A new audiobook recording of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War will soon be available with the perfect narrator — the scheming royal adviser Littlefinger from Game of Thrones.
Audible Inc, the world’s largest seller of downloadable audiobooks, is getting ready to release a new version of the Chinese military strategist’s advice featuring the narration of Aidan Gillen, who plays Lord Petyr Baelish on the hit show.
It will be available on Tuesday.
Gillen sees a connection between the book and TV show. “There’s no way the writing staff of Game of Thrones haven’t read The Art of War,” he wrote by email. “There’s definitely an influence on Game of Thrones from this book in both a general way and on the character of Lord Baelish and his strategies.”
The Art of War is one of the world’s most revered books on strategy, emphasising flexibility, postponing attack until circumstances are in your favour and urging readers to exploit any weaknesses. Many of its lessons have been adopted by the business community.
The Irish-born Gillen’s credits include The Dark Knight Rises and The Wire. He has narrated a few audiobooks, including Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, a novel by Irish writer Roddy Doyle.
Gillen hadn’t read The Art of War before he was asked to narrate it and said he went to look for the book in the politics section of a bookshop. It turned out to be in the philosophy area. “It’s a pretty wisdom-packed and practical manuscript written with the flourish of a philosopher,” he wrote.
