The Skin Map
Bright Empires: Book #1
- By: Stephen Lawhead
- Narrated by: Simon Bubb
- Length: 11 hours 24 minutes
Description
It is the ultimate quest for the ultimate treasure. Chasing a map tattooed on human skin. Across an omniverse of intersecting realities. To unravel the future of the future.
Kit Livingstone’s great-grandfather appears to him in a deserted alley during a tumultuous storm. He reveals an unbelievable story: that the ley lines throughout Britain are not merely the stuff of legend or the weekend hobby of deluded cranks, but pathways to other worlds. To those who know how to use them, they grant the ability to travel the multi-layered universe of which we ordinarily inhabit only a tiny part.
One explorer knew more than most. Braving every danger, he toured both time and space on voyages of heroic discovery. Ever on his guard and fearful of becoming lost in the cosmos, he developed an intricate code—a roadmap of symbols—that he tattooed onto his own body. This Skin Map has since been lost in time. Now the race is on to recover all the pieces and discover its secrets.
But the Skin Map itself is not the ultimate goal. It is merely the beginning of a vast and marvelous quest for a prize beyond imagining.
The Bright Empires series—from acclaimed author Stephen R. Lawhead—is a unique blend of epic treasure hunt, ancient history, alternate realities, cutting-edge physics, philosophy, and mystery. The result is a page-turning, adventure like no other.
“Anything but ordinary . . . Dynamic settings are mixed with unpredictable adventures [and] parallel worlds.” —BookPage
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Bright Empires Series

The Skin Map
By: Stephen Lawhead
Narrated by: Simon Bubb
Length: 11 hours 24 minutes
Abridged: No
It is the ultimate quest for the ultimate treasure. Chasing a map tattooed on human skin. Across an omniverse of intersecting realities. To unravel the future of the future.
Kit Livingstone’s great-grandfather appears to him in a deserted alley during a tumultuous storm. He reveals an unbelievable story: that the ley lines throughout Britain are... Read more »
Learn more
The Bone House
By: Stephen Lawhead
Narrated by: Simon Bubb
Length: 10 hours 36 minutes
Abridged: No
Kit Livingstone met his great-grandfather Cosimo in a rainy alley in London where he discovered the truth about alternate realities.
Now he’s on the run—and on a quest—trying to understand the impossible mission he inherited from Cosimo: to restore a map that charts the hidden dimensions of the multiverse. Survival depends on staying one step... Read more »
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The Spirit Well
By: Stephen Lawhead
Narrated by: Simon Bubb
Length: 11 hours 12 minutes
Abridged: No
The Search for the Map—and the secret behind its cryptic code—intensifies in a quest across time, space, and multiple realities.
But what if the true treasure isn’t the map at all . . . what if the map marks something far greater? Something one world cannot contain? Those who desire to unlock that mystery are in a race to possess the secret—for... Read more »
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The Shadow Lamp
By: Stephen Lawhead
Narrated by: Simon Bubb
Length: 11 hours 16 minutes
Abridged: No
The quest for answers—and ultimate survival—hinges on finding the cosmic link between the Skin Map, the Shadow Lamp, and the Spirit Well.
The search for the map of blue symbols began in a rainy alley in London but has since expanded through space and time and includes more seekers.
Kit, Mina, Gianni, Cass, Haven, and Giles have gathered in Mina’s... Read more »
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The Fatal Tree
By: Stephen Lawhead
Narrated by: Simon Bubb
Length: 10 hours 26 minutes
Abridged: No
Kit stared at his fellow questors. “Is this it . . . the End of Everything?”
It started with small, seemingly insignificant wrinkles in time: A busy bridge suddenly disappears, spilling cars into the sea. A beast from another realm roams modern streets. Napoleon’s army appears in 1930s Damascus ready for battle. But that’s only the beginning as... Read more »
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The Bright Empires Series
By: Stephen Lawhead
Length: 54 hours 56 minutes
Abridged: No
The Bright Empires series is a unique blend of epic treasure hunt, ancient history, alternate realities, cutting-edge physics, philosophy, and mystery. The result is a page-turning, adventure like no other.
The Skin Map
Kit Livingstone’s great-grandfather reveals an unbelievable story: the ley lines throughout Britain are not merely the stuff of... Read more »
Learn more