The Coral Island

By: R. M. Ballantyne

Narrated by: Peter Joyce

Heroes Ralph, Jack and Peterkin set sail on the Arrow and are the only three survivors of a fearful shipwreck. They are washed ashore on a seemingly idyllic coral island.

This tranquillity is violently disturbed, first by a tribe of bloodthirsty cannibals and then by the invasion of a vicious pirate and his gang of cut-throats. Will the boys thwart their enemies and live to see England again?

Largely based on Ballantyne’s own experience, as he sailed the seas and roved the countries of the World, ‘The Coral Island’ is a classic adventure story of the Victorian period.

About Assembled Stories: Over the years the national press have reviewed Assembled Stories titles as "excellent", "remarkable", "entrancing", "superb", "magic for sure", "masterly", "wonderful", "a class act" and "a splendid example of audio at its best".

©1995 R M Ballantyne (P)2004 Assembled Stories

Critic reviews

"Peter Joyce is the most remarkable one-man band in audiobook publishing. Joyce, an experienced actor, reads them all himself." ( The Independent)

I really enjoyed the first 3/4 of this novel.

The first 3/4 were amazing, but fell apart by the end. It reminded me a lot of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. If you enjoy adventure, survival, with a hint of SciFi (imo) you will enjoy most of this novel. I won't spoil the end, but once the unrealistic heroic actions started happening (him returning) it got very boring and too larger than life for me to like. Would of been a 5/5 but it fell apart at the end.

One of The Best!

Great tale well told. Joyce artfully delivers a true-to-form rendition of Ballantyne's wonderful coming-of-age epic, set in the early days of sail in the South Seas. Bravo!

The longest 10 hours of my Audible membership!

I've always loved stories of survival so the description of this book appealed to me. Unfortunately, I didn't like anything about this book. The story seemed contrived just so the author could tell us what he knows about the South Pacific. The narration at times made me feel like I was being read a bedtime story, and the pronunciation of some words (e.g., porpoise) was grating. Even the production had gaps and bits of music at strange times.