A. S.

Mind-Numbing Narration

Revisado: 03-13-25

I've tried, several times over, to give this series a try via audiobook. It's one of my favorite series ever and I'd love to be able to pop in ear buds and be back in Daevabad whenever I please. Unfortunately for me, the narrator us insufferable. all of the female characters sound like wide-eyed, breathy little girls and all of the male characters sound exactly the same, but at a lower pitch and I think maybe with the narrator pinching her nose closed? Also, for a series set in Egypt and then Daevabad, both in the middle east, it's incredibly disappointing how very American the accent is. As I said, I've tried and tried with this series but I think I'm going to have to return this and stick to reading it myself. Huge disappointment.

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Loved this story!

Revisado: 08-06-23

A magical adventure from start to finish. Unfortunately I was not vibing with the narrator AT ALL. I don't want to harp on it too much because I can't even pinpoint what was so off-putting, but I only got through about 3 chapters of the audio version before I switched to the physical book. So glad I didn't give up on the story though, it was well worth it.

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Guy Gavriel Kay can do no wrong

Revisado: 03-15-23

I'm on a mission to read every Guy Gavriel Kay novel. This is number 14 of 15, for me, with only A Song for Arbonne remaining. I have simultaneously read and listened to most of these, for a fully immersive experience. As with every GGK book I've read so far, this is a masterclass in storytelling and writing. My problem, unfortunately, is with the narrator. Although I truly believe it's a case of "it's not you, it's me " Maybe I'm biased because I don't prefer audio books with American narrators, but I like to think I'm pretty fair because accent is often made up for with a solid reading. That just wasn't the case here. Much like in the narration of the Sarantium duology, there is very little inflection or poetry in the reading - and Guy Gavriel Kay's writing is nothing if not poetic. It was also almost impossible to distinguish between characters as the narrator barley changed his voice. It's not that it is a bad reading, but I think I've been spoiled by Simon Vance.
Regardless, it's an excellent book with an okay narration and, as with every GGK novel, I highly recommend it.

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Disappointing

Revisado: 03-02-23

I'll start by saying that the narration was fine and is the only thing that keeps me from giving this book 1 star, overall. it wasn't a *great* narration by any stretch of the imagination, but the story itself was so bad that even a mediocre reading of it was a welcome reprieve from tedium. My review of the book itself is as follows:

This was so disappointing. I can not possibly have read the same book that so many people are giving 5 stars lol. There's just no way.
Rich people being awful, a "romance" in which every conversation felt like the first time the characters had ever spoken, a mmc who was stupid beyond belief, and a "twist" that was obvious within the first third of the book... it reminds me a lot of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue in that both books seem to think very highly of themselves for no good reason. Flowery writing, in my opinion, should be an enhancement for a solid story. In both this book and Addie, the writing only serves as an attempt to make up for everything the plot lacks and, ufortunately, the writing is just not good enough to do that. Just because an author has access to a thesaurus, does not mean that their prose is good. It means that they have a thesaurus. That's the case here. Is the prose purple? Absolutely. Is it good? Absolutely not.
I might come back and write a more coherent review once I've had time to think on it more, but I haven't been this disappointed in a book in a long time (looking at you, Addie LaRue) and I had to get some thoughts out.

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Awful Narration

Revisado: 12-05-22

DNF'd the audio version of this book after chapter 3. I want to start by saying that I have read 8 GGK books and most of them I've read and listened to the audio book in tandem. This is some of Kay's best writing, and it's a travesty that this is the narration it ended up with. Incredibly slow and monotone, it was painful to listen to. I had to put it on 2x speed just to make it bearable, and it was still awful. This story deserves so much better. I'm also mildly annoyed at the narrator's pronunciation of place names. I know there is no hard and fast rule for pronouncing the names of fictional places, but Simon Vance really set the standard with Kay's other works and some of the place names here, if I hadn't been reading along in my physical copy, would have been unrecognizable. Such a disappointing audio for such a fantastic book. Also super disappointed that Lord of Emperors is narrated by the same person, but at least I know not to waste a credit on it. I would love to see this duology re-read by Simon Vance but until/unless that happens, I'll have to stick to reading it myself.

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DNF because of poor narration

Revisado: 10-14-20

This is a great story and I'm going to finish reading it on my own but goodness was the narration bad. Every single character sounds like they are 14, and acting in a school play. You know how kids do that? Enunciating too much, emphasizing wrong words/syllables, etc? Yeah, it's like that. Every. Single. Word. I only made it to chapter 19 and that's far as I'll go with this audio book.

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