jealous of his success and decide to play a trick on him by putting cannabis in his blazer and have him arrested. They succeed beyond their wildest dreams because not only does Ned get arrested for the cannabis but then thanks to a letter he’s supposed to deliver, comes to the attention of the secret service. Delft, the man from the secret service has a special reason for making him disappear and gets him locked up in a mental institution on an island somewhere near Sweden.

It’s at the mental institution that Ned meets Babe, a man who like Ned has been made to disappear. It’s thanks to Babe that Ned manages to escape and set his plan for revenge against those who’d caused him years of hell, to pay for what they destroyed, his young life.

Stephen Fry narrates this story of love, jealousy, insanity, and re-invention with humour wrapped in one of the most horrific plots imaginable. I loved both innocent Ned and revenge-seeking Ned. I could easily understand why he’d want to get even with the people who’d destroyed his life and cheered him on as he did so.

This is the first book I’ve had the pleasure of reading written by Stephen Fry but certainly won’t be the last. I loved his narration of the tale. It was full of expression and brought each character to life.

Rony

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of the book to review.

This book grabbed me from the outset. Fry's talent for colourful linguistics was a pleasure to listen to and his lively writing was even more animated through the engaging narration which ensured the story was told perfectly. The early chapters had a wonderfully nostalgic feel to them as Fry taps in well to the era with popular references.

There's a colourful cast of characters who really came alive and the story was well thought out even though it's really a retelling. Because I went into this story with no prior knowledge, I wasn't sure what to expect and the turns it took caught me by surprise with its deeper themes.

Overall, a great audiobook.

Wow, this is a clever book! So well written (and read in the case of the audio). It is gripping, engaging and thought provoking. A mystery, a thriller and a lesson in human nature. Thankfully, and hopefully, it is unrealistic not least because it is extreemly violent and vindictive. Indeed if you are of a sensitive nature, do not choose to read or listen to this. I didn't appreciate the level of bad language or descriptions of torture and death but understand that this was part of the whole point of the story and characters portrayed.
As for characters, I liked Ned, the main guy,at the start and certainly had full sypathy for him BUT I was so taken aback buy his level of revenge! Where is there any sense of forgiveness? None at all! I suppose this was part of the point of the novel. Those who are damaged themselves will often , although not always go on to be abusers themselves. The author hints at the end that this is not realy the answer and Ned seems to come out of it an empty man. I do think a little more could have been made of this point with perhaps an extra few paragraphs, not much but just a bit extra as the book finishes rather abruptly.

Well. That was a roller coaster of a book.

How one man can become so hell bent on revenge at all costs truly is a trait as relevant today as when Dumas wrote his works.

I could listen to Stephen Fry reading the dictionary and would find it enjoyable so it comes as no surprise that I enjoyed his narration of his book.

Having never read The Count of Montecristo I wasn't familiar with the original story so I came at this with no expectations. The twisting turning Web of lies and deceit that lead to Neds incarceration are at times comical yet deeply disturbing. His journey into the depths of despair and true madness are gloriously described although when he returns as Simon, in a world vastly changed from that that he left he seems to accommodate the new Internet world with aplomb. Having relatives who are still struggling with the use of technology I find his emergence as a dot.com genius a slight stretch of the imagination!

This was a very enjoyable listen as an audiobook. It was read by the author, Stephen Fry, and as expected he really brought the story to life.

The story is a modern retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, a book I had read many years ago. It starts at a boys school and one of the boys disappears in mysterious circumstances. When we find out what happened and why, we move to a tale of vengenace and bringing people to (a form of) justice.

I thought it was a well told tale that worked really well as an audiobook.

I listened to this book via audio copy and loved that Fry narrated it himself.
I haven’t previously read The Count of Monte Cristo so didn’t have any pre conceptions of the story line. I mostly enjoyed this one- I found it a little slow (and a bit speechy in places) to get into, but was quite gripped by the middle. I also thought it finished quite abruptly.
3 stars from me.

My thanks to Netgalley for my audio copy of The Stars' Tennis Balls which was perfectly narrrated by the author Stephen Fry. I do not like the title particularly and if I havdn't known of the author I probably wouldn't have selected it based on that and the cover. The beginning was slow and somewhat pretentiously verbose but I ploughed on and I am very glad I did.

The story was engaging although it was difficult to actually like any of the characters. Stephen Fry is very clever, very well educated and I learned a lot whilst listening to this story unfold. However, I am not sure that I would have coped with actually reading the book myself.

I understood the intellectual form of revenge that was extracted but the extreme physical violence did not sit well with what I thought I knew of the perpetrator but the conclusion seemed fitting.

An entertaining and thoroughly wonderful experience. Enjoyable and easy to listen but would not expect anything else from Mr Fry.
Characters well developed and an impressive collection.

Stephen Fry's narration is flawless as usual!
I will update the review with a link to our blog shortly.
I'd like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

A fab audiobook by Stephen Fry, narrated by the man himself. I enjoy the way he told the story and found it even more amusing during the parts where he would swear. He is able to put make the characters expressive through his narration adding different tones and emotion to his voice, along with what’s happening in the page and the progression of the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook and look forward to listening to another narrated by Stephen Fry in the future.

**I received an advanced copy of this audiobook to listen to and review. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for allowing me this opportunity. **

Firstly, I should confess that I've been a fan of Stephen Fry ever since I first saw The Cellar Tapes on BBC2 back in the early 80s. I have devoured everything he's done, from ABOFAL through Last Chance To See to his latest podcasts, including reading all his novels as soon as they were published. So this chance to hear him narrating his own book was too good to pass up.

I had no idea that it was based on 'The Count of Monte Cristo' but it is no less good for that - stories become classics for good reasons. At its heart, this thriller is a story of revenge and one which would be enjoyed by anyone who likes a good story. OK, it's a few years old now, but the passage of time doesn't affect the quality and depth of the writing - and the beautiful narration is a lovely added bonus.

If you've not read Stephen Fry's novels before, in my opinion, this is not the best of the bunch, but it is still very good. An average Fry novel is the equivalent of almost anyone else's meisterwerk. I love this and have no hesitation in recommending this title.

Stephen Fry updates The Count of Monte Cristo for the Millennium. That's not just embarrassing press release speak, the dotcom bubble plays a huge part in the latter part of the novel – and having been born in the 1980s, the adolescent nostalgia rush the book gave me earns it a star all on its own.

On the other hand, I find stories of betrayal and false imprisonment very difficult. I suppose you could dig into my childhood for reasons behind that too, but let's be honest, the enduring success of the story of Edmond Dantès suggests plenty of people don't like being screwed over or accused of things they haven't done.

And boy are people screwed over in The Stars' Tennis Balls. It's not a book for the squeamish – bits are up there with Misery for the levels of cruelty they depict. But cruel it must be or Ned/Dantes's revenge would not be so satisfying.

It never escaping the boundaries of the original text, but it's not clear it wants to, and it doesn't need to in order to be a taut and compelling thriller.

(Some might complain that the plot relies on most people in power knowing each other by some extension, but after almost a decade of living in London, I'm willing to buy that.)