Gentle Reader Jill

Trying sooooo hard to get past the performance

Revisado: 01-18-23

Update: I listened to the last six out of sixteen hours, and I'm happy to say that by the end there started being fairly long sections where character voices were consistent, and the reading was solidly well done, so I could lose myself in the story--at least until the next jarring problem broke the flow and set me pausing the story and skipping ahead to escape it.

Original review:
I love audiobooks, Ilona Andrews books, and especially the Innkeeper Chronicles. I've been eager to listen to Sweep of the Heart! But now that I'm 10 hours into it, with 6 hours to go, I'm gritting my teeth and forcing myself to listen to the rest.

Please understand, I can cope with most problem readers. Just think of all the authors who read their own books badly! It's worth putting up with a lot to hear the book in the author's own voice.

But two problems with this performance keep throwing me clear out of the story. The biggest problem is that character voices are horribly inconsistent. For example, Dina will use a drawl--then a different drawl--suddenly no drawl--back to the first drawl--now a third drawl--now none again. Her vowels and Rs switch (individual letters independently, not coordinated as a set) between regional flavors ranging from Louisiana, through Pennsylvania, pausing in Carolina, touching on Texas, then calling in Georgia, with a visit to California, It's more than distracting; it's confusing! Sometimes I think a whole new character is being introduced, only to discover that the speaker is supposed to be someone very familiar (like Dina!) Once I tried to follow a conversation that I thought was between either three or four characters, but it turned out to be only two characters talking.

The other disrupting problem is that while most character voicings are reasonably subtle (which I appreciate), the voices of Gaston and the narrator who introduces each chapter are cartoonishly exaggerated. Exaggerated beyond the voices of Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, and Pepe LePew. If the whole production were like that, they'd fit. As it is, they're glaring, jarring. Cumulatively, they start to sound grotesque, like ethnic slurs against speakers of French and of British English. They're distracting enough that I've started skipping ahead to avoid them, even though that means losing some of the text each time.

I'm still trying to finish listening to the whole book, hoping it will improve. I think I might like this book 5 stars worth, with a better performance. Otherwise, if Audible still allows returns, I'll do that and pin my hopes on the Graphic Audio version. (For the rest of the Innkeeper Chronicle books, I like owning both the individual performances and the Graphic Audio versions, and enjoy listening to both versions, often alternating.)

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Better to just read the Kindle edition

Revisado: 04-25-22

I love this series. The stories are moving and delightful. The audiobook editions of volumes 1-4 are great and worth listening to repeatedly. Not just Renee Raudman's wonderful reading of volumes 1-3, which are told from Dina's viewpoint, but also Natalie Naudus's great reading of volume 4, which is told from Dina's sister Maud's viewpoint.

But I'm not going to listen to this one again.

I was surprised that I hated this audiobook. I thought maybe I was reacting against the change of readers, and that once I got used to the change, I'd be okay with it.

But no.

I tried. I tried very hard. I forced myself to listen all the way through. But this is a bad performance, and it's not entirely the reader's fault. First, the casting is bad. Dina's lines have enough southern flavor written into them that they really need to be read with southern flavor. (Maud's lines don't need that.) Second, this is a bad recording in terms of technology. The recording isn't clean--it's annoyingly noisy. Whoever managed the microphone placement and sensitivity (presumably a sound or recording engineer?) botched the settings so badly that, over and over, we hear extra syllables at the ends of words, and gasps of breath at the end of phrases.

Now I've just finished re-listening to the first four books in the series, and I'm ready for the fifth book. But I can't bring myself to listen to this recording again. Nope.

I'm going to buy the Kindle edition and, until there's a better audiobook alternative, I'll just read that.

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Now I have TWO great versions to listen to

Revisado: 02-24-22

For years I've enjoyed re-reading the print version of Clean Sweep, as well as listening to Renee Raudman's wonderful reading of the book a couple times a year. Now I'll add listening to the GraphicAudio exuberant full cast performance to the rotation. All three ways to enjoy the book are delightful.

I was surprised to like both performances so well, because when I'm totally enthused about one reader's interpretation, a different interpretation rarely charms me. But this one did.

Both performances are outstanding, and both, to me, seem faithful to the original text. True, neither exactly matches what I imagine when I read the print book myself. But I often enjoy those different interpretations even when they've startled me, and sometimes I end up preferring them to the way I originally imagined things.

In short, I heartily recommend GraphicAudio's full cast performance of Clean Sweep. It makes a great companion to Renee Raudman's spot-on reading (and to the print book as well). It's lovely to be able to enjoy all three.

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WONDERFUL book. Plodding narrator.

Revisado: 10-08-21

The Paladin by C.J. Cherry is one of my favorite books. It starts with a long, funny, engaging clash of wills between two strong-minded, soul-wounded heroes. From there the suspense and action (and humor) build relentlessly. The story keeps getting better and better to the end of the last page.

The setting is medieval Asia, back when people expected supernatural creatures like demons and dragons to interfere in their lives, but there are no supernatural events in the story. Still, one of the heroes is already larger than life at the start of the story, and by the end they're both, deservedly--but ironically, because one started out as a farm girl--the stuff of legends.

(By the way, this is a complete, satisfying, stand-alone novel. There are no sequels, prequels, or companion volumes.)

The narrator does okay, although unfortunately he wasn't well cast (his voice and accent don't fit the story). The main problem for me is that he tends to pause. way. too. often in the middle. of extended. thoughts, adding confusion and jerking me out of the story, which is frustrating. Next time I listen to this, I'm going to try speeding it up. That may help a lot.

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Stunningly Magnificent Performance/Production

Revisado: 09-03-21

Wow. This utterly magnificent Graphic Audio production clearly and vividly delivers Part 1 of two parts of C.J. Cherryh's masterpiece Downbelow Station.

By the way, they chose a good place for the break, minimizing the painful-cliffhanger effect. Also, I think bits were cut out but the whole story is essentially there. Instead of seeming abridged or distorted, they seem to be telling the whole story and telling it well. The events, settings, and technologies are clear and plausible, with all their interconnections. The many strong personalities, human and alien, are distinct, memorable, and believable, so we react to the characters as individuals, whether they're warmly engaging or coldly detestable.

The production's clarity lets Cherryh's brilliant writing shine through. It made me appreciate how meticulously crafted her universe is, and how deftly she weaves together world-building, character development, and plot advancement. Also, the way she shows us not just small individual details such as smells (okay, some of the smells are overwhelming so "small" is not an adequate word), but also enormous cumulative phenomena such as the emotional, social, and economic drain of an achingly-prolonged interstellar war.

Sorry if this review is a bit incoherent, but I started listening to Downbelow Station at midnight, having set the sleep timer so I could fall asleep to it. Ha! I listened to it all night, repeatedly extending the sleep timer, until it finished around 7:00 this morning. And it was worth it.

This is a wonderful production of a great book.

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Horribly Racist--Can Audble drop this one?

Revisado: 08-08-20

I like other books in this series--in fact, We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea is one of my favorites--but the racism in this book shocked me down to my toenails.

The children in the series love role-playing games, and usually "pretend" one game through a whole book. For example, in the first book, Swallows and Amazons, the pretend is pirates versus law-abiding sailors. They had a pirate flag to hoist, and talked "Shiver my timbers!" and generally had fun.

But in Secret Water, their ongoing pretend is white people (called Whites) versus people of color (called Savages). All the children unquestioningly play the white people (Whites) as patronizingly superior beings, and the people of color (Savages) as superstitious ignorant beings who practice cannibalism and human sacrifice. And the author presents all that with approval.

This is toxic. It needs to be pulled.

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Too flawed for me--sub-standard for this author

Revisado: 07-09-20

Most of the D.E. Stevenson books I've read/listened to are amusing, well-written stories with period settings and plausible characters facing significant challenges. True, there are glimpses of horrifying attitudes common in those times, making the reader stop and think before continuing--but those glimpses are usually rare.

I couldn't get through this book, though. The setting and initial problem situation sounded good, but the plot turned out to be weak, slow-moving, and wandering, the characters weren't convincing, the narrator was obtrusive, and disturbing attitudes seemed woven into the fabric of the story and were advocated by the narrator. For example, a character was described as an angel (and held up as a role model) for being compulsively and self-destructively obsessed with her alcoholic and promiscuous husband.

I couldn't get past those problems. However, the reader does an excellent job, so anyone who is willing to shrug off those problems can probably enjoy the book anyway--like enjoying old-fashioned melodramas despite their being contrived and silly.

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Cozy story. Unbearably painful reading.

Revisado: 01-06-16

Would you try another book from Nancy Atherton and/or Teri Clark Linden?

This WAS me trying another book narrated by Teri Clark Linden. Her reading of The Ladies of Mandrigyn, by Barbara Hambly, was unbearable. However, that's a darker fantasy book, where Linden's Shirley-Temple style was clearly miscast. I hoped that her style would work better with the lighter, cozier Aunt Dimity books.

And it was better--with The Ladies of Mandrigyn I had to quit after the first five minutes, but with Aunt Dimity's Death I didn't have to quit until half-way through the book. True, I had to accept that Linden made Laurie sound like a dingbat (but the text can support that interpretation of Laurie, especially in the beginning), and I had to grit my teeth to get through Linden's voicings of Bill's dad and Laurie's New England friends. Still, I hung in there more than four hours: through the opening in America and Laurie and Bill's initial stay in London. The performance didn't become unbearable until the characters reached Aunt Dimity's cottage and Linden's accent-mangling became an overriding issue.

To be fair, Atherton honestly doesn't write accents very well. (And apparently her editor wasn't able to rescue her.) Using strong regional accents draws attention to Atherton's own errors--some of which are real clunkers. Anyone performing the Aunt Dimity books needs to minimize the accents, hinting at them rather than belaboring them. Unfortunately, Linden chose (or was directed) to exaggerate the accents rather than minimizing them. It didn't work.

I'd like to try another book by Atherton (or this one again), but only with a different reader.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The toy stuffed rabbit and Aunt Dimity's ghost are my favorite characters. They both make me chuckle. I am sad that I had to quit before Aunt Dimity's ghost had any lines.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Teri Clark Linden?

My short list would include American readers Lorelei King, Bernadette Dunne, and Laurel Merlington, and English readers Jenny Sterlin and Kate Reading.

I'd consider English readers because by the time Laurie is telling this first-person story, she has settled in England and would be acquiring her own English accent.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

My overwhelming reaction is disappointment that I can't enjoy listening to what I know to be a charming, cozy book.

Any additional comments?

I hope that Audible eventually re-releases the Aunt Dimity books (and The Ladies of Mandrigyn, and probably others that Linden read) with more suitable readers, because these are stories that I'd love to listen to repeatedly. Meanwhile, I suppose I need to see if I can return this one.

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Pulling the threads together

Revisado: 04-12-15

This is an amazing book, a Foreigner series culmination in which Cherryh masterfully begins pulling together threads from all the earlier books. It's as though the entire series is a chess match, and book 16 begins the end game, the most exciting part.

I didn't mean to, but I ended up setting aside all non-essential activities and listening to the whole thirteen-and-a-half hour book in two days. Then I immediately went back and listened to some parts again. Now I can barely wait for the next two books.

This is book 16 in the Foreigner series. (All the books are in 3-book "story arc" sets.) You don't need to read all 15 previous books to enjoy this one (although they're well worth reading). However, I think the experience of reading book 16 will be much richer if you read at least books 13-15 first.

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Great book, great performance, great series

Revisado: 04-02-14

What a tour de force! I thought I'd listen to the first thirty minutes or so the night this book was released. Ha! I couldn't put it down. I stayed up most of the night listening to it, then took the day off work and listened to the rest of it nonstop to the end. And it was worth it!

Lots of excitement, engaging characters, important conflicts, and satisfying outcomes. I was braced for long boring summaries of what had gone before, but happily Cherryh sidestepped all that. She slipped in the needed background information through interesting new content.

Many cheers for Danial May's brilliant reading and C.J. Cherryh's brilliant writing.

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